Although there have been no official announcements yet, it’s clear that Apple are working on new AR Glasses that they’re keeping very close to their chest. Forunately, we’ve been tirelessly digging and researching to give you the latest on what we know so far and what we can speculate from the information we’ve gathered.
Design
As of the time of writing, there aren’t any official designs of the AR Glasses just yet. However, some Apple fans have been creating their own designs of what they expect them to look like (Featured throughout this article) and I feel like they’re close to what we expect but as with all Apple products, it’ll be a much simpler design. Whatever it is, it’s got to have a charging glasses case like the Airpods.
There’s a lot of speculation online that the new glasses will be able to project a tv screen onto any wall so it can follow you around, even on the bus or train so you could watch your favorite shows on the go. in regards to that, I think those people have been watching too much Black Mirror! To have glasses that use AR like that would require quite a large processor. Therefore, you’d also need a large battery. This would weigh down the glasses and make it uncomfortable and therefore, poorly designed.
Despite all of the patents that Apple has at the moment, I imagine they will start with a simpler design both internally and externally. So, what I expect is a pair of glasses that can
- help with Maps for when you’re walking or perhaps driving.
- When you’re listening to music, you have the option to have the lyrics of your song come up in realtime.
- Use Sidecar from macOS Catalina so that you could have a virtual screen/keyboard so you don’t need to carry your laptop with you.
Is This Really the Future?
Let’s be honest, it’d look weird if someone was sitting at an empty desk and tapping away at nothing. But, let’s not forget how weird the iPad looked at first! I remember seeing a couple of people walking around with an iPad in their hand when they first came out and I just thought it looked so ridiculous! I was sure that it was just a fad and they’d never catch on and yet, here we are. Perhaps the future is us all sitting in a room with empty desks, tapping away at nothing. At least it’d save on electricity bills!
New OS
It’s rumored that Apple’s new rOS (Reality Operating System) will be released next year. Most people are expecting the glasses at the same time but nothing is confirmed yet. We know that Apple have a strong connection with AR over the years with their release of ARkit and their recent reveal at WWDC 2019 of being able to play Minecraft fully submerged in AR. At the moment, there’s not too much to say about this OS except for the fact that it’s rumored to be focused on the AR Glasses.
Release Date
At the moment, nothing is official but it’s rumored to be out in 2020 which seems reasonable. One thing is for sure, if we’re going to be seeing it’s release in 2020, then we’re definitely going to see a reveal at the upcoming September event, so fingers crossed we see it! (And fingers crossed it’s not another pipe dream like Google Glass!)
