mpantone

Easier for Apple to do a spec bump by dropping in a new SoC rather than design an entirely new device. And Apple has a very long history of using the same industrial design for multiple generations. The main thing is whether or not they can decrease COGS.

There are obviously less expensive VR HMD prototypes in Apple's labs. Maybe they don't have adequate performance, maybe the gross margins are too low, maybe Apple is waiting for the market to develop more interest, most likely it's a combination of 8-10 factors (including the ones I mentioned) before Apple will pull the trigger on a differentiated model.

Remember that Apple did not launch four different iPad models at the same time in 2010. They released them incrementally over years.

Goggles-style HMDs are a dead end. Too uncomfortable, too heavy, too restrictive. (Disclaimer #1: I own an Oculus Rift S.) A VR/AR HMD really needs to approach the weight of a pair of eyeglasses and have the same comfort level. (Disclaimer #2: I am a longtime wearer of eyeglasses.)

Even a lighter, mass market focused Apple Vision HMD would still be a stepping stone to a pair of eyeglasses.

If Apple wants this to be accepted by Joe Consumer, they will need to find a price point much closer to Meta Quest 3 ($400) or Quest 3S ($300). While the AVP certainly has better specs and better quality components than those two Meta devices, the latter have far more available content. As we know, Content Is King...

Dead_Pool said:

But I thought Macs were so efficient that they needed only 8 GBs?

It was pre-Apple Intelligence.

Many closely watching Apple’s AI efforts expect their LLM to take up around 6GB of RAM leaving little for applications. Increasing RAM to 16GB provides far more headroom which will be crucial if the user enables Apple Intelligence.

This has been heavily covered by tech media despite the fact AppleInsider failed to mention it in this particular article.

Maybe Apple is using Apple Intelligence to write store product descriptions. Hallucinating badly...

  

kdupuis77 said:

I agree with a previous poster, they should slice out a spot in the Studio Display to route the cables from that baby so it can sit nicely under the screen (Hell, they'll even save a bit of $$$ on the recovered aluminum haha).

Lol, Apple would make separate the display and the stand and charge $499 for the stand that had a hole punched out for the Mac mini M4. The regular one would be $399.

  

johnwhite1001 said:

You actually have to join a waitlist for Apple Intelligence.  It does not work when first installed on iPhone 15 Pro Max. Waiting to join.  Unbelievable mess!  Cannot even try it out.  It is not enabled until you are approved!   LOL!   Go to Settings to join the waitlist.  AI is listed as Beta still in 18.1.

ALL consumer-facing AI features here in late 2024 are alpha or early beta quality. And not just Apple Intelligence. From every single AI company. Those who don't understand this are going to get in a world of hurt real fast. And I am counting on the media to report on some of the bigger boneheaded failures from time to time. You know, like one of those end of the year recaps such as "Top Ten Things Not To Do With Apple Intelligence."

ChatGPT, Mistral, Claude, Perplexity, whatever. They are all beta. Same with image generators. Same with voice transcription services like Otter.ai. All of it. Every. Single. One.

It's important to remember that Apple mentioned that some Apple Intelligence features were hybrid on device + cloud based. Only Apple will know how many individual tasks will be rerouted to online services but it's clear that there will be some sort of ramp to full production speeds. You can't fill a 100,000 seat football stadium instantaneously nor an airplane. This should be common sense but many humans -- just like AI-powered LLMs -- have very little of that.

All this does is show who is particularly impatient.

Sign up and carry on with your day. Someday you clear the waitlist and get approved. But until then, you can continue using your device like you have been until now. You haven't lost anything.