The Apple Vision Pro first look is a mixed future

Watching your TV as a Webcam: Apple Launches Sonoma 17 and iOS Looks at the WWDC 2019 Updates

Apple will soon let you use FaceTime on Apple TV. The new capability leverages the iPhone’s Continuity Camera, allowing you to use your iPhone as a substitute for a webcam as you see and chat with the people you’re meeting with from your TV. It will even ensure that you’re in the frame using Center Stage.

From the above announcements, it is obvious that at this year’s WWDC, the use ofWidgets was big. They’re even coming to watchOS 10, which you can browse through for an at-a-glance look at various information by turning your watch’s digital crown. Apple is also adding several new watch faces, a way to measure how much time you spend in the daylight, cycling features, and trailhead information for hikers.

A new game mode on macOS will provide users with a better experience when playing games on a Mac, with lowered audio performance and a better gaming experience. Hideo Kojima announced that he will be releasing his games on the macOS, as part of the push into gaming.

Apple announced some visual upgrades to macOS Sonoma, which will now support widgets that you can add to your desktop, along with new moving screensavers that you can also use as your wallpaper. There are some new features in the browser, which allow you to create and pin web apps to your dock, and make profiles for different sessions.

Those aren’t the only updates coming with iPadOS 17. It will also feature a personalized lock screen, just like on iPhone, and will finally come with the Health app.

Apple is adding interactivewidget that allow you to access apps and features from homescreen with iPadOS 17. The device can now detect the fields in a PDF with updates for the Notes app. It will also let you work with others in real time to organize and annotate PDFs.

The new Check In feature that lets you share your location with someone you’re meeting, and a NameDrop feature allow you to easily share your email address or phone number with someone else. The ‘Hey” portion of Apple’s “Hey, Siri” trigger phrase has been dropped.

Along with a new journaling app, Apple revealed a number of new features for iOS 17. Standby is a new feature that allows your phone to display essential information, like time and date, when the screen is tilted horizontally while charging.

Apple has a new app for the mobile platform, called Journal. As its name implies, Journal will encourage you to log your thoughts about recent activities or trips. Apple says the app is secured with end-to-end encryption and that your logs are stored locally on your device. The app will arrive later this year.

Source: https://www.theverge.com/2023/6/5/23749243/apple-wwdc-2023-biggest-announcements-vision-pro-macbook-air-15-inch-ios-17

The Apple Mac Studio: A 15-inch laptop for AR and VR (and the Mac Air is a little more than 13 inches) and a big upgrade to the MacBook Air

The Mac Studio, which Apple calls a “performance powerhouse,” will come with options for either an M2 Max or M2 Ultra chip. The Mac Pro doesn’t have an option for PCIe expansion, but only the M2 Ultra chip. The Mac Pro starts at $6,999 and the Mac Studio starts at $1,999.

Apple is marketing the device as the “world’s thinnest” 15-inch laptop and says it weighs just a little over three pounds. The device has up to 18 hours of batterylife, 500 nits of brightness, and a1080p webcam. It costs $1,299, and you can order it today, with availability starting next week.

The new MacBook Air has a 15.3-inch display and the Vision Pro headset. That’s a pretty big upgrade to its MacBook Air lineup, which has only featured 13-inch displays up until now.

Ultimately, the headset’s software and user interface will be more important than the gadget itself. The Vision Pro will be launched next year. Based on a brief look at the device in a hands on area, Apple is off to a pretty good start on the hardware side.

The device is powered by two chips: the M2 and a new R1 chip for real-time sensor processing. According to Apple, the Vision Pro features a single strip of glass on the front of the device, along with a digital crown that lets you switch in and out of AR and VR. It also comes with support for spatial audio through built-in speakers and an external battery pack that’s capable of lasting two hours with a single charge.

Based on the little bit we’ve seen, it’s a dramatically better-looking device than any other AR or VR headset we’ve seen. The actual headset itself is quite thin, and most of the device’s heft and size is from the fabricky shield around it and the big, plushy band around the back. The goggles are slightly curved and should wrap around most faces fairly nicely. The whole thing is a nice silvery color, down to the cable coming out the left side and the iPhone-sized battery pack at the bottom that provides its two hours of battery life.

The small bumps you see on the sides of the Vision Pro’s band are where the built-in audio lives. (Spatial audio is one of the big selling points of the device.) Most of its other sensors and cameras are housed just under the front-facing glass; at just the right angle, you can see some of the cameras pointing outwards from the headset. The cheese grater-style vent runs underneath the eyes, and is supposed to push the hot air from the processor onto your cheeks.

Apple held its annual Worldwide Developers Conference. The first mixed reality headset from Apple is the big news. The very expensive device may have overshadowed the other news from the event, but the company announced a whole host of other stuff, including new Mac computers and updates to iOS, iPadOS, and macOS.

3D Avatar: Contact Posters for the iOS 17 Upgrade and Naming, and a Misdemeanor for Virtual Presence

Apple’s upcoming software update, known as “iOS 17,” is due later this year. New Contact Posters are in the center of the picture. This is a customizable design you can create for yourself, and it’ll show up on the caller’s screen when you call them. The Contacts app displays contact posters of your friends, so when you pull up their info or chat with them, they can see the images they chose to represent themselves. Contact Posters also come into play when you trigger another new feature: NameDrop.

The device is being promoted as a tool for work and play, with features meant for streaming video and playing games, and taking business meetings all in one device. Its take on 3Davatar for virtual presence is unique and includes a setting called VisionOS that uses technology to make a deep fake of the person on the call. You appear to be a Memoji, but it’s more horrifying than that.

Using the headset seems very Minority Report. Rather than using controllers, it uses gesture controls to control the virtual interface. A physical dial on the headset lets you adjust how much of the digital screen occupies your vision, and visual pass through lets you see the room around you in real time as well.