Apple’s camera-equipped AirPods might arrive far sooner than anyone expected as soon as next month. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple has actually been developing two separate camera-equipped models in parallel: a more advanced version codenamed B798, aimed at a late 2027 launch, and a second, further-along variant codenamed B790 that could debut alongside new iPhones this September.
That’s a notable shift from earlier reporting, which consistently pointed to 2027 as the only realistic window. Traces of the B790 codename have reportedly turned up in the second iOS 27 developer beta, which is a stronger signal than a supply-chain rumor code references inside shipping software usually meaning a product is closer to real than speculative.
The cameras themselves aren’t for photos or video. Sensors are expected to feed Siri a live view of what the wearer is looking at, extending Apple’s existing Visual Intelligence tools without needing to point an iPhone at something. Reports describe slightly longer stems than the current AirPods Pro 3 to fit the hardware, plus an LED that lights up whenever visual data is actively being sent off the device a deliberate transparency cue given how much scrutiny camera-equipped wearables have faced since Meta’s Ray-Ban line normalized the category.
Because a camera model is expected to cost more than the $249 AirPods Pro 3, Apple is reportedly weighing “AirPods Ultra” branding instead of calling it a fourth-generation Pro. Nothing here is confirmed, and Apple has shipped competing internal prototypes before without releasing all of them. But if the B790 model does land in September, Apple’s first true AI-wearable might beat both its own smart glasses and the more advanced B798 AirPods to market by more than a year.
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