Virtual & Augmented Reality and 3D News - Page 12

If you've been patiently waiting for Apple to make its upcoming Vision Pro AR/VR headset available to buy, you might not have to wait quite as long as we first thought. That's according to an admittedly sketchy report by a Chinese investor news service. That news service, Wall Street Insights, claims that Apple will release the Vision Pro headset to retail on January 27.

What's particularly interesting about that date is that it's a Saturday, a date that Apple has historically not used when releasing new products for sale. However, as MacRumors notes, it's likely that the date might refer to the Chinese Saturday which would in turn make the US release date the 26th - a much more likely Friday.

Little has been officially confirmed in terms of when the Vision Pro headset will go on sale, however. Apple announced the much-rumored device back in June during the company's annual WWDC event but no firm release date was given. All Apple said was what is currently shown on its website - Vision Pro will release in early 2024.

We've seen generations of hand-operated PlayStation controllers, but what about a peripheral designed for your feet? Sony's latest patent is just that.

Sony's latest VR patent (US20230398438) is a little unconventional. It's a controller that gamers can operate with their feet, kind of like some sort of inverse Roll & Rocker from an alternate universe. The device is essentially a big trackball with a housing outfitted by bearings, complete with "inertial measurement units" like an accelerometer or gyroscope.

The document describes the device as a "controller apparatus includes two or more balls having a size sufficient for a human to manipulate with a single foot."

Windows Mixed Reality, which debuted with the Microsoft HoloLens device, was set to be a big thing back in 2017 - with companies like Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP, and Lenovo all set to make devices that would bring mixed reality to Windows 10 and even the Xbox One. Unlike Virtual Reality (or VR), Mixed Reality offers pass-through to blend what you see in the real-world with the virtual.

Early Windows Mixed Reality headsets featured LCDs with a per-eye resolution of 1440 x 1440, a 90 Hz refresh rate, and inside-out tracking. As seen in the video above, the pitch for Windows Mixed Reality was to transform the modern office into this virtual playspace to boost creativity and productivity.

Fast forward to December 2023, and Windows Mixed Reality has been added to the list of deprecated features in Windows. The platform for Mixed Reality apps and games never really took off, so we're not surprised. But this does signal that Microsoft is essentially abandoning VR and Mixed Reality - for now.

When Apple announced the Vision Pro headset back in June of 2023, the company confirmed very few release details. While Apple was quick to share details about what the headset would be capable of, it didn't say when it would go on sale beyond a simple timeframe of early 2024. We also learned that the Vision Pro would cost a whopping $3499 once it did go on sale, but it was never confirmed when that would be. But now, we might finally know when Vision Pro will hit store shelves.

That's after a new Bloomberg report, penned by the well-connected Mark Gurman, shared that Apple is now aiming for a February release window for what is sure to be its biggest release since the Apple Watch debuted in 2014. The Vision Pro enters a whole new category for Apple, as the original Apple Watch did a decade ago, and it's as-yet unclear whether it will be a success.

Gurman says that production of the new headset has been running at its maximum speed for several weeks now, with facilities in China working on getting the headset ready for prime time. The aim is to have headsets ready by the end of January, with sales then beginning the following month - although it isn't yet clear how far through February that launch will come.

In the latest edition of Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman, who pens his own Power On newsletter, the tech journalist explains that Apple has begun Vision Pro training sessions for retail employees.

In the newsletter, Gurman writes that Apple has started scheduling two-day Vision Pro training courses for Apple employees in retail stores. Apple has reportedly flown out at least one employee from every Apple Store in the United States to California, where they will undergo the training and then fly back to their respective stores to train the other staff. The goal behind the training, which is scheduled to take place in January, is to make each Apple employee fully competent in the Vision Pro setup, which is custom for each person.

The training camp will include rigorous hands-on experience with the Vision Pro, with Gurman even writing, "The device needs to be customized for each person, and a poor fitting could ultimately ruin the user's experience. Every step will be carefully orchestrated, including how retail employees approach a customer and how they place the device on a user's head."

The Apple Vision Pro AR/VR headset was announced in June as part of the big annual WWDC event. But it won't go on sale until a vague early 2024 release window and when it does, it'll cost a whopping $3,499. However, plans are reportedly afoot to find a way to slash that price for a future model - and by some margin, too.

It was always to be expected that Apple would seek to find a way to make future Vision Pro models cheaper and now a new report claims that is indeed the case, with a massive 50% price reduction possible as soon as 2025. The company is reportedly already working on a new model with a bill of materials (BOM) that costs half that of the upcoming model, although it remains to be seen whether that saving will be passed on to customers.

DigiTimes reports that there are in fact as many as four new Vision Pro headsets in development, including one that's set to be a direct replacement for the model that is set to arrive next year. However, it isn't clear how many of those will ever see the light of day or if Apple is simply testing multiple configurations ahead of making a final call later in the day.

"I'm the kind of person that likes to take my time during my morning poops," writes Redditor Tall_Whole_5777. Yes, this is that kind of story - albeit through the lens of virtual and mixed reality, thanks to the new Meta Quest 3. In addition to a more impressive display, the latest headset from Meta adds full-color cameras for tracking and Mixed Reality.

In addition to new types of games, Mixed Reality, or MR, is the sort of tech that can project a big or small screen into the world around you. Sit in the comfort of your living room while watching a movie on a cinema-sized screen while still being able to see and interact with your surroundings. You can even head out into the world and order a coffee from an unimpressed coffee shop employee - like this person did.

Or, use the Meta Quest 3 for bathroom-related procedures in what sounds like a surprisingly more sanitary alternative to the usual routine.

When Apple finally took the wraps off of the Vision Pro headset during the WWDC 2023 event on June 5, it had much of what we'd been told to expect by all of the rumors and leaks leading up to it. One of those rumors was of course the infamous hip-mounted battery pack, with Apple seemingly keen to make sure that it didn't overload the wearer's head with too much weight. However, it seems that the company might be planning to get around that problem if a new patent is any indication.

That patent was spotted by the eagle eyes at Patently Apple and appears to make reference to placing the battery fo a headset into its band, rather than the main unit itself. The theory is that Apple would be able to get around the issue of front-loading the weight and making the headset uncomfortable by moving the battery's weight to the back of the head.

This approach also has an added benefit in that it would help to balance out the weight of the main headset component - all of the electronic magic that makes it work, the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth radios, and of course those two displays. The patent itself was filed in Europe and references using an attachable headset mount that could house a battery. The result would of course mean that the Vision Pro would no longer need that external hip-mounted battery that some are so worried about. While the battery will no doubt work as intended, the requirement for a cable running to the battery is a concern for people who want to have the absolute most free ofmovements while wearing the headset.

Apple's Vision Pro headset was announced during the WWDC event on June 5 and at the time the company said that we should expect it to be made available to buy in early 2024. We're still waiting for a more concrete timeframe with which to work and it hasn't been forthcoming. However, a new report appears to suggest that we shouldn't expect the headset to break cover until a little later in the year than some of us had hoped.

Apple's vague early 2024 window does leave plenty of wiggle room of course and it could realistically mean anything in the first six months of the year. Still, some would hope for a release in the first few weeks of 2024 but that now seems unlikely based on a report by the normally well-connected Mark Gurman.

Gurman was writing in the weekly Power On newsletter for Bloomberg when he poured cold water on any hopes for a Vision Pro release in January or February. According to him, we should look towards March instead.

Apple's first-generation Vision Pro was only announced a few months ago, and won't be hitting your eyeballs until 2024... meanwhile, we're hearing about the second-generation Vision Pro 2 headset.

MacRumors is reporting some design changes and hardware upgrades to Apple's next-gen Vision Pro 2, which is codenamed "Project Alaska" and device identifier N109, looks like the original Vision Pro. The same look and style is there, while the button placement is unchanged, the speaker placement is "expected to be different," according to MacRumors' sources.

What changes can we expect? The rear straps are simpler in design and appearance, with the new information suggesting the Apple Vision Pro 2 will have flat straps that we see in laptop bags and backpacks used as the rear straps on the new AR headset. Not only that, but there are references to a "non-descript audio accessory, possibly an external speaker".