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Apple Scraps Work on Mac-Connected Augmented Reality Glasses

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Re: Apple Scraps Work on Mac-Connected Augmented Reality Glasses

#51

Post by Damogran6 »

api wrote: post #7
torben-friis wrote: post #4

Apple'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…

I think this is a niche technology that people keep trying to make go mainstream, but most people just don't want it. For most people (including myself) trying VR a little is a novelty, but it's not something I want every day, and AR seems like it'd be useless or annoying unless I were using it in e.g. some industrial context like a heads up display. It's like NFTs in gaming, NFTs in general, AI shoehorned into place…

FWIW, with today's social media environment...I'm ACTIVELY managing the ways I'm interrupted. Having that in front of my field of view is a non starter.

I'm an early adopter, but even at that, I don't use VR a whole lot over the course of a month. It's a tech that people (nerds) really want to take off and it just hasn't. I'm not sure it will...it could be replaced with other equivalent technologies that aren't strapped to your face.

Re: Apple Scraps Work on Mac-Connected Augmented Reality Glasses

#52

Post by Miraste »

jmyeet wrote: post #20

The lesson here is that simply wanting something to be true doesn't make it possible or practical. We also tend to get carried away with sci-fi becoming reality. You see this constantly where people desperately hope for some form of FTL. They want it to be true and cling to fringe theories because of that. Companies have been trying to make VR happen for decades. It's not going to happen. Not only do people not want…

VR has a long way to go on the technical side, but true blacks and latency are both basically solved. Vision Pros have a motion to photon latency of ~12ms, which is unnoticeable, and miniLED and OLED allow for true blacks in plenty of headsets. Depth-of-field hasn't been solved yet, but it is doable. Processing power and battery are limitations, but not critically so.

IMO, none of those things are major factors compared to how insanely clunky current VR headsets are. That's where the real fundamental issues show up-these headsets need to lose ~90% of their weight and size before they'll catch on.

Re: Apple Scraps Work on Mac-Connected Augmented Reality Glasses

#53

Post by hx8 »

PaulHoule wrote: post #27
paxys wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 w…

I think this might be happening more for iPad Pro style apps than for MacOS style apps now, but the failure pattern of building great software for small market hardware is historic. It was a bigger deal before IBM Compatibility.

Re: Apple Scraps Work on Mac-Connected Augmented Reality Glasses

#54

Post by stetrain »

gyomu wrote: post #30

Apple 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 thes…

Yes, this report could actually mean for example that Apple is focusing on an alternative glasses product that doesn't require so much computation power.

If the path of the previous project led them to a product that would have to be connected to a Mac to work, that seems like a dead-end that wouldn't make a compelling consumer product in the near future.

You could write a similar headline about "Apple cancels iPod Phone Project" back in 2005 or whenever they made the decision to go with the Darwin/touchscreen phone instead of the iPod-based alternative.

Re: Apple Scraps Work on Mac-Connected Augmented Reality Glasses

#56

Post by m_ke »

hobs wrote: post #41
m_ke wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm saying there will be 10-100x more small dev shops competing with the big cos. Pizza sized teams that own the whole product and can just ship stuff without the dog and pony show that's common at larger orgs.

They'll build a billion middle of the road bland messes?

No, some of them will build midjourney with no pressure to sell like instagram did

Re: Apple Scraps Work on Mac-Connected Augmented Reality Glasses

#57

Post by chewmieser »

weberer wrote: post #21

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 inter…

The camera is one of the most important features for me. I had (and returned) a pair of INMO Air2's primarily because of the poor camera quality. Waiting to see how the TCL RayNeo X2 performs (was supposed to ship in December, still waiting) but may just cancel those and wait for the next generation to release, which was just announced at CES.

I love the notifications and the other stuff as well (mapping, translations... Even streaming YouTube through them while I exercise) but my primary driver for these was to have a rapidly accessible camera. I found great success with the Humane AI Pin primarily for this feature.

FYI there are some other options available today for glasses without cameras (Vuzix has some, as well as some announced at CES) and/or with simpler screens... As well as some with screens in the frame (like Halliday) if the rainbow effect gets to you.

Re: Apple Scraps Work on Mac-Connected Augmented Reality Glasses

#58

Post by rob74 »

nxobject wrote: post #5

Interesting reminder from the article that those AR glasses are one of a family of ideas Apple is simultaneously pursuing: > The company is still working on successors to the Vision Pro, including updated versions of the original model. It also has other concepts in the works, such as AirPods with cameras, and executives still hope to eventually create a set of standalone AR glasses someday.

Yeah, AirPods with cameras. Cameras sticking out of your ears. I can't help trying (and failing) to imagine how cool that would look...

Re: Apple Scraps Work on Mac-Connected Augmented Reality Glasses

#59

Post by pachorizons »

In the U.S. in 2024, 32% of adult Americans reported being the target of workplace bullying[1]. Nearly 3 in 10 women (29%) and 1 in 10 men (10%) reported being subjected to debilitating sexual, physical or psychological abuse by their partner[2]. This means that 1/3rd of workers do not feel safe in their workplace, and a significant number of people don't feel safe in their own homes. There is no way these people are going to put anything on their faces that obscures their vision - not a pair of glasses, and not a giant headset. Until these numbers come down, VR and AR will never, ever go mainstream.

[1]: https://workplacebullying.org/2024-wbi-us-survey/

[2]: https://www.thehotline.org/stakeholders/domestic-violence-st...

Re: Apple Scraps Work on Mac-Connected Augmented Reality Glasses

#60

Post by maxsilver »

paxys wrote: post #22
PaulHoule wrote: post #9

Earlier 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.

> but globally make up like 5% of PC sales.

This may be true globally, but isn't necessarily reflective of actual market share for the markets targeted.

If your startup is selling to people in say, United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia or New Zealand, then Mac marketshare is 20% to 30% of all computer usage (depending on which nation, how you count, and whose measurements you use, etc).

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