OutdoorAppDeveloper

Popped mine into a UPS collection box. I did take a photo showing the package, label and box but Apple received it the next day and a week later, as promised, I got the Apple Store coupon. The coupon is just a button on the same web page you use to print the mailing label. You have to click it just before you make your Apple Store purchase. I am holding onto mine as I expect there will be some very tempting products from Apple this year. I am pretty much over the moon with the performance of the M1. I can't wait to see what the M2 will be like.

Like many companies, Apple has built a firewall between their tech support and their developers for reasons no one can fathom. If you have tried to give a bug report to a tech support person, you will know what I mean. They insist on trying to solve the problem which they can't because it's a bug and they don't have the source code in front of them. You would think that tech support could easily file bug reports and would be encouraged to do so but no. That would be unthinkable!

Note to the analyst and to Apple: The rest of the industry won't wait until 2025 for consumer AR wearables. There is already an established price point for consumer XR devices. It is $300. At that price they fly off the shelves as long as they are really good and continue to add features over time. Apple could get a higher price for a more advanced headset with a sleeker design but probably not more than $500. XR has to be affordable because everyone knows they will be throwing away their current headset in a couple of years when the next generation is released.

Removing Rosetta would be a disaster for Apple Silicon in any region. Rosetta is the technology that gives a customer confidence that their software will likely run on M1 Macs. If Apple removes it anywhere, everyone will wonder if their region is next. Watch as sales plummet. It could not only be the end of Apple Silicon, it could be the end of the Mac itself. If this is a patent dispute, Apple should fight it or pay.

This is depressing. Microsoft has its Mixed Reality platform for Windows but absolutely refuses to support it for its Xbox game consoles. That means that Microsoft has no credibility in VR games. They have left it up to other companies like Steam and Facebook to bring real VR gaming experiences to real people (not just corporations). Almost every demo Microsoft has ever done of their AR/VR platform involves images of game content, like the one in this article above. Companies do not spend thousands of dollars per unit so their employees can hunt for Pokemon in a park.

The only major company with less VR credibility than Microsoft is Apple. There are currently ZERO fully supported VR headsets for the Mac. The Vive was the only Mac compatible VR headset and it was discontinued by HTC. I am sure that Apple's AR headsets will be great but they will be coming to market with very few developers that can support them and at a price (as rumored) that is out of reach of most customers. Meanwhile the Facebook Quest 2 continues to dominate and Sony is already starting to talk about their next gen PSVR headset.