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Gurman: Apple Headset Could Feature 'In-Air' Typing for Text Input, No iPhone Pairing Required
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HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
The pessimism about this product by Apple fans is dazzling.
When I look at it, I keep coming back to a single, simple use (for justification): any size screen (phone, tablet, laptop, desktop) in a mobile package. Hop over to the MB Air 15" thread and people are gushing at the greatness of a screen 2 inches bigger than the one that already exists. Hop over into threads about Studio Display and people gush about how it is the one and only screen for all and nothing else compares. Hop into threads of rumors of a bigger iMac and/or bigger Studio Display screen and people practically froth at the opportunity to spend what should be easily NORTH of $3K for that one.
IF this thing can fool our eyes with virtual REALITY, it can deliver ANY size screen to us anywhere we have these googles.
Some want an iMac 30", some a 32", some want a 30-36" Apple display, some want an ultra-wide, some want various sizes of ultra-wides, some want even bigger iPad screens, even bigger phone screens, 17" MBpro, bigger MBpros, some want multiple screens, foldables/rollables, etc.
Here's a take-it-anywhere, portable device that MIGHT be able to deliver up to an IMAX-sized screen to your Mac laptop... or IMAX iPad... or IMAX iPhone. No crease lines, no rolling. Just slip these on and use any size & shape screen or screens you want.
If so, imagine what might be the bottom half of a MB in the same bag to give you a keyboard and you would have a new kind of laptop with any size of screen.
How much would you pay for a 36" Studio Display to then leave sitting in one place for probably its entire life? $3K??? How much would you pay for a 40-50" Apple Ultra-wide to leave sitting in one place for probably its entire life? $3K???
And that's just one "solution" to a very tangible "problem" that this is already rumored to deliver.
I recently spent north of $2K for a desktop monitor that will forever be stuck in one place. I'd readily pay $1K more than that for that monitor to easily fit in a bag so that I could use it anywhere I go. This is but one likely potential of this product.
"Think different" people! I have zero expectations that this will be only Oculus Plus with an Apple logo on it. I have near zero expectations that this is about gaming. However, I can easily imagine MANY very desirable applications for something that can show our eyes ANYTHING in a realistic way. Can you?
When I look at it, I keep coming back to a single, simple use (for justification): any size screen (phone, tablet, laptop, desktop) in a mobile package. Hop over to the MB Air 15" thread and people are gushing at the greatness of a screen 2 inches bigger than the one that already exists. Hop over into threads about Studio Display and people gush about how it is the one and only screen for all and nothing else compares. Hop into threads of rumors of a bigger iMac and/or bigger Studio Display screen and people practically froth at the opportunity to spend what should be easily NORTH of $3K for that one.
IF this thing can fool our eyes with virtual REALITY, it can deliver ANY size screen to us anywhere we have these googles.
Some want an iMac 30", some a 32", some want a 30-36" Apple display, some want an ultra-wide, some want various sizes of ultra-wides, some want even bigger iPad screens, even bigger phone screens, 17" MBpro, bigger MBpros, some want multiple screens, foldables/rollables, etc.
Here's a take-it-anywhere, portable device that MIGHT be able to deliver up to an IMAX-sized screen to your Mac laptop... or IMAX iPad... or IMAX iPhone. No crease lines, no rolling. Just slip these on and use any size & shape screen or screens you want.
If so, imagine what might be the bottom half of a MB in the same bag to give you a keyboard and you would have a new kind of laptop with any size of screen.
How much would you pay for a 36" Studio Display to then leave sitting in one place for probably its entire life? $3K??? How much would you pay for a 40-50" Apple Ultra-wide to leave sitting in one place for probably its entire life? $3K???
And that's just one "solution" to a very tangible "problem" that this is already rumored to deliver.
I recently spent north of $2K for a desktop monitor that will forever be stuck in one place. I'd readily pay $1K more than that for that monitor to easily fit in a bag so that I could use it anywhere I go. This is but one likely potential of this product.
"Think different" people! I have zero expectations that this will be only Oculus Plus with an Apple logo on it. I have near zero expectations that this is about gaming. However, I can easily imagine MANY very desirable applications for something that can show our eyes ANYTHING in a realistic way. Can you?
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I’m really surprised that there are some Apple fans who are not “excited” about this product. This is literally their most exciting product in many many years (I’d say more than the Apple Watch). I’m also skeptic about VR headsets, but as someone interested in technology, I’m waaay more “excited” about this than about the next iPhone or Mac.
Apple enters just a few product categories, so I expect this to be a game changer. To anyone comparing it to the Homepod, I’d say it’s orders of magnitude more relevant, so I’m sure they wouldn’t launch it if they don’t truly believe it will make a big difference and be a success. Unlike the Homepod or AirPods, it should be a main category and revenue driver, so they cannot afford failure.
Also, it’s hard to get an idea on the device based on isolated leaks. If they told you the original iPhone was going to have a touchscreen, no flash, no 3G… that doesn’t tell you anything about the main OG iPhone story.
Apple enters just a few product categories, so I expect this to be a game changer. To anyone comparing it to the Homepod, I’d say it’s orders of magnitude more relevant, so I’m sure they wouldn’t launch it if they don’t truly believe it will make a big difference and be a success. Unlike the Homepod or AirPods, it should be a main category and revenue driver, so they cannot afford failure.
Also, it’s hard to get an idea on the device based on isolated leaks. If they told you the original iPhone was going to have a touchscreen, no flash, no 3G… that doesn’t tell you anything about the main OG iPhone story.
I completely can't imagine using things other than entertainment (movies, games) for this kind. In everyday use, this will not work. The problem is that all the products we are using at this moment are simply: put on our hand or put in our pockets and that's it. Someone will call or write a message - you look at your hand and that's it. Do you want to write back? You grab the phone, write back .... VR in such a situation you have to put on, turn on, write off, remove ... I also can't imagine using it for more than an hour, two...
If that is your use case, cool, go for it.
I certainly would not want to wear goggles to do computer work, but who knows, maybe in 5 years I’m ready to replace my studio monitor…
The sad reality is that in nonsense-world (of which I am merely a slack-jawed observer at best), this nonsense will be extremely popular among actual participants (unwitting or otherwise) in said nonsense-world.
Something tells me you are being WAY too optimistic about the current and near term state of the art for HMD resolution when compared to the human eye’s resolving power. One off the most important reasons people drool over new display monitors is the increased resolution. A VR environment can show you something that looks like a 30” Display (for example) in overall dimensions but the headset’s own resolution would need to be orders of magnitude that of the 30“ display to be a convincing facsimile. Even if they were to come up with some other means of pushing the photons to your eyes (different from our current pixel-based panels) it would require a large amount of processing.
All that aside, I can’t get excited when all the rumors are about hardware with no mention of what “content“ would compel me to want this product in the first place.
I will be a day-one adopter. Apple will begin to redefine what is possible, like they did with the mobile phone. It will rapidly evolve over five years after its introduction, just as all the other products did. It will be fun to be a part of that. I owned am Apple II, the Lisa, the first Macintosh, the first LaserWriter printer, the first iPod, the first iPhone, the first iPad, the the first AirPods, the first HomePod, the first Apple Watch and have absolutely no regrets. Let the fun begin once again. (Would like an Apple car, hope they do it.)
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
I've been in too many situations where I'd like to get work done but lacked the space for even a MB: think ever-shrinking plane seats. Or where I wish I had a much bigger screen than a laptop screen to do things that beg for screen RE. In those scenarios- to me anyway- this seems like a BETTER option than NOT getting work done or getting it done very effectively.
Obviously, when at my office, I could use a traditional big screen. But all those on-the-go scenarios often beg for "bigger screens" such that companies are experimenting with folding & rolling options. Here's a different way to have ANY size of screen in a relatively small, mobile package. This plus keyboard in the bag might be a new kind of laptop... like separating the screen half from the keyboard half now so you can put the screen half somewhere else and do your computing.
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Typing in the air? This is the only thing I could possibly imagine that’s worse than the hockey puck mouse.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
The rumor has consistently been 4K per eye. If there are that many visual pixels jammed into that small of a space, the virtual screen it could render should be able to be huge and still look sharp to our eyes. We'll (literally) see sooner or later.
Have no interest in VR personally, I look at these headsets and think “there is a migraine waiting to happen”
So not only are we speculating about this, but we're speculating that it will be bad on release. We've officially gone off the deep end in these rumours.
We rarely get software of content rumors. We didn’t know how the iPhone or Apple Watch would work, at all.
Content is the last thing I would be concerned about with this. As the next big product of Apple, they will make sure to have immersive movies, games, etc. All major Apple product categories have a lot of content available (iPhone, iPad, AW…), since they risk a lot to one card, so they cannot afford failure.
This mock up is much better but I'll be surprised if the sides are rounded, I think the internals need all the volume they can get. Also the dial will likely be proud on the side like the watch for fast access. This would require a flat temple area (ie., there's more frame than just around the front display). There's likely a dial on the other side too for "volume" type stuff, and you can probably swap the role for left/right handed people. AirPods Max should of had a second dial for playlist control...
Really curious if this will have arms or not, with a small band at the back. Arms have a lot of advantages, namely arching over the ears better than bands can, and having enough volume for components (battery, speakers, antenna).
I think this'll end up looking like thick sunglasses including the arms, with a wrap or shield shape. Maybe something like this.
Really curious if this will have arms or not, with a small band at the back. Arms have a lot of advantages, namely arching over the ears better than bands can, and having enough volume for components (battery, speakers, antenna).
I think this'll end up looking like thick sunglasses including the arms, with a wrap or shield shape. Maybe something like this.
In VR/AR that “4K per eye” is used to render your monitor and all the surrounding environment. So no, nowhere close to what it needs to be when you consider a typical monitor uses 4K (or more) just for the visible portion of the screen. If you are looking at a 4K monitor in a VR environment 18 inches in front of you, that monitor is rendered in a fraction of that “4K per eye”. If you are OK with that virtual monitor being 720p, I guess it works.
It's a typical response here to any new Apple product being released. iPod (who asked for a thousand songs in your pocket?), iPhone (who asked for a non-mechanical keyboard?), iPad (it's just a big iPhone), AirPods (what a joke), etc
People love rushing to a negative judgment regarding how a product will be a flop because they're lacking a wee bit of imagination and curiosity. Those are qualities others possess allowing them to see and recognize the possibilities and potential.
Also, as an aside, it's pretty funny watching people cling to the above and other artist renderings, and using that as a cudgel as to why it will flop.
"...so I expect this to be a game changer."
No doubt in my mind about that, especially with respect to AR, in both commercial and personal applications. Though no doubt there will be VR applications/games that will come along for the ride.
so you'll spend 3k on top of all your computing gear just to have the HW and no use case? Go for it ...
and games. movies? I'm not a gamer but the MR community certainly makes me believe that Apple sucks at gaming, and remember how 3D movies took off (not)? but if porn fits in your "immersive movies" example, yep, I'll agree to that.
Gurman comes across as desperate to remain relevant. And why would anyone judge a product based on his or any other rumor? The only people aware of product strategy are executives, and there is no way they are communicating with Gurman. I think what we have been hearing isn’t accurate and we will end up being surprised on the upside. The product announcement will be Tim Cook’s iPhone moment.
There is a big difference between some other seminal Apple products (iPod, iPhone, iPad) and this one. The “content” for those products was self-evident. Music, videos, and oh yeah, the freaking internet all in one device (in the case of iPhone). I have shared in that excitement and acquired them as soon as they became available. 1st gen.
This is different. Without compelling NEW content, it won’t sell, especially at Apple prices. If it’s just repackaged existing content, or existing content visualized in a different way, most of us will not pay for it and then wear it frequently enough to be worth the expense.
Add me to this group. Every new headline, and if anything I continue to lose interest.
About games, I know this will trigger some of the AAA community, but iOS is probably the biggest gaming platform. Apple is very big on gaming, just not the kind some of us like. And btw, I despise phone games, but I can see simple games being much funnier on VR and appealing to a much bigger audience.
Yes, 3D movies didn’t took off, it’s not like Apple promoted them. I also think immersive VR movies are a much bigger deal.
If Apple is handling this with the secrecy that they did the first iPhone, then Mark Gurman knows nothing. Unless his mole is Tim Cook.
Lower level Apple employees are unlikely to have seen the finished product and anything Gurman describes is the development device that they work on.
The glasses aren’t going to production until after Apple unveils it, so there’s nothing to leak. No blueprints, no parts.
Lower level Apple employees are unlikely to have seen the finished product and anything Gurman describes is the development device that they work on.
The glasses aren’t going to production until after Apple unveils it, so there’s nothing to leak. No blueprints, no parts.
Of course, I don’t expect it to repack existing content. Just as the iPhone wasn’t a phone iPod or the iPad wasn’t a touch Mac, it should have its own path. I don’t think we’ll see existing iPhone games or movies but just projected bigger (maybe just as an option). I expect a lot of 1st person games, and movies recorded from scratch with immersive placement in mind. But we never know about this kind of stuff with rumors.