Apple's AR/VR Headset Said to Feature Digital Crown, Waist-Mounted Battery Pack, and More

[richinaus]

I just think Tech has hit a wall on practical consumer devices. But in a market-driven economy, where companies must continue to grow, they are all trying to invent new markets/needs that perhaps don't really exist. Will VR and AR evolve to become needed products? Probably. But that isn't guaranteed. And at some point, the "cool" factor of tech is diminishing. META thinks that people are using Facebook less because it's not immersive enough. I don't think they're right about that. I think people are growing weary of tech solutions to human needs. People want human interaction, in the real world. Not the virtual world.

I am not disagreeing with this, but there is a lot of potential with AR. The hardware doesn't seem to be where it needs to be, and certainly not at $3k.

A pair of glasses with AR overlay would be a goal of Apple, but they cant make it, so we will have these clumsy devices [as my previous post].

Personally I am excited by it all as I can create for it and does open doors.
As a consumer I can understand why people are asking why.

It needs time to develop.

 

[purplerainpurplerain]

I actually loved my Newton 2100 and writing recognition. To this day, I still think our interface on the phone is clunky and non-elegant. I wish Apple would work harder on this, improving the phone/human interface.

I still can’t type too well on this software keyboard I’m using right now. My fingers are chonky from life of keyboard typing. The onscreen keyboard still too small on the Max. Still hate auto type errors. I have to edit nearly all my posts and by that time people already replied 😛😂

 

[richinaus]

Almost bought a Newton but didn’t like the writing system. Very slow recog. My fave for text entry was Psion 5MX.

loved the Psion 5 keyboard

Still when you think about that and the iphone 14 pro, the difference is immense.

Hopefully we are at the same juncture 25 years from now [but will probably be dead so will enjoy the Apple headset now ]

 

[purplerainpurplerain]

loved the Psion 5 keyboard

Still when you think about that and the iphone 14 pro, the difference is immense.

Hopefully we are at the same juncture 25 years from now.

There’s a Reddit board called cyber rigs or something. Can’t remember the name. They make these home made mini computers with wide screens like the Psion but with modern Linux GUIs and Terminals. They look outrageously sci fi like something out of Fallout or Cyberpunk.

 

[Mr. Dee]

I doubt Apple would allow its image to be connected heavily to the adult industry.

Only Fans is not only for adult content, you could have exclusives there for say product unboxings or to augment a YouTube channel. If someone creates an app that can be used for general things including adult entertainment, Apple can't stop that. No different from hookup apps on the iPhone right now.

 

[Ctrlos]

I wonder if Ive reads these daft rumours and spits out his tea at how ridiculous they become as time moves on.

There is no way Apple, the company that popularised svelte industrial design is going to release a dorky VR headset. The tech is certainly cool but I have yet to see anyone using one that doesn’t look like a complete tool.

 

[ponzicoinbro]

I strongly disagreed with Steve Jobs about the stylus.

He only meant the phone, not the tablet. He just didn't live long enough to see the Pencil developed especially for it. Apple wanted to take their time with that to make it better than it could be in 2011.

 

[lovehateapple]

I'm getting really excited to see what apple comes up with. Some of this stuff sounds truly amazing. Unfortunately, it also sounds very expensive. Taking a wait and see approach... 🤞

 

[ponzicoinbro]

I wish Apple would allow the Apple Pencil to be used on the iPhone.

Would add extra cost of course and most people would need to want it to justify making it.

 

[LeadingHeat]

The headset is not expected to be accompanied by a dedicated gaming controller, and Apple has seemingly not focused substantially on gaming for the device. That being said, the company does have a plan to allow Unity to be its first partner to offer full VR experiences in the headset via its game engine.

Apple is focused on videoconferencing on the device, with digital avatars that have a high-level of accuracy when mimicking a user's facial expressions and body movements. It has also created software to allow users to perform activities like dragging the Maps app off a Mac screen and using it to display a 3D model of a city on a table top, and has devoted resources to educational resources for the device.

This is the most disappointing part of this. I know it probably won't flop, because nearly zero hardware Apple has developed has flopped (looking at you, Pippin) but I am so nervous about this. As of now, the vast majority of VR is gaming. Gamers are huge early adopters. They also can be very noisy if they don't like a product which could potentially hurt the product's success. Again I don't think it will happen with this but I'm very nervous that they're focusing on Memoji's and people standing around in a room wearing these during a business meeting smiling at each other.

The partnership with Unity is exciting and definitely a good step in the right direction. I hope they open it up to any and all game developers, and help with porting over existing titles. Get some classics in there like BeatSaber on day 1!

 

[Jensend]

"The dedicated ISP translates the distorted images captured by the external cameras into a faithful video representation of the user's surroundings with low latency."

So... no see-through display??? What a damn shame!

There are no wide FOV see-through AR displays, as far as I’m aware. The images in HoloLens or Magic Leap only cover a small fraction of the image area provided by a typical consumer VR headset.

Facebook just lost their VR CTO at Oculus division

Because they weren’t taking his advice, not because he didn’t believe in VR as a technology.

Steam VR has mostly come and gone

Steam VR has had a greater number of active users each year since it’s original release. It’s very slow growth, sure, but it hasn’t gone down.

VR is great, when it works, and for 30 min at a time before motion sickness kicks in?

For me, motion sickness doesn’t take time to kick in. Either an experience is nauseating, or it isn’t. If I’m not feeling nauseous within seconds, I’ll be fine after an hour.

I don’t get it… who is this for, and what problem does it solve?

You could ask the same about an iPad when we have MacBooks. Apple provides a variety of screens and speakers attached to computers, offering different screen sizes, portability, input methods, computing power, and convenience. I personally don’t need a phone form factor… I wish I could just add a phone plan to my iPad. The use cases of the devices overlap, and most people choose their preferred devices instead of buying them all. One nice thing about VR is it offers a lot of virtual screen space in a smaller and more portable form factor than a desktop computer setup.

Sure, lidar may be able to fix it so that I can see all of my surroundings including where I left my iPhone laying down

You can just view whatever you’d be doing on the phone from within VR. I sometimes play mini-golf in VR, and put a floating screen into the environment so I can watch a video while golfing. Or I attach the screen to my wrist, so I can just make a “looking at watch” movement to see the virtual screen at any moment.

Engineers and designers need to use their keyboard a lot for number entry and short cuts so they don’t want a head set blocking their view of the keyboard.

This is already solved. The Quest headsets can already detect certain keyboards and display them in your VR environment.

Sure. Here are a couple:

Not really relevant to AR, which uses totally different methods for transparency.

 

[purplerainpurplerain]

There are no wide FOV see-through AR displays, as far as I’m aware. The images in HoloLens or Magic Leap only cover a small fraction of the image area provided by a typical consumer VR headset.

Because they weren’t taking his advice, not because he didn’t believe in VR as a technology.

Steam VR has had a greater number of active users each year since it’s original release. It’s very slow growth, sure, but it hasn’t gone down.

For me, motion sickness doesn’t take time to kick in. Either an experience is nauseating, or it isn’t. If I’m not feeling nauseous within seconds, I’ll be fine after an hour.

You could ask the same about an iPad when we have MacBooks. Apple provides a variety of screens and speakers attached to computers, offering different screen sizes, portability, input methods, computing power, and convenience. I personally don’t need a phone form factor… I wish I could just add a phone plan to my iPad. The use cases of the devices overlap, and most people choose their preferred devices instead of buying them all. One nice thing about VR is it offers a lot of virtual screen space in a smaller and more portable form factor than a desktop computer setup.

You can just view whatever you’d be doing on the phone from within VR. I sometimes play mini-golf in VR, and put a floating screen into the environment so I can watch a video while golfing. Or I attach the screen to my wrist, so I can just make a “looking at watch” movement to see the virtual screen at any moment.

This is already solved. The Quest headsets can already detect certain keyboards and display them in your VR environment.

Not really relevant to AR, which uses totally different methods for transparency.

That’s too much hot cope to read and I read it and now I have VR nausea 😛😂

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

I personally don’t need a phone form factor… I wish I could just add a phone plan to my iPad.

You can. See VOIP apps with buds. My iPad mini has covered my texting & telephony needs since iPad Mini 2. The 5G cellular prepaid plan I favor is 5GB for 5 months for $10 from Tmobile. I'm averaging about $25/YEAR for cell phone service.

I text and receive texts just like using iPhone. Mini will ring when someone calls. When I answer or call someone, they can't tell that I'm using a non-phone form factor.

If in doubt, download a VOIP app on your iPad and experiment. Many will give you a free number and they work fine over wifi too. Text yourself and then send yourself text replies to verify you can text. Call yourself (or get a friend to do it) and then call yourself the other way too. It all "just works."

 

[iPadCary]

Can't say I'm too thrilled about the outboard battpack.
So un-Apple-like, but still very very excited by AppleReality as a whole!!
I pray to the tech Gods that this DOES NOT in any way need an iPhone to work ....

I keep hearing how it's gonna be introed this month.
And invites to Apple Events are usually sent out two weeks in advance.
Waitingwaitingwaiting with bated breath ....
🙏🏻🤞🏻

 

[Unami]

Wow, that looks kind of credible. Maybe. It's kind of exciting, seeing a new apple product emerge in a new product category.

This is for sure going to be a gen1 product, it even seems it will be deliberately positioned as one. I wonder if everything they're throwing at the problem is going to stick.

Won't it get hot (probably not)? Will they need to make a controller eventually (probably)? Will the outward-facing display be awkward (for sure)? How will the miis, um, vrmojis, iVatars,... look? Will Tim Cook wear one? How will they manage the (usb-c?) cable leading to the purported external battery? How is the battery secured? How long will it last until parts look ugly or wear out, can they be replaced? Will it be underpowered? Will there be a vr/ar fitness app by apple?

I hope, we'll see it soon, but it kind of sounds like it could still need some more software support, especially on the gaming side of things. Could it be that Stage Manager already comes from VR? I get a lot of iphone/ipod/ipad-y vibes from that.

Great products but they needed some years and iterations to catch on. Can they do that again?

I'd guess, we'll see it introduced properly at WWDC - maybe even announced at an earlier preview - and it'll cost whatever it will cost.

 

[CarAnalogy]

Wait until you see the self walking shoes. You’ll never need to use your legs again. Your shoes will go out for you 😂😛

The future according to Sillycon Valley is where you put a cage around your head, stay at home in your $4000 a month WeWork BnB, pay micro payments to breathe Peloton Fresh Air, use your virtual person sponsored by Brawndo to meet virtual friends sponsored by Carls Jr in the virtual park where Mark has parked his virtual candy van sponsored by Gymshark to teach kids about how amazing the metaverse is sponsored by Facebook.

In the future there will be only one job: advertising. People will just advertise their advertising until the universe implodes.

 

[purplerainpurplerain]

Wow, that looks kind of credible. Maybe. It's kind of exciting, seeing a new apple product emerge in a new product category.

This is for sure going to be a gen1 product, it even seems it will be deliberately positioned as one. I wonder if everything they're throwing at the problem is going to stick.

Won't it get hot (probably not)? Will they need to make a controller eventually (probably)? Will the outward-facing display be awkward (for sure)? How will the miis, um, vrmojis, iVatars,... look? Will Tim Cook wear one? How will they manage the (usb-c?) cable leading to the purported external battery? How is the battery secured? How long will it last until parts look ugly or wear out, can they be replaced? Will it be underpowered? Will there be a vr/ar fitness app by apple?

I hope, we'll see it soon, but it kind of sounds like it could still need some more software support, especially on the gaming side of things. Could it be that Stage Manager already comes from VR?

I'd guess, we'll see it introduced properly at WWDC - maybe even announced at an earlier preview - and it'll cost whatever it will cost.

The battery comes in a jock strap. You just wear it on your hips. There will be different color jock straps and a Hermes Edition jock strap.

 

[purplerainpurplerain]

In the future there will be only one job: advertising. People will just advertise their advertising until the universe implodes.

I will charge Nike $1000 a day to shave their logo in the side of my head. Adidas on the other side unless they pay more for exclusive head space.

 

[Jensend]

You can. See VOIP apps with buds. My iPad mini has covered my texting & telephony needs since iPad Mini 2. The 5G cellular prepaid plan I favor is 5GB for 5 months for $10 from Tmobile. I'm averaging about $25/YEAR for cell phone service.

I text and receive texts just like using iPhone. Mini will ring when someone calls. When I answer or call someone, they can't tell that I'm using a non-phone form factor.

If in doubt, download a VOIP app on your iPad and experiment. Many will give you a free number and they work fine over wifi too. Text yourself and then send yourself text replies to verify you can text. Call yourself (or get a friend to do it) and then call yourself the other way too. It all "just works."

I already have a VOIP work phone number on my iPad. But I need a phone number I can use for verification for banks and such, and VOIP numbers won’t work.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Other than Uber, mine works fine for 2 factor. You might want to give it a fresh try as a personal number.

 

[Unami]

The battery comes in a jock strap. You just wear it on your hips. There will be different color jock straps and a Hermes Edition jock strap.

But will the Hermes jock strap be made of leather or latex?

 

[lovehateapple]

If this eliminates the need for my TV with Apple TV and any Mac monitor, I’d be pretty curious about this. At least home use I can see being a good use case. Others I have no idea yet.

Yeah, could be interesting if working at my desk, with headset on, it would need to connect to my keyboard and mouse over bluetooth, and I would want to plug it in so I'm not using a battery. Won't know if this scenario would be an improvement until I'm able to physically try it. My guess is there will be plusses and minuses so I'd have to be willing to accept the tradeoffs.

 

[lovehateapple]

So I need two $3,000 headsets to watch TV with my wife instead of a $1,200 OLED TV? What about a family of 4?

It's pretty simple math: $3,000 * 4 = $12,000 😂🤑

 

[lovehateapple]

I agree but... not the first generation, like for basically all other Apple devices. The minor upgrade of the second generation usually is the first great device.
Personally, I'll wait for the cheap "SE" model in 5/6 years

At $3,000 I won't have a choice but to wait. Besides, I learned my lesson with the original iphone back in 2007. Didn't buy an ipad until 5th gen or so, still don't own an apple watch, but have started thinking about getting one in the next couple of years, maybe...

 

[ponzicoinbro]

At $3,000 I won't have a choice but to wait. Besides, I learned my lesson with the original iphone back in 2007. Didn't buy an ipad until 5th gen or so, still don't own an apple watch, but have started thinking about getting one in the next couple of years, maybe...

After the initial bunch of headset fan boy posts will come the crushing reality and bugs and the forums will be full of the usual bug reports and complaints.