In the latest edition of Mark Gurman’s Power On Newsletter for Bloomberg, he provides some more details on how the upcoming Apple AR/VR headset — expected to be unveiled at WWDC in June — works.
Gurman says the headset features two ports; a USB-C port for data transfer and a proprietary magnetic port to attach the battery pack. The external battery pack is required for the headset to function, and apparently resembles the MagSafe Battery Pack in size and shape. It will provide about two hours of battery life.
By relying on an external battery pack, the headset itself can be lighter. This should improve comfort of the wearer. The downside of course is that requires an ungainly wire trailing out of the headset during use, with the user presumably expected to keep the battery pack in a pocket on their clothing.
With expected battery life of about 2 hours per pack, hardcore Apple headset users will need to carry multiple battery packs on their person and switch them out to have longer augmented reality sessions.
Gurman says the battery pack and the cable is one piece, and not separable. The round-tipped cable attaches a magnetic port on the headset, that locks into place with a rotational motion on insertion. This means the cable cannot fall out during use.
As a refresher of the latest rumors, the headset itself is expected to be a premium device made of materials including glass and carbon fiber, feature two 4K displays (one for each eye), about a dozen sensors and cameras to enable fine-grained hand gesture and eye tracking, and be powered by an M2 chip.
The product is expected to retail around $3000. Trademark filings suggest it will be called ‘Apple Reality Pro’. More affordable versions are reportedly already in development for release in future years. Apple is expected to announce the device on June 5, at Apple’s annual developer conference.
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