This seems like a device that could kill the monitor.
If you're upgrading your workstation to that new Mac Pro, do you get one big 5k display? Or get this headset, and have an array of displays in high resolution with built-in spatial 3D that follow you anywhere and don't take up any physical space.
Zero chance it replaces monitors for everyday people, if for no other reason than folks with long hair will not want to sit around with effectively ski goggles strapped to their head all work day. After a long day of work you'll have a ring around your face and totally messed up hair... that will not fly with people.
> This seems like a device that could kill the monitor.
No, this screenless laptop [1] is a device that could kill the monitor.
Conventional keyboard, AR goggles for the monitor.
This Apple headgear is intended to kill the smartphone, but the hardware isn't there yet.
As Carmack said after leaving Oculus, the headgear needs to get down to swim goggle size to get any traction, and down to eyeglass size to become pervasive.
This thing is bulkier than expected. Since it's tethered to a box on your belt, it's surprising that more of the electronics isn't down with the battery. Others are shipping
smaller, lighter headgear. You'd expect something like this [2] from Apple.
Despite this, we'll probably see iBorgs on University Avenue in Palo Alto within days after this ships.
Tested spacetop last year; it's not good for extended use. Glasses were dim, it's Chrome OS based so web apps for everything. You have infinite virtual desktop, readability is good, but ultimately it's just a consumption tool for reading and typing. But the cost is looking dorky.
The main issue could be the passthrough quality. In the marketing material it's touted as "magic", we'll need to wait a year to see how it pans out in practice (especially with mixed lighting, darker environments etc).
In particular, the speed and quality of the feedback loop between the camera capturing your surroundings and the rendering to your eyes could be enough to kill the experience.
If it's not up to the task, we're back to the full shutdown VR experience, and this device will have to compete with the other next-gen devices (especially up to 3500 bucks)
At this point it's still vaporware, but I'll be excited to read the first actual impressions of the device in real world settings.
Wont know until we get specs. They at least claimed it could present 4k movies, but, I already have a 4k VR headset and while it is one of the few headsets that can decently display text in the way they're suggesting, it's still not with the clarity of a monitor. Take 4k and stretch it to a much larger (virtual) width and suddenly 4k isnt enough.
The eternal issue with AR monitors is you need many multiples of the monitor resolution you're trying to imitate in the goggle display. It's doable but quite expensive
If you're upgrading your workstation to that new Mac Pro, do you get one big 5k display? Or get this headset, and have an array of displays in high resolution with built-in spatial 3D that follow you anywhere and don't take up any physical space.