technology – Page 2 – Augmented & Virtual Reality Confabulation

August 20, 2024

Vision Pro review: Apple’s cutting-edge headset lives up to the hype

… but impressive, boundary-pushing device is priced so far out of reach for most that it isn’t yet the next big thing

On a sweltering summer’s day in London, I sat working in the middle of a snow-covered Yosemite national park surrounded by an array of floating apps and browser windows. Later I stared across a windswept Oregon beach reliving a holiday from years ago, and spent an evening sitting in a speeder on Tatooine watching Rogue One in 3D, before retiring for the night with some guided meditation.

These are the sorts of immersive experiences that Apple’s latest, most expensive gadget offers by blending the real and virtual world, all controlled by your eyes and hands. The Vision Pro may resemble virtual reality headsets such as Meta’s Quest series but it is attempting to be so much more.

July 13, 2024

Apple’s Vision Pro headset is impressive – but it’s hard to know its ultimate purpose | Josh Taylor

The most obvious function is for watching 3D movies or TV shows, but it may wind up being most useful at work

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The Vision Pro has landed in Australia five months after the US launch, retailing at $5,999. At that price, it’s perhaps no surprise that Apple staff present it on a wooden platter like we’re in a five-star restaurant.

Next, the staff at Apple’s Chadstone store in Melbourne fit the device to your head, match your glasses prescription and get it up and running.

July 1, 2024

The best theatre to stream this month: Shakespeare v the Tories, Mel C’s dance show and more

This month’s picks include a Starlight Express intro for kids, a rollicking wedding play at the National and an explosive hour of dance

Micheál Mac Liammóir’s 1960 solo show interweaved the private and public lives of Oscar Wilde with excerpts from the great Irish wit’s oeuvre. Alastair Whatley – who directed The Importance of Being Earnest a few years ago – recently performed Mac Liammóir’s monologue at Reading Rep. A recording of that production, directed by Michael Fentiman, is available on Original Online from 1 July.

May 25, 2024

Virtual reality games helping UK’s deaf children to understand speech

Scientists have found that immersing kids in computer games can train their brains to localise sounds better

Scientists have recruited an unusual ally in their efforts to help children overcome profound deafness. They are using computer games to boost the children’s ability to localise sounds and understand speech.

The project is known as Bears – for Both Ears – and it is aimed at youngsters who have been given twin cochlea implants because they were born with little or no hearing.

February 15, 2024

I tried out an Apple Vision Pro. It frightened me | Arwa Mahdawi

The new ‘mixed-reality’ headset gave me a glimpse of the future – and I’m not sure it’s a future we should want

If you ever worry that technology might be getting a little too intelligent and robots are poised to take over the world, I have a quick and easy way to deflate those fears: call up a company and try to ask them a simple question. You will be put through to an automated voice system and spend the next 10 minutes yelling NO, I DIDN’T SAY THAT! WHAT DO YOU MEAN ‘YOU DIDN’T QUITE CATCH THAT?’ I DON’T WANT ANY OF THOSE OPTIONS! PUT ME THROUGH TO A HUMAN, GODDAMMIT!

That was certainly my experience calling up Apple and trying to reconfirm my Vision Pro demo, which had been abruptly cancelled due to snow. But if my phone experience felt ancient, the Apple Vision Pro headset itself felt like a startling glimpse of the future. As it should: the thing costs $3,499.

Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian US columnist

February 8, 2024

Think Apple’s Vision Pro headset makes you look like Neo in The Matrix? Sorry, you so don’t | Emma Brockes

Trying them out, I felt like a cyber hero but my kids doubled up with laughter. It’s a $4,000 way to shred your dignity

The first thought I had, as I put on the Apple Vision Pro headset, was that I was somehow going to fail at virtual reality. For 20 minutes I’d watched as people with appointments ahead of me at the Apple store pinched the air, interacting with invisible stimuli. They looked ridiculous in the manner of mature adults trying to adopt new technology – all right, Grandma – which triggered my second, even more geriatric thought: what if there was a fire while you were in one of these things and you didn’t notice and burned to death?

In fact, the most startling thing about the release of Apple’s new virtual reality headset in the US last week was the nationwide scramble to book appointments for a demo, and with it, the opportunity to spend almost $4,000. The Vision Pro won’t be available in the rest of the world for some time and, while Apple hasn’t released sales figures, pre-orders were said to be somewhere between 160,000 and 180,000 during the first pre-order weekend.

Emma Brockes is a Guardian columnist

February 7, 2024

Safety concerns after people filmed using Apple Vision Pro headset – video report

A number of people have been spotted using Apple's VR headset in public including while driving. Some appear to have been using the gadget as a stunt. Others may just have been just learning how to use the headset while out and about.

The new technology has prompted safety concerns, with the US transportation secretary reminding drivers they must pay attention at all times. The reminder was issued after one Vision Pro owner was filmed using the headset as he drove a car with assisted driving features

February 7, 2024

Safety concerns after people filmed using Apple Vision Pro headset – video report

February 6, 2024

Viral videos of Tesla drivers using VR headsets prompt US government alarm

Transportation head says drivers must pay attention at all times after clips emerge of some using what looks like Apple’s Vision Pro

US transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg on Monday said human drivers must pay attention at all times after videos emerged of people wearing what appeared to be Apple’s recently released Vision Pro headset while driving Teslas.

Buttigieg responded on Twitter/X to a video that had more than 24m views of a Tesla driver who appeared to be gesturing with his hands to manipulate a virtual reality field.

January 30, 2024

Apple Vision Pro reviews roundup: stunning potential with big trade-offs

Early reviews of cutting-edge headset suggest it is packed with sci-fi tech and interesting ideas but is far from perfect

The first reviews of Apple’s Vision Pro headset, from publications with early access to the company’s attempt to create the next computing platform, talk of a big leap forward for face-mounted computers, for better or worse.

The US-only headset, first announced in June last year, aims to move “spatial computing” beyond the limited mixed-reality offered by rivals from Meta, Microsoft and others. It is packed with cutting-edge technology including 3D cameras on the front to capture videos, the ability to blend the real and virtual worlds with hand and eye tracking, plus a display on the front that shows a simulacrum of the wearer’s eyes.