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VR is the next generation of computing

  • It's blockbuster video games

  • It's work
  • It's exercise

  • It's entertainment
  • It's a tool for training
  • It's a place to meet new people

  • It's extra displays for your Mac

  • It's a way to host podcasts (news site UploadVR holds their weekly VR Download news podcast in a proprietary studio in VR. The main hosts are across the world, one in Chicago, the other in Ireland, and they never met each other in real life at all.)
  • It's for all ages

VR is whatever you make of it, simple or complex, entertainment or work, for one or for all. It opens the door for new possibilities. Take me for example, I use my headset and PC for kayaking simulations with Kayak VR Mirage or fighting the undead horde in Walking Dead Saints and Sinners. I'm not fit, I'm not active, but in VR there's many adventures I can go on from my own home. Anyone can pick up a headset and be a thrillseeker.

But I can tell you everything of what VR is, but the one thing I can't do, is have you put a headset on and try it yourself. Only you can do that.
This is all super nerdy. Most people aren't interested in simulations, "working out" (lol) with googles strapped to their faces, or chatting with a cartoon instead of just having a normal phone call or Zoom meeting. I don't think the majority of people will ever find any of this stuff remotely appealing or cool.
 
I want them to release more accessible creative application like AR version of logic pro for creatives to be able to make great experiences for this. Reality composer is like an early beta software for me and has gone nowhere for years, so I stopped using it.

I expect a hardware and software announcement this June with full support for developers and creatives. They need to otherwise its a flop.
 
If you think apple brand is is downfall and self destruction then you’re out of touch with reality. Apple are outselling every brand in Europe they are winning awards in the movie industry and snapping up apps, snapping up software companies , heck they are now bidding for live sports and partnering with sports teams and car companies, their phones are now becoming main players for law enforcement, education is now playing roles with apple and their devices and apple products are selling like hot cakes every day. If you think that’s a company that’s in trouble and struggling then you don’t have a clue. Profits are only as good as your products and how well they sell. Apples profits suggest they are great and doing well. And apple continues to look to re invent itself in new markets, already in talks to allow movies they make come to cinemas, bidding for live sports and re imagined the music industry once again , re invented the headphone space, and now re in venting the health with the watch and fitness industries.
I don't think you people can even read. I never said they were in trouble or struggling. I said that "every day the Cook is at the helm the brand is being destroyed." He is not tech innovator. Apple is no longer a tech innovator.

To use your terms, they have to "re-invent themselves" because they have so many problems today. So sure they run to media, because their public hardware products are over priced and buggy. Media is produced by someone else. No apparent risk.

They have some great hardware internals, but they limit their products to functionality that teenagers want, like focusing on new emoji and ignore bugs and features that could make their software products really great.

Apple's services are bottom tier for people that have experience outside of Apple's ecosystem.

Destroying a brands takes years, if not decades. For a declining brand, the profitability remains until it doesn't. Look at the history of Nokia.
 
I can’t express the disappointment I would have had, if I cared about a 5 pound eyewear.. for an ecosystem not known for gaming at all.
Huh? Who says these thing needs to play video games? These devices won’t become mainstream if they are restricted to games. They have so much more potential than that.
 
I think Apple may just end up building a relatively small number--maybe well under 50,000--to sell mostly to developers to develop apps for the technology. The real headset may not appear until 2024 at a retail price of under $800.
 
So with the potential of A/R, I guess we could expect a lot of people wearing (smart) glasses in the future.

To all the kids who called me "four eyes" in elementary school (before I wore contacts), I say "haha suck it". ;)

Anyone who bullies people for wearing glasses have no taste

Exhibit A:

1680202012356.jpeg


Exhibit B:

800px-Steve_Jobs_Headshot_2010-CROP_%28cropped_2%29.jpg


Exhibit C:

gabe-newell-1670452283581.jpg
 
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This is all super nerdy. Most people aren't interested in simulations, "working out" (lol) with googles strapped to their faces, or chatting with a cartoon instead of just having a normal phone call or Zoom meeting. I don't think the majority of people will ever find any of this stuff remotely appealing or cool.

Another for the list of "things Boomers say about VR"

 
I already can't stand the AirPods Max we brought into the office. They feel so....1997. And they're heavy!
I so disagree. I've worn the Max for up to 3 hours at a time and I hardly even know they are on. Your "heaviness" is a gross exaggeration, which is what MR posters are getting know for. And I have no idea what it is like to feel 1997. Please explain, if you can.
 
I already can't stand the AirPods Max we brought into the office. They feel so....1997. And they're heavy!

Can you imagine what all that would feel like? You would need a neck brace!

I mean...I wear AirPods Max everyday as work headphones for their noise cancelling and transparency mode, rarely taking them off at all.

How weak are you that you think the AirPods Max are heavy lmao?
 
Another for the list of "things Boomers say about VR"

And yet VR remains unpopular among the general public. This might shift in several decades when the "boomers" have all died, but I'm not convinced. I know several kids who were super excited to get an Oculus for Christmas this past year and none of them use it now. They got tired of it in less than a week.

I think VR has too many points of friction to ever become truly mainstream. I also think the experience feels unnatural to most people.
 
And yet VR remains unpopular among the general public. This might shift in several decades when the "boomers" have all died, but I'm not convinced. I know several kids who were super excited to get an Oculus for Christmas this past year and none of them use it now. They got tired of it in less than a week.

I think VR has too many points of friction to ever become truly mainstream. I also think the experience feels unnatural to most people.

The issue VR has is a lack of content as there hasn't been a single major game release at all last year, combined with Zuckerberg still pushing that metaverse buzzword. When new big VR apps and games release, a surge of new VR users follow. Case in point: Half Life Alyx's launch. HL:A has and still does introduce so many new users to VR. Many bought VR headsets just to play it. Same thing happened in late 2021 when Resident Evil 4 got a VR port to the Quest 2.

See, Zuckerberg isn't following what John Carmack said to do. To evolve VR they needed to make an affordable standalone headset that could be used with a PC and build an audience with it using great experiences that make them want to keep coming back. Then once an audience is there, iterate on that headset to improve the technology and graphical fidelity so better and better experiences can be made, which then attracts even more new users looking from the outside. Instead Zuckerberg watched Ready Player One and was like "yep, this is what we need to do."
 
And yet VR remains unpopular among the general public. This might shift in several decades when the "boomers" have all died, but I'm not convinced. I know several kids who were super excited to get an Oculus for Christmas this past year and none of them use it now. They got tired of it in less than a week.

I think VR has too many points of friction to ever become truly mainstream. I also think the experience feels unnatural to most people.

The good news is: Apple is not developing a VR-centric device.

I have no idea why people are still clinging to that belief, other than it gives people an easy opening to criticize Apple.
 
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This is all super nerdy. Most people aren't interested in simulations, "working out" (lol) with googles strapped to their faces, or chatting with a cartoon instead of just having a normal phone call or Zoom meeting. I don't think the majority of people will ever find any of this stuff remotely appealing or cool.
Everything is super nerdy early on to be fair.

Remember when even Apple's own PC products used to require you to type into a command line terminal and outright required months of programming knowledge to get much use out of it?

Did the majority of people ever find any of that remotely appealing or cool? Eventually yes. Well, okay not the 'majority' since there are 8 billion people on the planet, but PCs became a massive mass market.
 
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This iteration of this product is never going to be ready.

It needs shelving. If they are convinced the underlying idea is sound, then iterate the next generation prototype.

If not, then ditch it all.

Apple has often talked about being brave enough to cancel or shelve products that aren’t ready.

They need to do it now, because $3,000 nerd goggles ain’t it.
 
How funny kuo states this after they announce the dates for WWDC. So now he can say “see I told y’all it wasn’t gonna be announced” if it doesn’t appear or say “see I first reported it was gonna come out” if it’s announced. No lose situation for him now.
 
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This iteration of this product is never going to be ready.

It needs shelving. If they are convinced the underlying idea is sound, then iterate the next generation prototype.
They need to do it now, because $3,000 nerd goggles ain’t it.
The key problem is we are speculating about an unknown R&D effort. Some specifically think it’s got to be a mixed reality headset, but no one really knows anything. It’s literally the equivalent of all those Apple Car speculating rumors that might lead nowhere. A reasonable assumption is they are researching product feasibility. :D
 
It would certainly be funny if this was an elaborate ruse by Apple to catch leakers within the company.


If it’s an actual product that they hope this is the next big thing, that rumoured price tag better be the only ruse.
 
New Apple product categories are NEVER announced at WWDC. iPhone, iPad, Watch, they all got a dedicated event 6 to 9 months before shipping to preview them to the public. So I don't get the line in the article:
In a tweet, Kuo explained that Apple "isn't very optimistic" about whether the headset will be able to create an "iPhone moment."
If you're not expecting it to have an "iPhone moment" (whatever that is, I recall the original iPhone being panned and sold relatively poorly), that's even MORE of a reason to announce it at WWDC. It signals that this is not really a fully fledged product category yet, but rather a public demo of technology to developers in advance of future devices that might be more consumer friendly.

I think this is all just expectation-setting BS. I suspect they want expectations low so they can knock our socks off. But who knows!
 
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The good news is: Apple is not developing a VR-centric device.

I have no idea why people are still clinging to that belief, other than it gives people an easy opening to criticize Apple.
I didn't realize you were part of the design team! Until the device is released, none of us knows what they are developing. Furthermore, all rumors point to them developing a device that will have both VR and AR functionality.

If the rumors are true, the headset will allow pass-through video for AR applications, which means when there's no pass-through, it's a VR device. You can keep splitting AR/VR hairs all you want, but the device's form-factor sounds like it will very much look and feel like a VR device.

Either way, it's likely to be a bulky headset with an external battery pack. This has been tried before and the market remains decidedly uninterested, even at much lower price points than the rumored Apple price point. I'm still waiting for an AR/VR fan to enlighten me about the technology's "killer app". Still waiting.
 
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Everything is super nerdy early on to be fair.

Remember when even Apple's own PC products used to require you to type into a command line terminal and outright required months of programming knowledge to get much use out of it?

Did the majority of people ever find any of that remotely appealing or cool? Eventually yes. Well, okay not the 'majority' since there are 8 billion people on the planet, but PCs became a massive mass market.
It's not about whether people found the PC cool or not. I'd argue that PCs never became "cool". They became useful. Back in the command line terminal days the PC served no purpose for the "average" user.

That's the issue with AR/VR. What's the utility? Why does anyone need it? AR/VR fans are constantly tossing out these weird edge case uses for AR and VR on threads like this, but none of them are mass-market ideas. We've had AR and VR hardware on the market for many years now, yet the entire category remains extremely niche.

I'm not saying AR and VR are useless, but if Apple (or anyone else) wants people to spend thousands of dollars on a device, it has to serve more of a purpose than animoji video conferencing and consuming media. The average person isn't going to see the value in that.
 
The issue VR has is a lack of content as there hasn't been a single major game release at all last year, combined with Zuckerberg still pushing that metaverse buzzword. When new big VR apps and games release, a surge of new VR users follow. Case in point: Half Life Alyx's launch. HL:A has and still does introduce so many new users to VR. Many bought VR headsets just to play it. Same thing happened in late 2021 when Resident Evil 4 got a VR port to the Quest 2.

See, Zuckerberg isn't following what John Carmack said to do. To evolve VR they needed to make an affordable standalone headset that could be used with a PC and build an audience with it using great experiences that make them want to keep coming back. Then once an audience is there, iterate on that headset to improve the technology and graphical fidelity so better and better experiences can be made, which then attracts even more new users looking from the outside. Instead Zuckerberg watched Ready Player One and was like "yep, this is what we need to do."
Most people don't play games. I get the gaming aspect of VR, but Apple is not a gaming company. They are a consumer electronics company that targets a broad audience. Whatever device they release will not be a gaming device. It will be aimed at a mass market audience and, thus, must have utility beyond gaming.
 
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