Apple sues OpenAI in federal court, alleging former employees Tang Tan and Chang Liu systematically stole trade secrets, smuggled hardware, and exfiltrated confidential data to fuel OpenAI's hardware ambitions, demanding destruction of stolen information and damages that could derail OpenAI's push into smart glasses, wearable pendants, and camera-equipped earbuds.
Meta rolls out a smart glasses update that automatically disables the camera if the privacy LED is tampered with or destroyed, responding to growing misuse concerns including harassment incidents, facial recognition backlash, and rising bans at public venues.
Chinese smart glasses startup Even Realities hits a $1 billion unicorn valuation after securing $150 million in Tencent-backed funding, with its privacy-focused G2 glasses challenging Meta's dominance in a market that surged 167% year-over-year in Q1 2026.
Apple VP Paul Meade, who led Vision Pro and AI smart glasses development, is leaving to join OpenAI's rapidly expanding hardware team amid an internal leadership shake-up linked to John Ternus' expected rise to CEO.
Apple Vision Pro engineering VP Paul Meade is leaving Apple to join OpenAI's hardware unit, reuniting with Jony Ive and former Apple colleagues to build next-generation AI-powered devices, as Apple struggles with Vision Pro's poor sales and pivots toward smart glasses.
Smart glasses sales explode 167% year-over-year in Q1 2026 as AI supercharges AR technology, with broader AR/VR categories surging 86%, driven by consumer demand for real-world AI assistants and fueled by breakthroughs in chip miniaturization and display tech that are pushing the industry closer than ever to mainstream adoption.
Snap launches Spectacles AR glasses at $2,195, delivering a 115-inch virtual cinema screen in a lightweight 136-gram wearable that bridges the gap between smart glasses and full headsets, targeting developers and early adopters as a milestone toward an AI-powered future that could eventually replace smartphones.
NVIDIA launches an open source XR AI beta platform enabling developers to build real-time visual and voice AI agents for AR glasses and XR headsets, powered by GPU-accelerated services including Cosmos, Nemotron, and NeMo Agent Toolkit.
Snap CEO Evan Spiegel unveils SPECS augmented reality glasses at Augmented World Expo, positioning the device as a full spatial computer backed by 12 years of development that could replace smartphones by bringing technology into the real world rather than away from it.
Qualcomm unveils the Snapdragon Reality Elite chip at Augmented World Expo, delivering 48 TOPS of on-device AI performance, 4.4K-per-eye visuals at 90fps, and 20% better battery life to power next-gen AR headsets, including the newly launched XREAL Project Aura glasses running Google's Android XR platform.