Friday, June 2, 2023 11:48 am2 Comments

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Apple’s most significant product launch event in nearly a decade kicks off Monday, when the company will introduce its first major new product category since the Apple Watch in 2015 alongside multiple new Macs and new operating system versions of macOS, iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, tvOS, and the new xrOS to power the “Reality One,” “Reality Pro,” or “XR Pro” (mixed-reality) headset.

Mark Gurman for Bloomberg News:

Apple’s first headset will be an ultra-premium device made of glass, carbon fiber and aluminum. It looks like a high-tech pair of ski goggles, features a new magnetic charger for power, has a curved front with an external screen to show a wearer’s facial expressions and eyes, and several external cameras to enable video pass-through, depth sensing and hand control.

The main use cases will be communication, video consumption, wellness, gaming and productivity. One person who worked on the device called it part “status symbol” and part “future of the computer.”

The product blends augmented and virtual reality. The VR features will be powered by a pair of bright, 4K screens inside the headset, while the AR functionality will be enabled by the video pass-through mode. The headset has a Digital Crown like the Apple Watch for users to toggle between AR and VR. When in VR, the user is fully immersed. When AR is toggled, content and applications fade back slightly and mix with the real environment surrounding the wearer.

The headset will be powered by an M2 chip with 16GB of memory, or RAM, and use an external battery pack that looks like a larger version of the MagSafe Battery Pack for the iPhone. The pack will connect over a wire to the headset. The circular power adapter will attach via magnet and with a clockwise twist to lock it in so it doesn’t fall out during use. The power requirements of the headset mean it will likely only last about two hours per charge.

Users will operate the headset using eye and hand control so they can look at an item to highlight it and then pinch their fingers to select it. It will also have Siri onboard. The headset has an array of microphones as well as speakers mounted near the user’s temples, but it will rely on AirPods for enhanced spatial audio.
The device will cost around $3,000 and Apple isn’t planning to make much money from it. It could be one of the few Apple products to not provide a big margin as Apple doesn’t want to completely price itself out of the market.

MacDailyNews Take: Gurman says that, for eyeglass wearers, “snap-in prescription lens system will play a significant role in the headset’s introduction.”

Gurman also says that, as many have long expected, Apple’s headset will be unveiled during the prerecorded highly produced WWDC keynote on Monday, but it won’t ship for several more months (in time for Christmas?), so early adopters will have time to save up (even if Apple does plan a nice pricing surprise).

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