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Apple Technology

Apple Shows Headset To Board in Sign of Progress on Project (bloomberg.com) 32

Apple executives previewed its upcoming mixed-reality headset to the company's board last week, indicating that development of the device has reached an advanced stage, Bloomberg News reported Thursday, citing people with knowledge of the matter. From the report: The company's board, made up of eight independent directors and Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook, convenes at least four times a year. A version of the device was demonstrated to the directors during the latest gathering, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the meeting was private.

In recent weeks, Apple has also ramped up development of rOS -- short for reality operating system -- the software that will run on the headset, according to other people familiar with the work. That progress, coupled with the board presentation, suggests that the product's debut could potentially come within the next several months. The headset, which combines elements of virtual and augmented reality, is Apple's next big bet.

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Apple Shows Headset To Board in Sign of Progress on Project

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  • ROS robot operating system. Hopefully the trademark filings all fail.

  • by Comboman ( 895500 ) on Thursday May 19, 2022 @02:57PM (#62550198)

    I predict this will be as big a deal as Google Glass or Facebook's Meta or Nintendo's Virtual Boy.

    • Apple has a captive market. That's a big difference. FB probably would have too, but they f*d up their PR quite big. As for Nintendo, they tend to be more evolutionary in their successful products.

      This is besides the fact that Google already alpha-tested the concept for them. Apple would know what to avoid.

    • Meta Quest 2 is a decent product for its price.
    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Anything involving a headset is doomed to fail.

  • Maybe I'm just getting jaded over consumer tech, but I really haven't thought to myself lately "what I really need in my life is more screens." As it is, the only time I bother to wear my Apple Watch is when I'm visiting the theme parks.

    I'm sure some folks are thrilled at the prospect of walking around like a Borg or Terminator with a heads-up display. Call me old fashioned, I just wanna see things that exist in the real world when I look around. Guess that's why we've got that thing called a generation

    • Call me old fashioned, I just wanna see things that exist in the real world when I look around.

      Reality is nothing more than electrical signals interpreted by the wetware in your brain. You can personally never know what is actually real. :-)

      • The Matrix was so good. Too bad they never made any sequels.

        • A similar thing happened with Terminator and Alien. They both got kick-ass sequels and never made any more movies after that.

        • Agreed. Besides by now the actors are too old to reprise the roles, and any smart ones just wouldn't take part in what would surely be a dumpster fire of nonsense.

          Glad that at least some sensible directors still exist that are not complete narcissists, and will draw the line and not try to make their own version of "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull"

    • If they can actually pull it off with realistic fidelity it would be revolutionary. That is, if they can eliminate the screen door effect and enable 75+ pixels per degree. The full moon occupies half a degree in the sky. So a realistic full moon, for example, would be shown with 30 pixels across instead of 8 like on the Quest 2. With foveated rendering it could easily enable photo realistic gaming because they only need to render a few degrees of view at a time.
      Apple has the resources to build a 75 pixels-p

    • by fermion ( 181285 )
      We all now teleconference. It is just that we donâ(TM)t need the specialized equipment that was marketed for that purpose 20 years ago. Really, anything that has been even a bit instructive has failed. Down to 3D glasses in theaters

      The hope for this will be early adopters, meaning teens with cash. The gaming market. I never owned a home console, but the friends that did got them by mowing lawns. Today parents have more expendable income and buy their teens stuff like this. But it canâ(TM)t be $

    • I'm sure some folks are thrilled at the prospect of walking around like a Borg or Terminator with a heads-up display. Call me old fashioned, I just wanna see things that exist in the real world when I look around. Guess that's why we've got that thing called a generation gap.

      It's too soon to judge. You haven't seen the prototype. Everything you've said has been said about the iPhone, iPad, laptops, blackberries, smart watches, gameboys, etc. I am old enough to have heard them all, including on Slashdot many times.

      You could be right. I am not clamoring for this. I don't know how much this will benefit me, but then again, I said that about a smart phone without a keyboard 15 years ago. Like Henry Ford said “If I would have asked people what they wanted, they would

      • I think AR will replace smartphones and tablets. In less than two decades, iPhones and iPads will look like relics at the same level as VCRs, faxes, landlines, etc.

        AR seems stupid right now because most users have tried it through their smartphones. That's looking at AR through a stupidly small window that you need to hold and move with your arm. That's extremely far from a good experience to be able to judge what AR will bring us. Now imagine AR with a good pair of glasses that have the requirements to do

  • I'm actually surprised the board isn't all in on that. The goal is to sell virtual property to Gen M/Z since they can't afford real property. i.e. give them a sense of ownership that's missing from their lives. If you can get them to buy into that you'll make billions minting NFTs and pretend property.

    It's like DLC but without the C. Every game company is chomping at the bit for it, as is Facebook. I'm surprised the Apple board doesn't smell the money.
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • Thing is, unless you can get "Ready Player One" levels of immersiveness (which I guess is a polite way of saying haptics that can realistically simulate sex), it's just Second Life with the monitor strapped to your face. Remember when Slashdot used to allow story tags? "getafirstlife"

      The technology is still a ways off from becoming mainstream, and even that assumes they ever fix the problem of prolonged VR use making some people nauseous (due to what's being visually perceived being out of whack with what

      • Thing is, unless you can get "Ready Player One" levels of immersiveness (which I guess is a polite way of saying haptics that can realistically simulate sex), it's just Second Life with the monitor strapped to your face.

        I recently just has a whole series of thoughts on this subject and most of them are not germane except for this: There is probably an interim level of acceptable sexual functionality that people will pay for short of seeming like the real thing. But there's no reason why it has to come from the same people that deliver the Metaverse, either.

      • I haven't had any lag nausea with the Quest 2. They seem to have that part working well.
        But Meta doesn't attempt immersion at all. On transition to different environments,
        Quest 2 goes black with a loading timeout, then displays a totally new field of view,
        aspect ratio, and self image.

        The view needs to be consistent, continuous, and cohesive, with an active overlay that's always displayed.
        "No Please Wait Screens" should be rule #1. I hope Apple gets that with their product.

        The architects of Second Life under

      • AR is not VR. You can't get sick, because artificial reality is displayed on top of the actual world. That's the beauty of it, you're not closing yourself from the real world, you're bringing the digital world on top of the real world.

    • I think even the younger folks are well aware of the difference between virtual and real properties. A while ago I saw this thread on Reddit which posed the question "If you could have anything you want from Animal Crossing in real life, what would it be?"

      The top voted response was "the house."

  • So, who's going to make the equivalent "No wireless. Less space than a Nomad. Lame." comment when Apple announces their AR/VR headset?

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