At its Worldwide Developers conference, Apple unveiled supercomputation power on mobile and desktop devices, but the Vision Pro AR headset took center stage.
Apple announced on Monday at WWDC 2023 its much anticipated Vision Pro augmented reality device, which CEO Tim Cook promised would be a revolutionary advance.
Apple made a pitch for how Vision Pro enhances remote work productivity by lifting collaborative interactions and workflow from a purely 2D, on-screen environment into a 3D spatial experience. The implication is that rather than putting the wearer into some virtual representation of an office or a collaborative environment, Vision Pro delivers tasks, information, productivity tools and collaborators into wherever space one happens to be in, whether it’s their actual office, their home or somewhere else.
During the keynote, Apple also announced iOS 17, macOS 14 Sonoma, iPadOS 17, new Apple Watch features and an array of hardware upgrades. Find out what I consider is the real star of WWDC 2023.
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Big OS news about iOS 17, iPadOS 17, watchOS 10
Vision Pro: Mind-boggling AR goggles
Supercomputing drives new Apple releases
Apple Silicon innovations propel product advances Big OS news about iOS 17, iPadOS 17, watchOS 10
At WWDC 2023, Apple announced iOS 17 and the new experiences it enables across iPhone, FaceTime, Messages and AirDrop. The mobile OS also includes a journaling feature and a new way to view time and other information when an iPhone is set down and charging (Figure A).
Figure A
In addition, Apple touted the virtues of iPadOS 17, which include a redesigned interactive Lock Screen; widgets; and new features in PDFs and Notes, FaceTime and Safari.
Apple announced lifestyle-focused features for Apple Watch enabled by watchOS 10, including mapping topography, fitness and health features.Vision Pro: Mind-boggling AR goggles
The company’s virtual reveal of the Apple Vision Pro, which will go on sale in early 2024, at $3,499, included a rundown of myriad new technologies driving a highly compact architecture. These include two postage-stamp sized visual fields with millions of pixels, all designed to engender an entirely immersive experience for work, entertainment and commerce without sensory isolation.Must-read Apple coverage
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Cook characterized Vision Pro as the first Apple product designed to be looked through, not looked at.
“In the same way Mac introduced us to personal computing and iPhone introduced us to mobile computing, Apple Vision Pro will introduce us to spatial computing,” Cook said during the keynote address. The focus was not on how the goggles would usher wearers into a world of avatars in meta real estate perched on Maui’s cliffs, but on how this new headset has the versatility to augment reality and traditional applications by grabbing from a 2D screen and throwing them into space and letting your eyes and fingers do the walking, instead of a mouse.
