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Apple’s new headset meets reality

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Re: Apple’s new headset meets reality

#51
AR is impossible to do well enough with todays technology. This is also the reality for Apple sadly.

VR works very well today. But it's a niche business sort of like racing wheels and joysticks. So not very interesting to go VR only for the big players.

AR and VR are separate things, and it's sort of a delusion that has been pushed by Meta and others that one leads to the other. Or that they can be combined even.

Re: Apple’s new headset meets reality

#52
post #40

I don't think there is a consumer market for head mounted AR anymore - if there ever really was. That makes me sad having been in AR since 2010 - and knowing what we could do with it if done right. I just don't think society currently has an appetite for a $3000 product that gives the wearer visual superpowers (that is the promise after all) and is an impossible to ignore distinction between classes. I honestly think…

> and knowing what we could do with it if done right The implication here is that you know a compelling case for "what we could do with it" and how to "do it right", so what are the answers (because I'm stumped)?

For AR, the vision is more or less an arbitrarily "good" (across multiple dimensions) HUD. Although we seem to be pretty far from that.

Re: Apple’s new headset meets reality

#53

I don't think there is a consumer market for head mounted AR anymore - if there ever really was. That makes me sad having been in AR since 2010 - and knowing what we could do with it if done right. I just don't think society currently has an appetite for a $3000 product that gives the wearer visual superpowers (that is the promise after all) and is an impossible to ignore distinction between classes. I honestly think…

1st iteration feels more geared toward developers/companies. Then release a cheaper consumer model down the road. This thing also needs software.

Re: Apple’s new headset meets reality

#54

I don't think there is a consumer market for head mounted AR anymore - if there ever really was. That makes me sad having been in AR since 2010 - and knowing what we could do with it if done right. I just don't think society currently has an appetite for a $3000 product that gives the wearer visual superpowers (that is the promise after all) and is an impossible to ignore distinction between classes. I honestly think…

The whole concept of AR/VR rises dystopian red flags, everything Mark Zuckerberg did with their attempt looked somewhere between scary and dumb.

I think this is because these companies are preoccupied with controlling the content, they envision doing the same things we do IRL but on their platforms. This is problematic because it means people instead of improving their lives and actually doing things are expected to be pretending doing it and spent their precious lives and money away on this BS.

VR and AR becomes exciting only when you can explore yourself and the world by doing things you can't do in real life. Maybe you want to try being assassin? Maybe you you want to try being from another gender or species? Maybe you want to try being in an actual war zone? Maybe you want to try to create a society with completely different rules from we have now? But no, these are too dangerous because someone might be offended, so in VR you are supposed to go to Paris and spend real money throwing virtual darts or something. They also can't distance themselves from the moral panic because they must milk the platform by controlling the content.

It is outright dystopian and dumb. The core promise of the platforms is "do the same things you do when you don't already do on our platforms so we can monetise that too" and this doesn't converge with the core promise of the tech which is to do things you can't do in real life.

Re: Apple’s new headset meets reality

#55
I think there's a false leak here, because one of the comments on the Bloomberg article mentions them going with a design where the battery is external and connected via a wire to the headset (to prevent heat issues). That seems like such a bizarre design choice for Apple that I can't imagine they'd actually do that. Just... make the chip weaker?

(Like if you don't have pockets, where does the battery go? Or if you're sitting in a chair your back pockets may not be easily accessible, which means the battery is either in front and you're constantly bumping the wire, or it's on the floor or something. I know it's not a completely unsolvable problem because the Vive had that special head strap that draped down the middle of your head which was fine, but I still got tangled up from time to time.)

Re: Apple’s new headset meets reality

#56
I once demoed the VR goggles at Facebook HQ on a tour, my boss and I put on the glasses and were immersed in a world where there was a large dragon. We really roared with excitement and kept saying “wow, amazing” and shaking our head in astonishment as we took the headset off. Then, later we said our goodbyes and left. In the parking lot my boss and I turned to each other both agreed, that VR headset wasn’t that impressive at all, we just acted impressed to be polite.

I think these VR headsets are built for the demo. How much daily demand they have is probably much more limited than the builders think it is.

Also, prolonged use causes nausea in a large percentage of people.

Re: Apple’s new headset meets reality

#57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you could have UI overlayed on the world around you, it would be huge, and would change how people use computers, like the smartphone did. Is this really a game-changer? Technology adoption is all about tradeoffs. We already have location-based services and applications that are granular enough for most purposes. AR applications add sensory awareness and localized interaction at the cost of distraction and intru…

It's absolutely a game-changer. Imagine having driving or walking directions laid out on the street in front of you. Imagine using AI to help you identify things like engine parts in your car, plants, birds, other people (never forget a name again). Looking at a package and scanning the barcode to get price comparisons. Recipe directions on the counter in front of you, even labeling the next ingredient and how much o…

Whether or not we're way off-base or not, it's certainly possible to envision a HUD in a fairly ordinary looking pair of glasses. It's certainly SF today but it's possible to imagine. There are of course various creepy aspects as well but, honestly, if the technology can be made to work well, most people will just get over that.

Re: Apple’s new headset meets reality

#58

I don't think there is a consumer market for head mounted AR anymore - if there ever really was. That makes me sad having been in AR since 2010 - and knowing what we could do with it if done right. I just don't think society currently has an appetite for a $3000 product that gives the wearer visual superpowers (that is the promise after all) and is an impossible to ignore distinction between classes. I honestly think…

>I don't think there is a consumer market for head mounted AR anymore - if there ever really was.

All it takes is a killer app to come along. AR music instrument instruction is my bet. If Apple released this one app along with the glasses it would become a massive hit.

Re: Apple’s new headset meets reality

#59

I once demoed the VR goggles at Facebook HQ on a tour, my boss and I put on the glasses and were immersed in a world where there was a large dragon. We really roared with excitement and kept saying “wow, amazing” and shaking our head in astonishment as we took the headset off. Then, later we said our goodbyes and left. In the parking lot my boss and I turned to each other both agreed, that VR headset wasn’t that impr…

> Also, prolonged use causes Nausea in large percentage of people.

Supposedly Apple has been working off a patent that fights this specifically. Not arguing for or against whether this headset will slap (personally, I don't care for VR and think it's overrated) but just relaying some info.

Re: Apple’s new headset meets reality

#60

I once demoed the VR goggles at Facebook HQ on a tour, my boss and I put on the glasses and were immersed in a world where there was a large dragon. We really roared with excitement and kept saying “wow, amazing” and shaking our head in astonishment as we took the headset off. Then, later we said our goodbyes and left. In the parking lot my boss and I turned to each other both agreed, that VR headset wasn’t that impr…

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