Apple has taken the camera-equipped AirPods off its 2026 release schedule and now expects them in 2027, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. The company had planned to introduce them this year and employees were testing them internally through the spring. Supply chain problems and unfinished software are what pushed the date out. Two versions are in development. B790 is the pair in the demo video, an AirPods Pro 3 with sensors and AI features added, and B798 is a newer generation of AirPods Pro built around the same cameras.
Monday's macOS Tahoe 26.7 release candidate carried a finished demo video for the earbuds, which is why the leak read as a September product at all. The video shows a man holding a book up for the camera to read the title. The cameras in it are low resolution and scan what is around the wearer rather than taking photographs or recording video, and Apple has said nothing about any of it.