What are the use cases for AR that can't already be done as good, possible better by the iPhone and/or watch?
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Apple Cancels Mac-Connected AR Smart Glasses
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This is one of the drawbacks of Apple's incessant obsession with making iPhones and iPads uselessly thin...
Maintenance, tech support, design work, assembly, repair work. Even having the world at your fingertips -- and eyes -- without taking out a phone or computer is an amazing capability. The list goes on and on. I worked on a joint study between Intel, Microsoft, and Cisco some years back. The use cases for industry, tech, and medical are vast. For the average user, it makes you one with the internet. It brings us closer to what Ray Kurzweil called "The Singularity". It brings the universe to us without stepping out of our reality...
Given how the internet is currently going, I'm not sure I find this concept desirable
There is definitely niche markets for it on the commercial/industry side. I would argue VR has a higher commercial value than AR but that is an argument for a different day. As far as the consumer side, what does being one with the internet mean? What good is "one with the internet" when I am out running errands or with friends? What's it doing that my phone or watch is not on an average day? No one can ever answer how a regular person will use this device.
(whispering)
"Which is largely why regular people are not interested in this stuff -- or the Vision Pro for that matter"
Source
They’re a non-starter for me because I don’t trust Meta, but I’ve heard enough good things about them from people I know who have them that I’m convinced there is a real, appealing-to-the-masses product there.
I’m also convinced Apple is working on a competitor. It makes too much sense for them not to be. AirPods, Vision Pro, the miniaturization work they’re doing - it just lines up perfectly.
Assuming they’re attractive, I’ll be ordering on day 1. Just hope they’re coming soon.
Well, there’s always that - my wife is definitely not going to sign off on $999 sunglasses 🤣
But seriously, my friends who have the Meta ones keep telling me to go get them. Their use cases are things like filming kids at the playground, Video Calls while traveling/ Shopping (“which brand chicken broth was supposed to get again sweetie”), music/podcasts while staying aware of surroundings, stuff like that. And while slightly nerdy, they’re not “bleeding edge” tech people.
Interesting ...
Sounds sort of cool and worth checking out --- but, like you, I've go no interest in "Meta on my face"
I'll wait to see if Apple gives it a go
Also just realized “filming kids at the playground” came off super creepy. Filming their kids at the playground to be 100% clear. But now I’ve given myself something else to worry about. Nevermind - kill the product 🤣
I agree. My MacBook is always in the same room as my AVP when I’m wearing it. If the device were lighter but needed to tether to a MacBook I’d buy that model to replace my AVP. AVP does not need to be a stand alone device.
When I hear "one with the internet", first thing I think of Musk's Neuralink
Unfortunately, this tech is not feasible this decade, and probably not in the early 2030s either. The amount of processing power at such small output is crazy. Couple that with ocular tech that still doesn’t exist and the need for better mobile internet and we’re looking at mid 2030s, at the earliest.
Note that the rumor that’s the subject of this article doesn’t say Apple has discontinued work on AR glasses—just that they’ve stopped trying to figure out how to tether those glasses to a Mac or an iPhone, both for electrical power and for computing power. It seems more likely they’re largely going back to the drawing board with their glasses to figure out how to still one-up (or several-up) the current AR glasses manufacturers, but without requiring so much power, possibly for an all-day runtime (greatly besting the competition), that Apple’s glasses would have to be tethered to anything, including a battery pack, without having to be so large that they’d essentially be goggles instead, with a headstrap.
But to get there, Apple will have to deal with the fact that they’ve hit some temporary technological roadblocks, even with their resources, despite driving their engineers and those of their partners, for releasing a product in the next year or two that meets Apple’s specifications. And so the release of an actual glasses product seems further down the line until Apple and their partners figure out the engineering. One technology that's being worked on but isn't yet advanced enough to be used in XR glasses is the metalens, a flat transparent substrate etched with nano-scale patterns that allow it to bend light like a much larger classical optics lens, but with much less volume and weight.
So Apple may still be actively working to make the tech exist that they want in their glasses, but it'll take a while before the parts meet Apple's specs.
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I seem to remember that some of Apple's promotional videos show people walking around their house or workplace wearing an AVP, so that you can get up and go to the kitchen and fix yourself something, or talk with colleagues, with the assistance of the AVP, and that this also allows you to take advantage of the AVP's ability to pin virtual windows for specific purposes wherever you want them so that they're still there next time you're at those pinned locations.
But I'm like you, in that my main use case would be sitting at my desk and using XR glasses paired to my Mac, either by wire or wirelessly. That's how I mainly use my Quest 3 (wirelessly), since it's too bulky to walk around the house wearing it, though a few times I've worn it in the back yard and a field near my house to "walk around" in some of the bigger virtual environments on the Quest.
Nah, I want glasses that don't look like a full headset. I want to be able to wear them on a plane or in a cafe and not stick out like a sore thumb.
I don't actually care as much about the cost. I would pay for a light, sharp, premium visual experience that LOOKS NORMAL. I don't need or want to strap a computer and camera and headphones to my face. Just the screen, please... I'll gladly pay extra for the 4k experience.
In case people don’t know about AR investments Apple has.
www.fastcompany.com
www.ign.com
Apple buys AR display startup Akonia Holographics
Apple buys AR display startup Akonia Holographics
Apple Buys the AR Startup Behind the Mario Kart Ride Headset - IGN
A day after announcing its first mixed reality headset, Apple announced it acquired Mira, an AR headset company responsible for the headset used in the Mario Kart ride at Super Nintendo World.
Thin? The iPhone is a brick. BTW, ofc Apple wants the iPhone to be thin and light. It is handheld device that you carry on in your pocket. It should be as thin and light and small as possible to it could be comfortable to wear. What Apple should do is stop with its incessant obsession with cameras and photography as this hardware currently occupies a significant portion of the internal space in the iPhone.
Nah, the phone batteries have been evolving significantly in the last decade. The issue is that we simply took advantage of the extra energy to run more power-hungry hardware so we still end up with iPhone that last for a day with a single charge. Probably, Apple should change the focus and decide what is more important for the user. Maybe we don't need a display with 2622‑by‑1206-pixel resolution at 460 ppi or three-sensors big-ass camera module for cinema/DSLR-level photos and videos or an extra button just to take photos or so much RAM to run the gimmick AI features. Every hardware improvement comes at a cost.
