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DigiTimes: Apple Has Temporarily Stopped Developing AR/VR Headsets, Team Disbanded in May [Updated]

Even the product was perfect, it will introduce other problems. For example, maybe you have a zombie game playing in your glasses and you have to run away from zombies going after you. It may even be sold as an exercise app. But while you are trying to avoid a virtual zombie, you run out into the street and a bus runs over you and you are killed.
 
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Report that Apple Car starts. Report that Apple Car stopped. Report that Apple Car starts. Lather, rinse, repeat.

We'll see how it goes. I really doubt all development (in one form or another) has been terminated.
 
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Baymowe335 said:
Likely the same problems as Google Glass. Looks stupid, doesn’t solve a problem, too slow, tech isn’t there.

Maybe in the future.

If true, I credit Apple for knowing something isn’t ready.
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I haven't seen any point or use to this project since..ever.

Who wants to be wearing some glasses all the time or having to take them out, open, put them on, to give'em a fair use? I mean, I'm sure they could be nice in some very specific scenarios .. but I don't see it as a revolution on main/personal devices,..

For that to happen, we would need a contact lense solution, and even those seem too complicated. They'd need to be implants. I know it sounds too futuristic, but this is the reason why I think smartphones will remain as "personal computers" for many years still.
 
I think I read somewhere that there were a lot of these kinds of prototype AR-glasses on show at CES Shanghai recently.

So, people are looking into this. The question is: what is it exactly that one can expect from these glasses. And how reliable is DigiTimes anyway as a source?
;-)
 
BornAgainMac said:
Even the product was perfect, it will introduce other problems. For example, maybe you have a zombie game playing in your glasses and you have to run away from zombies going after you. It may even be sold as an exercise app. But while you are trying to avoid a virtual zombie, you run out into the street and a bus runs over you and you are killed.
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Remember Charles Darwin?
But kidding aside. Until then, the autonomous vehicles will work. :)
 
Kagio said:
I haven't seen any point or use to this project since..ever.

Who wants to be wearing some glasses all the time or having to take them out, open, put them on, to give'em a fair use? I mean, I'm sure they could be nice in some very specific scenarios .. but I don't see it as a revolution on main/personal devices,..

For that to happen, we would need a contact lense solution, and even those seem too complicated. They'd need to be implants. I know it sounds too futuristic, but this is the reason why I think smartphones will remain as "personal computers" for many years still.
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How to utterly miss the point.

Design Work
Virtual screens instead of laptops
Shopping
Holographic Facetime
Maps and directions.
Sports viewing
Let alone games!

I am 100 per event shire this report is wrong. Everything Apple is doing with ARkit is targeted directly at a glasses.

The new features including human occlusion so thing appear to go behind other things object and hand tracking directly point to this. Even the attention stuff - it’s built in eye tracking!
 
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MacsRgr8 said:
TBH, I don't know if many people really would like to ware glasses, especially made by tech companies, just for keeping "heads-up online".

It's getting too nerdy.

I feel the same nowadays about the Apple Watch. All those same square mini-iPads on your wrist...
It's one of the reasons I got a Gamin Smart Watch after owning 2 Apple Watches. I know is personal preference, but my Garmin looks sooooo much better.
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I completely understand. While I personally like the looks of the Apple Watch, my wife and daughter (who both love their iPhones) told me they have no interest in an Apple Watch because they don't like the looks of it. I think AR Glasses would be the same way - there would definitely be an "early adopter" market of unknown and a "never adopter" group of unknown size, as well as a majority of people between who fall on a continuum between those two groups.

I am really interested in what Apple's plan is (or was?) to get around the privacy concerns that contributed to the demise of Google Glass Explorer. A lot of businesses (especially bars, restaurants, movie theaters) banned Google Glass. I am confident Apple has/had a plan to deal with this issue but I don't know what it is/was.
 
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The watch is one thing.... not quite sure how glasses would fit in

To make them quite useful.... most features would overlap with the watch..
 
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otternonsense said:
Same way the airpower would have been the whole point behind all the wireless charging stuff and fragile glass iPhone backs.

Cook's pipeline is a random pies-in-the-sky-line where dated, dysfunctional or unproven "innovations" (Lenovo's original touchbar, AR, USBc-only) meet formerly useful but killed features (MagSafe, audiojack, TouchID) and a conundrum of legacy+new tech (lightning port on some devices, USBC on others, FaceTime on some, TouchID on others etc) into derivative product enclosures that don't push any envelope other than the price point. There's no cohesive product vision at all. Some will say AirPods and Watch 4 are great, sure they are for accessories. But also the HomePod has been a disaster and Apple hasn't figured out how to fix a MacBook keyboard design. Others will say it's "all part of a process". Well.. how much longer will it continue proceeding until we are "there"? Apple was "there" in 2012, it had a kickass trim portfolio of products that rocked.

Even if Apple used to copy ideas (half of Ive's portfolio has been inspired by Dieter Rams), at least they used to do it in a way that left us all bamboozled with excitement. Now it's like slow meandering dad humour, over and over with every product release, and "they think we're gonna love it". Well.. we don't.
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Well this post should come with a big fat IMO
 
Alert me when Apple or Google develop a NerveGear and a MMORPGVR game trailer is released...
 
DocMultimedia said:
Report that Apple Car starts. Report that Apple Car stopped. Report that Apple Car starts. Lather, rinse, repeat.

We'll see how it goes. I really doubt all development (in one form or another) has been terminated.
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Yea, Apple would never kill a product line in development. Oh wait, Airpower.
 
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AR tech and 3D tech not suitable for common man, though they are nice tech for consuming digital content for short durations, it cannot be used like our mobile screens for very long and continuously... really surprised when TC emphasised on this few years back....
 
Onelifenofear said:
How to utterly miss the point.

Design Work
Virtual screens instead of laptops
Shopping
Holographic Facetime
Maps and directions.
Sports viewing
Let alone games!

I am 100 per event shire this report is wrong. Everything Apple is doing with ARkit is targeted directly at a glasses.

The new features including human occlusion so thing appear to go behind other things object and hand tracking directly point to this. Even the attention stuff - it’s built in eye tracking!
Click to expand...
I agree completely. Apple has poured way too much time and effort into this to just walk away from it. They have acquired companies, purchased IP, and developed the building blocks such as true depth cameras and as you mentioned the eye tracking technology. I could see Apple possibly changing form factor / style of glasses a little bit but not scrapping the whole project.
 
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My god. Again. People commenting on rumors and being whipped up in a frenzy. The second there’s some news someone doesn’t like it’s “oh look at apple not being innovative”. Meanwhile nobody has any real details or inside knowledge about this project. So it’s all just fantasy at this point. You really have to ask yourself: why are you commenting so hard on that which you have so little information? Full of crap
 
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otternonsense said:
Same way the airpower would have been the whole point behind all the wireless charging stuff and fragile glass iPhone backs.

Cook's pipeline is a random pies-in-the-sky-line where dated, dysfunctional or unproven "innovations" (Lenovo's original touchbar, AR, USBc-only) meet formerly useful but killed features (MagSafe, audiojack, TouchID) and a conundrum of legacy+new tech (lightning port on some devices, USBC on others, FaceTime on some, TouchID on others etc) into derivative product enclosures that don't push any envelope other than the price point. There's no cohesive product vision at all. Some will say AirPods and Watch 4 are great, sure they are for accessories. But also the HomePod has been a disaster and Apple hasn't figured out how to fix a MacBook keyboard design. Others will say it's "all part of a process". Well.. how much longer will it continue proceeding until we are "there"? Apple was "there" in 2012, it had a kickass trim portfolio of products that rocked.

Even if Apple used to copy ideas (half of Ive's portfolio has been inspired by Dieter Rams), at least they used to do it in a way that left us all bamboozled with excitement. Now it's like slow meandering dad humour, over and over with every product release, and "they think we're gonna love it". Well.. we don't.
Click to expand...

“Well.. we don’t...” Hi there, didn’t realize you spoke for all Apple device owners. And I don’t remember you polling me for my opinion yet here you are. You and the vast majority of people complaining on this thread, thinking they could run the company better or know better what Apple should invest their time and money in are actually in the minority.
 
mi7chy said:
Desperate times call for desperate measures so that means eliminating high risk low reward new products. Can't blame them them for sticking with what sells while weathering the storm.
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Huh? What are you talking about? How are these ‘desperate times’ for Apple exactly (still one of the most profitable companies in the world).

Also, in desperate times, any study of the history of business would suggest that the way to deal with that is to INNOVATE out of the bad patch, not crawl up into a ball and hope it blows over.
 
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I think "Apple's AR glasses won't ship in 2020" is likely a more accurate headline.

Basically everybody in tech agrees that AR is a huge part of the future of computing, and Apple is a leader in AR tech on mobile devices. I think most people already thought that the tech won't be small/fast/efficient enough for a release in 2020 TO ALSO be up to Apple's standards in terms of aesthetics and fashionability (remember, this has to be worn on the face, so it can't look too bulky for the average person).

The only way Apple has given up entirely on this, is if they feel AR doesn't have a place in the future. More likely, this is delayed until 2022ish.
 
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Pbrutto said:
When Tim says “great products in the pipeline” did he mean Apple News+? No car, no glasses, what are they planning that is new hardware? I guess they are destined to just be services and monthly fees now?
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Really? Based on a *rumor* about glasses? From DigiTimes?
 
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Stella said:
So you are comparing the popularity of a mature product to a cutting edge product, which aren’t really available in the consumer space yet?
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So true. I can only imagine in 2007 he probably said “how many smartphones with physical keyboards do you see out there - millions! How many with a full screen and virtual keyboard - none! Quit working on the iphone and focus on something that will actually make a profit”
 
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