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Apple’s Vision Pro mixed reality headset will run on visionOS, company executives announced following the bombshell reveal of its long-rumored wearable at WWDC 2023. The operating system, internally codenamed “Oak,” has reportedly been in development since 2017. It’s existence further leaked via source code references last February. Behold, the dawning of the spacial computing era.

While visionOS is based on the existing MacOS and iPadOS platforms, the unique nature of spacial computing requires lower latency than one would need for a mobile or desktop OS. The new headset will an immersive mixed-reality 3D interface that, “frees apps from the boundaries of a display,” according the the company. This means that instead of being displayed in a separate virtual environment, the app windows will appear to float in the physical space in front of the user can be moved and scaled just as they would on a desktop — except now, it can be your actual physical desktop, not just your laptop’s home screen. 

The virtual screens Vision Pro displays can appear as gigantic as 100-foot wide wraparound billboards or they can fit into the space of your living room. The system responds to the room’s natural light and shadow to provide the user with a better sense of scale and distance. The system’s new and novel Eyesight feature will adjust the opacity of the user’s surrounding view to increase immersion but automatically clear the visor when another person approaches, allowing each person to look the other in the eye, without having to take off the headset.

Users won’t need cumbersome controllers or motion-sensing wands to use the Vision Pro, as the headset utilizes nearly dozen cameras and sensors peppered around the device to monitor their gaze and hand motions turning their eyes, voices and fingers into virtual pointers and clickers. You’ll be able to browse through menus by looking at them, selecting items by tapping their fingers and inputting text with the spoken word.

Vision Pro’s applications will skew hard towards gaming, media consumption, and communication and will offer Apple apps like Messages, FaceTime and Apple Arcade — the latter of which will offer more than 100 playable MR gaming titles at launch. Apple is already working with a number of media companies to bring their products and content into the new Vision Pro ecosystem. This includes Disney which, as part of its 100th anniversary celebration, announced Monday that it will bring immersive features to Disney+ content, “by combining extraordinary creativity with groundbreaking technology,” Disney CEO Bob Iger said. “Disney+ will be available ‘day one,’ [of the headset’s availability].” It appears that ESPN content won’t be far behind, based on the few glimpses we saw during the demo.

Apple’s announcement comes just days after rival Meta unveiled its own mixed reality headset, the Quest 3. The Vision Pro is slated to go on sale next year and retail for $3,499.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apple-realityos-ar-vr-headset-operating-system-wwdc-2023-185901735.html?src=rss 

Apple’s new mixed reality headset may have stolen the show at WWDC, but it was not the only piece of tech the company announced. Apple debuted a 15-inch MacBook Air today that will join the classic 13-inch model as the iPhone maker’s thinnest and lightest notebooks. The company is positioning the larger model as the ideal 15-inch laptop, boasting that it has a better balance of performance, features and battery life than any 15-inch PC notebook. Here’s how you can order the 15-inch MacBook Air, plus the rest of the readily available products announced at WWDC 2023.

Apple MacBook Air 15

Apple’s 15-inch MacBook Air is available to order today starting at $1,299 and will be widely available on June 13th. Apple’s 13-inch MacBook Air M2 now starts at $1,099, and the 13-inch MacBook Air M1 remains in the lineup, starting at $999.

The first 15-inch laptop in the Air series runs on Apple’s M2 chipset, and it looks much like an enlarged version of the 13-inch MacBook Air. The new laptop has a 15.3-inch Liquid Retina display that’s surrounded by 5mm borders and only interrupted by a notch that includes a 1080p webcam for video calls. Its profile is similar to that of the 13-inch model, with rounded square corners, and it measures only 11.5mm thick and weighs 3.3 pounds. Unsurprisingly, such a svelte design doesn’t leave a lot of space for ports. The 15-inch MacBook Air has just two Thunderbolt ports on one side, along with a MagSafe charging port, and a headphone jack on the other edge. The 15-inch Air will likely have similar performance to the 13-inch model since it runs on the same chipset, so it should be plenty fast for most people. Apple claims the larger laptop will get 18 hours of battery life as well.

Mac Studio & Mac Pro

The Mac Studio and Mac Pro are available to order today starting at $1,999 and $6,999, respectively. They’ll both be more widely available on June 13th.

The second-generation Mac Studio could be seen as a larger and more powerful version of Apple’s compact desktop, the Mac Mini. The biggest thing to note about this upgrade is that it can run on the new M2 Max or M2 Ultra chips, which Apple claims will excel at laborious tasks like 8K video editing, 3D modeling and the like. Apple claims the M2 Max version of the Mac Studio will be 50 percent faster than its predecessor, and the M2 Ultra version will be twice as fast as that.

As for the Mac Pro, it remains a very expensive and very powerful desktop that will have even better performance thanks to the M2 Ultra chip. It’ll come with a 24-core CPU and it will support up to a 76-core GPU and up to 192GB of memory. In addition to that, the Mac Pro will come with seven PCIe expansion slots, seven Thunderbolt 4 ports, two 10GB Ethernet ports, three USB-A slots and two HDMI connectors that can output 8K resolution at 240Hz. Needless to say, this is overkill for most people, not to mention its sky-high price tag will put it out of reach for most consumers.

Apple Vision Pro

Apple debuted its long-awaited mixed reality headset, the Vision Pro, at WWDC 2023. The headset looks much like the VR headsets we’re used to seeing from the likes of Facebook and Sony, but with a unique Apple spin. The Vision Pro is a standalone device that doesn’t need a physical controller — instead, users operate it using a mix of hand gestures, voice input and the built-in Digital Crown on the headset. Apple showed off a number of uses cases for the Vision Pro including using with your Mac to expand your screen real estate, using Vision Pro apps alongside Mac apps, watch 3D movies and content from services like Disney+ and play games from Apple Arcade. But unlike the other hardware mention here, Vision Pro is not available today — it’ll be available in early 2024 starting at $3,499.

Follow all of the news from Apple’s WWDC 2023 right here.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/how-to-order-the-15-inch-apple-macbook-air-190535960.html?src=rss 

Apple’s Vision Pro headset will introduce a new approach to security in the company’s products: your eyes. The mixed reality device will use a previously rumored Optic ID system that studies your irises through invisible LED light exposures, and compares it against your enrolled eye data to sign you in. You can use it as a password replacement and to make purchases in the App Store or using Apple Pay.

The company stresses that your eye data is encrypted and isolated in the headset’s Secure Enclave. It never leaves the device and isn’t available to apps. As with Face ID and Touch ID, there won’t be actual images or ways for intruders to abuse the raw information.

Optic ID comes alongside other privacy protections in the Vision Pro headset. Neither Apple nor anyone else will have access to eye tracking data. Camera and sensor data is processed at the system level, so apps won’t get to peek at your surroundings just to enable spatial functionality. And if you’re capturing photos and videos, there will be a visual indicator to alert people around you. You might not have to worry about a Google Glass-style public outrage.

Iris scanning isn’t a new security concept. Samsung introduced iris sign-ins with its ill-fated Galaxy Note 7, for example. It’s a relatively novel idea for headsets, though, and could be appreciated if you’d rather not reach for a keyboard (real or virtual) to start using your headset or a specific app. That’s particularly important given Apple’s goals: it sees Vision Pro as the start of a “spatial computing” platform where you may spend hours in mixed reality, and conveniences like Optic ID may make that platform more compelling.

Follow all of the news from Apple’s WWDC 2023 right here.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apple-vision-pro-headset-will-use-your-eyes-to-sign-in-with-optic-id-191328667.html?src=rss 

Apple’s efforts to bring high-profile games to the Mac appear to be paying off. Hideo Kojima has revealed that Death Stranding: Director’s Cut is coming to the Mac later this year. Future Kojima Productions games will be available on the platform, too, although it’s not clear if that includes Death Stranding 2. There’s no mention of any changes, but it’s safe to presume you’ll want an Apple Silicon-based Mac to make the most of the title.

As on other platforms, this edition of Death Stranding is ultimately a refinement of the 2019 original. You’ll see new missions, more boss fights, updated combat mechanics and activities like racing and a shooting range. If you thought the initial release leaned too much on cinematics and not enough on gameplay, this is the version you want.

Like Resident Evil Village, No Man’s Sky and Stray, this is ultimately a port of a not-quite-recent title. You probably aren’t about to buy a Mac just to experience Norman Reedus’ courier adventures. However, Apple they reflect Apple’s revived interest in gaming. Between this, macOS Sonoma’s Game Mode and improved porting tools, the company clearly wants the major titles that have previously been limited to Windows PCs and consoles.

Follow all of the news from Apple’s WWDC 2023 right here.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/death-stranding-directors-cut-is-coming-to-the-mac-175801242.html?src=rss 

Apple announced new audio features coming for AirPods users in iOS 17. The standout feature is Adaptive Audio, which will tune your device’s active noise cancelation (ANC) and transparency mode based on your environment. It “dynamically blends Transparency mode and Active Noise Cancellation together based on the conditions of a user’s environment to deliver the best experience in the moment.” Apple says Adaptive Audio “will seamlessly tailor the noise control experience while users move between environments and interactions that are constantly changing throughout the day.”

In addition, the company says it’s adding Personalized Volume, which uses machine learning to predict your desired volume. The company says the feature will “understand environmental conditions and listening preferences over time to automatically fine-tune the media experience.” Meanwhile, Conversation Awareness automatically lowers your volume, tuning out background sounds and focusing on your conversation when you begin speaking.

Apple says AirPods device-switching is also getting a much-needed performance boost. The company states that “the connection time between a user’s Apple devices is significantly faster and more reliable, making it more seamless to move from a favorite podcast on iPhone to a work call on Mac.”

AirPlay also receives some updates in today’s slew of announcements. Apple says on-device intelligence will learn your AirPlay preferences over time and adapt accordingly. Additionally, you can use Siri to start an AirPlay session with your voice. Finally, AirPlay in Hotels will allow you to stream content from your device to “supported televisions” by scanning a QR code. The company says it will launch in “select hotels” by the end of 2023. “Built with a foundation of privacy and security, this capability will be available before the end of the year in select hotels, starting with brands from IHG Hotels & Resorts,” Apple said.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

Follow all of the news from Apple’s WWDC 2023 right here.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apples-adaptive-audio-for-airpods-tunes-anc-and-transparency-to-your-environment-181218028.html?src=rss 

Apple took to the stage at WWDC today to announce that video-calling service FaceTime is finally coming to Apple TV hardware for the first time, thanks to a robust tvOS update. This seems to be a full-featured version of the company’s proprietary live-streaming app that takes full advantage of the recently-released Continuity Camera feature.

For the uninitiated, this feature lets you use your iPhone as a replacement webcam for your laptop, so you’ll now be able to use your iPhone or iPad as the primary camera for TV-based FaceTime conversations. Apple says wireless integration happens automatically and that the service can also use the phone or tablet’s microphone when joining or initiating a call. The company says the software has been designed so that you always remain in the center of the frame. You can also quickly switch the feed between devices with just a swipe and interact using gestures. FaceTime will be available for Apple TV 4K devices starting this fall. 

FaceTime is the main draw of tvOS 17, but not the only improvement. The company redesigned the control center to make it more intuitive and, more importantly, added Find My Remote support. Just use Siri on your phone, tablet, or computer to locate any mischievous Apple TV remotes. Apple also noted that video conferencing apps like Webex by Cisco and Zoom will launch on tvOS later this year. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/facetime-is-coming-to-apple-tv-182616297.html?src=rss