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Apple Technology

Apple's AR Headset Coming Next Year With 'Mac-level' Power, Report Says (theverge.com) 63

Apple's first AR headset will be released in the fourth quarter of 2022, according to a research note from analyst Ming-chi Kuo. The Verge: Kuo predicted back in March that the headset would be released sometime next year, and is now also providing more technical information on the device. The headset will have two processors, according to Kuo, one with "the same level of computing power as M1" and one lower-end chip to handle input from the various sensors. For example, Kuo says that the headset has "at least 6-8 optical modules to simultaneously provide continuous video see-through AR services." The headset is also said to have two 4K OLED microdisplays from Sony. Kuo cites the headset's "Mac-level (PC-level) computing power," its ability to be operated untethered, and its wide range of applications as factors that will differentiate it from competitors. Various reports on the device have disagreed as to whether it will be wholly independent or rely on an iPhone or a separate processor box to stream content.
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Apple's AR Headset Coming Next Year With 'Mac-level' Power, Report Says

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  • I am sure this will be an awesome product.

    Will it be affordable?
  • > Kuo predicted back in March that the headset would be released sometime next year ...and that the latest Apple Watch would have glucose monitoring. And lots of other fabulously wrong predictions. Why does anyone post this guy anymore?

  • Gross.
    But sadly Apple is probably the only company that can pull this off without repeating the whole glasshole stigma.
    • Gross.

      But sadly Apple is probably the only company that can pull this off without repeating the whole glasshole stigma.

      But luckily, Apple is probably the only company that can pull this off without repeating the whole glasshole stigma.

      FTFY.

  • What I think Apple should do here, and probably has to do anyway due to hardware constraints, is to avoid trying to look like regular sunglasses.

    It's not going to look regular, so Apple may as well go a bit bold with the design, to make it very clear these are not normal glasses.

    What I'm really curious about is if the whole device will sit on your head, or if some part of it will somehow be carried elsewhere, maybe even over a shoulder or two.

    I think AR has a lot of existing potential so I look forward to s

    • What I think Apple should do here, and probably has to do anyway due to hardware constraints, is to avoid trying to look like regular sunglasses.

      It's not going to look regular, so Apple may as well go a bit bold with the design, to make it very clear these are not normal glasses.

      What I'm really curious about is if the whole device will sit on your head, or if some part of it will somehow be carried elsewhere, maybe even over a shoulder or two.

      I think AR has a lot of existing potential so I look forward to seeing what they are cooking up! I normally go to WWDC anyway (when they have it) but this being being announced might be a reason to go and check it out in person.

      Since Apple is in control of the entire stack, both hardware and software, I would suspect this will be an Application-Specific SoC, not just a repurposed Ax or Mx-series chip.

      And it will rock.

  • I wonder if you have to pay Apple more than the price of the whole thing to replace the iBalls.

  • If this is correct, it won't really by an AR headset along the lines of HoloLens: a transparent display that lets you directly see the world, but projects things on top of it. Instead it will be a standard VR headset that completely blocks your view. It will rely on cameras to feed images of the outside world to the displays. You can already do that with lots of VR headsets. It probably won't provide as satisfying an AR experience, but it's also probably an easier and cheaper technology to implement.

    If

    • It probably won't provide as satisfying an AR experience

      I agree with what you are saying about what they are probably doing, but why do you think the AR experience would not be "as satisfying"?

      Since Apple has a ton of camera expertise at this point, if it's totally came based I'm thinking the quality of the external view would be really good, given the Oculus Quest 2 is already OK

      Also way more advanced cameras would probably mean the real world tracking, modeling, and presentation would be better than most

      • 4K per eye is pretty good resolution as VR headsets go, but it's less than the resolution of the human eye. Your view of the real world will be less sharp. I also worry about the effect of the cameras not being at exactly the same location as your eyes. You'll see the world as if your eyes were in slightly different places, which could impact the experience. It will also change the experience of interacting with other people. HoloLens looks like a fancy set of sunglasses. You might get surprised looks

  • Sorry, 4K per eye isn't revolutionary enough to be game changing -- even if they greatly reduce the gap between pixels and use a diffusing sheet. OLED is great though (if it isn't the cheap kind that gets burn in.) I thought they were going to do 8K per eye using microLED technology and foveated rendering so the GPU could handle it .. THAT would have been a game changing paradigm shift.

    • Progress with MicroLED technology has really stalled lately. So far, I haven't seen a single 4K MicroLED display smaller than 100 inches diagonally. Samsung has been one of the biggest proponents of MicroLED and even they have resorted to putting a bunch of stop-gap technologies in their road map because of the challenges with shrinking inorganic LEDs. It's a shame because it has many advantages over OLED, especially its peak brightness and lack of burn-in, but it will probably be at least a decade befor
  • OK, so you have a headset with an M1 in it, presumably somewhere on your face. I'd imagine that gets uncomfortable quickly. Even an entry level iPad gets pretty uncomfortable when playing an intensive game and it much larger and much lower powered. Assuming a design like an occulus, dimensions-wise, wouldn't that be like putting MacBook, which requires active cooling fans, into an iPhone form factor.

    Also, wouldn't the batteries get pretty heavy?

    I guess sooner or later, we will find out, but now I a
    • OK, so you have a headset with an M1 in it, presumably somewhere on your face. I'd imagine that gets uncomfortable quickly. Even an entry level iPad gets pretty uncomfortable when playing an intensive game and it much larger and much lower powered. Assuming a design like an occulus, dimensions-wise, wouldn't that be like putting MacBook, which requires active cooling fans, into an iPhone form factor.

      Also, wouldn't the batteries get pretty heavy?

      I guess sooner or later, we will find out, but now I am more nervous than excited.

      I think an AR processing load will be significantly-lower than a VR processing load. Plus, Apple will sure to be including one or more task-specific subsystems to take much of the load off of the CPU.

      You do realize, for example, that an M1 Max MBP outperforms a Xeon Based 2019 Mac Pro with an Afterburner Card at encoding and decoding several video formats. It also outperforms that same Xeon at single-core compute-tasks.

      So yeah, I think Apple can pull this off, if anyone can.

      • You do realize, for example, that an M1 Max MBP outperforms a Xeon Based 2019 Mac Pro with an Afterburner Card at encoding and decoding several video formats. It also outperforms that same Xeon at single-core compute-tasks.

        So yeah, I think Apple can pull this off, if anyone can.

        I'm not questioning the performance, I am questioning the physics, specifically the weight of the battery and the amount of heat an M1 would produce. I am imagining an M1...say an iPad pro, but shrunk down to an iPhone shape...all that heat, only at less than 1/6 of the surface area.

        I am also imagining a laptop or iPad-grade battery. I am now imagining wearing those.

        If the rumor is true and this thing needs a muscular M1 processor, it would be reasonable to assume it needs a decent-sized battery an

        • You do realize, for example, that an M1 Max MBP outperforms a Xeon Based 2019 Mac Pro with an Afterburner Card at encoding and decoding several video formats. It also outperforms that same Xeon at single-core compute-tasks.

          So yeah, I think Apple can pull this off, if anyone can.

          I'm not questioning the performance, I am questioning the physics, specifically the weight of the battery and the amount of heat an M1 would produce. I am imagining an M1...say an iPad pro, but shrunk down to an iPhone shape...all that heat, only at less than 1/6 of the surface area.

          I am also imagining a laptop or iPad-grade battery. I am now imagining wearing those.

          If the rumor is true and this thing needs a muscular M1 processor, it would be reasonable to assume it needs a decent-sized battery and will produce a lot of heat. Of course, time will tell.

          You keep making this a CPU-intensive task. I submit Apple will make their AR goggles work smarter, not harder.

          Therefore, we have no idea what size battery will be needed.

  • Apple is just copying others now. What revolutionary product would Jobs have developed in the last 10 years that we are missing out on?
  • Like the watch this will be crippled in such a way that you still need an iPhone and like the iPad it will be crippled in such a way that you still need a MacBook. Then a year later they will introduce the Pro version with some fancy feature that ultimately won't be aimed at pros and still require and iPhone and MacBook.

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