Silicon Valley is cold, but the Apple headset team is in full swing. Just this past weekend, they posted 3 job postings in one go, all for AR/VR application development. It was also revealed that two heavyweights joined, who are also good at application fields.
One of them worked in Apple's autonomous driving department and was good at application development in medical health and robotics. The other is Apple's internal senior engineering director. He has worked for more than 20 years and has been responsible for the development of Apple's basic applications such as Pages and Keynote.
There is news that the two co-founders of an MR mobile game studio have been poached by Apple to do AR/VR content. Judging from various phenomena, the MR headset that Apple has held back for a long time is really coming this time. Well-known Apple whistleblower Mark Gurman revealed that this blockbuster product may be released in 2023. What capabilities will it have? Through the above recruitment trends, you may be able to get a glimpse of one or two.
Let’s take a look at some of the latest job offers. The job description of senior/software engineer shows that this position will work closely with the user interaction framework, human-computer interface interaction, and system function teams. In addition to the basic requirements, the recruitment notice also mentioned additional ability requirements such as "familiarity with game engines and 3D rendering".
Mark Gurman guesses: This seems to mean that Apple is building a virtual world?
He said it was a further hint that Apple would develop a video service for the MR headset that would allow it to play 3D video.
As early as 2020, Apple acquired NextVR, which has 26 VR patent technologies ranging from shooting, compression, transmission, and content display. After its establishment, it provides live content covering sports events, concerts...etc.
At the same time, the team is also hiring iOS application software engineers to help Apple build cutting-edge applications for the next generation of interactive computing platforms. This seems to mean that Apple hopes that the operating system on the headset can also be connected to iOS. Another job posting shows that Apple is looking for software development engineers who can work on App Intents, which allows apps to work with Siri and shortcuts.
In addition to the recruitment, the two newly joined executives also conveyed some information about the headset. For example, Dave Scott (Dave Scott), worked in Apple's self-driving department. After he left Apple in early 2021, he took a job at a company that makes MRI machines. Good at application development in healthcare and robotics. If Apple digs it back, does it mean that there will be health apps on the headset?
The other is Yaniv Gur, who leads the development of Apple's multiple office applications. His reassignment means that Apple's headset may have office applications to improve its productivity.
Mobilegamer.biz reported that the two co-founders of AR mobile game studio Playdeo, Jack Schulze and Timo Arnall, are now employed by Apple. The studio was established in 2017, and the team has so far produced two AR content based on ARKit, namely "Avo" released in 2019, and "Mystery Coast" released in 2020. Both games can take advantage of the iPhone's 3D scanning capabilities to render AR effects.
According to Mark Gurman's news, perhaps this much-anticipated Apple headset will be available next year.
According to the leaked information, it may be priced around $2000-3000, will be equipped with an M2 chip, equipped with a total of 10 cameras, and will use the highest resolution display in the mass market to date. Its built-in system may be realityOS. It will include mixed reality versions of core Apple apps like Messages, FaceTime, and Maps.
The first version of the operating system, code-named Oak, is currently in the final stage and is ready to be applied to new hardware next year. As for the product name, Gurman said that in August this year, Apple had registered two trademarks "RealityPro" and "RealityOne".
The word Reality is in the name of both the operating system and Apple's AR development tools, so the name of the headset is likely to have something to do with Reality.
0 Comments