Paul Haddad 
The reality distortion field better be at record levels next week because I still don't get this headset stuff. I'd understand it as an R&D side project to be ready for 15-20 years from now when battery/compute tech might be ready. But this moonshot approach of throwing tons of resources at it and shipping something maybe even this year? Just don't see it working out.
Wait now it’s supposed to be a gaming headset? I thought it was supposed to an AR headset focused on productivity.
Jay 🆘
Matt ⎊ 
Alex Heath@paul so no Ivory for headset?
@alexeheath maybe if Apple sells dev models for $1/each I'd take a look.
Everton Favretto@paul it's going to be a monumental flop.
@paul It's not coming. Brace for the avalanche of articles next Monday talking about how it's "facing further delays."
@paul There is no "killer app," nobody wants a face computer, and Apple has been beating the drum of *augmented* reality, not *virtual* reality, but people talk about them interchangably.
AT MOST it's a device aimed at AR developers to give them a common, predictable environment on which to test complex interactions for use on other or future devices.
But I'm also prepared to be 100% wrong.
@paul Apple releasing a consumer product with an external battery pack that hides the world from you? It doesn't pass the smell test. But I'm also an idiot, so.
bezmuth
samf@jsit @paul The largest hint I've seen in favor of a headset incoming: Sean Murray, founder of Hello Games (No Man's Sky), has a habit of tweeting relevant emoji before an update. Today, it was an apple. And NMS has a strong Playstation VR presence already. Could be trolling, of course!
@jsit @paul Maybe! The game managed to launch on Switch, so anything's possible. https://www.macrumors.com/2023/05/30/no-mans-sky-maker-teases-apple-announcement/
‘No Man’s Sky’ is Coming to iPad in Addition to Mac Later this Year – TouchArcade
As many of you are well aware, today kicked off Apple's annual Worldwide Developer Conference, aka WWDC 2022, aka Dub Dub. While this has historically been a pretty big event in terms of mobile gaming announcements, it feels like recent years have lacked any major gaming news and with the conference...
@jsit @paul https://youtu.be/YdjLewAzVZQ it was that
Also: honestly, why would anyone game on a Mac these days?
No Man's Sky Mac Launch Trailer
@samf Because it’s the biggest screen you have capable of playing games maybe? Even if you have an Apple TV, a lot of big games never come there. Someone with an iMac who likes games might just be waiting for something to come to them and be grateful for this.
@samf “I like games and I have an iMac but I’m not going to drop hundreds of dollars on a console.”
I imagine a lot of Mac users might not even have a TV.
@jsit Oh I'm thinking Mac vs. Windows more than PC vs. console. Is there a significant overlap of the “I don't own a TV” and “I like gaming" demographics?
In fairness: NMS came out a decade ago, and they've been making moves to sweep up any and all users for years now. Switch release, PSVR, etc. They want an experience on any gaming platform, and macOS is an obvious place to explore.
@samf Even if you own a TV, what are you gonna play on it? You’d need a console, too. I bet there are plenty of people who would play games if they were available. Apple Arcade is great for that, especially games that actually become available on the Apple TV. Not all people who like games want to find room in their budget for extra hardware.
@samf I like gaming, but not enough that I would use Windows instead of Mac.
@samf I think gamers forget there is room for a HUUUUUUUGE gray area between “I played Words With Friends for a while in 2008” and “I have several glowing Alienware builds.” Everybody likes games! The more people who can play good games the better.
@jsit Very true. When it comes to gaming, I've been wanting Apple to get their shit together for years. Apple Arcade on Apple TV is a prime example of how far they still have to go. Even when they own the whole ecosystem, it's still a mess.
@samf There’s still some good stuff on there. The new TMNT game is a good sign of life I thought. But the fact that they couldn’t get No Man’s Sky on there is discouraging.
I also am encouraged that there are dedicated Apple Arcade displays at their stores, and that new spate of commercials for it.
Non-sleazy ad-free gaming for $5/mo is such a great bargain if you “just kinda” like games.
https://www.kilobitspersecond.com/2019/12/27/apple-arcade-games-that-wont-piss-you-off/
Apple Arcade: Games That Won’t Piss You Off
This holiday I’ve been traveling to spend the week visiting some of my family, including four of my nieces and nephews. My youngest niece is 10 and I thought she’d like sitting on the couch solving some kind of puzzle-y iPad game with me. I went to Apple Arcade and downloaded Tint, which I’d never […]
@samf I’m surprised to see, actually, that the iMac page on apple dot com doesn’t mention gaming or Arcade at all. That’s too bad.
@jsit Perhaps! I can say that in my personal experience—and as someone all-in on the Apple ecosystem—gaming on Mac has been absolutely miserable. The lack of hardware upgradability alone is a dealbreaker. Like I was checking out the Diablo 4 open beta a while back and needed a boost, so I threw $40 at Best Buy and tripled my RAM that afternoon.
@samf Yeah, I think it’s less about buying a Mac for gaming, and more about having a Mac and welcoming good games on them. I’m a casual gamer who likes games but only has a Switch because a friend gave it to me as a gift. Other than that I’d probably be playing games on Apple TV (and still do sometimes). Part of the reason I’m rooting so hard for Apple Arcade is because I’m sure there are people like me.
andyeb
Kevin Herrera@paul You could be right, but I have heard this about nearly every product launch I followed from Apple since the first iPhone.
Andy Carolan 
@paul It could be the next Virtualboy!
Don Whiteside@paul I find it really weird from the company that has just repeatedly screwed the pooch/not given a toss about GPUs and games for ten years running now. I'm open to the idea there's Serious Uses but if you can't do games on it you're ignoring a huge population primed to spend big bucks on special-purpose gadgets. But they haven't even made serious efforts at getting AAA games on their existing computing hardware. Why would those folks invest in this even more niche platform?
SENTINELITEApple went out & made Metal. Sure it’s good, but how many indie studios & companies are going to go out of their way to guarantee compatibility to a “small” group?
Apple needs to hit the ground running here. A few AAA games in the past few years is a good start, but we need more.
EA was rumored to be selling. Amazon & Apple were looking to buy. I think this would make a statement that they care & more of the industry would probably get on board.
Robert Naumann@paul Agreed. Even the most optimistic projections circulating for what to expect sound unexciting.
Robert Petersen 
@paul I figure it’s a back door to get development started. Model 1 will sell to the hardcore because Apple stuff will always sell to a certain demographic, and then in a few years (?) when the version mainstream /normal users might want is ready (just a relatively normal looking pair of glasses?) the dev support will already be there.
And also probably want to get something out the door for patent purposes. Everyone seems convinced that AR is the next big thing…kinda reminds me of the 90s. We all knew that eventually pocket computers would be the big thing, but the tech hadn’t caught up to the dreams. Everyone still out out their PDAs though then.
FlatFootFox Moved to Hachyderm@paul Some of it’s probably going to be Apple Watch-style, “Throwing it out there and seeing which use cases stick with folks.” Given how big fitness and health is on the Apple Watch, it’s remarkable to see how much of the original pitch was a communications device.
A lot of the communication / AR / metaverse uses haven’t caught on with other headsets, but I can see there being enough classic VR and entertainment use cases out there to justify the product while Apple sees if anything else takes off.
@paul maybe we buy the devkit at $3,000 and receive $200 off the final version, after shipping a few killer apps?
Mike Noe@paul I'm definitely in the “I want to believe" camp.
Andrew@paul agreed. Same for Project Titan
Matt Gibson@paul Once you have seen inside the headset, Paul, you’ll understand. Trust us. Put the headset on, Paul. Don’t be afraid. PUT IT ON NOW
Andy Lee@paul I miss the days when Steve would come out and be like, we looked around at what other companies are doing, and it all sucked for these reasons, and here is our elegant delightful solution. Would be nice if we get a moment of clarity like that, but I don't know if we ever will again.
chris overcash@paul my guess is it will be marketed as a visual content device… screw your 75” OLED, this will turn the entire wall into a screen. On a long flight? Watch movies in your own private virtual theater… oh, and hey devs, here are the tools you’ll need to create cool things in AR/VR - when we figure out how to scale down the size & price in a year or two, your apps will be ready for the masses.
Andrew Eades@paul I’ve been a total VR and AR skeptic but I’m weirdly interested in this one. If it can replace my eyeglasses and give me a great display anywhere, I think I’m in.
Inari 
@paul Do you remember ARKit?
Drew Pickard@paul
I still cannot fathom any situation in which I think “oh wow I think I might want that some day”
Zero.
The troubling part is that I also can’t think of a situation where a regular human would want it either.
Carlos@paul totally removing my field of view will take some convincing for me. True AR on glasses i already wear not so much of an ask.
can@paul Fitness is a big vertical on the Quest 2, and fitness is also important for Apple. That plus some gaming is a big enough market for now.
Joanna J. 
@paul that’s how I feel exactly. I’m prepared to be wowed but right now I really don’t get the interest.
Tormod HalvorsenI guess, when you have more money than God, spending a fraction of it on moonshots might seem like as good a way as any to kill time...
Charlie Stross@paul I see it as most likely a worked example of the Abilene Paradox that, along with Meta's Metaverse boondoggle, will be taught in MBA courses in years to come (as an example of inexplicable groupthink errors): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abilene_paradox
Meanwhile, more promisingly, there are rumours that Linden Labs are finally going to release an iPadOS Second Life client this year.
Vincent 🌻🇪🇺 en 🌹☘️@paul Could be. But it’s also what I thought about the first ipad - what, a hundreds-of-euros device above my laptop for browsing websites?
It all depends on having a killer app -or apps- and websites aren’t it. Neither are games IMO though, for mainstream. As obnoxious as Google Glass was, I’d look more into that territory than a VR set.
But I also think of the lidars they’ve been putting in iphones and ipads. Not much use after a few hours toying… but done with a purpose, I’m sure. Curious!
Zperretta@paul I really like VR and see it as another competitor to (big bad) Meta/Facebook, although if the price is as rumoured ($3,000) I don't know what it'll be going against?
Mikko@paul The problem is that I can't see the rumoured headset solving a problem. I wish that Apple concentrated on fixing/improving what they already have.
However, there could be solvable problems for other people that I'm unaware of.
Martin Hering 
@paul Especially when everybody else already moved on and is now getting into AI. Investing those resources into a better Siri would have been a better idea.
Matt Wilcox@paul @tchambers All I want out of it, and that I’d value;
- any number of virtual monitors of any size, as long as they’re retina equivalent.
That’s the killer use. Let me put an impossible number of screens around me.
No “actual 3D” stuff really matters. 2D screens are how we do things because that’s what works best. Let me have any number and size of 2D screens in my 3D space.
This would work for that.
Roberto Esposito@paul maybe it will be a great failure, or maybe it will be great. How to know? Perhaps it would be better to just wait and see if and what they present?
Apple has great history of great products that nobody thought that they were possible (e.g., the iPhone) and weird things that never got any traction (e.g., the newton or the first iPod hi-fi speaker).
Let’s talk about it again next week?
Cuprohastes@paul maybe it's an assisted living device. It might have lidar and things in so that you can wear it and it will tell you what's in front of you and guide you around.
FeedMe Doughnuts@paul headset interesting distraction from apples main issue. Poor os and software quality. Unless it’s iOS.