Apple considering expansion into wearable glasses

Apple Inc. is considering expanding into wearable glass headsets and has talked about the project with potential suppliers, Bloomberg reported citing people familiar with the matter.
The wearable headset would show images, along with other information and may use augmented reality, according to the report.
CEO Tim Cook, who has been struggling with a slowdown in iPhone sales in recent quarters, said earlier this year that the company would continue to invest a lot into augmented reality.
Apple, the world’s largest technology company, has ordered a small number of near-eye displays for testing but has not obtained enough for production on a larger scale, the report added.
Apple declined to comment.
The move would make Apple the latest tech company to venture into wearable glasses.
Alphabet Inc’s discontinued its own wearable glass headset, Google Glass, and closed the social media account linked to the device earlier this year, ending its attempt to popularize the expensive devices with consumers.
The device received plenty of attention when it was launched in 2012, but quickly ran into problems with its awkward appearance and privacy concerns over video recording.
Snap, an $18 billion company which makes the popular messaging app Snapchat, also launched its own video-camera sunglasses last week. 
The China Consumers Association (CCA) has meanwhile asked Apple to investigate “a considerable number” of reports by users of iPhone 6 and 6s phones that the devices have been shutting off and cannot be turned back on again, it said on Tuesday.
The reported problems specifically involve users seeing their iPhones automatically shut off despite 50-60 percent battery levels, and the involuntary shutting off in room temperature or colder environments, as well as the inability to turn the cellphone back on despite continuous battery charging, the statement said.
“In view that Apple iPhone 6 and iPhone 6s series cellphones in China have a considerable number of users, and the number of people who’ve reported this problem is rather many, China Consumer Association has already made a query with Apple,” the association said in a statement on its website.
Apple did not respond to a request for comment when contacted outside regular hours on Tuesday.
In September Apple’s rival phone maker Samsung Electronics Co. announced a global recall of at least 2.5 million of its flagship Note 7 smartphones due to faulty batteries causing some phones to catch fire.

Source: Arab News