Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “Why Apple’s VR Launch at WWDC Matters”.
Foreign there is so much drama and mystery surrounding whatever apple is going to do with a mixed reality, headset after years of reported delays and multiple news outlets making their own fake renderings of the design, because we’re all tired of talking about something we can’t see. Yet everyone is saying the headset will be shown off at WWDC the developers Conference in June. That’S right: Apple’s making this massive leap into a whole new hardware, product category announcing what could be the beginning of the post, iPhone ERA with a device that could change how we work and play it’s rumored to cost three grand and you’re telling me that that is Going to happen in the same breath as news on operating system updates what yeah? No one cares about. Watch OS 10. No one’s going to care about Mac OS 14.
Not when there’s going to be a headset thing, hiding behind some curtain is all people want to talk about. So why would an iconic new product share the Limelight at a developers conference and why wouldn’t Apple, give this VR AR headset thing its own special event? And let’s think about the climate right now for Apple to unveil such an important piece of risky Hardware, you’re telling me now Tim Cook is finally going to do it in this economy, with wave after wave of tech, layoffs, Bank collapses and inflation Mania. Sweeping the nation yeah yeah now they decide it’s VR time. Ah, cool yeah. There are a lot of questions and I want to know all of your biggest apple headset concerns through your comments and questions below and be sure to subscribe to the website, because we’re going to answer them in a future episode. I really want to see what apple is doing here. I want to get swept up in whatever wild VR magic. They have been crafting for the past seven years or, however long it’s been, but does the world have the capacity right now to have any interest in this one more thing? Perhaps we should be thinking differently about this product from other Apple Hardware launches.
Let’S go over how Apple would potentially treat this reveal at WWDC and why it won’t be like other app products, I’m Bridget Carey – and this is one more thing. This rumored headset could be seen as Tim Cook’s big Legacy as he sets up the next phase of the Apple product universe, but the hype is heavy here. Speculation began five years ago when stories started cropping up about the project rumors from Mostly reliable sources. Ramped up over the past few months, we have heard it could be called reality Pro that this would let you watch 3D video.
It would do interactive, workouts use hand tracking and have some sort of realistic, FaceTime Avatar chats with other people, whatever that’s supposed to be all while wearing some sort of high-tech ski goggles. The big picture is still pretty hazy. Recently, we have seen some ribbon cables, allegedly leak out. It’S posted by Mac, rumors and nine to five Mac from a Twitter user called Mr White yeah looks like the shape of glasses, such curves, so mysterious riveting stuff.
A few days ago, a story came out from the financial times that there is a huge pressure on the Apple headset team to ship it out now, and some tech for augmented reality may not be fully perfected. So we could see other iterations of headgear from Apple down the road. So why is this so dramatic Apple has to pull off some serious magic here. So let’s pull in the VR and AR master, who has covered Apple for years – and you knows a few tricks.
The company may have up its sleeve CNET editor at large Scott Stein. I feel like we’ve been here before yeah. We have it’s been a long time waiting for this headset we’ve been talking so much about this headset, but we did not think it would be at WWDC just a few months ago. So what would a launch at the developers conference? Look like yeah. This is like seems like option two where the first would have been. You announced the headset and they didn’t do that now.
You’Re gon na maybe fold it in at the show. That is all about the developers. It makes sense to talk about it there, but that’s a lot of stuff to digest like it’s. It seems like you would eat up the show to talk about the headset when that show is also supposed to be about Mac development and iPads, and phones and watches, and whatever else. How are headsets typically announced, because you’ve been to quite a few unveilings.
Well headsets. Sometimes feel like they evolve more than they’re suddenly born. I mean things like the Oculus Rift or magic leap.
Were these things you heard about for such a long time, buy the company not rumors, but actual you know intended leaks that then manifest into a product, or you see demos over year after year, so laying it all down at one event is not typically a VR Air headset move. That’S why I thought that Apple would do some sort of demo event before and then something after and then something after that. It’S like a slower roll out yeah, because there’s a lot to take in, I still feel like you’ve got to kind of show something like you got to show magic. You got to show magic, they got ta do the equivalent of like making the handkerchief disappear where it’s like wow, that’s cool how’d.
They do that anyway, I do magic. You know the point is that, like they have to VR headsets have a moment of wow. That’S what made them cool sorry for that, but, like you know, are they gon na have like a FaceTime demo with the avatars we’re so used to VR headsets? Now we’re like I am that I’ve seen a lot of how those work you know.
Are they just gon na get into the nuts and bolts of like here’s, how we’re gon na make ours? I think that they’re gon na have to start over and say Here’s the cool thing. Okay, now here’s all the other stuff you can do you think they’re gon na like bring it on stage and have Tim Cook wearing it or is it gon na be more uh quiet behind the scenes type over? I think more of that, because these things get clunky and weird, even in the best scenarios plus. Sometimes they don’t work right and you got the stage demo plus also nobody knows what you’re seeing every time. I wear something weird on my face. I give a lot of experience with that right. You don’t know what I’m seeing it’s not the same thing. They could talk about reality, OS.
That has been something that people have seen in code that has been reported on and kind of out there for developers already. So it’s not a total secret that there is software for it’s just not as exciting as the hardware, and they could have something like a developer kit, because the question is: who is this? For? Is it for the developers? Is it for the everyday person? Is it for work, because when you have something simple, like a VR headset for gaming, like the Quest 2, everyone gets it, but when meta started to flex into doing stuff for work in a more expensive, headset a lot more complexities, and then it’s not so easy. I think Apple needs to make something that is developer friendly, definitely but then the first version of whatever this is there’s been all this talk about, that the product may not be ready or the designers didn’t want to be ready, but maybe they want to put it Out anyhow, the first version of an Apple product – that’s new, usually isn’t isn’t the one that you get. I think the it’s about the iterations of the product.
More than is this product, the one, and so in that sense like what does it really matter? Just they have to get the foot in the door, I’m so curious and yet can’t help, but wonder how this is going to be so different from every other Apple product yeah well, and it needs to work with all the other Apple products like nobody has made A headset that really works seamlessly with your phone, your watch, your TV, your laptop or whatever, and some of them do parts of it, but that’s like the biggest opportunity for apple or eventually, Google Samsung, and that partnership that they’re working on is still like. Get this thing to just feel normal with everything that you do and feel like a peripheral. I think it makes sense to have something that could be upgraded over time, which doesn’t seem very Apple, but also like if it’s a peripheral to your laptop or your phone. Like you know, you’re not going to want to buy a new one of these for X thousand dollars, maybe ever but like maybe you buy it once and you know if it’s really good, so they have to kind of map that out too like what what happens There all right, we’ll have to see, do you have more magic tricks.
While we wait because we have a long time, we have to wait, it seems we have to bring some more some card tricks. Some Corey tricks, I’m gon na, be at wwc with the whole oval magic kit and stand and set that up. Thank you, Scott yeah, thanks Bridget, how Apple launches the headset is important, but maybe it’s being done like this, because it’s only going to be important to developers because it could be version two or three that’s going to be important to you and me and getting the Public on board Apple needs, content and gaming built out to get people to understand its value, maybe because of the economic climate. It’S a good thing. Apple launches it slowly. If most consumers are going to wait, then this makes 2023 the year of building out everything.
The first iPhone was interesting, who wants a stylus, but thanks didn’t get real good until the 3 GS. Let me know in the comments how closely you will be watching this reveal and if you’re someone who wants the first model, no matter what or if you’re, more of a wait and see person. And if you have questions for me or Scott, we’re going to tackle them in a future episode, if Apple doesn’t succeed right off the bat. With this, it’s not the end.
The company has Diversified into a finance company and Apple’s now also a Content Empire of movies and TV shows and exercise programming and music stations and gaming and sports broadcasting. But how will all of that fit into the high-tech goggles? The suspense is terrible. I hope it will last .