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Apple Technology

New Report Says Apple's AR Headset Will Have Wi-Fi 6E, Arrive in 2022 (cnet.com) 40

Apple's long-rumored AR-VR headset may be arriving next year. According to a new report from notable analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, the iPhone-maker is aiming to put Wi-Fi 6 and 6E support into the device, which could arrive at some point towards the end of 2022. From a report: In a note to investors, spotted by MacRumors, Kuo writes that Meta (formerly Facebook), Sony and Apple will all have new virtual reality or augmented reality headsets of some kind next year, which will support the latest Wi-Fi standards. He expects that Meta's product will launch in the second half of the year, Apple's in the fourth quarter of 2022 and Sony's sometime in the second quarter. Last week during its Facebook Connect event Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg teased a new, higher-end headset dubbed Project Cambria that the company says will arrive next year. Sony, meanwhile, has been teasing a successor to its PlayStation VR headset that is designed for the PlayStation 5. It too is aiming to launch its VR product in 2022. Kuo writes that using Wi-Fi 6 or Wi-Fi 6E will be a "basic requirement for head-mounted displays to improve the wireless experience," adding that "Wi-Fi 6 is significantly better than Wi-Fi 5 in transmission speed and power consumption."
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New Report Says Apple's AR Headset Will Have Wi-Fi 6E, Arrive in 2022

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  • by phantomfive ( 622387 ) on Monday November 01, 2021 @02:48PM (#61948223) Journal

    I feel like Apple has been taking about AR for 6 years now. That is a long time for them to be talking about something without releasing a product (usually they don't talk about a product until they are about to release it).

    • c o d m w.
      if i can not use this device to play my console game.
      then what would be my motovation

      • c o d m w.
        if i can not use this device to play my console game.
        then what would be my motovation

        Who cares what your motivation is, or isn't?

        Plenty of non-gaming uses. Plenty.

        • Any non-gaming use of interest is generally expensive to implement.

          Gaming is what brought PCs to the masses. It's the only thing that will bring VR to the masses, too.

          • Any non-gaming use of interest is generally expensive to implement.

            Gaming is what brought PCs to the masses. It's the only thing that will bring VR to the masses, too.

            Apple has a history of creating new markets.

            • Apple has a history of creating new markets.

              When? Where? I've only ever seen them exploit a market someone else created. Sometimes it was with a better product, so credit where credit was due, but they've never created a market that I can recall.

              • Apple has a history of creating new markets.

                When? Where? I've only ever seen them exploit a market someone else created. Sometimes it was with a better product, so credit where credit was due, but they've never created a market that I can recall.

                Let's just start with Desktop Publishing. Being able to create camera-ready publications simply didn't exist before the Mac, AppleTalk (with Apple's zeroconf Networking still used as Bonjour) and the LaserWriter brought it all together. Simply didn't exist before Apple.

                The Lisa had the first integrated Office Software, I believe (Lisa 7/7). Years before MS Office.

                Singlehandedly changed the music download market, by both building the first usable digital music player, and coupling it with an online store and

    • by fazig ( 2909523 )
      I do believe that Apple can pull something like this off with their powerful mobile processors, which are going to be required to process stuff in real time with low input latencies and at high frame rates. But Facebook?

      Facebook's philosophy has mostly been to provide some kind of SaaS that's hosted on remote servers. But with all the latencies involved you can't create a proper VR or even AR experience. You'll need some serious local processing power for that.
      • You do know that Meta owns Oculus, right? Their current headsets run on midgrade Snapdragon CPUs.

        • by fazig ( 2909523 )
          And they're pretty bad if not combined with powerful enough processing hardware like from a gaming PC or a gaming console.
          • And they're pretty bad.

            FTFY.

            • by fazig ( 2909523 )
              No objection.

              Though to be perfectly honest, these can be nice gadgets for tech enthusiasts. But for a wider audience they're still way too unwieldy.
              Now can I hate Apple for a lot of things, but one thing I can't blame them for is pushing awfully unrefined technology onto the public.
              Yes, it'll most likely be overly expensive in the price they're asking for, but if someone comes up with some user-friendliness and more widely applicable functionality it's probably Apple. Then others can take some pointers.
              • No objection.

                Though to be perfectly honest, these can be nice gadgets for tech enthusiasts. But for a wider audience they're still way too unwieldy.

                Now can I hate Apple for a lot of things, but one thing I can't blame them for is pushing awfully unrefined technology onto the public.

                Yes, it'll most likely be overly expensive in the price they're asking for, but if someone comes up with some user-friendliness and more widely applicable functionality it's probably Apple. Then others can take some pointers.

                No objection to this, either! ;-)

              • I can't blame them for is pushing awfully unrefined technology onto the public.

                Siri? Apple Maps? Sure, they might be fine now but they did not start out that way.

                if someone comes up with some user-friendliness and more widely applicable functionality it's probably Apple. Then others can take some pointers.

                At least they would not tether their device to an expensive gaming PC. We don't need top-end games for widespread adoption. We need something the average person might actually want. They already have an app store of their own and MFi Controllers. They'd probably have no trouble convincing developers to port existing iOS games over to something engaging in VR. All in all, even an expensive device will be more accessible

        • High-end Snapdragons actually. But yeah they're still mobile CPUs, so pretty limited.

          They problem is that they're running at the equivalent of 4K, and that's only recently become reasonable for a full desktop, and only if the GPU is above mid-range. IMO picture quality and view angles won't really start to be "excellent" until we hit 8k.

          This is probably the reason Apple is taking so long: to get something up to Steve-Jobs-quality, the technology just doesn't exist yet.

          • IMO picture quality and view angles won't really start to be "excellent" until we hit 8k.

            I think that with some better eye tracking and higher frame rates, we won't need 8K. It's really only the center of the field of view that has that level of visual acuity. In fact, I think the outer edges of the field of view could be fine with less than VHS quality.

        • You mean Meta Quest - https://gizmodo.com/facebook-i... [gizmodo.com]
          • I meant to say owns the Oculus line of products, but neglected to think of it as a subsidiary name. For now, the products are still Oculus.

    • I feel like Apple has been taking about AR for 6 years now. That is a long time for them to be talking about something without releasing a product

      I feel like you've not been paying attention to what Apple has been doing.

      For literally years now, Apple has released AR products and software - it's called the iPhone and the iPad.

      ARKit was released with iOS 11!! They are now on iOS 15.

      Last year's iPhone was released with enhanced LIDAR sensors to be able to better measure the environment around the phone, but e

      • I feel like Apple has been taking about AR for 6 years now. That is a long time for them to be talking about something without releasing a product

        I feel like you've not been paying attention to what Apple has been doing.

        For literally years now, Apple has released AR products and software - it's called the iPhone and the iPad.

        ARKit was released with iOS 11!! They are now on iOS 15.

        Last year's iPhone was released with enhanced LIDAR sensors to be able to better measure the environment around the phone, but even without that the cameras alone do a pretty good job of letting you overlay properly scaled AR content on the camera view, which works in real apps you can download today.

        The only thing Apple has not released is a headset, but that hardly matters when all of the tech that makes a headset decent (screen, sensors, software SDK) has been released already.

        Two questions:

        1. Do you think this will rely on additional processing power from an iPhone/iPad/Mac, or will it be totally standalone?

        2. Do you think it will be Apple ecosystem only?

        • 1. Do you think this will rely on additional processing power from an iPhone/iPad/Mac, or will it be totally standalone?

          It will be standalone but require an iPhone for connectivity/updates (not processing). (My guess only, they could do standalone I just don't think they will at first).

          2. Do you think it will be Apple ecosystem only?

          Apple only, Apple Arcade will be extended with titles to work on it at launch, and there will also be a number of productivity apps at launch as well (like translation). (Again

          • 1. Do you think this will rely on additional processing power from an iPhone/iPad/Mac, or will it be totally standalone?

            It will be standalone but require an iPhone for connectivity/updates (not processing). (My guess only, they could do standalone I just don't think they will at first).

            2. Do you think it will be Apple ecosystem only?

            Apple only, Apple Arcade will be extended with titles to work on it at launch, and there will also be a number of productivity apps at launch as well (like translation). (Again a guess).

            Not sure that it matters though since obviously a lot of VR games that exist would be ported to run on it. I mean, what would you even consider the answer of "not Apple ecosystem only" to even mean? It's obviously going to be a new platform, and why wouldn't that use the same App Store the other devices do today?

            I don't think those questions are very hard to get right though, what I more wonder about is control. Will there be any external controls? Will it just use hand detection? That's my guess but I'm not nearly as sure about that as the other things. If there is only hand detection it might rule out some game ports, or require control rework.

            1. That would be my guess, too. Wonder what battery-life they are shooting-for? I assume the batteries will be in the back, like those strap-on headlamps.

            2. If this is AR, how do you deal with "reality" polluting the intended VR image? I also figure it will use skeletal detection; but doesn't Microsoft still own all those patents?

            • 1. That would be my guess, too. Wonder what battery-life they are shooting-for?

              That probably depends on how they see people using the devices - if it's meant to be used all day, then probably targeting an 8 hour battery life at least. If just for specific tasks then maybe 3-4 hours.

              2. If this is AR, how do you deal with "reality" polluting the intended VR image?

              With the Oculus Quest that's not really an issue, when you are in setup mode to define the play area you see the surrounds with a grid overlay. W

              • 1. That would be my guess, too. Wonder what battery-life they are shooting-for?

                That probably depends on how they see people using the devices - if it's meant to be used all day, then probably targeting an 8 hour battery life at least. If just for specific tasks then maybe 3-4 hours.

                2. If this is AR, how do you deal with "reality" polluting the intended VR image?

                With the Oculus Quest that's not really an issue, when you are in setup mode to define the play area you see the surrounds with a grid overlay. When anything actually starts it totally overrides what you see, unless you get to the edge of the play area in which case it turns translucent so you can see your surroundings.

                So whatever Apple does I think it will be able to totally occlude the real world to act as VR glasses also, even if the tech they use is more an LCD "glass" you can see through until pixels are turned on to overlay the world around you.

                I also figure it will use skeletal detection; but doesn't Microsoft still own all those patents?

                That is a great point in regards to hand detection, maybe Apple plans to license some of those patents as I think Microsoft seems to have done a pretty good job with that stuff. Or maybe Apple has come up with a distinct approach that also works.

                I think they would want about 8 hours. Apple has been on a "more battery life" engineering-target for at least a year or more.

                I guess you're right. All you have to do is display a black or grey 0% transparency background, and now AR becomes VR!

                Sad thing is, those guys offered the stuff that became Kinex (or whatever it's called) to Apple first, and they turned it down. Oops!

    • I feel like Apple has been taking about AR for 6 years now. That is a long time for them to be talking about something without releasing a product (usually they don't talk about a product until they are about to release it).

      Um, ever hear of the Apple Car?

    • I feel like Apple has been taking about AR for 6 years now. That is a long time for them to be talking about something without releasing a product (usually they don't talk about a product until they are about to release it).

      I'm sure they have been looking into it for at least as long as they've been doing the apple watch project. It's a pretty logical next step if you decide that wearables are a thing.

      I think the biggest problem though is what the use case is. I remember when Apple Watch was released they tried to really down play the most obvious use case (activity tracking/sports) and drum up the idea this was about productivity/fashion/lifestyle. But among the people I know with Apple Watches these days it is almost exclusi

  • by Sebby ( 238625 ) on Monday November 01, 2021 @02:50PM (#61948247)

    Last week during its Facebook Connect event Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg teased a new, higher-end headset dubbed Project Cambria...

    Sound like mash of "Cambridge Analytica".

  • by backslashdot ( 95548 ) on Monday November 01, 2021 @04:45PM (#61948739)

    Stop the presses. ** NEWS FLASH ** Apple alert. Apple Alert.
    Apple AR headset to come with Apple logo.
    Apple AR headset confirmed to have a display technology of some kind.
    Apple AR headset confirmed by a Taiwanese citizen to have mass, possibly made up of atoms .. still awaiting confirmation on that.

    Go tell everyone this urgent breaking news. Wake up granma. Let her know. Tell everyone you know! Why are you reading this? Put down the hot pocket. Go do it.

  • Hand me the 802.11 variants it supports and I'll be able to make sense of it. I hate dumbing down.

    When looking it up it seems like 6E means support for 6GHz. On Wikipedia it states that WiFi 6E is 802.11ax with a revision of 2021. So it seems like it's effectively just an addition of more frequencies over the original 802.11ax.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

1 + 1 = 3, for large values of 1.

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