receive to our Apple Breakfast column , which includes all of the Apple news you missed last week in a handy bite - sized roundup . We call it Apple Breakfast because we believe it pass great with a morning loving cup of coffee or teatime , but it ’s cool if you want to give it a read during lunch or dinner hours too .
Glass half full
Google Glass is a loser . That is n’t exactly intelligence , but it is now prescribed : The company this week finallydiscontinuedthe business concern version of the ware , which itself supplant the deeply unpopular consumer gadget whose wearers were subjected to jeering and occasional physical fury , and strike the term “ Glass - hole . ” An inglorious tale has fare to an remnant , and not a moment too presently .
Then again , the timing is notable and a little surprising because it comes mere months before Apple is wait to make its own entrance into the world of aspect - mounted computer science with a mixed - reality headset . ( skeptic may point out that we ’ve been wait for the headset for years and insist that they will believe it when they see it , but the chorus of leaks and rumor is becoming deafen . ) This suggests that one of these two technical school giants has completely misinterpret the market : Google thinks it ’s the right time to get out of augmented realness – or its own vague bringing close together of it , as I ’ll explain in a bite – and Apple think it ’s the correct time to get in . They ca n’t both be right .
Google ’s negatively charged experience in this subject field can be salutary for Apple , for which this will be a hugely significant launch with the potential difference to usher in a astray - ranging ecosystem that one sidereal day match the winner of the iPhone , or to defile Tim Cook ’s legacy everlastingly . Apple needs to look at the things Google get haywire , and the obstacles it was unable to master , and find a different track … or simply trust that the market has switch enough that the same method acting will now be more successful . That ’s where the importance of timing comes in .
The single large problem confront both companies , Google then and Apple now , is how different a face - mounted gadget is from the tech intersection we pass most of our time using . The introduction of tablets and smartwatches essentially reproduced the experience of the smartphone on a expectant or smaller screen and did n’t expect a paradigm switching in the user ’s relationship with the gadget . It was still a smallish shine rectangle concealed somewhere about your person which you take out and looked at when it required attention . But a couplet of smart glasses or particularly a mixed - realness headset demands a relationship with technology , and with the earth around you , that is unprecedented in most users ’ lives .
Google Glass was an “ in your face ” physical object in more ways than one and deal to make its users front like hipster showoffs , mad futurists , and Orwellian informants at the same sentence . And this was a relatively discreet mathematical product that at least slightly mime the appearing of a regular dyad of spectacle . How much more plaguey will passers - by feel a motley - reality twist that hide your eyes and much of your head ? How long will it be before a Reality One substance abuser gets openly mocked ?
The promise , here , is that the world has moved on and that Google Glass was considered especially provoking because it was ostentatiously new . Apple can benefit in this heed from Google ’s unselfish piece of work get the humanity used to sassy glasses , which no longer seem quite as space - age as they did in 2013 . what is more , when a product ’s user groundwork hit a vital muckle it no longer seems odd . Apple will be hoping to normalise its headset through a combination of weight of sales and marketing know - how . hatful of hoi polloi recollect “ iPad ” was a uproariously bad brand name until all of their friends abruptly owned one .
The key here , and the way to nullify Google ’s mistake , will be both to deliver the benefits of AR and to make the public know what those benefits are . Because , as my confrere Jason Cross points out , Google Glass was n’t really an AR Cartesian product at all . Rather it was a fancy heads - up presentation with no ability to interact with existent - earthly concern objects . And so its users were admit the public disgrace of wear an AR twist without seeing such a product ’s benefits . It was all pain – literally , in some cases — and no increase . It ’s perhaps no coincidence that Microsoft ’s HoloLens , which really is an AR machine , is still live strong , or at least still going .
Apple wo n’t , I suspect , be happy with a corner purpose in the incorporated sphere like that carve out by HoloLens , or in medical or educational preferences , but that still leaves us without a unmortgaged savvy of what Reality One ’s killer consumer app will be . Bearing in mind that it will also offer practical realness features , one possibility is abode gambling , but there remain the suspiciousness that Apple does n’t really realise the gaming market , and that VR gamers will have far respectable and in all likelihood punk options elsewhere . It could also give Apple its agency into the metaverse , as nauseating as that parole is to even type .
But the most promising point is this : Thanks to its many talented app developers , Apple does n’t needs have to decide what the product is for . It just has to put the hardware out there and see where the biotic community takes it . peradventure it will be used primarliy for gaming , maybe social or educational , or mayhap users will empty the outside public entirely and take resort in an think universe free of poorness and hatred . If you build it – and build it in good order – they will come .
It ’s probably worth ensure the name of the product does n’t bring itself to an obvious contumely , however .
Foundry
Reviews (and previews) corner
Ourreview of the iPhone 14 Plus(in yellowness ) finds a big phone at anot - so - great price .
Apple’sfirst 3 New Mexico chipis shaping up to be a big whole step up from the A16 . Find out more in ourA17 prevue .
We round upfour iPhone 15 upgradesthat will make youwant one right now .
Yes , Apple will‘fake ’ zoomed photoson the iPhone 15 too – buthow far will it go ?
There ’s a newreality distortion fieldbecause Tim Cook is doomed , reckons the Macalope .
Thekey to the Mac ’s survivalisn’t a newfangled Air – it ’s thenext iPad Pro .
Microsoft Word for Macis about to gettwo huge shortcutswe’ve wanted for old age .
Apolitical shiftmay give Apple a hiatus in theU.S. antimonopoly push .
Appletrims engage and bonusesas tax income dips , butsteers clear of layoffs .
The rumor mill
Tim Cook overturn theAR / VR headsetdesign team ’s remonstrance to a 2023 launch , according toa new written report .
Apple isbelievedto be testing a next - gen‘Bobcat ’ language generationfor Siri .
TheiPhone 15 Promight start at more than $ 1,000 , in the Pro line’sfirst ever price wage increase .
The iPhone 15 Ultra , meanwhile , will reportedly‘break the record’forthinnest bezel .
Apple is working onturning AirPods into a ‘ health tool’toboost hearing .
Podcast of the week
The third and possibly last season ofTed Lassois here so we suppose this would be a good prison term to match in with our thoughts on Apple TV+ . Is Apple doing enough to keep up with the competition ? That ’s on this installment of the Macworld Podcast !
you may catch every sequence of the Macworld Podcast onSpotify , Soundcloud , thePodcasts app , orour own site .
Software updates, bugs & problems
iOS 16.4 beta 4has arrive , bringingnew emojiand several enhancements .
Plus : macOS Ventura 13.3 genus Beta 4isnow availabletoo .
