Apple leaked its own AirPods camera video in a code merge error, report says

Apple ↘ 0.52% inadvertently included a promotional video of its unannounced camera-equipped AirPods inside the macOS Tahoe 26.7 release candidate, distributed publicly on August 17, 2026. The leak — which also exposed references to numerous other unreleased products — has now been traced to a code merge error, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.

How the Video Surfaced

The short clip, first discovered by MacRumors and shared on X by code investigator Aaron Perris, shows a man wearing AirPods as Siri's voice explains: "With Visual Intelligence, your world becomes savable. See something you like? Just ask me to save it for later." The AirPods in the video closely resemble the current AirPods Pro, with only a slightly thicker stem distinguishing them.appleinsider+1

Beyond the video, MacRumors also found code references to an "image stream" tied to the codename B790, suggesting the earbuds will capture paired images and merge them for Visual Intelligence analysis. A separate camera-equipped model under codename B798 is reportedly in development for a 2027 release.9to5mac

A Merge Gone Wrong

In his Power On newsletter, Gurman explained that the leak resulted from a single procedural failure during Apple's code merge process. When preparing a release candidate, Apple combines parallel lines of development into one final build. In this case, a branch containing material for unreleased hardware was merged into the public build, and no one caught it before distribution.appleinsider+1

What makes this unusual is that a release candidate is not a beta — it is the version Apple considers finished and ready to ship to all users. The material cleared every internal review Apple has, making this a more serious lapse than the routine discoveries that emerge from early beta builds.phonearena

What It Means

The leak changes little for consumers in practical terms. Most of the revealed products had already been reported on by outlets including Bloomberg, and the camera-equipped AirPods shown in the video are not expected to launch until 2027. A separate model under codename B790 could arrive sooner, potentially at Apple's anticipated September iPhone event.phonearena+1

The greater cost is reputational. Apple, a company known for aggressively pursuing leakers through legal action, published one itself — in software it had already approved for release.phonearena