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Microsoft's HoloLens Developer Edition Launches March 30 for $3,000

This has a much greater potential than the updated 90's quality VR that oculus, et al, is trying to push. At least it should be less nausea prone.

Until VR can interact with all your senses, AR is the next logical step over the clunky ski mask VR systems.

I'd rather see Apple work on a good AR implementation, than follow the current VR offerings.
 
The video looks pretty cool. I think there could be a lot of potential for this. It seems like a lot of the posters are comparing this to VR solutions like Oculus or even Cardboard. This is not that. This is a computer with a hologram display. Assuming it doesn't have an eye strain issue (big assumption, but it's early) there could be huge ergonomic benefits for nearly every task you perform on a computer. Did I mention it looks cool?
 
rdlink said:
No. I get excited about visiting places in person, and interacting with real people in their real culture.



Nope.
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well then. let's not rain on a third world villager's parade then. i personally get excited when others have opportunities they didn't have before. exciting enough to be interested in a brand new technology that has been written about in science fiction for almost a century. i fail to see how people can be excited about computers enough to frequent MR, but then draw the line right where computers evolve into a new and cutting edge industry. VR combines every medium that exist right now. how could one not be interested in everything they're interested in?
 
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Hololens is truly groundbreaking technology that has the potential to change the world as we experience it by augmented reality (which is not the same as virtual reality where your sight becomes fully digital). Think what it can do, people that talk about "gimmick" should really look at youtube and search for "Hololens Mindcraft" for example... Apple is way back on so many new territories these days, they really need to step up.
 
JPLC said:
Apple working on a VR platform, sure. But why would anyone buy a new expensive gadget when you already have a high-end display in your pocket? And thats why the next iPhone should be 4K. No need for another VR headset made by Apple. Just give us content and the best high res displays for iPhones.
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No need for you but Apple and any hardware maker has a need to sell us dedicated VR headsets. I think the current phones are good enough for "cardboard" viewers but there's more to a good VR headset than the display. Perhaps it can still use the phone's CPU and GPU to push pixels wirelessly or tethered but use custom sensors and optics to justify paying another $350 for an Apple VR headset.
 
downpour said:
The problem is anything that requires the user to wear strange glasses or any other kind of contraption on their head will never last beyond the: "wow I've got to try this new toy" stage... which usually lasts a couple of months at best, before the device becomes a dust collector.
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Heh... this is why I was never a big headphones person, let alone wearable tech in general.



downpour said:
It's good Microsoft are trying out new things, but nobody yet has been able to come up with another true game-changer since multitouch started the smartphone and tablet revolution. The next one will probably be something to do with cheap high-capacity memory, long-lasting battery technology, or long-range wireless power. Hopefully one of these will come along sooner rather than later.
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I doubt device manufacturers will want to roll out long battery life devices. Apple keeps making their devices thinner and thinner when folks are saying they'd like bigger battery life in devices like the Iph6/s. The Samsung Galaxy s6 in the meanwhile did away with the user replaceable part of the battery. They want us to keep buying the stuff as much as possible, and long battery life doesn't encourage that.

Besides, someone has to start the R&D on this stuff. Apple only spends 10% the money there vs. M$ and Google, so we can't really count on them to pioneer anything that'll truly take off.
 
Augmented Reality is essentially just setting your current surroundings as a background to some kind of information or image. The trouble is, it's the information or image that you are really interested in... and that can be displayed perfectly well (and even more efficiently in most cases) on any kind of screen without you having to put on a ridiculous headset.

While there are some practice uses for AR, the impracticality of the setup outweighs the benefits... in virtually all of them.
 
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downpour said:
This device really won't offer anything like the same experience as "visiting anywhere in the world". A more accurate description of its capabilities would be making little 3D characters sort of look like they are sitting on your furniture...

The problem is anything that requires the user to wear strange glasses or any other kind of contraption on their head will never last beyond the: "wow I've got to try this new toy" stage... which usually lasts a couple of months at best, before the device becomes a dust collector.

Sure hardcore geeks will insist on using it a little longer, but even they will get bored eventually.

VR/Augmented reality will probably be reasonably popular on the next generation of games consoles, but I imagine it will suffer the same fate as the Wii and 3D televisions before it.

Expect VR to make another comeback some time in the 2030's when someone figures out how to stream reality directly into your brain, without you having to look an extra from Lawnmower man. ;-)

It's good Microsoft are trying out new things, but nobody yet has been able to come up with another true game-changer since multitouch started the smartphone and tablet revolution. The next one will probably be something to do with cheap high-capacity memory, long-lasting battery technology, or long-range wireless power. Hopefully one of these will come along sooner rather than later.
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a lot of this comment is stuck in This Very Moment. you're even referencing what you look like (to others) when you're wearing one. the last thing on your mind in VR.

have you tried anything beyond Oculus dk2? nearly unanimous accounts from those who wear any of the crescent iteration indicate these are not 'little 3d characters' and the audio spectrum has improved to provide 3D sound (not merely stereo surround sound) - it's far and away a different experience than you can have anywhere else with past technology. the 'defining moment' you allude to with the brain tech will come much sooner in the form of full field of view. that's all they need to surmount to get it to a near perfect experience for us fledgling adopters (even the most cynical among us). oculus has already made a move into the world of touch and hand/apendage representation, the most recent necessity for the experience.

do you think the technology won't continue improving each year like phones and computers do?

my take on VR: racists visiting third world countries they’d never have even considered before. homophobes experimenting with gay sex privately and without consequence. third world villagers becoming familiar with the rest of the world, inspiring ambitious tendencies and loftier goals than held previously.. learning. trying. doing things bravely and comfortably that would have been impossible before.

TV was papyrus and computers were the first tries in moveable type. VR is the Earth-shattering Gutenberg press.
 
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rdlink said:
No. I get excited about visiting places in person, and interacting with real people in their real culture.



Nope.
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Since you draw such a hard line at what excites you, we have to step all the way back and ask what does excite you? Apple? Macs? Computers in general?
 
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Worst functionality ever for a consumer product and at a very aggressive price. But then again, what can one expects from Microsoft? They expect someone to stay in the middle of a room and wave hands as if he hails a Navy ship or something. Only this is not a sci-fi movie and it costs a bucket of $$$
 
teslo said:
you don't see any excitement in being able to visit anywhere in the world from your couch? immersive games/classes/hobbies? the educational implications worldwide for Google cardboard? the latter of which means there's massive potential markets that don't even include us silly westerners and our shoot-em-up proclivities.
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But no matter where you go, there you aren't.
 
Wow the same old comments here expected from MacRumors. You guys just bitter because Microsoft has been wiping the floor with Apple in terms of innovation and excitement lately? Or do you prefer triumphing a rehash of the same tired products over and over again?
 
Immersing users into some kind of action movies actually is a brilliant application.

TallManNY said:
What would you be developing for? As in, who are the projected customers of the hologram programs they want developed? I assume a developer needs to do something simple like X customers will be $Y for my App, resulting in $Z for me and my team.

I'm sure developers will buy this. I mean if I had a tech company I would totally justify dropping $3k to get this to play with. But dropping $3 million to develop a nice App? Hmm, kind of different discussion.
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Hmm, definitely way out on the periphery in terms of MacRumors, but still interesting.

TallManNY said:
What would you be developing for? As in, who are the projected customers of the hologram programs they want developed? I assume a developer needs to do something simple like X customers will be $Y for my App, resulting in $Z for me and my team.

I'm sure developers will buy this. I mean if I had a tech company I would totally justify dropping $3k to get this to play with. But dropping $3 million to develop a nice App? Hmm, kind of different discussion.
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As someone who has engaged in this industry, _that_ is the conversation. It's a horse<> cart sort of question, content brings consumers but funding an enterprise without a consumer base gets you glassy eyed stares from investors. I'm pretty sure we all get that this will be something in this iteration, there's just a lot of static right now.

oneMadRssn said:
I think the issue with VR today is that it is so anti-social. With TV, you experience something with the people sitting next to you, and you can do human things like turn to them, see their facial expressions, through empathy understand what they are feeling, and convey that similar feelings back to them, or discuss what you are seeing in real time. In VR, you are alone, and all your human to human sensory is blocked.
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I did some group VR demos and even those create a certain amount of isolation, though as the gear gets more transparent (lighter/smaller), and the fidelity increases, the interaction will get more organic.
 
Lemon Mac said:
Predictably crummy looking. The bar has been set low enough; this should be easy for Apple to wipe the floor with.
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Wipe the floor with what, sweat absorbent watch bands?
5 years after everybody else is up and running with VR & AR products?
Yeah, right.

cant-innovate-anymore-my-ass.jpg
 
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Another article totally unrelated to anything Apple. I don't know why I even visit this site anymore. Almost every article here is on some other tech site I already see.
 
Sonmi451 said:
Another article totally unrelated to anything Apple. I don't know why I even visit this site anymore. Almost every article here is on some other tech site I already see.
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What else are they going to talk about? A new headphone jack again?

The Samsung threads have thousands and thousands of views. Getting the Apple faithful all hot and bothered is like printing ad revenue for MR.
 
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