Report: Apple’s Reality Pro headset won’t require an iPhone, but some features are ‘finicky in testing’

Apple is difficult at work refining the primary model of its AR/VR headset forward of an anticipated June announcement. A brand new report from Bloomberg as we speak has a couple of particulars on the Reality Pro headset’s features and limitations, together with whether or not or not it’ll require an iPhone to be arrange…

In the newest version of his Power On e-newsletter, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reviews that the newest take a look at variations of the Reality Pro headset “won’t require an iPhone for setup or use.” This is a notable change from previous Apple gadgets, such because the Apple Watch, which initially required an iPhone for setup.

Instead, Reality Pro’s headset will assist being arrange impartial of an iPhone and may then obtain the consumer’s knowledge immediately from iCloud. Similar to the setup course of for different Apple gadgets, nevertheless, you should have the choice to switch your knowledge immediately from an iPhone or iPad to the headset.

Unlike different AR/VR headsets in the marketplace, the Reality Pro headset won’t have a distant management and can as a substitute depend on the consumer’s eyes and arms for management. Bloomberg says that “in-air typing” shall be a key characteristic for take a look at enter, but is “finicky in testing.”

A key characteristic for textual content enter — in-air typing — is offered on the newest inside prototypes, I’m instructed. But it’s been finicky in testing. So for those who get the primary headset, you continue to could wish to pair an iPhone to make use of its touch-screen keyboard. The hope inside Apple is to make speedy enhancements after the system is launched. The firm expects its headset to comply with the identical path as the unique Apple Watch in that respect.

Looking additional forward, Bloomberg says Apple is engaged on a second-generation Reality Pro headset with a selected concentrate on efficiency:

I’m instructed the main target of the second Pro headset is efficiency. While the primary mannequin could have an M2 chip — plus a secondary chip for AR and VR processing — it’s not highly effective sufficient to output graphics at a degree Apple would ideally like.

Apple’s first headset was initially deliberate to be much more highly effective, that includes a separate hub with extra processing energy that might be beamed to the system throughout a house wirelessly. But former Apple design chief Jony Ive nixed that concept. Now the corporate is working so as to add a extra highly effective processor (maybe a variant of the M3 or M4) for the second mannequin, serving to bridge that hole.

The Reality Pro headset is at the moment slated to be unveiled at WWDC in June, with a launch someday later this 12 months.