Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
The MacRumors Show: Product Designer Marcus Kane Envisions What Apple's AR/VR Headset Could Look Like
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
It's an Apple design, it can't be ergonomic like that. There must be a weird iconic shape completely ignoring the form of a human head. Some kind of rounded rectangle. Take a Magic Mouse and hold it right in front of your eyes − that's your Apple Headset.
Last edited:
If we get Doc Brown’s glasses it’s an instant buy.
Is it just me, or does anyone else care less about this device?
I tried watching the whole interview, but sadly the audio quality of the designer’s microphone was throughly abysmal. I know that sometimes tech doesn’t work, but it just made it uncomfortable.
As to the utility or usefulness of any augmented reality technology… except for measuring things, I’ve not even played with it much on my phones. I honestly don’t see much use for it outside special needs applications (pilots, doctors, onsite engineers, etc).
The idea of someone looking at me and via face recognition or something them pulling up all my social media posts is pretty nightmarish. I mean, you know that’s what kind of apps are going to be made - things to further commodify humans. Just imagine walking into a store and an associate seeing your purchase history while they steer you towards the kinds of things you’re predictably going to buy. That’s where this stuff is going to go. If I can imagine it, so can anyone else. Welcome to your dystopian world.
As to the utility or usefulness of any augmented reality technology… except for measuring things, I’ve not even played with it much on my phones. I honestly don’t see much use for it outside special needs applications (pilots, doctors, onsite engineers, etc).
The idea of someone looking at me and via face recognition or something them pulling up all my social media posts is pretty nightmarish. I mean, you know that’s what kind of apps are going to be made - things to further commodify humans. Just imagine walking into a store and an associate seeing your purchase history while they steer you towards the kinds of things you’re predictably going to buy. That’s where this stuff is going to go. If I can imagine it, so can anyone else. Welcome to your dystopian world.
I can’t even relate to people who aren’t interested in VR. It’s so much fun. I just bought a quest 2 over christmas and I still used It every day for workouts and gaming and it’s a nice break from reality. I wish I had bought one during lockdown.
It's not like every AR/VR thread isn't hounded with skeptics or boomer arguments that go on a tangent like "people don't like wearing masks during covid, that means Apple will fail" or "how can I see my coffee mug wearing these?!".
Saw this type of AR/VR at a tech expo receby. Battery clips on your pocket and you can run through anything from first aid courses to firefighting to RPG reloading. Flip a lever and it goes VR. This looked more like traditional glasses with sensors and camera in the middle, cameras facing the sides like on car mirrors, and eye tracking. Was pretty cool.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m no Luddite. I worked for or with Apple for about 20 years (in varying capacities). I’ve got all the Apple stuff, phones, AirPods, Macs, iPads, even a 20th Anniversary Mac and a few older Macs lying around. There’s a Newton or two in the house packed away as well. I’m no newbie to Apple and their tech.
And I’ve played with VR headsets at friends homes. They’re really cool and great for some games and such, if you have the space in your home. I wish I did in mine, but I live in an older neighborhood and have underfoot cats, so not a great place for VR.
But daily use AR things? Absolutely nightmarish in what they’ll be used for. Cyberpunk is a great fiction, but it is is a hellscape not meant to be aspired to. I’ll stick to reading, watching, and RPGing cyberpunk rather than actually living that horror. No thank you.
And I’ve played with VR headsets at friends homes. They’re really cool and great for some games and such, if you have the space in your home. I wish I did in mine, but I live in an older neighborhood and have underfoot cats, so not a great place for VR.
But daily use AR things? Absolutely nightmarish in what they’ll be used for. Cyberpunk is a great fiction, but it is is a hellscape not meant to be aspired to. I’ll stick to reading, watching, and RPGing cyberpunk rather than actually living that horror. No thank you.
With the current state of the tech, I just don’t think that the current target is a device that you would were when going outside a home or office. You are not going to walk down the street with this thing on your head trying to navigate around objects in the real world. That’s going to take a few more generations of tech to get to.
Blackberry was doing alright until iPhone spoiled it for them.
This is different. Every single VR/AR manufacturer is experiencing lack of interest. No one is “doing alright”. Maybe it’s time to just accept that this ain’t it, chief. Apple is probably the last hope for this tech. If they can’t make it mainstream, no one can’t.
Ah, but what it actually is is Plato's allegory of the cave, just shaped like ski goggles and a purse.
Big nope. Too clunky. Also, the first Apple Watch is a great example of why you should almost never buy a 1st-gen Apple product since Steve’s passing. It didn’t live up to the hype — and didn’t even have a number of the features listed at the announcement — but by the 2nd or 3rd generation, it had become pretty good. Also, look at how buggy iOS has been. It doesn’t help that Tim keeps forcing hardware and software updates with new features before the existing hardware’s potential has even been fully realized and the current software version’s bugs have been fixed.
I have been a bit happier now that I’m upgrading hardware less frequently, buying one or two gens back when I do, and waiting to upgrade to major iOS/iPadOS versions once they’re around x.4 or x.5 (which is typically shortly before the next major version is released).
I have been a bit happier now that I’m upgrading hardware less frequently, buying one or two gens back when I do, and waiting to upgrade to major iOS/iPadOS versions once they’re around x.4 or x.5 (which is typically shortly before the next major version is released).
I know most will disagree for obvious reasons, but I felt that Facebook DID have the right idea.
Build the Quest headset for a very good low, and affordable price, worked on improving the user experience, built up the software library and then moved forward.
Then the messed up, hiking the price by $100 and not updating it STILL...
They could have handled this vastly better I feel.
Keep improving the hardware, bit by bit, like mobile phones are, keeping the cost as low as possible, creating excitement each year/18 months and ramp things up over time.
Apple could have created the Quest, and taken the whole market if they did this (of course they won't as it will be too expensive and the software is going to be dubious)
It's like everyone is stabbing in the dark with hardware and software.
Buyers are jumping between brands as there is no logical path (apart from Sony and their devices)
I suppose the Quest 3 is going to be perhaps a make or break, as it needs to be considerably better without much more expensive.
Personally I'm very tempted to go with a Pico4 but am worried about the software experience which I know Meta has developed much further.
Build the Quest headset for a very good low, and affordable price, worked on improving the user experience, built up the software library and then moved forward.
Then the messed up, hiking the price by $100 and not updating it STILL...
They could have handled this vastly better I feel.
Keep improving the hardware, bit by bit, like mobile phones are, keeping the cost as low as possible, creating excitement each year/18 months and ramp things up over time.
Apple could have created the Quest, and taken the whole market if they did this (of course they won't as it will be too expensive and the software is going to be dubious)
It's like everyone is stabbing in the dark with hardware and software.
Buyers are jumping between brands as there is no logical path (apart from Sony and their devices)
I suppose the Quest 3 is going to be perhaps a make or break, as it needs to be considerably better without much more expensive.
Personally I'm very tempted to go with a Pico4 but am worried about the software experience which I know Meta has developed much further.
The original iPhone was what $499 I believe (edit: $499 4gb, $599 8gb)? They did an incredible job for that $499, but of course the iPhone only continued to improve. For the rumored $2-3k their headset will release for I don't know how much room there is to make it affordable at scale. It may be enough of a hit to sell for $2-3k, certainly Apple has hardware that sells for that kind of money, but will people really pay $2-3k to wear ski goggles and carry a battery around? Personally I don't think so, that's why I think it's more for industrial applications.
It's not that I'm not thinking about how AR/VR goggles *might* look in the future with miniaturization and technology, it's because I'm envisioning them how they will look in 2 months when (maybe) they are announced, and probably for the next 5+ years (unless you think they have some secret technology that all the other AR/VR makers are not aware of or haven't invented yet). Consider this, even if someone got AR/VR goggles to be as small as a regular pair of glasses there would still be significant hurdles for many consumers. Pie in the sky IMO are contacts, yes there is a company which already developed something like this but it's still really early stages and I shudder to think of the cost.
Finally I don't think the ecosystem is there, and changing that will take a long time. Look at Maps, it took years to really change the paradigm from viewing maps on your Garmin device to navigating full 3-dimensional structures and locations on your smartphone and having turn by turn directions on your watch, and it's still a work in progress. Things like simply overlaying a restaurant's menu onto your AR display are going to take a lot of time to get right, and even then it will take that much longer to make sure everyone's information is listed. Finally you have the thorny issue of privacy which still has to be tackled.
Again, I'm not crapping on the entire idea, I think AR/VR is most definitely the future, I just don't think it's June 2023 and looking like ski goggles with a dainty leatherette man bag.
I don't understand the fixation on the goggle look.🤮 A helmet would be so much more comfortable to wear, can house the battery pack. No purse/messenger bag/satchel needed. And helmets--with flip down visors--looks so much better than goggles.
Yeah, no one is wearing those Vive Flows outside any time soon. I could see a case for them if someone is on a plane or train, and of course I don't disagree that it's a viable solution for stuff at work/home to some degree, especially if you need to see things in 3-dimensions and real time. I've said it before, I think Tim Cook has been totally steadfast in his support for their AR/VR product so I'm expecting him to unveil something new that is thinking outside the box. Keep in mind that my comments you are reacting to are not necessarily negative on what Apple *might* release this year, it's more based on the concept and pictures that are seen in this thread.