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Apple's iOS 27 Beta Spells Out the Plan for Camera-Equipped AirPods
A file tucked into iOS 27 beta 2 tells a head worn AI how to identify objects the wearer points at, hinting at the software plan for Apple's rumored camera equipped AirPods.
A file tucked into iOS 27 beta 2 tells a head worn AI how to identify objects the wearer points at, hinting at the software plan for Apple's rumored camera equipped AirPods.
A hidden system-prompt file shipped inside iOS 27 beta 2 tells a head-worn, dual-camera wearable how to answer questions about objects the wearer is pointing at or holding, and the file's internal hardware identifier points squarely at Apple's AirPods roadmap rather than its smart-glasses project.
The artifact was first posted by designer and developer Sam Henri Gold on July 3, 2026, after he found a system_prompt.json buried inside the com_apple_MobileAsset_UAF_IF_PlannerOverrides assets path in the developer beta. Independent confirmation followed within 24 hours from 9to5Mac on July 4 and MacRumors on July 3, and iClarified walked through the file's instructions the same day.
The file is not a marketing document, a rumor, or a supply-chain claim. It is the literal instruction manual Apple has written for the AI model that will run on the device. Inside, the prompt targets hardware operating under the internal identifier b790, and it tells the model to process two stereo images captured by cameras positioned on either side of a user's head, processing the left image first and then the right.
The instructions resolve into three steps. First, the model finds candidate subjects using demonstratives and "held or pointed" cues. Second, a gating condition blocks the assistant from acting unless the image input configuration matches b790. Third, the model disambiguates between candidates using spatial relationships (left or right of the wearer's gaze), visual properties, and any text visible in the frame. Worked examples include a wearer pointing at the Eiffel Tower and asking "What's this?" (the model returns the landmark and a short historical note) and identifying a coffee mug held in the wearer's hand.
Stereo capture, the iClarified analysis notes, gives the AI a depth cue that a single-camera phone-based lookup cannot: two slightly offset views of the same scene let the assistant judge which object the wearer is actually targeting, not just which objects are in view. That is the structural difference from Visual Intelligence as it ships today on iPhone 15 Pro and newer, where the user has to point the phone camera at a target before speaking.
The product the file targets is unresolved. The b790 identifier sits inside Apple's B-series AirPods codenames. AirPods Pro 3 carried the codename B788, and Bloomberg has reported a camera-equipped AirPods variant, sometimes branded "AirPods Ultra," under the codename B798. The beta file's B790 does not exactly match either prior label. 9to5Mac treats the gap as differing development stages inside the AirPods program rather than a contradiction; the safer read is that B790 is consistent with the rumored camera AirPods, not confirmation that the final marketing name will be AirPods Ultra.
The glasses reading deserves explicit dismissal. Apple has tracked its smart glasses under the codename N50, a separate identifier from the B-series, and the prompt's stereo-head-mount framing is consistent with both clip-on earbuds and eyeglasses. The strongest available signal is naming convention: a B-series identifier on a head-worn, dual-image capture device points at AirPods until Apple says otherwise. The form factor itself is not nailed by the JSON, since stereo left/right head-mounted cameras fit either category, and Apple has not officially commented.
iOS 27 does more than plant this file. It also exposes Visual Intelligence through a new "Siri" mode inside the Camera app, per MacRumors, giving the iOS-side surface for the same capability the B790 prompt targets on the head-worn device. Whether the wearable does inference on-device, in the cloud, or both, remains undisclosed. So does the latency budget, the privacy controls that will govern a pair of always-on cameras, and the exact launch window.
Camera-equipped AirPods were originally expected in 2026 and have slipped to fall 2027 alongside Apple's planned 20th-anniversary iPhone, per Bloomberg reporting cited by 9to5Mac. A beta file appearing nine to twelve months ahead of that window is roughly what one would expect from a software team racing to ship the AI layer in time for the hardware.
The next concrete read is whether iOS 27 beta 3, typically released every two weeks through the summer, expands the b790 reference, adds a second prompt file, or surfaces new gating conditions. Until then the artifact is a job description rather than a launch, and the job Apple has written down, for the first time in public, is a wearable camera that knows what you are pointing at.