Apple Vision Pro announced, its first major product since 2014

apple It announced the Vision Pro, its mixed reality headset, at its developer conference on Monday. The headphones are the first major new product since 2014’s Apple Watch.

Vision Pro will allow users to see applications in new ways in the space around them. Users can navigate apps with their eyes and hands and search with their voice. Headphones can be used for watching movies, including 3-D movies, spatial audio, viewing pictures or videos of yourself, and playing video games.

disney CEO Bob Iger took the stage to announce that Disney+ will be available on Vision Pro from day one of its launch.

With a feature called EyeSight, the headset can become transparent or opaque to signal to those around the headset user whether they are immersed in the experience or ready to interact.

The headset uses spatial audio to make the user feel fully immersed in the experience, including by sensing other items in the room.

The earphones feature adjustable and interchangeable parts to fit different face shapes and sizes.

Shares of Apple were roughly flat around the time of the announcement.

Here are some images from Apple’s presentation showing how it works:

This is what the headset looks like when users can interact with other people in the room.

The application appears in front of the user, who can look around and navigate with gestures.

Here’s what it looks like to view a panorama with a headset.

Since at least 2016, Apple has worked on the headset hardware and software in a division called the Technology Development Group. Monday’s announcement is the culmination of years of development — some in secret and some public-facing groundwork previously released for the iPhone, such as the depth-sensing camera and software.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has spoken at length about the potential of augmented reality, which overlays computer graphics onto the real world, saying the technology could eventually become an everyday device for most people, with an impact that could be similar to the invention of the internet.

The debut of Apple’s VR headset comes as the broader virtual reality industry has struggled to meet high expectations for the technology. Currently, it’s considered “mixed reality,” or virtual reality, which accesses the outside world through cameras mounted on the headset.

Monday’s release also ushers in a new era of open competition between Apple and Apple Yuan, which has developed its own virtual reality headset. Meta said last week that its latest headset model, the Quest 3, will be released later this year.

The story is developing. Check for updates.

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Watch: Meta launches Quest Pro, a new ‘mixed reality’ headset that supports AR and VR