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In AR you could place a screen, keyboard, and mouse using hand tracking for all the people who can't wrap their heads around AR/VR.
Sorry I don’t quite follow. What do you mean by place those things using hand tracking?
 
Even with an otherwise fully VR background, you'll be able to view your keyboard in the virtual world. Oculus devices can already do that.
My point is not that AR and VR are exactly the same, it's just that with most apps you'll be able to customize the level of AR passthrough, so any time someone says VR, you can just assume they mean VR or AR.
All "VR" devices in the future will have AR capabilities. Many already do.
If AR means AR, and VR means VR or AR, then what do you say when you mean only VR? It should be VR, AR, or MR (mixed reality).
 
The goggles track your hands. You move or use a virtual mouse and keyboard and magic trackpad.
Thanks. I dunno though, that’ll require some serious tracking accuracy for the computer to know which fingers are hitting which virtual keyboard keys. Also even if accurate enough, it seems like it would be a less than ideal typing experience. I’d think there would be a text input method specifically for VR if one wants to work only in VR.
But also as I said it’s not just computer peripherals, it’s everything analog—grabbing a pen, looking at your phone, taking a sip of coffee, taking a bite of a snack, looking at a picture on your desk, looking at notes on a whiteboard on the wall, putting on a sweater, talking to a coworker, looking at a hard copy document—it’s an infinite list. It’s not efficient to have to switch modes or take off the goggles for each of these just for the sake of being in VR. So AR virtual displays seem much more useful, if one had to choose between the two. Both would be ideal of course, but the article mentioned only VR displays.
 
If AR means AR, and VR means VR or AR, then what do you say when you mean only VR? It should be VR, AR, or MR (mixed reality).
You got me there! I meant not a representation of the space you are physically in.

What's the difference between AR and MR?

For me, the important part is whether the hardware has a transparent front that lets photons bouncing off the real world directly reach your eyes (like HoloLens and Magic Leap), or if the headset is opaque, like Oculus devices. The rumors point to opaque. An opaque front means better quality for the artificial content, at the expense of not showing the real world as clearly as transparent devices allow.

All opaque devices will have video passthrough and maybe 3D scanning to show your current real environment within the artificial virtual environment. You can put an opaque blocker in front of see-through "AR" glasses to make them more like opaque "VR" devices.
 
Steve Jobs made sure to make the iPad extremely cost-effective. By offering it at $499 it was appealing to many users thus it became a successful product. That's something Steve Jobs was very good at. But Tim Cook doesn't seem to be that way. In 2017, If Tim Cook is telling us $999 is a "value price" for an iPhone (Base Model) imagine what he is preparing to tell the world in 2023. (6 years later). I highly doubt it's going to cost $1799. Apple is going to need all the money it needs for the ROI. It's a niche product, targeted toward the cool rich kids living in Beverly Hills.


Selling new product categories as luxury items first is a tried and true strategy. Create the product, market to those that can afford it, get developers excited to build apps, utilize economies of scale with a refined v2 product for the masses 2 - 3 years later, while having a wonderful library of first and third party apps.

An immersive internet is where we’re headed. People have to stop asking for a faster horse….
 
We could map the whole interior and exterior of almost all major cities by apple just asking people if they can turn on their LiDAR on phones and use it with GPS. No one could handle all that data and stitching it altogether would be the largest data challenge in history.
That's absolutely true. 2 points
1. It is only a thought I had, and is likely ridiculous.
2. The richest company in the world?
 
Thanks. I dunno though, that’ll require some serious tracking accuracy for the computer to know which fingers are hitting which virtual keyboard keys. Also even if accurate enough, it seems like it would be a less than ideal typing experience. I’d think there would be a text input method specifically for VR if one wants to work only in VR.
But also as I said it’s not just computer peripherals, it’s everything analog—grabbing a pen, looking at your phone, taking a sip of coffee, taking a bite of a snack, looking at a picture on your desk, looking at notes on a whiteboard on the wall, putting on a sweater, talking to a coworker, looking at a hard copy document—it’s an infinite list. It’s not efficient to have to switch modes or take off the goggles for each of these just for the sake of being in VR. So AR virtual displays seem much more useful.
I was making a lame joke about people with negative attitudes about the Apple goggles. The goggles do hand tracking. I don't know how precise Apple hand tracking is. We'll see when the google arrive.

Combining physical objects like a pen or coffee sipping with virtual stuff is AR. We'll soon see what Apple does with AR.
 
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This will definitely cause lines out the door at the Apple Store for curious who have zero means to purchase such a thing.

The keynote for this will be immensely amusing. I’m hoping someone trips. The “one more thing” should include sex toys for this.
 
This feels like one of those products that I'm not going to fully grasp until I see it in action. How are they going to demo this on a stage or in a film? That will be tricky.
 
I am not sure why the article goes on about VR when they don’t have a good enough Mac to create VR on !

This will be pure AR with pass through.

Also I don’t care about the $3k price. It all needs to start somewhere and develop and iterate to the lightweight solutions needed. These things just don’t appear from nowhere.
AR requires far more resources than VR. It needs silicon to track the real world. VR can be done on a Quest 2 with an outdated smart phone processor.
 
grabbing a pen
Why would I do that?
looking at your phone
You can see everything on your phone from within VR. There will be handoff for many apps, or in can just show a jumbo phone screen within VR when you tap a button in your VR environment.
taking a sip of coffee, taking a bite of a snack
Toggle on video passthrough so you can see your snacks.
looking at a picture on your desk
You can have a photo widget on your VR desk.
looking at notes on a whiteboard on the wall
VR whiteboard. (Apple's new Freeform app)
putting on a sweater
Take off the headset. I have to take off my headphones when putting on a sweater.
talking to a coworker
I work from home. This would be easier from within VR.
looking at a hard copy document
What's that? ;)


Sure, VR/AR won't cover all use cases. But none of my other devices do either. I could make a similar list about iPhones: Screen too small, processor not powerful enough, customization too limited, doesn't run the apps I need, etc.
 
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Sounds like you haven't used another headset. You aren't aware of the screen existing and it will certainly be closer than 2 inches from your eye. There is no focus fatigue. There are other forms of VR fatigue and hopefully this headset is a step or more further toward addressing those. The most recent headsets from other companies have already made it far enough for even more sensitive people to handle longer sessions. I imagine Apple's headset will be a significant improvement with it auto-adjusting to your eyes, much higher resolution, probably lower latency, and probably higher frame rate. Fatigue may not be much worse then staring at a normal screen. If you are using it as a workspace enhancer there should be very little fatigue anyway. Most of the fatigue is from teleporting around a game level or other unnatural actions.
Correct, I have not used any VR headset. How does one focus on a screen so close to the eyes if they cannot focus on anything that close? For normal reading distance I need about a 1.5x. At about 12" I need close to 3x. With that said what is the closest a person with perfect vision can focus? Is there a corrective lens built-in for everyone? Just curious.
 
AR is always a part of the equation. From what I understand, Apple would be focused on experiences that depend on one being able to see their surroundings. So, using a physical keyboard (no big deal for touch typists) or grabbing a coffee/tea mug would be no problem because you’d just see it. No visor up visor down.

Here's something I read on "The Verge"

Gurman says that the headset will let users switch between VR and AR by twisting a digital crown, something that was also reported by The Information earlier this month.
 
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Correct, I have not used any VR headset. How does one focus on a screen so close to the eyes if they cannot focus on anything that close? For normal reading distance I need about a 1.5x. At about 12" I need close to 3x. With that said what is the closest a person with perfect vision can focus? Is there a corrective lens built-in for everyone? Just curious.

I don't know how they handle the optics. But, a big part of depth perception is where the eye is focused. So, even though the physical device is right near your eye, you must be focusing at greater distances.
 
You got me there! I meant not a representation of the space you are physically in.

What's the difference between AR and MR?

For me, the important part is whether the hardware has a transparent front that lets photons bouncing off the real world directly reach your eyes (like HoloLens and Magic Leap), or if the headset is opaque, like Oculus devices. The rumors point to opaque. An opaque front means better quality for the artificial content, at the expense of not showing the real world as clearly as transparent devices allow.

All opaque devices will have video passthrough and maybe 3D scanning to show your current real environment within the artificial virtual environment. You can put an opaque blocker in front of see-through "AR" glasses to make them more like opaque "VR" devices.
AR is specific virtual items anchored to an otherwise real world. MR I guess would be what you described, some combination of virtual/real environment and virtual/real items. I’ve only heard of the term MR, but haven’t seen an example of it, but it sounds like it should be what you described.

It would be nice to have that glass front for AR, which I’m thinking would feel more natural, but yeah don’t know if the tech is there yet to make it good for VR too.
 
Correct, I have not used any VR headset. How does one focus on a screen so close to the eyes if they cannot focus on anything that close? For normal reading distance I need about a 1.5x. At about 12" I need close to 3x. With that said what is the closest a person with perfect vision can focus? Is there a corrective lens built-in for everyone? Just curious.
All VR headsets have lenses in front of the screens. The lenses adjust the focus distance so it is one to two meters out. So for a person who normally uses reading glasses, when using a VR headset without using readers, they should be able to more easily focus on the displays than they could on a phone or tablet.
 
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I have to admit I’m a little surprised by all the people freaking out over a (purported) $3000 price tag.

How many people here have multiple Apple products already? Or who drop a $1k+ on a new phone every year, $800 on a watch, or a couple grand or more on a laptop? Surely $3k isn’t that much if the device is possibly as compelling as it could turn out to be?

Besides there’s always the return window. Maybe we should start the “Who’s returning their Apple Goggles” and “You have a Macbook, Phone, iPad and Goggles. Why?” threads pre-emptively?
 
I have to admit I’m a little surprised by all the people freaking out over a (purported) $3000 price tag.

How many people here have multiple Apple products already? Or who drop a $1k+ on a new phone every year, $800 on a watch, or a couple grand or more on a laptop? Surely $3k isn’t that much if the device is possibly as compelling as it could turn out to be?

Besides there’s always the return window. Maybe we should start the “Who’s returning their Apple Goggles” and “You have a Macbook, Phone, iPad and Goggles. Why?” threads pre-emptively?
The price complainers don’t matter to Apple. It’s not made for them. They will bring nothing to the party. Many MacRumors participants won’t come to the Mixed reality space. And That is as it should be..
 
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