Apple presented glasses for augmented reality at WWDC, they will wipe your eyes not only with the price tag

One More Thing

We’ll start at the end of the conference, because that’s exactly why you opened this news. Apple has finally shown augmented reality glasses, and they obviously have a lot of faith in the technology. Tim Cook introduced the glasses at the very end of the presentation and used the legendary phrase of Steve Jobs “One more thing”. The glasses are called Apple Vision Pro and it is a hybrid between virtual and augmented reality.

Let’s start with the glasses’ internal displays. Apple chose Micro OLED panels, which have a total of 23 million pixels. We don’t know the exact resolution yet, but given the fact that 4K resolution only contains something like 8 million pixels, it will be very fine and detailed panels. However, they are not the only ones on glasses. The front glass part hides another screen directed outside of the glasses. Your face and what you are looking at can be projected onto it.

A total of 12 cameras, 5 sensors and 6 microphones capture the surroundings. Data from these sensors is transmitted to the brand new R1 chip with a delay of up to 12 milliseconds. The rest of the calculations are handled by the classic M2 chip from Apple.

Apple Vision Pro can work in augmented reality mode, placing virtual elements in your surroundings. But the user can also switch to full virtual reality mode. Other software gadgets are linked to this switching. When someone sits in front of you, you’ll see them even if you’re in virtual mode. The glasses will show your face through an external display if you are chatting with someone. Apparently Apple doesn’t want you to have to take off your glasses.

You only need small movements of your fingers to control it. Apple directly mentioned that you can leave your hands on your lap and just move your fingers slightly. So the sensors also aim directly under the glasses. An additional method of control is voice and eye movement.

The entire structure of the glasses is divided into several modular parts. The glasses themselves are made of aluminum alloy and a single piece of glass. Between them and your forehead we will find a snug fit, apparently it will be available in different shapes and sizes. There is a flexible strap on the back that can be easily loosened and tightened. In the side part we find built-in speakers with Spatial Audio support.

Apple equipped the glasses with the VisionOS system. In addition to optimization for gesture control, the manufacturer focused on clarity and placement of elements in the space.

Stamina can be a surprise. In a number of shots, a fairly thick braided cable could be seen, which in most cases led to an external battery. Thanks to it, the glasses stay on for 2 hours. Otherwise, you can use them all day, but you must be connected to the network. Don’t look for an internal battery here, just like a universal USB-C. The cable is connected through a proprietary interface.

Unlocking the glasses takes place through a completely new (for Apple) Optic ID method. Vision Pro scans your retina and recognizes you accordingly.

And now the most important thing, the release date and price. The Apple Vision Pro will arrive early next year with a price tag of $3,500, directly converted to 75 thousand crowns. But rather count around 90 thousand crowns. However, Apple states that the glasses will only be available in the US at the beginning of sales.

Large Macbook Air

The new MacBook Air received a 15-inch display. It is still fanless and with an M2 chip inside. There are four speakers, a cutout in the display (unfortunately) and a battery life of up to 18 hours. You can equip this model with up to 2 TB SSD and 24 GB RAM. Four color variants are new. The ports include two Thunderbolts, a 3.5mm jack and Magsafe.

The price starts at 37,990 crowns and will arrive to customers next week. The smaller 13″ Macbook Air with M2 is discounted to 32 thousand crowns.

The M2 Ultra is targeting two devices

It probably won’t surprise anyone that Apple introduced the M2 Ultra chip, which follows on from its predecessor and physically combines two chips into one. The result is 20% higher CPU performance, 30% higher GPU performance and a 40% faster neural core. The chip has a total of 134 billion transistors (20 billion more than its predecessor) and supports up to 192 GB of RAM with a throughput of 800 GB/s.

Chip looks into the Mac Studio, a smaller computer that has minor improvements. One of them is support for HDMI 2.1 and better wireless connectivity through WiFi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3.

The return of the Mac Pro caused a bigger stir. The classic tower case can accommodate the M2 Ultra already in the base. You can fit up to six PCIe gen 4 x16 cards according to your preferences in the large motherboard. Card placement will affect the port selection to some extent. But expect three USB-A, six Thunderbolt 4 and HDMI 2.1 in the base. Two 10Gb ethernets and WiFi 6E are used to connect to the network.

The price starts at 200 thousand crowns for the M2 Ultra with 24 CPU cores and 60 GPU cores. A better version of 24x CPU and 76x GPU will cost you another 30 thousand crowns. In both cases, you get 64 GB of RAM and a 1 TB SSD. The maximum equipment with 192 GB RAM and 8 TB SSD will cost you 344 thousand crowns. It will arrive at customers in early July.