The last few years have been a blur of rumors, leaks, and announcements about augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) headsets. For the most part, Google has remained pretty quiet. A bit of news has broken this week, making it appear that Google plans to join the likes of Microsoft, Apple, and other tech giants in the AR hardware game.
Only a few days have passed since we last talked about the Apple augmented reality/mixed reality (AR/MR) headset, and we already have more to report. Unfortunately, this time, the news isn't great. According to Bloomberg, Apple's rumored AR headset may be delayed and we may not see it hitting the shelves until as late as 2023.
Over the past few months, rumors of work on an Apple augmented reality/mixed reality (AR/MR) headset have shaped up to be quite exciting. According to a recent report that Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo prepared for investors, the upcoming Apple AR headset may require the same level of computing power as the MacBook Pro. Kuo has also stated that the device should offer performance much higher than that of the latest iPhones.
Google isn't one to shy away from starting and killing off experiments, even ones that cost it a great deal of time and money. If you're a company with so many resources anyway, you can always chalk it up to experience. That's true for simpler things like the Inbox email app and the Daydream VR platform, as well as for more expensive ones like Google Glass. The company's direction with the latter and augmented reality, in general, hasn't exactly been the most consistent or most reliable, but it seems that Google wants to make another and deeper stab at it with a few curious job openings.
Today at INNO Day 2021, OPPO revealed Air Glass, a new "assisted reality" wearable that isn't quite like the AR (augmented reality) glasses of the past. While our minds will likely jump to Google Glass or maybe even the Magic Leap One when talking about augmented reality headsets, the OPPO Air Glass looks quite a bit different from both of those products. For starters, OPPO Air Glass uses a detachable monocle design, but beyond that, it also seems to narrow the focus of AR glasses with a straightforward heads-up display and a small but useful collection of apps.
Apple's augmented reality headset could pack a surprise, according to the latest analyst predictions, with suggestions of a more gradual dive into smart glasses upended with the idea of a more ambitious first product. Long the topic of rumor - one which Apple seems happy to periodically stoke - the AR wearable would arguably be the biggest product announcement for the Cupertino firm since the original iPhone.
The artist known as KAWS worked with General Mills to create a pair of designs for Reese's Puffs cereal. Each box includes a QR code that links to a smartphone app called KAWS Puffs, developed in collaboration with Acute Art. Using the box as a visual base, KAWS Puffs open an augmented reality cereal portal through which the user is invited to step, into a new realm.
Augmented reality or AR, sometimes called mixed reality or MR, is one of the holy grails in the computing industry, not just because of its entertainment value but its productivity potential as well. Unlike how VR pretty much requires occluding your vision completely, AR headgear can afford to be more lightweight and more comfortable than bulky VR headsets, and that is the proposition that Nreal is making with its Light glasses that is finally making their way to the US as it earlier promised.
Facebook parent company Meta is showing off one of the projects that its Reality Labs Research teams have focused on to bring more immersion to virtual reality. The project is a haptic glove designed to bring a sense of touch to virtual reality environments in the future. The goal of the project is to allow people to touch the virtual world.
Samsung revealed their next generation of RAM tech this week with LPDDR5X DRAM. Generally a release like the one Samsung's made public this week has a focus on smartphones, specifically. In this case, the company made an effort to point to uses for this RAM beyond the smartphone.
Although the days of smartphone-worn VR headsets are mostly over by now, there are still some mixed reality (XR) experiences that can still be powered by our mobile devices. Apple's vision for its own AR ecosystem, for example, might be driven by an iPhone, but it isn't really the first to venture into that space. Qualcomm has long been trying to make inroads in mobile XR, and its latest Snapdragon Spaces makes a big push to entice developers to jump on its platform, with some assistance from partners like T-Mobile and its 5G network.
There's no Ford F-150 Lightning parked on my driveway, but I can pretend there is. Even were I one of the 160,000+ people who have now put down a reservation for Ford's all-electric pickup, I'd still have to be patient: deliveries aren't expected to begin until spring 2022. Until then, we have appetite-whetting workarounds, like Ford's new augmented reality app.