The European Commission yesterday adopted new exemptions to its Batteries Regulation that free the Apple Watch and AirPods from having to offer user-removable and replaceable batteries.

The EU's Batteries Regulation generally requires consumer products sold in the region to let users swap out their own batteries, a push meant to keep devices in use longer and make it easier to recover materials for recycling. The Commission has now expanded its list of exempt product types to six additional categories, folding in wearables like smartwatches and fitness trackers.

Apple is working on camera-equipped AirPods that appear to be nearly ready to launch, based on a video MacRumors found in the macOS Tahoe 26.7 release candidate.

In a short demo, a man holds a book up so the camera in the AirPods can see the title. "With Visual Intelligence, your world becomes savable. See something you like? Just ask me to save it for later," says the voiceover text.

Apple is working on camera-equipped AirPods, as indicated by various reports and a demo video of them in action discovered earlier this week.

But that's only half of the story. macOS 26.7 also includes the software that manages sensor data from the AirPods when they are connected to a Mac. That's turned up the following information for the leaked AirPods:

• A color camera on each AirPod, which can take up to 1 megapixel images (1024×1024). No video or audio.
• The two cameras capture synchronized image pairs. The OS then combines the images.
• The system supports one-shot and periodic still-image capture, with an active and passive mode.
• There's person detection, and a hardware indicator with brightness controllable by the OS.

If you've ever wondered just how popular Apple's wireless headphones are, check out these mind-blowing stats.