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Apple’s Challenge for the Next Vision Pro: Making It Easier to Wear

Apple’s Challenge for the Next Vision Pro: Making It Easier to Wear

Leave a Comment / apple, Augmented Reality, News, Tech News / By

In a recent report by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, it has been revealed that Apple is diligently working on enhancing the wearability of its upcoming Vision Pro headset. 

Apple’s Challenge for the Next Vision Pro: Making It Easier to Wear
Image Source: edition.cnn.com

The current iteration of the Vision Pro, a mixed-reality headset combining augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), has received acclaim for its performance and features. However, a significant concern arises due to its perceived bulkiness and discomfort during prolonged usage.

Gurman’s report indicates that Apple is addressing these concerns through a focus on a “smaller and lighter design” for the next Vision Pro. The current model, weighing approximately a pound, has been deemed too heavy for some users even in short durations. While an over-the-head strap is considered for the initial model, the long-term solution rests in making the hardware itself lighter, possibly incorporating lighter materials. The anticipated launch for this improved headset is speculated to be next year.

One of the prominent issues faced by users of the current Vision Pro is its lack of accommodation for prescription eyeglasses. Apple’s attempt to address this by partnering with Zeiss for special lenses has posed challenges in dealing with various combinations of these lenses. As a potential solution, Apple is reportedly contemplating manufacturing headsets with prescription lenses pre-installed in the factory.

However, this solution is not without its complications. Gurman highlights concerns that Apple might be perceived as a healthcare provider, a role the tech giant may not want to assume. Additionally, the inclusion of built-in prescription lenses may limit the sharing or resale of headsets, and with people’s vision prescriptions changing over time, this approach might not be universally effective in the long run.

Also Read: Japan to Propose Rules for Generative AI to G7 Leaders: Yomiuri

Apple’s commitment to improving the wearability of the Vision Pro signals a strategic move towards making mixed reality a mainstream computing platform. If Apple can successfully create a headset that is comfortable for extended use, it could revolutionize the landscape of AR and VR applications, ushering in a new era of immersive and user-friendly experiences. As technology enthusiasts eagerly await the release, Apple’s pursuit of comfort in the next Vision Pro may indeed mark a significant milestone in the evolution of mixed reality devices.

Meta

Is Meta testing Reels on Quest?

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On its Quest headset, Meta is testing a means for users to watch Reels. CEO Mark Zuckerberg posted a video on Meta’s broadcast channel showcasing how a Reel will appear in virtual reality.

It appears that you can browse through Reels in a window that opens against your virtual background, much like when you open other apps on the OS.

Meta
Image Source: bizzbuzz.news

It’s unclear whether Reels will be included in Meta’s Instagram app for the Quest or whether users will be able to test it out. The Verge contacted Meta for comment, but they didn’t react right away.

Also Read: How Exciting Is The New Apple Health Features?

In any case, adding Reels to Quest is an indication that Meta is prepared to integrate its systems and apps more tightly. Additionally, it makes an announcement just a week after Meta unveiled the $499 Quest 3 and days after Apple unveiled the $3,499 Vision Pro.

During the WWDC23 event, Apple demonstrated the Vision Pro Mixed Reality headset. The $3499 headset’s transparent visor and several cameras for motion and vision tracking enable it to offer Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality content.

Apple is actively promoting its platforms, apps, and services on the Visio Pro. On the day that Vision Pro launches, content from Disney+ and its affiliated content producers will be available.

Zuckerberg responded to the Vision Pro by claiming Apple’s vision for the device isn’t the one he wants, noting that Apple primarily focused on solitary activities during its presentation. According to Zuckerburg, “Our vision for the metaverse and presence is fundamentally social. It’s about people interacting in new ways and feeling closer in new ways.”

Quest 3, the next-generation virtual and mixed-reality headgear, was unveiled by Zuckerberg last week and will be available later this year. The 128GB headgear starts at $499.99, and customers will also have the option of adding more storage.

Also Read: What’s so ‘pro’ about the Apple Vision Pro headset?

It has a newer Snapdragon chipset, which offers graphics performance that is more than twice as fast as Quest 2’s Snapdragon GPU from the same generation. According to the business, “On Quest 3, our best-in-class Meta Reality technology lets you seamlessly blend your real world with the virtual one.”

Meta is motivated by the creation of a unified ecosystem, to put it simply. Although social media networks like Whatsapp, Instagram, Facebook, and others exist, Meta would work to maintain the Quest ecosystem’s social nature by encouraging user interaction.

Echo VR

Why is Meta shutting down Echo VR?

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The critically acclaimed virtual reality game Echo VR will be going down in August, Meta announced last week. Since then, previous Meta consulting CTO John Carmack and Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth have both provided additional information about the shutdown.

The multiplayer VR-based game’s developer, Ready At Dawn, said on Tuesday that the game will be ending on August 1st, 2023 in a piece on Medium. According to the statement, gamers can play to their hearts’ content for the time being, buy the game, and re-download it.

Echo VR
Image Source: fossbytes.com

However, the article stated that following that, the game’s servers and services would be turned off. Echo Points can still be used by players up until that point, but there will be “no refunds on in-app purchases, DLC, and in-game currencies,” according to the post.

The creator of Echo VR, Ready at Dawn, has given a clue that it would be concentrating on the future. The Echo VR development team stated in a blog post on the closure that “by no means was this decision made lightly.

Also Read: When does Hogwarts Legacy come out?

But it was made for many good reasons and chief among them is the studio coming together to focus on our next project. We can’t say anything about it yet, but we are all excited and need all hands on deck.”

According to UploadVR, Bosworth stated in an Instagram AMA that while the player base of Echo VR was “loyal as all get out,” it has decreased to the “low ten thousand.” He noted, “Unfortunately, keeping things alive takes work.

This is not like a return on investment money standpoint; it’s just those resources could be put to other uses that I think will be useful to the now tens of millions of people who are in VR.” Additionally, he said that certain “regulatory constraints” in Meta make maintaining the game more expensive.

The servers for Echo VR will continue to run until 1st August at 1 PM ET, after which time they will cease to exist entirely. While one would have thought that Meta would make it playable in a way similar to how Velan Studios is making Knockout City available, Bosworth appears to be ruling that out.

Echo VR has rapidly risen to the level of an e-sport in recent years. According to the Oculus website, Echo VR may be used with the Meta’s Oculus Quest, Quest 2, Meta Quest Pro, and Rift S devices.

Also Read: Why Apex Legends Mobile is shutting down?

After donning their headsets, participants are transported into a zero-gravity arena where they engage in robotic combat using a combination of gaming prowess and athletic prowess. According to The Verge, the game was one of the centerpieces of the Oculus Quest and Rift S launches.

Following the launch of the Meta Quest (formerly Oculus Quest) and Rift S, Facebook acquired Ready At Dawn in 2020, establishing Echo VR as one of the company’s flagship games

metaverse

Will the metaverse be good for society?

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Our interactions with the outside world will be dramatically altered by the metaverse.

Life as we knew it was significantly altered by the worldwide pandemic and ensuing lockdowns. Ironically, as more individuals accepted the concept of staying home and engaging just online, the metaverse also received a major boost.

metaverse
Image Source: weforum.org

The Metaverse is intended to be a three-dimensional environment where people can communicate with one another in a more cutting-edge manner.

It essentially consists of a 3D platform with improved features that employ Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) technology to produce a more realistic experience.

It holds enormous potential for anything from social networking to business settings. However, the Metaverse encourages solitude and a disconnection from reality by its very nature. One reason the metaverse has sparked so many worries about society’s future is because of this.

Immersive learning, whether it be in the classroom or during corporate training, can have a longer-lasting effect on people by making topics more understandable and applicable.

A more comprehensive and all-encompassing approach to education will result from the metaverse’s influence on practical learning, which will involve witnessing the process as a component of the training. The eCommerce industry is already working to develop an integrated augmented reality that enhances the buying experience.

The influence will continue to grow and encompass more products. The experience that people want to have the most is how the metaverse will affect travel. Beyond just looking at images of the places we want to visit, metaverse will enable us to feel as though we are actually there, experiencing every second.

Although it has several advantageous effects, it also has some drawbacks. Our data has slowly turned into a precious asset for many marketing organizations because the majority of our professional and personal lives are now spent online. Our concerns about privacy have already increased with the emergence of intrusive technologies.

The more important query at this point is how the metaverse will regulate privacy. It can be quite tough to keep kids away from this cutting-edge technology. Therefore, it becomes crucial to shield kids from the negative effects of the metaverse. A complete virtual environment might be used to demonstrate the same in a more forceful manner.

Since metaverse requires rather advanced technology for the best VR experience, not everyone might be able to pay for the technology. The socio-economic divide might be directly impacted by and widened by the metaverse. Social media is frequently used by people to construct false identities.

This issue is certain to be prevalent, even in the metaverse.

The immersive internet would open up billions of dollars in wealth for society and let humans perceive the real and the virtual in ways they never could have before. To provide the maximum benefit for the community as a whole instead of a small elite, we should focus on creating an open metaverse as opposed to a closed metaverse controlled by Big Tech.

If we are successful, we may anticipate a constantly changing, decentralized, and creator-driven system that offers limitless chances to produce value.

AR glasses

Will 2023 be the year of AR glasses?

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Even though smart AR glasses with augmented reality capabilities haven’t completely taken over, a lot of applications for augmented reality are now in use.

Applications of today frequently take the shape of Head-up Displays (HUDs), which are transparent displays that present data without obstructing the view, similar to a window with writings on it. Except that the annotations are data that adjust to the surroundings being examined. HUDs were first created for use in military airplanes.

AR glasses
Image Source: builtin.com

The Integrated Visual Augmentation System, a $22 billion program launched by the American Army this year, will create mixed reality battle goggles (IVAS). With the use of the new eyewear, soldiers may communicate in real-time about information like maps or enemy locations while they are engaged in combat.

However, HUDs are already being employed in other industries, including cars and commercial aviation. HUDs, which can display crucial information like driving directions on the driver’s windscreen without requiring the driver to take their eyes off the road, is viewed as the next step in advancing the driving experience, especially for cars.

Automakers like Kia, who employ the HUD in models like the Kia EV6, Kia Niro, and others, are already implementing this form of AR HUD.

Assisted reality is a different version of AR that is being used in a variety of fields. It is comparable to Augmented Reality in that information is shown on a screen over the user’s surroundings, but it is less immersive.

One business, RealWear, creates head-mounted devices for aided reality for front-line workers in sectors such as healthcare, energy, manufacturing, and automotive. According to Jon Arnold, vice president of EMEA at RealWear, the primary use cases for XR (or extended reality, which encompasses both augmented reality and aided reality) today are focused on business and security.

The potential for how AR glasses will change our user experience—and our lives—grows as digital behemoths like Google, Apple, and Magic Leap draw closer to releasing new types of smart glasses.

Take the Metaverse as an illustration. However, headsets like The Magic Leap 2 provide a fully immersive experience even while XR gear isn’t yet ready for the Metaverse (it’s too pricey, too large, or just not very good).

Users will require wearable tech and glasses like these to take them there if they intend to spend any time in the metaverse.

Faster networks for AR will enable regular employees to better interact in real-time with their international teams. What precisely does this look like? Everyone participating in a virtual presentation or meeting would be able to access the same material at the same time and collaborate on real-time digital content interaction thanks to 5G-enabled AR.

AR and VR are still far from being completely supported by today’s 5G. Meanwhile, cutting-edge smart glasses solutions continue such as in Japan. Japanese customs authorities employ smart glasses to combat smuggling since they can instantly share cargo photographs with other experienced inspectors.

VR remote Work App

VR remote Work App Released By Facebook, Calling It A Step Toward The “Metaverse.”

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A new VR remote Work App was launched by Facebook on Thursday. Users of the company’s Oculus Quest 2 headsets can hold conferences as avatars.
Many companies continue to work from home after the Covid-19 pandemic shut down physical workspaces, and as a new variant is sweeping the globe, Facebook’s Horizon Workrooms beta test is timely.
In recent weeks, Facebook’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, has talked about a futuristic “metaverse.”
The world’s biggest social community has invested closely in digital and augmented reality, growing hardware which includes its Oculus VR headsets, operating on AR glasses and wristband technologies, and buying a slew of VR gaming studios, inclusive of BigBox VR, to name only some examples.
If Facebook succeeds in gaining a dominant position in this space, which it believes will be the next big computing platform, it will be less dependent in the future on other hardware manufacturers, such as Apple.
“Boz” Bosworth, VP of Reality Labs at Facebook, said that the new Workrooms app gives “a good sense” of how the company envisions elements of the metaverse in the near future.
According to Bosworth, this is “one of those foundational steps” in the right direction during a VR remote Work App news conference.

VR remote Work App
Image source: www.deccanherald.com

It was coined in the 1992 dystopian novel “Snow Crash” to describe immersive, shared spaces that can be accessed across different platforms where the physical and digital merge. An “embodied internet,” according to Zuckerberg.
Recent earnings calls by tech CEOs have discussed how their companies could shape this futuristic world. These consist of Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, Roblox’s David Baszucki, and Match Group’s Shar Dubey.
To work on the metaverse project in July, Facebook announced it was creating a product team within its AR and VR group Facebook Reality Labs.
Avatar users can design avatar versions of themselves to meet in virtual reality conference rooms and collaborate on shared whiteboards or documents, while still using their own physical desk and computer keyboard. With the Quest 2 headsets, which cost about $300, you can connect up to 16 people in VR, and a total of 50 people with video conferencing. Bosworth said that Facebook now uses Workrooms for internal meetings on a regular basis.
As part of the agreement, Workrooms users’ conversations and materials will not be used to target ads on Facebook. In addition, users must adhere to Oculus’ VR community standards, which can be reported to Oculus if they violate them.
According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, Facebook these days draws up the income of its Oculus Quest 2 headsets and brings back the foam face-liners because of reviews of skin irritability.
As a result of the recall, Quest 2 headset sales, which have yet to be officially announced by the company, are estimated to be around 4 million units. Revenue from AR and VR, as well as e-commerce, came to $497 million in the second quarter of 2021 for Facebook, which is a significant amount.

In the United States, Facebook is a company that offers online social networking services. Facebook was founded in 2004 by Harvard University students Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes. With a couple of billion users, half of whom used it daily, Facebook had become the world’s largest social network by 2012.
Facebook’s appeal stems in part from Zuckerberg’s insistence that participants be honest about who they are from the start; customers are prohibited from using fictitious names on the site.
The company’s management argued that transparency is important for forming non-public relationships, sharing thoughts and information, and constructing society as a whole. A peer-to-peer community of Facebook customers makes it less complicated for agencies to connect with consumers.
Facebook, which has a market capitalization of more than $600 billion, made $70.7 billion in sales last year. Therefore, Zuckerberg is one of the world’s wealthiest people today, according to Forbes.