Apple’s secret AR headset has gotten leaked once again, the third major time in the past couple of months. As it turns out, the company might not be restricting its vision to just augmented reality, but looking beyond to virtual reality as well.
A source familiar with Apple’s plans told CNET that the brand was working on a device which would blend both AR and VR technology, commonly referred to as mixed reality. While there are a couple of such products around already, such as the Microsoft HoloLens, the iPhone maker’s take is apparently going to pack an 8K display for each eye for a total of 16K.
That’s an insane amount of resolution, as even the best TVs nowadays haven’t quite hit 8K heights. Not only that, it seems Apple is planning to make the headset completely wireless, so you wouldn’t need a computer or smartphone to get it going.
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Instead, the device will depend on a PC tower-shaped box to serve as its brain. This box is said to run on a custom Apple processor more advanced than current chipsets thanks to a 5nm SoC. This makes it faster as compared to the iPhone X’s 10nm CPU (the smaller the number, the more powerful and efficient the chip).
This box is further going to utilize a high-speed, short-range wireless technology called 60GHz WiGig. There may not be any special HTC Vive-like base stations required to detect where you are in a room, as everything is going to be handled by the headset and box.
Insiders claim the secret project goes by the codename T288 and is due to make its public debut in 2020. This lines up perfectly with an earlier Bloomberg report on the topic. Apple is also said to be working on a new software called rOS (reality operating system) for the headset, basing it on iOS.