Apple's AR/VR headset will reportedly have "iOS-like" display and connect to your Mac

(Image credit: AppleInsider)

published 24 January 2023

With Apple's AR/VR headset moving ever closer to launch, more details are emerging of how it'll work and what it'll actually do. According to a new report by Bloomberg's Apple correspondent Mark Gurman, it's going to be the best VR headset we've seen to date – but then again, given the rumoured price tag of $3,000, it had better be.

According to Gurman, the headset will have an interface that strongly resembles iOS – not a huge surprise – and will display immersive video with instant switching between AR and VR modes. You'll also be able to use it as a display for your Mac.

What to expect from Apple's AR/VR headset

Gurman's piece is really a round-up of the current leaks, but when you see them all together you get a really good feel for what the headset is going to do. Gurman describes a Home Screen with familiar app icons, customisable display widgets and the option to use a good old-fashioned keyboard and mouse as well as eye and hand tracking, and says there won't be a compulsory physical controller. Siri will be there, but a planned "air typing" feature won't be ready in time for the headset's launch.

App-wise you can expect to see Safari, Photos, Mail, Messages, Apple Music, Apple Podcasts, Apple TV+ and Calendar, and it will have its own App Store too.

One of the key focuses for this version of the headset will be videoconferencing, and Apple is working on FaceTime-based video chats and virtual meeting rooms. Your face and body will be recreated as virtual avatars for meetings, but for busier meetings you'll use Memoji-style icons instead.

Apple is also working on a virtual big-screen experience, Gurman says, with partners including Dolby and Disney as well as its own Apple TV+ service.

It's all very impressive, but I'm still reminded of the original iPad – a product Apple made without really knowing who or what it was for. The headset stories so far do sound rather like Apple is throwing absolutely everything at its AR/VR hardware, but I think it'll take a generation or two before its real usefulness comes into focus.

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Writer, musician and broadcaster Carrie Marshall has been covering technology since 1998 and is particularly interested in how tech can help us live our best lives. Her CV is a who’s who of magazines, newspapers, websites and radio programmes ranging from T3, Techradar and MacFormat to the BBC, Sunday Post and People’s Friend. Carrie has written more than a dozen books, ghost-wrote two more and co-wrote seven more books and a Radio 2 documentary series; her memoir, Carrie Kills A Man, was shortlisted for the British Book Awards. When she’s not scribbling, Carrie is the singer in Glaswegian rock band Unquiet Mind (unquietmindmusic).