Tag Archives: VR Headset

TikTok’s Parent Company ByteDance is launching a Mixed Reality Headset to battle Meta

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Meta has a monopoly on both social media as well as virtual reality headsets, but not for long because TikTok’s parent company ByteDance is coming to the hardware space with its first mixed reality headset too. The creator behind the world’s most popular (and even polarizing) social media app just acquired XR company Pico, and is planning on launching a headset under its newly acquired sub-brand. The Pico 4S (or 4 Ultra in some countries) is an upgraded version of its predecessor, notably with pronounced pass-through cameras on the front of the headset, redesigned controllers, and a pair of wearable wrist-band sensors for non-controller hand tracking. How the Pico 4S ties into ByteDance’s broader approach towards cornering the VR market is unclear, but then again, Spatial Computing was a total rage last year. Does it mean TikTok could turn more immersive? Or maybe ByteDance has other plans…

Designer: ByteDance

One of the most significant changes in the Pico 4S is the inclusion of a stereoscopic pair of cameras at the front. This upgrade is likely to enhance the pass-through experience, allowing for a more immersive and responsive mixed-reality interaction. The cameras are positioned within a slightly revised front glass design, which still retains the familiar look of the Pico 4. The rear-mounted battery, a feature praised for improving weight distribution and comfort during extended use, remains a part of the design. This thoughtful approach to ergonomics, combined with the new camera system, shows ByteDance’s commitment to refining user experience without drastically altering what worked well in the previous model.

Another addition to the Pico 4S is the set of two wrist straps designed to enhance hand tracking. These straps, equipped with sensors, are expected to offer greater flexibility and precision in scenarios where handheld controllers may not be necessary or desirable. The wrist straps, which appear to be detachable, add a new dimension to the device’s versatility. This feature, coupled with the ring-less controllers that closely resemble those of the Pico 4, suggests that the Pico 4S will be well-suited for a wide range of applications, from gaming to more professional mixed reality tasks.

Under the hood, the Pico 4S is rumored to be powered by the Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 chipset, the same processor found in the Meta Quest 3. This is a notable upgrade from the Snapdragon XR2 Gen 1 used in the Pico 4, promising improved performance and efficiency. Paired with 12 GB of RAM, the Pico 4S is expected to handle demanding mixed reality experiences with ease. The display specifications, likely to mirror those of the Pico 4, include dual 2.56-inch 2160 x 2160 LCD screens with a refresh rate of up to 90 Hz. The motorized inter-pupillary distance adjustment, a feature that simplifies customization for individual users, is also expected to make a return, further enhancing the user experience.

Despite these advancements, the overall form factor of the Pico 4S remains compact and lightweight, ensuring that it will continue to be a comfortable device for extended sessions. The inclusion of spatial audio via in-built speakers and the continuation of motorized inter-pupillary distance adjustment are features that contribute to the headset’s user-friendly design. While the Pico 4 initially faced limited availability outside of Europe and East Asia, its positive reception and expanded availability suggest that the Pico 4S may also see a broader release, possibly entering the competitive US market.

The Pico 4S is poised to challenge the Meta Quest 3 (and even the rumored Quest 3s) with its combination of refined design, enhanced technical capabilities, and thoughtful features aimed at improving user comfort and interaction. As the mixed-reality market continues to grow, the competition between these two headsets will likely drive further innovation, ultimately benefiting consumers looking for more immersive and accessible mixed-reality experiences.

Images via OnLeaks & AndroidHeadline

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Every Single Sensor inside the Apple Vision Pro and What It’s Individually Designed To Do

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For a $3,499 USD device that’s designed to replace your phone, laptop, watch, tablet, television, and even your mouse, you bet that Apple’s Vision Pro is absolutely crammed with sensors that track you, your movements, eyesight, gestures, voice commands, and your position in space. As per Apple’s own announcement, the Vision Pro has as many as 14 cameras on the inside and outside, 1 LiDAR scanner, and multiple IR and invisible LED illuminators to help it get a sense of where you are and what you’re doing. Aside from this, the headset also has a dedicated R1 Apple Silicone chip that crunches data from all these sensors (and a few others) to help create the best representation of Apple’s gradual shift towards “Spatial Computing”.

What is “Spatial Computing”?

“Vision Pro is a new kind of Computer,” says Tim Cook as he reveals the mixed reality headset for the very first time. “It’s the first Apple product you look through, and not at,” he adds, marking Apple’s shift to Spatial Computing. What’s Spatial Computing, you ask? Well, the desktop was touted as the world’s first Personal Computer, or PC as we so ubiquitously call it today. The laptop shrank the desktop to a portable format, and the phone shrank it further… all the way down to the watch, that put your personal computer on your wrist. Spatial Computing marks Apple’s first shift away from Personal Computing, in the sense that you’re now no longer limited by a display – big or small. “Instead, your surroundings become a canvas,” Tim summarizes, as he hands the stage to VP of Design, Alan Dye.

Spatial Computing marks a new era of computing where the four corners of a traditional display don’t pose any constraints to your working environment. Instead, your real environment becomes your working environment, and just like you’ve got folders, windows, and widgets on a screen, the Vision Pro lets you create folders, windows, and widgets in your 3D space. Dye explains that in Spatial Computing, you don’t have to minimize a window to open a new one. Just simply drag one window to the side and open another one. Apple’s VisionOS turns your room and your visual periphery into an OS, letting you create multiple screens/windows wherever you want, move them around, and resize them. Think Minority Report or Tony Stark’s holographic computer… but with a better, classier interface.

How the M2 and R1 Chips Handle Spatial Computing

At the heart of the Vision Pro headset are two chips that work together to help virtuality and reality combine seamlessly. The Vision Pro is equipped with Apple’s M2 silicon chip to help with computing and handling multitasking, along with a new R1 silicon chip that’s proprietary to the headset, which works with all the sensors inside and outside the headset to track your eyesight, control input, and also help virtual elements exist seamlessly within the real world, doing impressive things like casting shadows on the world around you, changing angles when you move around, or disappearing/fading when someone walks into your frame.

The R1 chip is pretty much Apple’s secret sauce with the Vision Pro. It handles data from every single sensor on the device, simultaneously tracking your environment, your position in it, your hands, and even your eye movements with stunning accuracy. Your eye movements form the basis of how the Vision Pro knows what elements you’re thinking of interacting with, practically turning them into bonafide cursors. As impressive as that is, the R1 also uses your eye data to know what elements of the screen to render, and what not to. Given that you can only focus on a limited area at any given time, the R1 chip knows to render just that part of your visual periphery with crisp clarity, rather than spending resources rendering out the entire scene. It’s a phenomenally clever way to optimize battery use while providing a brilliantly immersive experience. However, that’s not all…

Apple Engineer Reveals the (Scary) Powerful Capabilities of the R1 Chip

A neurotechnology engineer at Apple lifted the veil on exactly how complex and somewhat scary the Vision Pro’s internal tech is. While bound by NDA, Sterling Crispin shared in a tweet how the Vision Pro tracks your eyesight and knows how you’re navigating its interface so flawlessly. Fundamentally, the R1 chip is engineered to be borderline magical at predicting a user’s eye journey and intent. “One of the coolest results involved predicting a user was going to click on something before they actually did […] Your pupil reacts before you click in part because you expect something will happen after you click,” Crispin mentions. “So you can create biofeedback with a user’s brain by monitoring their eye behavior, and redesigning the UI in real time to create more of this anticipatory pupil response.”

“Other tricks to infer cognitive state involved quickly flashing visuals or sounds to a user in ways they may not perceive, and then measuring their reaction to it,” Crispin further explains. “Another patent goes into details about using machine learning and signals from the body and brain to predict how focused, or relaxed you are, or how well you are learning. And then updating virtual environments to enhance those states. So, imagine an adaptive immersive environment that helps you learn, or work, or relax by changing what you’re seeing and hearing in the background.” Here’s a look at Sterling Crispin’s tweet.

A Broad Look at Every Sensor on the Apple Vision Pro

Sensors dominate the Vision Pro’s spatial computing abilities, and here’s a look at all the sensors Apple highlighted in the keynote, along with a few others that sit under the Vision Pro’s hood. This list isn’t complete, since the Vision Pro isn’t available for a tech teardown, but it includes every sensor mentioned by Apple.

Cameras – The Vision Pro has an estimated 14 cameras that help it capture details inside and outside the headset. Up to 10 cameras (2 main, 4 downward, 2 TrueDepth, and 2 sideways) on the outer part of the headset sense your environment in stereoscopic 3D, while 4 IR cameras inside the headset track your eyes as well as perform 3D scans of your iris, helping the device authenticate the user.

LiDAR Sensor – The purpose of the LiDAR sensor is to use light to measure distances, creating a 3D map of the world around you. It’s used in most self-driving automotive systems, and even on the iPhone’s FaceID system, to scan your face and identify it. On the Vision Pro, the LiDAR sensor sits front and center, right above the nose, capturing a perfect view of the world around you, as well as capturing a 3D model of your face that the headset then uses as an avatar during FaceTime.

IR Camera – The presence of an IR camera on any device plays a key role in being able to do the job of a camera when the camera can’t. IR sensors work in absolute darkness too, giving them a significant edge over conventional cameras. That’s why the headset has 4 IR Cameras on the inside, and an undisclosed number of IR cameras/sensors on the outside to help the device see despite lighting conditions. The IR cameras inside the headset do a remarkable job of eye-tracking as well as of building a 3D scan of your iris, to perform Apple’s secure OpticID authentication system.

Illuminators – While these aren’t sensors, they play a key role in allowing the sensors to do their job perfectly. The Vision Pro headset has 2 IR illuminators on the outside that flash invisible infrared dot grids to help accurately scan a person’s face (very similar to FaceID). On the inside, however, the headset has invisible LED illuminators surrounding each eye that help the IR cameras track eye movement, reactions, and perform detailed scans of your iris. These illuminators play a crucial role in low-light settings, giving the IR cameras data to work with.

Accelerator & Gyroscope – Although Apple didn’t mention the presence of these in the headset, it’s but obvious that the Vision Pro has multiple accelerators and gyroscopes to help it track movement and tilt. Like any good headset, the Vision Pro enables tracking with 6 degrees of freedom, being able to detect left, right, forward, backward, upward, and downward movement. The accelerator helps the headset capture these movements, while the gyroscope helps the headset understand when you’re tilting your head. These sensors, along with the cameras and scanners, give the R1 chip the data it needs to know where you’re standing, moving, and looking.

Microphones – The Vision Pro has an undisclosed number of microphones built into the headset that perform two broad activities – voice detection and spatial audio. Voice commands form a core part of how you interact with the headset, which is why the Vision Pro has microphones that let you perform search queries, summon apps/websites, and talk naturally to Siri. However, the microphones also need to perform an acoustic scan of your room, just the way the cameras need to do a visual scan. They do this so that they can match the sound to the room you’re in, delivering the right amount of reverb, tonal frequencies, etc. Moreover, as you turn your head, sounds still stay in the same place, and the microphones help facilitate that, creating a sonic illusion that allows your ears to believe what your eyes see.

Other Key Components

Aside from the sensors, the Vision Pro is filled with a whole slew of tech components, from screens to battery packs. Here’s a look at what else lies underneath the Vision Pro’s hood.

Displays – Given its name, the Vision Pro obviously focuses heavily on your visual sense… and it does so with some of the most incredible displays ever seen. The Vision Pro has two stamp-sized displays (one for each eye) with each boasting more pixels than a 4K television. This gives the Vision Pro’s main displays a staggering 23 million pixels combined, capable of a 12-millisecond refresh rate (making it roughly 83fps). Meanwhile, the outside of the headset has a display too, which showcases your eyes to people around you. While the quality of this display isn’t known, it is a bent OLED screen with a lenticular film in front of it that creates the impression of a 3D display, so people see depth in your eyes, rather than just a flat image.

Audio Drivers – The headset’s band also has audio drivers built into each temple, firing rich, environmentally-responsive audio into your ears as you wear the headset. Apple mentioned that the Vision Pro has dual audio drivers for each ear, which could possibly indicate quality that rivals the AirPods Max.

Fans – To keep the headset cool, the Vision Pro has an undisclosed number of fans that help maintain optimal temperatures inside the headset. The fans are quiet, yet incredibly powerful, cooling down not one but two chips inside the headset. A grill detail on the bottom helps channel out the hot air.

Digital Crown – Borrowing from the Apple Watch, the Vision Pro has a Digital Crown that rotates to summon the home screen, as well as to toggle the immersive environment that drowns out the world around you for a true VR experience.

Shutter Button – The Digital Crown is also accompanied by a shutter button that allows you to capture 3-dimensional photos and videos, that can be viewed within the Vision Pro headset.

Battery – Lastly, the Vision Pro has an independent battery unit that attaches using a proprietary connector to the headset. The reason the headset has a separate battery pack is to help reduce the weight of the headset itself, which already uses metal and glass. Given how heavy batteries are, an independent battery helps distribute the load. Apple hasn’t shared the milliamp-hour capacity of the battery, but they did mention that it gives you 2 hours of usage on a full charge. How the battery charges hasn’t been mentioned either.

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Apple Vision Pro: 5 Reasons Why The Headset May FAIL Despite Its High Popularity

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Let me just get things out of the way by saying that I was one of the million people passionately glued to the YouTube screen watching the Apple WWDC keynote and the Vision Pro announcement. When Tim took the stage for the final time to coyly tease “One More Thing”, I felt the kind of goosebumps I’ve rarely felt before. Throughout the 40-minute-long presentation of the Vision Pro, my mind and heart were captivated by the sheer brilliance of this new device. I overwhelmingly loved everything I saw, but the tech commentator in my brain sent off some instant alarms.

As brilliant as the Vision Pro announcement was, there are still FIVE broad reasons why the Vision Pro could be a big crash-and-burn for Apple. Here’s what they are:

  1. Price
  2. Human Factors
  3. VR Fatigue/Boredom
  4. Inter Device Cannibalization
  5. Lack of Social Media Integration

Price

Months back when the Vision Pro was merely a figment of a tech commentator’s imagination, most rumors were that the device would be priced between $3000 and $10,000 USD, and would be available ONLY to developers to help set the groundwork for a public launch. The reality, however, is that this $3499 device was announced as a consumer product and not a developer one… and that changes things significantly. At a whopping $3499, the Vision Pro is much too expensive for the average user… and this can have negative effects on the product’s overall success. The Vision Pro’s ridiculous price tag sets an incredibly high barrier to entry for consumers, severely limiting how many people actually use the MR headset. This in turn disincentivizes the developers from constantly working on new apps, services, games, experiences, updates, etc. The lack of developer support in turn results in a flawed UX for Apple’s most elite, enthusiastic customer base. In order to combat this, Apple would either have to launch a cheaper, inferior product and become just another Meta, or go down the Microsoft route by just halting new product development, just like how Microsoft never released a new device after the 2019 Hololens.

Human Factors

The second crucial reason that could spell certain death for the Vision Pro is also closely tied to why Microsoft never developed a third Hololens – a large chunk of the human population tends to experience incredible nausea in a VR headset. During experimentations with AR headsets for military applications, Microsoft and DARPA realized that almost a third of all soldiers were becoming violently sick while wearing the Hololens. Between 10-30% of humans don’t respond well to virtual reality – the blurry, pixelated, uncanny valley of VR can sometimes cause the brain to think that it’s experiencing the blurred-vision symptoms of poisoning, which results in nausea and vomiting. The minute you have people adversely reacting to your product, it really doesn’t bode well for its future. Case in point, DARPA halted its plans to have military personnel wear AR glasses on the combat field.

VR Fatigue/Boredom

For the rest of the population who doesn’t have a sickness problem with VR, the novelty tends to wear off pretty quickly. Almost everyone who bought an Oculus reports finding it exciting for only a few months. After this, interest in the tech plateaus, and the VR headset end up sitting on a shelf or in the back of a cupboard, according to a significant majority of VR headset buyers. The erstwhile leader of the metaverse, Meta (Oculus), hasn’t really been able to crack this problem, despite constantly launching new experiences and games (and even announcing the Quest 3 just days ago). That being said, Apple deserves a tonne of credit for focusing so much of their time and effort on highlighting all the areas where the Vision Pro could be incredibly useful… but not everyone will be okay with the idea of perpetually having 4K screens an inch away from your eyeballs. VR Fatigue and Boredom are real; and even though the Vision Pro boasts of an entire day’s worth of battery life, chances are that people won’t want to be strapped into a VR headset for more than an hour a day.

Inter Device Cannibalization

Interestingly enough, the Vision Pro’s success also depends on the failure of every other Apple device… which presents a unique stalemate for the company. Under normal circumstances, Apple’s devices encourage multitasking. You can work on your MacBook while listening to a podcast or music on your AirPods, you could watch Apple TV+ while browsing TikTok on your iPhone. The devices don’t really replace each other, and can coexist rather comfortably… but they can’t with the Vision Pro. The Vision Pro is designed to replace your MacBook, iPad, iPhone, Apple TV, and Apple Watch displays. Its built-in audio drivers also prevent you from wearing AirPods while you’re strapped into the headset. This effectively means all your other Apple devices are pretty much useless when you’re using the Vision Pro, and that poses a threat to Apple’s own hardware. If you’re watching a movie on the Vision Pro, you’re less compelled to buy the Apple TV 4K. If you’ve got a massive built-in virtual display, you don’t really need the Apple Pro Display XDR or the iMac, and if you can control virtual elements with finger gestures, you don’t need the iPad and you certainly don’t need the Apple Pencil. The success of the Apple Vision Pro hinges heavily on you NOT using any of Apple’s other devices… and as a result, the inverse is true too. If you’re much more comfortable with using an Apple TV, because you’re watching movies as a group… or if you’re working on the MacBook or iPad with the intent of collaborating with a co-worker right beside you, you’re probably not going to isolate yourself with a personalized mixed reality headset.

Lack of Social Media Integration

Here’s a statistic that still bends my brain to this day. In the year 2021, the entire world collectively watched 9.6 trillion minutes of Netflix according to data from the Wall Street Journal. That may sound like a lot, but it’s nothing compared to the staggering 22.6 trillion minutes spent watching TikTok. There’s really no debate that social media occupies an overwhelmingly higher amount of time than conventional entertainment… however, Apple didn’t highlight social media even ONCE in their entire 45-minute segment on the Vision Pro.

In the past 3 years, we’ve become so addicted and accustomed to how we browse and interact with social media on the smartphone, it’s nearly impossible to seamlessly shift that to a wearable platform. As a Quest 2 owner, I’ve opened Instagram only twice on the VR headset. Typing comments on a headset is a hassle, uploading stories/reels in a 9:16 portrait format on a virtual or mixed-reality headset just feels odd, and the smartphone has a solid reputation for rapidly creating and sharing content, while the Vision Pro doesn’t. Moreover, social media has thrived wonderfully on a small screen, so the idea of browsing TikTok on a massive virtual display really doesn’t present any major benefits.

Now Apple DOES have until next year to figure out how to overcome these problems, given that the Vision Pro doesn’t hit stores until 2024. This also gives Apple enough time to really gauge consumer and developer feedback, and adapt accordingly. More so than ever, it’ll also be interesting to see what the Vision Pro does for the metaverse, which has kind of been on life support up until now. Someone check in on Zuckerberg too, while we’re at it…

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Apple Vision Pro Just Brilliantly Destroyed Meta’s Entire Hardware Business… And Possibly Even Its Own

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I’d really hate to be Mark Zuckerberg right now. In October 2021 he pivoted to the metaverse, only to pivot to AI in November 2022. Now, Apple’s Vision Pro stole his massive lead with a product so revolutionary, it’s probably going to crush his entire hardware ambitions.

Apple just announced the Vision Pro, an entirely new revolutionary product category, with a Mixed Reality headset that champions what they call “spatial computing” – an upgrade from the personal computing abilities of the laptop and smartphone. The brilliance of this is that it singlehandedly has the potential to redefine and reinvigorate the metaverse. The tragedy is that it also simultaneously kills all of Apple’s other businesses. The Vision Pro’s technical genius deserves an entire article on its own, but for now let’s just focus on exactly how magical this new product is, and what it means for Apple as a hardware company.

One More Thing…

Just as WWDC was coming to a close, Tim Cook, with a twinkle in his eye, uttered the same words that Steve Jobs did when he unveiled Apple’s most revolutionary product – the iPhone. 16 years to that day, Cook’s reutterance of those words promises to disrupt the entire tech industry all over again. The Vision Pro is an MR headset that brings an entirely new category to Apple’s product offering. In short, it has two Apple Silicon chipsets (including an M2 chip), dozens of cameras and sensors, an iris recognition system that scans your eye for biometrics, directional audio units in the strap, two postage-stamp-sized 4K screens on the inside for immersive viewing, and a curved OLED display with a lenticular layer that lets other people see your eyes while you’re wearing the headset. That’s just the short version.

Apple’s Greatest Device Yet

The Vision Pro turns your world into a computing device. You can work, play, watch movies, view 3D content, facetime with friends/family, and access every app on the App Store through it. There’s quite literally nothing you cannot do on the Vision Pro, which makes it such an incredible device. In fact, just announcing it and its features took up nearly an hour of the WWDC live stream, highlighting exactly how important it is to Apple’s future. In Tim Cook’s version of the future, the Vision Pro replaces computing devices entirely. You don’t need laptops, phones, watches, or even VR controllers to interact with the digital world. The Vision Pro handles your laptop or desktop’s abilities, allowing you to make presentations, write emails, edit files, and do practically anything on a massive virtual canvas. Similarly, you don’t need a phone or tablet when all your phone/tablet apps are available on the Vision Pro. When you’re relaxing, the Vision Pro gives you a massive screen to watch movies and TV shows, or even view 3D content or panoramic images immersively.

How the Vision Pro Redefines Computing

The Vision Pro’s interface isn’t really an interface anymore… It’s your entire world (or as Apple calls it, VisionOS). Everything you see is a canvas for a rectangular window. You can simultaneously have your work screen, a Pinterest board, and Ted Lasso existing within your visual periphery. Each element occupies 3D real estate in your vision, and isn’t bound by a screen. You can select, layer, resize, or move elements of your world simply by using your hands, eliminating the need for a controller. You can choose to see the world around you, or immerse yourself in a digital realm with a simple turn of a knob (or a crown), while still being connected to the world around you.

How the Vision Pro Redefines Interaction

A screen on the front of the Vision Pro acts as your digital eyes (or what Apple calls EyeSight), so that when people are talking to you, they see your eyes. If you’re immersed in content, your eyes aren’t made visible on the screen, so they know not to disturb you – it’s a lot like how people know you’re not engaging with them if you’re not making eye contact. However, if they need to grab your attention while you’re in an immersive experience (like a movie), they can merely step close to you, and EyeSight kicks in. They suddenly become visible to you within your headset, and your eyes become visible to them. It’s an impressive handshake of multiple different technologies that resulted in Apple filing as many as 5000 patents for the Vision Pro device.

Meta is Royally Screwed

As impressive as Zuckerberg’s Meta Quest Pro is, it really doesn’t even hold a candle to Apple’s Vision Pro. The Apple Vision Pro is an incredibly meticulously designed product that runs on not one but TWO chipsets – an M2 chip and a new R1 chip that just handles how digital elements react with your physical world. It’s got two 4K screens on the inside with as many as 23 million pixels crammed into an area the size of a postage stamp – that’s the equivalent of 64 pixels in the space occupied by 1 pixel on the iPhone screen. The outside of the device has a screen too (a lenticular 3D one, no less), that projects your eyes so that people can make eye contact with you while you have the headset on. As far as sensors go, the Vision Pro has one LiDAR scanner, two TrueDepth cameras, two main cameras, four downward cameras, two side cameras, and two IR illuminators… just on the outside. The inside has four IR cameras and multiple invisible LED illuminators that track your eyes, letting you use them as a cursor. Your hands become the controls, allowing you to tap, pinch, and manipulate elements that your eyes look at. This entire interaction is just so complicated and nuanced, you don’t need a remote or VR controllers. Oh, did I mention, the Vision Pro uses OpticID, a new authentication system that scans your eyes, making it much more secure than TouchID and FaceID? Even Meta’s highest-end device (which is roughly 1/3rd the price of the Vision Pro) doesn’t have anywhere near as much impressive tech as the Vision Pro… and if I were Zuckerberg, I’d honestly be crying in a corner right now because in Meta’s own metaverse… they’re in second place.

An alliance with Disney

Strangely enough, the one person that shared the stage with Tim Cook was Disney CEO Bob Iger, who promised some great new partnerships between the world’s biggest tech company, and the world’s biggest entertainment company. Disney’s entertainment offerings are now going to be front and center in Apple’s Vision Pro, with a tight partnership between the two giants to make entertainment more immersive. This announcement also falls in line with Disney’s 100-year anniversary, going to show exactly how much Disney has to offer to its fans through the Vision Pro. Strangely enough, this core focus on entertainment excludes one major platform – social media. The Vision Pro doesn’t really do much to enhance how people interact with apps like Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok, which feels like a two-punch melee to Meta and Zuckerberg even more…

Apple may have shot itself in the foot too

Aside from its whopping $3499 price, the Vision Pro does something absolutely unique, in that it replaces every single other Apple device. When you’re strapped into the headset, you’re pretty much never going to look at an iPhone, MacBook, Apple Watch, iMac, or TV. Heck, you’re not even going to wear AirPods… and needless to say, that’s bad for Apple. The Vision Pro is such a strangely isolating experience that it stops you from using Apple’s other hardware devices… and that’s absolutely new. You can use your iPhone simultaneously with a MacBook, AirPods, Apple Watch, etc… but when you’re wearing the Vision Pro, every single other Apple device becomes unnecessary. Spatial computing is great for the Vision Pro, but it’s terrible for all of Apple’s other devices… and this poses an incredibly interesting threat to Apple’s hardware endeavors. Sure, if the Vision Pro takes off, Meta is absolutely, royally, wholeheartedly screwed because there’s no reason someone who wants a Vision Pro would settle for a Quest 2 or 3. However, it’ll be interesting to see if people who buy the Vision Pro ever buy a single other Apple computer like a MacBook, iPad, or Apple TV unit.

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Apple to Announce Their First Ever Augmented Reality Glasses in 3 days… Here’s What to Expect

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Apple hasn’t launched a single new product category since they unveiled the AirPods back in 2016. Sure, the AirPods Max debuted in 2020, but it wasn’t a bold leap as much as natural progression. The point I’m really trying to make here is that it’s been a while since the company was ‘recklessly innovative’, and it seems like we might just get a taste of that three days from now at WWDC.

Augmented Reality has always been Tim Cook’s favorite buzzword, and he’s consistently pushed for Apple to have a presence in this space. It’s expected that all this will culminate in what analysts and leakers call “Reality”, Apple’s first XR headset. This cutting-edge device, expected to be unveiled at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference, aims to pioneer the relatively uncharted realm of mixed-reality technology. With a price tag of approximately $3,000, the ‘Reality’ headset has been seven years in the making, and has been apparently filled with controversy too, with a large chunk of Apple’s own employees expressing doubt and disdain. However, here’s everything we know about the Reality headset (or could it be a pair of glasses?) that’s set to launch this Monday.

Concept Images by Kylin Wu
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The headset’s design journey has oscillated between being thick and obtrusive, like your average VR headset, to being as slim as a pair of spectacles, or realistically, a pair of chunky ski goggles. At its heart, however, lies the innovative xrOS, designed to provide an interface that echoes the familiar iOS experience. The new operating system (which is pretty much confirmed thanks to a trademark filed by Apple in New Zealand) is set to revolutionize how users interact with their devices, presenting a traditional Home Screen in an entirely new dimension filled with apps and customizable widgets.

One of the most exciting features of ‘Reality’ is its ability to merge digital elements with the real world. The xrOS software could potentially project AR app interface elements onto actual objects, creating a seamless mixed-reality overlay effect. This represents a significant leap forward in AR technology, blurring the boundaries between the physical and digital worlds. According to MacRumors, the ‘Reality’ device will achieve this using “dual high-resolution 4K micro OLED displays with up to 3,000 pixels per inch for a rich, realistic, and immersive viewing experience.” To operate the device, the user’s hands and eyes will be monitored by over a dozen optical cameras. The user can select an on-screen item by simply looking at it and activate it by making a hand gesture, such as a pinch.

The core of xrOS will feature re-imagined versions of Apple’s staple apps. From Safari to Messages, Apple TV+ to Apple Music, users will have the flexibility to work with multiple apps simultaneously, ensuring a dynamic and engaging user experience. Apple is also set to transform existing services into immersive viewing experiences. Imagine watching videos in virtual reality as if on a giant screen, or engaging in guided meditations enhanced by immersive visuals, audio, and voiceovers. Services like Apple Fitness+, Apple TV+, and a 3D version of Apple’s collaborative Freeform tool are set to offer these radical experiences in xrOS. In addition to the reimagined versions of existing apps, Apple is likely to introduce new offerings tailored to the unique capabilities of the ‘Reality’ headset. These would include a Books app for immersive reading, a Health app focusing on psychological wellness, and a Camera app that can capture images from the headset’s cameras, promising a whole new level of interaction and engagement.

Apple is reportedly also working with a select number of game developers to help them update their existing content for mixed reality. Furthermore, Apple reportedly has a robust set of tools that will allow non-developers to create their own AR/VR experiences, even without coding skills. These user-created AR apps could be distributed on the App Store alongside developer-created apps​​.

The Reality headset doesn’t come without its fair share of controversy. It remains one of the most divisive products even within Apple’s own company, with multiple people leaving the project to move to other divisions within Apple, or leaving the company entirely. Multiple engineers have expressed their opinion that Tim Cook should wait before the product is “good enough” for consumers… a feeling that people on Apple’s board have expressed too. Cook gave multiple key executives and personnel a preview of the Reality headset a little over a month ago, one of them being credible Apple reporter Mark Gurman of Bloomberg. However, it seems like Cook’s been adamant about releasing the headset as soon as possible, although as a developer product rather than a consumer-ready gadget. This will probably help set the groundwork needed to make a much more consumer-friendly Reality headset somewhere down the line. Until then, we have our fingers crossed and our calendars set for June 5th, 10 am PST!

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Lightweight and compact, Beyond VR headset makes metaverse exploration ultra-comfortable

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Let’s be honest, VR headsets are exciting tools for immersive experiences in virtual or augmented reality applications, but damn they are too bulky to account for any practical usage for an extended period of time.

Be it the Sony PlayStation VR, HTC Vive Pro 2, or Meta Quest 2; each one of them is still not compact for the masses to garner major attention. That could change with the Beyond VR headset, one of the lightest and most compact VR headsets for a comfortable Metaverse exploration.

Designer: Bigscreen

For someone like me who’s always eager about new technologies infusion into the gaming and entertainment world, the Bigscreen Beyond VR headset is as exciting as it could be. All the powerful VR headsets currently on the market are bulky and heavy – not igniting my interest beyond just a few minutes of curiosity. This PC-only headset is different though, weighing just 127 grams, it is six times lighter than any other headset currently up for grabs. At its thinnest point, the VR headset measures less than an inch and has a very low profile (something akin to the DJI FPV goggles), which is a major design advantage.

If you are thinking, this compact form factor would have some hardware compromises, then that’s not true. The VR headset comes with two 1-inch OLED microdisplays, each at a resolution of 5120×2560, and support for 75Hz and 90 Hz refresh rates. The headset has a 90 to 93-degree horizontal field of view, along with the six-degrees of freedom tracking (requires SteamVR Base Stations) and three-element pancake optics to eliminate the screen door effect which used to hamper the overall viewing experience in other VR headsets. Bigscreen also includes stereo microphones, and a proximity sensor to detect the distance between the face and the headset for an immersive experience.

The significant reduction in size of the Beyond headset is achieved by making some strategic sacrifices like adjusting knobs or other controls that are not vital. Those face cushions on the headset can be customized using the accompanying app to fit your face snugly. There’s a catch though, for now, only the iPhone XR or newer Apple phones can use the TrueDepth sensor to create a “ millimeter precision 3D mesh of your face.” Device sharing is also possible since the face cushions can be swapped with another one.

Beyond VR headset is available for pre-order in the US for $999, with shipping promised in Q3 this year, and the amount is fully refundable. You’ll have to buy the compatible SteamVR base station, and the Valve Index controllers to get going right away with the VR exploration. Also, the built-in headphones only come with the optional Audio Strap, and the video feed can only be tethered via a PC.

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Samsung XR wearable could become an industry response to Apple’s MR headset

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Samsung just announced quite a number of new devices, including its usual Galaxy S flagship smartphone trio. While this is normal fare for Samsung this time of the year, it made a few choice statements that suddenly got heads turning and, to some extent, scratching. Samsung practically revealed that it is working on an “extended reality” or XR wearable device, pretty much a headset, something that it hasn’t done in half a decade. While it was mostly an announcement of intent rather than a teaser of an actual product, it name-dropped a few big names in the tech industry as its partners in this endeavor. While the fact that Samsung is again making a headset isn’t really a world-shattering revelation, the timing of all these hints seems to be a little bit too convenient not to put it in light of Apple’s own upcoming mixed reality device.

Designer: Samsung (via The Washington Post)

Samsung is really no stranger to such headsets and is probably too familiar with their problems as well. It started out with the smartphone-powered GearVR, which it worked on together with pre-Facebook Oculus back in 2015. And then there was the HMD Odyssey which was one of the few Windows Mixed Reality headsets that launched and sputtered out. In both cases, the tech giant has taken a step back along with the rest of its peers, making this announcement all the more intriguing and suspicious.

These days, there are very few notable players in the VR and AR space, with Meta (formerly known as Facebook) and HTC Vive still competing for top slots. Microsoft has pretty much forgotten about its HoloLens, and Google is being typically Google-ish about its remaining ARCore platform. Surprisingly, these are the very same companies that Samsung will be working with for its XR wearable, bringing the who’s who of Big Tech together with a single mission.

Details about the device itself are scant, but Samsung did let it out that it will be powered by a Qualcomm chipset and run an unannounced version of Android made specifically for headsets. More important than the hardware, though, Samsung’s name-dropping is meant to suggest that it is establishing a more stable ecosystem before it actually launches the product. The reason why many attempts at this niche market failed was that they were too focused on the product without an ecosystem giving it a reason to exist in the first place.

Apple isn’t going to have that problem when it launches its own MR device this spring, given how all its products pretty much live within Apple’s universe. Its rivals, however, don’t have something like it and will have to join forces to deliver something worthwhile. Of course, these companies, Apple included, still need to make a convincing argument about why you would want to wear a screen on your face. And as these same companies experienced, that’s not a particularly easy proposition to sell.

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This retro Raspberry Pi VR headset concept shows what VR hardware could have looked like in the 90s

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Is that an Atari VR headset!? No, but it could have been! Designed by Denmark-based CGI artist Moonshake3D, the Stereoscopic Display System is a nostalgia-evoking headset concept that imagines what VR tech could have looked like if it was invented pre-Y2K. Powered by a Raspberry Pi chip, the Stereoscopic Display System is a 3-dimensional 64-bit gaming system that brings retro-style gaming into an absolutely new dimension. With a design that’s a reference to the olden days of wood-veneering on gaming consoles, along with transparent casings that are reminiscent of turntables, the Monshake Stereoscopic Display System combines past and present (and even some future) into one absolutely delightful package.

Designer: Moonshake3D

The conceptual headset has a Nothing-inspired front panel that lets you see all the components underneath. For starters, the headset runs on a Raspberry Pi chip, complete with two front-facing cameras that probably offer passthrough mode so the wearer doesn’t accidentally bump into things around them. The designer also describes the Stereoscopic Display System as a 3D 64-bit gaming headset, which sounds incredibly interesting in theory, just in its approach to reviving an old style of gaming with a new, more immersive technology. Maybe 64-bit games would actually look great in VR, or maybe they’d suck. There’s really no way of knowing unless we try, right?!

Perhaps the most appealing part of this concept is its retro-inspired build, which uses a combination of old-style materials, like bent plywood veneer, plexiglass, and felt. The retrofuturistic approach gives the Stereoscopic Display System a distinctly eye-catching aesthetic no matter where you look at it from. The front is mesmerizing to look at, with all those components in clear sight. The eyepiece looks uncomfortable over long periods of time given the lack of cushioning around the plywood rim, although I doubt anyone has it in them to play 64-bit games in VR for too long. There’s an antenna on the side to help connect over Wi-Fi (obviously), and that headset strap looks pretty secure, in my opinion. Extra points for that old-style NASA-inspired font on the back!

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TCL just announced a pair of sleek AR Glasses along with a bunch of other tech devices at CES 2023

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While the AR glasses stopped us dead in our tracks, the company also unveiled a host of other devices from TVs to soundbars, ACs, refrigerators, tablets, phones, TWS earbuds, and a VR headset.

I was today years old when I learned that TCL is USA’s 2nd largest TV seller. The company clearly is doing something right, with its high-quality display units that are also exceptionally affordable. The company revealed this fact at their CES 2023 keynote, before highlighting all the innovations it has planned for the year. It debuted 2 ranges of new TVs, the S series of smart TVs that also double as monitors, should you choose, and the Q series of QLED TVs with more dimming zones and better brightness, and the flagship QM8, a Mini QLED television that can go up to 98 inches in size to provide a whopping 5000 dimming zones. The company also unveiled a set of sub $300 soundbars in S and Q series too.

Designer: TCL

A pioneer in displays, TCL also debuted two tablets that rival the iPad Pro with their sleek and functional designs. The NXTPAPER 12 Pro comes with a 12.2-inch 2K display that feels just like paper. It has four speakers, stereo microphones, and dual 8MP front-facing cameras to rival Apple’s own tablet, along with the ability to snap onto a wireless keyboard for a laptop-like experience. The NXTPAPER 12 Pro also has support for a stylus and runs Android 13 on an 8000mAh battery that gives it 13 hours of use.

The Book X12 Go was also announced as TCL’s new hybrid laptop with a detachable keyboard for ultimate usage flexibility. It too runs a 12.2-inch 2K screen but runs Windows 11 instead of Android 13. It also has a 30Wh battery that provides 14 hours of productivity with also the ability to reverse-charge.

The company’s displays also now benefit the everyday user thanks to TCL’s 40 series of smartphones that contain 3 different models, all with 90Hz displays and built-in 5G, and a special 2-in-1 ‘hyper-camera’ on the 408 model for photography nerds.

TCL also announced the MOVEAUDIO Air, their pair of TWS earbuds with an AI-enhanced quad-mic system for the clearest call quality. The earbuds also weigh a stunning 4.4 grams and boast of a 32-hour battery life (with the charging case) and IPX4 waterproof rating.

The RayNeo X2 was perhaps the most anticipated new tech in TCL’s lineup. Designed as a successor to the company’s previous NXTWEAR S, the RayNeo X2 are the world’s first binocular full-color microLED optical waveguide AR glasses. That’s just fancy talk for the fact that they have the best displays ever built into a pair of AR glasses as small as this, with 1000 nits of brightness and displays in both eyepieces for the perfect AR experience in indoor and outdoor applications. The glasses sit on your face without really occupying too much real estate, and can provide real-time subtitles just like Google’s demo concept from earlier this year, thanks to the Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 chipset on the inside. They even have cameras built-in, capable of taking FPV photos and videos like Facebook and Ray-Ban’s Stories glasses.

Finally, TCL also revealed the NXTWEAR V, a flagship-level VR headset with 4K+ displays in both eyes offering 1512 PPI resolution for optimal clarity, along with a 108° FoV and 6 degrees of freedom – a feature that’s come to be expected from all good VR headsets. Two cameras on the front also enable the headset to have a ‘transparent mode’ that lets you basically use the cameras as eyes to see what’s in front of and around you as you move around.

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HTC plans on launching Vive AR/VR goggles to compete directly with the Meta Quest Pro

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“Go small or go home”, the company revealed in a cryptic Twitter post back in October.

HTC’s latest AR/VR headset seems to be shaping up rather well, as per a render revealed to the folks at the Verge. Slated for a 5th January launch, just as CES kicks off for the year, the erstwhile unnamed headset will feature passthrough reality, quite like Meta’s recently announced Quest Pro goggles. However, the new HTC device promises much more than its competitor, namely a lighter design, a depth sensor for better spatial mapping, and a stronger focus on privacy. “We’re in an era when consumer VR headsets have been massively subsidized by companies that are trying to vacuum up and take personal data to provide to advertisers,” said Shen Ye, HTC’s global head of product.

The unnamed goggles concept from the HTC Vive team features a design more similar in aesthetics to the Magic Leap headset than the Quest Pro. It comes with two separate eyepieces unlike the Quest Pro’s skiing goggle-style single-glass design and is capable of both virtual as well as augmented reality. The nose bridge has a front-facing camera, as well as cameras in each of the eyepieces, while the rim of the goggles features cameras facing the side. There’s even a depth sensor on these goggles – something the Quest Pro decided to exclude – giving HTC’s hardware better tracking and spatial gauging. The Verge reports that this headset will get up to 2 hours of battery life while being able to support controllers as well as track hands and movement in 6 degrees of freedom. HTC mentions that the headset can be utilized for a wide range of purposes, including gaming, entertainment, exercise, and even more advanced applications such as productivity and enterprise tools.

Designer: HTC

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