iPhone 18 Pro, surveillance camera and AirPods: here are the new features planned by Apple for 2026

Ming-Chi Kuo took out his crystal ball to inform us about Apple's projects. While theiPhone SE 4 and theiPhone 17 Air are still being talked about, new rumors from the analyst now surround the products planned for 2026. On the program: iPhone 18 Pro, AirPods and surveillance camera.

iPhone 18 Pro

First of all, Apple would have a nice development in its pipeline in terms of the photo part of the iPhone Pro. In his blog post published on November 8, 2024Ming-Chi Kuo indeed mentions the introduction of a variable aperture lens.

Already present on Android smartphones, such as Xiaomi 14 UltraTHE Huawei Pura 70 Ultra or the old one Samsung Galaxy S9this type of sensor should “significantly improve the user’s photographic experience”.

By moving from a fixed aperture on previous iPhones to a variable aperture on the iPhone 18 Pro, Apple is ensuring greater control over the amount of light captured, while improving the quality of photos and videos.

Surveillance camera

The second novelty on the program for 2026 at Apple concerns home automation. The analyst mentioned in fact the arrival of the American company on the surveillance camera market.

Knowing that Apple offers the “Secure Video” function in HomeKit, allowing recordings from third-party cameras to be saved on its servers, the project seems more than feasible.

Ming-Chi Kuo also emphasizes that Apple would plan to produce at least 10 million surveillance cameras per year in the long term. A quantity which indicates great ambitions, given that the market is currently estimated at 30/40 million units per year.

We learn in passing that this new product would be connected via wifi, and would benefit from integration with Apple Intelligence and Siri. Enough to control everything, and benefit from in-depth analysis of the content displayed live thanks to artificial intelligence.

AirPods

Finally, AirPods had their moment of glory. As predicted for many years, health would be at the heart of the next generations of Apple headphones.

If we are to believe lines of source code from the iOS 18 release candidate, Apple is planning the introduction of a heart rate sensor. “Wear both earbuds while working out to track and send your heart rate to Apple Health,” it read at the time. Previous rumors also mentioned a function of the latest Apple Watch: temperature measurement.

All this would be an opportunity for Apple to continue its efforts around health, with a complete ecosystem of devices (Apple Watch, AirPodsand why not one connected ring) allowing accurate data to be collected in real time throughout the day.