Apple CEO Tim Cook: 'I'm Not Really Sure the Average Person Can Tell You What the Metaverse Is'

[deevey]

Yes the Dystopian future scares many people. They are irrelevant. 20 years from now Surgeons will operate using AR/AI Medical technology that will completely transform health care. You won’t want to be a part of that “nonsense”.

AR/AI is not the same thing as the VR fantasy "life" that is Meta though.

 

[Saturn1217]

Guess I'm old (46). I don't want anything to do with this ar/metaverse nonsense at all. I don't want a headset. I don't want glasses. I don't want implants. And I'm super tired of being presented with for-profit visions of the future.

I must be old too (36) cause I feel exactly the same. I just don’t see the purpose for any of this.

 

[boyarka]

I know what it is: a gimmick.

 

[Apleeseed84]

LOL and yet he wants to sells us VR head sets? Everyone’s creating their own shared verse soon, Disney is on this right now just as much as Warner Brothers

 

[Alex_Mac]

LOL and yet he wants to sells us VR head sets? Everyone’s creating their own shared verse soon, Disney is on this right now just as much as Warner Brothers

It’s gonna be the fad of the century. I can’t wait to see this VR/AR toy products to blow in the face of these companies and fail the same way like Google Glass did.

 

[1557750]

I just bought an Ultra. I had been iWatch resistant for years thinking I couldn’t put “distance between me and technology”. I’ve only had it a week. It’s still early yet. But I read everything I could on minimizing “alerts” and disruption by the device and I enabled the available barriers to losing “control”. I’ve been surprised at how effective it’s been. Having this tech portal on my wrist has been “calming” in it’s presence. Now yes I could slip down the slippery…. But for now, I’m good.

Did they change the name of the Apple Watch? I still haven’t heard of the “iWatch”. Glad you left the resistance though. 👊😁👍

 

[ArkSingularity]

AR/AI is not the same thing as the VR fantasy "life" that is Meta though.

Agreed. Plus, the metaverse looks more like a children's coloring book than it does any kind of actual virtual "reality"

 

[citysnaps]

Hugely beneficial for who though? For the average consumers or medical and science application?

Both. There are loads of possibilities where AR can help the average consumer. Along with commercial uses outside of medicine and science as well.

Let me know if you'd like a couple of real life possibilities.

 

[ghanwani]

I completely missed the social media wave so I think I’ll miss the metaverse too. If the metaverse resembles the web, it will be full of dilapidated buildings, potholes, security traps and honey pots, malinformation, and basically a ton of garbage and ads that we encounter daily on the web. It’s going to start out with all kinds of promise and go to hell faster than anyone can imagine. It will do surveillance really well, though.

 

[Alex_Mac]

Both. There are loads of possibilities where AR can help the average consumer. Along with commercial uses outside of medicine and science as well.

Let me know if you'd like a couple of real life possibilities.

Sure, go head and give me some real life possibilities if you want.

 

[richinaus]

I recommend looking at the twitter account @PessimistsArc.

It has countless newspaper examples of middle aged or elderly folk rallying against technologies going back almost 200 years. This is a never-ending cycle of luddism and countless examples where every technology we hold dear today was rallied against.

and so they get left behind in the dust.
it’s the reason lots of old people, even though they were in their 40’s when the internet came out are scared to use it still.
They didn’t embrace the changes and see what happens.

when I am 80 I want to be fully tech’d up and oblivious to the reality of age.

 

[cupcakes2000]

Please “Cupcakes”. Don’t post too many of these “thoughtful” drama-free observations. Ive got to have a cup of coffee now, to clear my head. ————-Laughs!

Ok “mike”. Enjoy your coffee. Try not to spill it. It may burn you.

 

[1557750]

If I were Mark Suckurdata, I’d be ticked cause they didn’t get my forehead big enough in that pic.

 

[dwaite]

Haha, Tim

Zuckerberg says there will be 1 billion people using metaverse in the next 10 years:

Mark Zuckerberg envisions a billion people in the metaverse spending hundreds of dollars each

Zuckerberg is happy with the progress of Meta Platforms' Quest 2 headset. Now he has a big goal for 2030 that involves a user base spending meaningfully.

www.cnbc.com

...and most of those people will be like "I'm using the whataverse?"

 

[ArkSingularity]

and so they get left behind in the dust.
it’s the reason lots of old people, even though they were in their 40’s when the internet came out are scared to use it still.
They didn’t embrace the changes and see what happens.

when I am 80 I want to be fully tech’d up and oblivious to the reality of age.

Well, I'm still not totally convinced on the metaverse. I am on AR, but not on FB's rendition of the Metaverse.

The technology that really took off was all able to evolve and take hold because it solved a real problem. It made something way easier in society and it served some kind of need, and so there was an incentive for everyone to get on board. All of our massive breakthroughs were like this, but there were plenty of things people thought would be breakthroughs that are largely forgotten now. Often, those things didn't take off because they were gimmicks, nobody really looked at it and said "how will this solve X problem, how will this improve my life in X, Y, Z"

Virtual reality itself I think will continue to expand, but I don't think the metaverse will be the next internet. Something like it might be eventually, but it won't be a closed system like Mark Zuckerberg's rendition.

 

[Mike WA4D]

AR/AI is not the same thing as the VR fantasy "life" that is Meta though.

I hear you deevey— However even “Meta” will introduce Virtual collaborative spaces for business and other “non-fantasy” environs. Tim Cook said (yesterday?) most people don’t really know what the Meta-Verse is or the enormous impact mixed reality will have on business and education. (My own prediction is: that 20 years from now the idea that a Surgeon will operate on internal organs without AR assistance will be considered barbaric.) Meta is but one player. And I dare say they will not be a dominant player (we’ll have to see). I’m not interested in what “Meta” is doing. I am very interested in what mixed reality environments will do across a range of non-entertainment sectors.

 

[Mike WA4D]

If I were Mark Suckurdata, I’d be ticked cause they didn’t get my forehead big enough in that pic.

How credible are these vulgarians that hang out here in MacRumours?

 

[TheGenerous]

🤔 I wonder what iJustine will bring to the conversation

about the metaverse

 

[aapl owner]

I’m sure metaporn in the metaverse will be the next gazillion dollar industry

Not to mention anyone can be a world-class criminal, murderer, drug dealer, or participate in any other sick and unhealthy behavior with no real-world consequences. Yes, it's a glorious new world to explore and will lead to many mental disorders back in the real world - yikes.

 

[aapl owner]

I hear you deevey— However even “Meta” will introduce Virtual collaborative spaces for business and other “non-fantasy” environs. Tim Cook said (yesterday?) most people don’t really know what the Meta-Verse is or the enormous impact mixed reality will have on business and education. (My own prediction is: that 20 years from now the idea that a Surgeon will operate on internal organs without AR assistance will be considered barbaric.) Meta is but one player. And I dare say they will not be a dominant player (we’ll have to see). I’m not interested in what “Meta” is doing. I am very interested in what mixed reality environments will do across a range of non-entertainment sectors.

Ole Zuckerberg is all about the entertainment and social media/disorder world since that's where the money is, he is not too interested in more practical applications like medicine.

 

[ikramerica]

Eventually I think people will tire of it. It's the same exact stuff as reality but repackaged for resale. Another form of escapism and fantasy until reality intervenes one way or another.

“Hate that Rock and Roll rubish!”

“Well I’m afraid it’s here to stay, Howard.”

 

[ikramerica]

Surely it can't be worse than paraphrasing a movie line?

“Gunga, balunga. Gunga bunga galunga.”

When I’m running for high office, that one may be my downfall.

 

[ikramerica]

I remember the early coolness of getting mobile internet with a laptop dongle, and then an iPod Touch and thinking about how cool it was with some of the web based games and tools (this was early when there weren't a ton of apps.) Then I drifted into how long it would take before ads and things like that would ruin the experience (ungh the times of relentless pop up ads). Likewise I went from ISCA (look it up) and email to Friendster, and bluntly got bored. Then the progression of other things like Orkut, MySpace, Facebook, Hangouts, Snap, Insta, well I just thought it was tedious and pointless to move your life from one place to another, where each had a shelf life and a process of adding friends. There was always a new thing coming, and it became an tired cycle. I didn't use social media after Friendster, except Twitter for a few years then gave up. (I totally missed out on AOL though as we had internet in college). If I wanted to hang out with people, I would just call them. I honestly don't understand how people are still interested in Facebook or any derivative projects.

I bought an iPhone mini 13 a few weeks ago mostly because it's small, but also because it had a physical SIM. (the nightmare of swapping back to a physical SIM and a glitch on the Apple website that stopped me from buying a phone are a whole other rant, grrrrr) If I learned anything over the years cell phone carriers (especially Verizon) will charge you for every little thing and take away control. I don't like the fact I have to check in to the phone company to change my phone first, and in the future I bet they will limit or charge you from doing so. If you destroy your phone it's so much easier to swap it and go on with your day, or buy one used. I won't buy another phone unless I can swap the SIM, this may be my last iPhone. I don't see the eSIM going away though as it allows more waterproof phones, a win for the manufacturer, less store contact and control over customers, a win for the carriers, and automatic phone registration, a win for the government.

I took a day off and went to a MLB baseball game this week. I had bought tickets online, there has always been a option to print tickets (there still is technically on the website, whether it works or not is another story), or to generate a code on your phone to have a static barcode from the ticket website. The website did mention they were using a free app but didn't think I would have to use it, minor league teams weren't doing this. I didn't want to download yet another app that I would use once, and be forced to jump through hoops to set it up. The huge red flag was that the app links to your login for buying tickets which is fine, but under the data collected and privacy, the app basically scrapes your personal data, and tracks you. It became clear when I got to the park you had to use the app, the helper outside the stadium said I was out of luck if I didn't. It was a nightmare. In order to use the ticket I bought, I had to consent to turning over the contents of my personal data on my phone (seriously, look at the data collected under the MLB ballpark app) to Major League Baseball and whoever was going to use it for marketing. Someone told me there was a ticket office, I found it and said I didn't want to use the app due to privacy, they looked up my account and printed tickets. This option was never mentioned. I was upset. I would be OK with the app if it just made the barcode for entrance, but the data scraping was totally not needed and was just a fleecing of customers. I will never go to an MLB game again.

So with the privacy nightmare that is IT, my new phone, and this stupid baseball game, I find myself being less and less interested in tech as time goes on like I was with social media. I could get by otherwise. I have a physical camera, an Ipod which I can rebuild and rebattery if necessary (and it has a headphone jack!), a Nokia 225 LTE as an "outdoors" phone, and can use any old iPhone for a Calendar, address book, notes, etc. without connecting to the internet or worrying about an out of date OS. I already won't be buying a new iPad to replace my old Air 2, my Macbook Air is light, quiet and powerful enough to fill all my needs. If I had to Linux would cover all my bases on an old Win machine for email, browsing, VLC and an Office clone.

These last few weeks really made me jaded and bitter, and killed a lot of tolerance for being treated poorly in the past. Things shouldn't have to be like this.

Data scraping has ruined technology. You must agree to data scraping now to do the most basic of things in many instances. You can’t even play a simple game you paid for without it contacting 30 data collection companies.

It’s like you need a burner smart phone just to navigate the world now. And as you pointed out, you are often no longer allowed to participate in many aspects of daily life without using a proprietary app.

Your doctor has a “portal”
Your kid’s school has a portal and google classroom and some new messaging app and online textbook companies and some account for news, etc.
Restaurants make you scan a QR code for a menu (snd scrape data).

 

[ikramerica]

If you want to endear users to your virtual world, especially if you are a company as hated as Facebook, you really don't want their first impression of it to be creepy heads on floating torsos in a mid-2000s looking 3D world.

It’s like living in the MiiVerse

 

[ikramerica]

I think augmented reality (tech overlays that can make supplement our lives and offer a productive utility) will be hugely beneficial in this way. The metaverse seems more live a short term game environment vs anything else

No doubt. I am so grateful that on a construction jobsight I can pull up pdfs of appliances and lighting and materials orders and have questions answered immediately vs. having to wait a day or longer vs. the pre-internet days of simply not having access to that information in a timely manner at all. AR may be even more helpful.