Palmer Luckey, an American businessman who is 30 years old and started the Oculus VR platform, seems to have used the gadget.
Luckey sold his company, Oculus, to Meta for $3 billion (£2.4 billion) when he was only 21 years old. On Sunday, he simply tweeted, “The Apple headset is so good.”
Few official details are known about Apple’s device, but it is thought that it will show alerts, messages, directions, and more to the person wearing it.
Luckey is a big name in the VR industry, but no one knows how or where he got to try out the device.
More recently, he made NerveGear, a headset that ‘destroys the brain’ of the user as soon as they lose a video game.
The new headset from Apple, which is supposed to be called “Reality Pro” and come out later this year, won’t be as dangerous.
Apple hasn’t said anything about the upcoming device in public, but everyone in the tech business knows it’s coming.
Mark Gurman, an American who has been leaking information about it for months through his weekly email, says it could “replace the iPhone.”
Gurman says that Apple will release Reality Pro on June 5, the first day of its five-day Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC).
Apple announced the dates for WWDC in March, but it didn’t say anything public about the headset.
But Apple’s promotional picture for WWDC this year shows curved lines of color that look like the shape of a headset.
Release: September 2023
Type: Mixed reality
Processors:
– One ‘higher-end’ similar to the M1 or M2
– One lower-end to manage ‘sensor-related aspects’
Operating system: xrOS
Connectivity: Wi-Fi 6E
Price: $3,000 (£2,400)
According to Gurman, Reality Pro will go on sale in September, around the same time as the company’s upcoming iPhone.
The headset “will start at around $3,000,” which is about twice as much as some of the most expensive smartphones on the market right now.
Augmented reality (AR) is the technology that Reality Pro will use to add digital pictures to the real world.
But it will also be able to do virtual reality (VR), which means that it will show only virtual things and not the real world behind them.
AR adds computer-generated pictures on top of the real world. Pokémon Go is a well-known example of this. VR, on the other hand, is all in the virtual world.
Wearers will be able to walk down the street and always see their device interface in AR, whether it’s a notice, a message, or a map. They won’t have to take their iPhone out of their pocket.
When the person is standing still, the device can be turned to VR mode, which is great for playing games, watching movies, or talking to avatars online.
Reality Pro will likely come with its own operating system, called xrOS, which will have Apple apps like FaceTime, Messages, and Maps.
According to Gurman, as part of Apple’s drive into live-streaming games and news, the headgear will be introduced with a new portal for watching sports in virtual reality.
Advanced videoconferencing and virtual meeting spaces with lifelike avatars will also be available, giving users the impression that they are participating in the same location.
The Apple headset will be promoted as an iPhone accessory, and the two devices would have to be connected, said Ming-Chi Kuo, another leaker.
Even so, the headset will have sensors and its own processors, one for managing “sensor-related aspects” and another “similar” to those found in iPads and Mac computers.
The new gadget will offer Apple enthusiasts a whole new level of immersion and touchless control, and is believed to be compatible with the iPhone so that any warnings that arrive on the phone would be displayed on the headset.
Reality Pro is anticipated to function more like using a smartphone than competing AR or VR headsets from Meta, Samsung, and Microsoft, which have previously been released.
Meta released its $1,499 mixed reality Meta Quest Pro VR gear last fall. It has new features that are meant to make users feel like they are in the same room as other people.
But Meta Quest Pro VR is mostly made for creative workers, businesses, and fans, so it shouldn’t be a direct competitor for Reality Pro.
The HTC Vive brand, which is owned by the Taiwanese business HTC, the Samsung Gear VR, and Microsoft’s mixed reality HoloLens headset are some of the other major players in the market. However, these are bulky devices that are mostly used by gamers or professionals.
Why is Apple Releasing a Mixed Reality Headset?
Apple has been said to be working on an AR device for a long time. In 2019, the tech giant filed a patent that shows what it may be working on behind closed doors.
But people have been working on the headset for the better part of a decade.
Gurman says that Reality Pro could be the next big thing after the iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch, which came out in 2015 to a lot of hype.
Mark Gurman has said that the launch on June 5 is “one of the most important events in the company’s history” and a chance to “herald a post-iPhone era.”
The executives at Apple are “clear-eyed about Apple’s challenges pushing into this new market,” but they are also “preparing for a future beyond the iPhone and iPad” with Reality Pro.
Gurman thinks that the first version won’t sell as well as the company’s other goods, but he thinks that future versions will likely do better as the product finds its place in the market.
For now, Apple will have to tell people why they would want such a device and how it’s better than the iPhone and iPad.
Paolo Pescatore, an expert at PP Foresight, said that the device will appeal to loyal fans and people who want “an immersive experience in areas like games and live events.”
But most people don’t use AR or VR technologies and don’t know much about them, which could hurt sales of the gear.
“The device will give the virtual and augmented reality market a much-needed boost and get people interested again,” Pescatore told MailOnline.
“In the end, this is still in its early stages and has a long way to go before it’s ready for the mass market and accepted by most people.”
“No one is jumping up and down to buy a VR headset or even watch 360-degree videos.”
Pescatore also said that Apple “cannot rely solely on the iPhone forever” because there is so much competition from other companies in new product categories like foldable devices.
He said, “The company has put a lot of attention on the iPhone as a way in to the Apple universe.” “This could mean it’s not up to date on new hardware.”
