Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said in early April that the AR/VR headset is the "last hope" for persuading investors that AR/VR devices will become the "next star product in consumer electronics." Other devices from companies like Meta have lacked appealing software, and this is a major hurdle that Apple will need to overcome.
Andrew R McHugh hopes he can close in on this gap with a new app called Wist, which promises to let users capture videos on their phones and transform them into 3D, immersive memories viewable either via their phones with AR (augmented reality) or with a virtual reality headset. McHugh, CEO and co-founder of the app, explained to Motherboard that Wist is targeting the feeling that its namesake, wistful, evokes: longing and regret.
“Meta has failed over and over to protect young users,” Sen. Edward Markey of Massachusetts wrote in a tweet(Opens in a new window). “Now, they want to bring more kids as young as 13 onto the metaverse without ensuring their safety. They have to stop.”
Over the past few years, Apple CEO Tim Cook has stated several times that augmented reality is a promising technology. “I think the [AR] promise is even greater in the future. So it’s a critically important part of Apple’s future,” Cook told Kara Swisher back in 2021.
But it sounds like Apple’s upcoming product is going to offer a mixed-reality experience. Users will be able to experience both augmented and virtual reality. Details are still thin about the potential use cases and apps for the headset as it’s easier to control software leaks compared to product leaks.
The problem is, the Quest Pro isn’t very good. It’s a device seemingly launched without plan or purpose, highlighting VR’s persistent drawbacks without making good use of its strengths — and topped off with some irredeemably bad software. We might be seeing a roadmap for where Meta is going, but right now, it’s not a particularly fun place to be. And if Meta lingers there much longer, its metaverse is in trouble.
“The Holy Grail would be to create a virtual reality world that lets in only the controls and operator parts (the physical controls, in this case, a flight sim’s controls and the pilot) while creating an outside world, the airplane and the world outside, including airports and terrain and weather, so the pilot could fly using physical controls while seeing a world around them that’s rendered via virtual reality.
Image Credits: David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile / Getty Images
“To reflect who we are and what we hope to build, I am proud to announce that starting today, our company is now Meta. Our mission remains the same — it’s still about bringing people together. Our apps and our brands — they’re not changing either,” Zuckerberg said.
Well, it turns out that’s not so true. In a lengthy Facebook post, CTO-in-waiting Andrew Bosworth detailed about 15 minutes later following the completion of the keynote that as part of the new rebrand, they will be killing off the Oculus brand.
