I feel like whenever the topic of AR glasses come up, these large companies focus too much on cameras. When really, I'd be happy with just a persistent display that can be in my field of vision. A clock, notifications, maybe a map if I'm walking. I've been using the Viture One glasses as an external monitor and they've been great for privacy in public places. You definitely can't walk around with them since the internal prism messes with your sense of balance. But they are a nice step in the right direction.
Apple Scraps Work on Mac-Connected Augmented Reality Glasses
21–30 of 74 posts
Re: Apple Scraps Work on Mac-Connected Augmented Reality Glasses
#22Apple's adventures in XR are weird. I started my career as a dev working in VR apss. At the time there was consensus in the industry that apple was about to release something huge that would push the whole industry to the mainstream - and indeed you couldn't rely on any new VR/AR product or software without it being silently acquired in months and their website redirecting to apple. Fast forward one decade, nothing's…
Apple is centered around the iPhone, it's hard for them to make anything that isn't a peripheral of it. The best idea they've had in the last ten years is the Apple Watch, but I'm using Garmin because I don't have an iPhone. The Mac benefited from all the work Apple has done on the iPhone CPU, but the software scene on the Mac has been deteriorating because developers are using the same tools and the same toolkits to…
Macs obviously have an outsized mindshare and market share in Silicon Valley but globally make up like 5% of PC sales. In Apple’s own books the entire Mac division accounts for 8% of revenues. Apple is serious about the line, sure, but it doesn’t have anywhere close to the importance of iPhone for the company.
Re: Apple Scraps Work on Mac-Connected Augmented Reality Glasses
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
The Bigscreen Beyond is getting there in terms of form factor, but it achieves that in part by being a dumb headset which relies on a PC and external tracking beacons to work. There's no free lunch unfortunately, putting the brains in the headset itself is always going to add bulk. https://www.bigscreenvr.com/
A dumb headset is exactly what I'd want. I don't want yet another device with an OS that locks you into someone's f'ing ecosystem or alternately requires me to find apps specifically for it, etc.
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Re: Apple Scraps Work on Mac-Connected Augmented Reality Glasses
#24This is only semi related but I wonder what will happen to these huge hierarchical orgs when the pace of software development improves by 10-20x thanks to LLMs. How will these risk averse slow moving teams with a ton of process keep up with 100x more tiny teams of engineers who can ship whole features in days instead of months.
You don't have to worry, it's not going to happen. LLMs does/will make individuals more efficient, therefore, reducing number of developers maybe, but you will still have the exact same bottlenecks at the exact same places throttling the delivery speed.
Re: Apple Scraps Work on Mac-Connected Augmented Reality Glasses
#25Apple's adventures in XR are weird. I started my career as a dev working in VR apss. At the time there was consensus in the industry that apple was about to release something huge that would push the whole industry to the mainstream - and indeed you couldn't rely on any new VR/AR product or software without it being silently acquired in months and their website redirecting to apple. Fast forward one decade, nothing's…
Didn’t they release a pair of VR glasses last year?
Headset, not glasses
Re: Apple Scraps Work on Mac-Connected Augmented Reality Glasses
#26This is only semi related but I wonder what will happen to these huge hierarchical orgs when the pace of software development improves by 10-20x thanks to LLMs. How will these risk averse slow moving teams with a ton of process keep up with 100x more tiny teams of engineers who can ship whole features in days instead of months.
When one bottleneck is removed, that usually means the rate of change is bottlenecked somewhere else. Maybe in the release process, or testing? Or maybe the bottleneck is the willingness of customers to try new things? Risk-adverse customers will often avoid startups. Showing yourself to be trustworthy isn’t purely about the rate of feature development. If the other bottlenecks can’t be removed easily, instead of 10x…
Someone’s read The Goal!
100% agree. The SW pipeline is complicated. AI may one day slot into every part and improve velocity, but it will be piecemeal and better at some processes than others for a long while.
Re: Apple Scraps Work on Mac-Connected Augmented Reality Glasses
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
Apple is centered around the iPhone, it's hard for them to make anything that isn't a peripheral of it. The best idea they've had in the last ten years is the Apple Watch, but I'm using Garmin because I don't have an iPhone. The Mac benefited from all the work Apple has done on the iPhone CPU, but the software scene on the Mac has been deteriorating because developers are using the same tools and the same toolkits to…
Macs obviously have an outsized mindshare and market share in Silicon Valley but globally make up like 5% of PC sales. In Apple’s own books the entire Mac division accounts for 8% of revenues. Apple is serious about the line, sure, but it doesn’t have anywhere close to the importance of iPhone for the company.
I wonder if that's a 'kill your startup' pattern, that is, develop an app for Mac because you're surrounded by Mac users, but then you don't sell many units because the market is too small.
I had a time when I was involved with startups of various kinds (sometimes West Coast, sometimes Research Triangle Park, more often NYC or upstate.) I was a Windows user in a MacOS world and the most important accessory I packed was whatever I needed to hook up to mini-Displayport.
Re: Apple Scraps Work on Mac-Connected Augmented Reality Glasses
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
Didn’t they release a pair of VR glasses last year?
The Vision Pro, and despite being pretty good they were kind of a flop. Like I said elsewhere I think VR and AR are niche products tech companies and investors keep trying to make go mainstream because they showed up in a lot of sci-fi. I don't think many people want them.
If the Vision Pro was indistinguishable from a regular pair of glasses and didn't cost over $1000 it would take over the world. I don't think it's a case that people don't want them, it's more that people want what's in sci-fi you spoke of and not this early iteration.
Re: Apple Scraps Work on Mac-Connected Augmented Reality Glasses
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's still just a bit too clunky, like PDAs. Still waiting for an iPhone moment.
I don't think it's even that. I don't think most people want it. VR is for gaming. I can see it finding a solid niche there. Make a VR headset that connects to a PC/Mac with extremely low latency and focus all the engineering on the quality of the display and making it lightweight. Gamers will buy it. AR is IMHO for industrial uses. I could see it being incredibly valuable doing inspections of industrial systems, wor…
There are certain other things you can imagine VR being useful for like virtual explorations. But monitors actually work pretty well for that and, really, none of that has really developed beyond the gimmick stage. Yes, there are certain types of high-end gaming it works for but that's a niche of a niche that's decreased in size over time. (e.g. flight sims used to be a bigger thing)
We can imagine HUDs of various sorts with AR glasses that are light and non-obtrusive. But largely well into the future. You may have (probably do have) early adopters who can overlook the manifold limitations that exist today but now you have a tiny audience that isn't enough to drive interesting software development.
Re: Apple Scraps Work on Mac-Connected Augmented Reality Glasses
#30Apple reshuffles internal programs and product roadmaps all the time.
Just because a program with an internal codename gets terminated doesn't mean there aren't a bunch of other initiatives in related spaces going on.
And the work on the core technologies certainly doesn't end.
There's no product until there are boxes piling up in warehouses, getting ready to be shipped.
If only we could stop giving attention to these "news", which are really just propped up narratives for investors to nudge the market in their favor, and for Mark Gurman to get a paycheck.