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New immersive AR experience for iPad Pro brings student creativity to life

tigaman webdesign — Thu, 06 Jul 2023 19:03:34 +0000

Inspired by a curiosity for the natural world, “Deep Field” is a new immersive art experience and app created by celebrated Australian artists and creative technologists Tin Nguyen and Edward Cutting of Tin&Ed, using iPad Pro and Apple Pencil.

Students visiting the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney were among the first to experience the new immersive AR initiative Deep Field.

Initially available at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney and the Getty Center in Los Angeles, the interactive augmented reality (AR) and sonic experience enables students and families around the world to cocreate and connect in real time through their shared reimagining of the environment.

Harnessing the power and portability of iPad Pro, combined with the precision of Apple Pencil to foster creativity, Deep Field participants are invited to take inspiration from works of art and the environment to draw their own flora and fauna, experimenting with vibrant color, shapes, and textures. After dreaming up fantastical plant parts, participants sketch their designs with Apple Pencil in the Deep Field iPad app, which are then added to a global database filled with flora drawn by participants across the world in real time, cocreating a new ecosystem where the invisible worlds of plants are revealed through the magic of AR. Using the LiDAR Scanner on iPad Pro, participants watch their artworks bloom into spectacular 3D plant structures trailing across the floors, walls, and ceilings around them, creating a newly imagined, immersive natural world.

The power and portability of iPad Pro, combined with the precision of Apple Pencil, enables participants to foster their creativity, taking inspiration from the environment and drawing their own reimagined flora and fauna.

The guided experience encourages audiences to consider new perspectives and think about the planet differently, from plants that have lived for a thousand years, to new and imagined species. Taking the experience to another level, the app’s UV mode also enables students and families to view their newly created world in a different dimension, as they experience the world as a pollinator.

Multidisciplinary artists Tin&Ed create vibrant, playful, and interactive experiences across the world that explore and push the interconnected boundaries between art, design, and technology, and the physical and digital worlds. More than an immersive simulation, Deep Field utilizes accessible technology that empowers people to bring creativity to life, while also shining a spotlight on the need to protect the planet.

Multidisciplinary artists Tin&Ed developed the Deep Field app for iPad Pro to enable participants from across the globe to imagine new worlds together in real time in augmented reality.

To bring the Deep Field experience to life at this scale, Tin&Ed fused their background in art and design and passion for creative technologies to work skillfully across multiple devices. The power of MacBook Pro, Mac Studio with M1 Ultra, and Studio Display, combined with 3D platform Unity, enabled the development of complex three-dimensional worlds that were then optimized for real time. The Deep Field app was designed using Apple’s ARKit framework, allowing for the integration of the depth-sensing features in iPad Pro with the M2 chip, to produce spectacular 3D plant structures in AR. The state-of-the-art LiDAR Scanner in iPad Pro offers cutting-edge depth-sensing capabilities to measure light distance, and uses pixel depth information of a scene to deliver faster and more realistic AR experiences.

Participants are invited to draw their own flora and fauna on iPad Pro with Apple Pencil, experimenting with vibrant color, shapes, and textures.

“For us, AR is a powerful artistic medium for storytelling because it is immersive and multisensory,” says Tin Nguyen, artist at Tin&Ed. “The power of the M2 chip on iPad Pro has made it possible to create a work that enables children from across the globe to imagine new worlds together in real time.”

“Deep Field encourages children to look, listen, and think more deeply about the natural world and their place within it,” says Edward Cutting, artist at Tin&Ed. “We hope they come away from the experience feeling a sense of wonder and curiosity and a deeper connection to nature and each other.”

To enhance the multisensory experience, Deep Field features a multichannel soundscape of forgotten and extinct species by celebrated audio naturalist Martyn Stewart, bringing a new appreciation to the beauty of the noisy environment of the natural world. Stewart, together with his foundation, The Listening Planet, has made it his life’s work to catalog the sounds of the planet and bring nature’s voice to the world in the hopes of safeguarding its future.

Using the LiDAR Scanner on iPad Pro, participants watch their artworks bloom into spectacular 3D plant structures trailing across the floors, walls, and ceilings around them.

Deep Field is now available for students and families at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney, and will be available for visitors at the Getty Center in Los Angeles from Saturday, July 8, until Sunday, July 16.

“Deep Field is a new opportunity for our youngest visitors to experience the intersection of art and technology,” says Dr. Michael Brand, the Art Gallery of New South Wales’s director. “Thanks to the vision of Tin&Ed, with the experience starting in our Yiribana Gallery, each participant will be invited to look closely at nature through the lens of the world’s oldest continuous cultures, as depicted in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artworks. Children will also be encouraged to connect with their surroundings by observing and responding to the magnificent natural landscape, which is seamlessly integrated into our new art museum campus in Sydney on Gadigal Country.”

“This is the Getty’s second collaboration with Tin&Ed, following the iOS app they created for our William Blake exhibition,” says Timothy Potts, Maria Hummer-Tuttle and Robert Tuttle director of the J. Paul Getty Museum. “Deep Field allows visitors to take inspiration from works of art in the Getty’s collection, including our own Central Garden (a living work of art), and collaborate with people on the other side of the world to create an ever-changing interactive work of art in augmented reality. In addition to bridging traditional art with new technology, it serves as a gentle reminder that we share this one earth with others and need to work as a team to care for it.”

MacDailyNews Note: Following availability in Sydney and Los Angeles, the Deep Field experience will embark on a world tour, arriving in Europe in October, and then on to Asia in November, including a stop at ArtScience Museum in Singapore.

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Pixelmator Pro review: An affordable alternative for pro Photoshop users

tigaman webdesign — Mon, 26 Jun 2023 14:21:42 +0000

Macworld

At a Glance

Expert’s Rating

Pros

No monthly subscription required
Impressive range of editing features
Constantly updated
Layer management for videos

Cons

Not as easy to use as we would like – we’d like to see step-by-step instructions built in

Our Verdict

With a powerful set of editing tools and excellent value for money, this is a good alternative to Photoshop.

Best Prices Today: Pixelmator Pro

Pixelmator Pro Free Trial

View Deal

Pixelmator Pro is a popular and affordable alternative to Adobe’s Photoshop – not least because it’s available as a one-time purchase that doesn’t require a monthly subscription like Adobe’s Creative Cloud apps. But over the years it has evolved so it it no longer only an alternative to Photoshop. Pixelmator Pro can also be used to edit video and create professional layouts.

It’s a little tricky keeping track of the Pixelmator range as the developers at Pixelmator Team have a tendency to keep changing the name, and also producing multiple versions of the app for Macs, iPhone and iPad. The older Pixelmator Classic for Mac now seems to have been discontinued, leaving just Pixemator Pro on the Mac. And, on the mobile side, the iPhone and iPad versions of the app have merged into a single app that is simply called Pixelmator. And, just to confuse things further, Pixelmator Team recently launched an entirely new photo-editing app called Photomator that runs on Macs, iPhone and iPad.

We review a number of Photoshop alternatives here: Best photo editing software for Mac as well as some free options here: Best free photo editing app for Mac.

Tools and editing features

On the Mac side of the fence, Pixelmator Pro provides an impressive range of editing features, including AI-powered tools that can simplify tasks such as removing blemishes or unwanted details from an image. It even has an option for removing the background of an image entirely – which we often find very useful when preparing product photos for our own reviews on Macworld.

The interface won’t immediately be familiar if you are used to Photoshop. This could be good or bad: If you have Photoshop’s shortcuts and workflows in your muscle memory, it can take a long time to relearn, and when a feature is missing, it can be frustrating. On the other hand, it means that Pixelmator gets rid of 30 years of baggage and can think in new ways. Pixelmator Pro sticks to the most important features and doesn’t try to recreate exactly every Photoshop feature. Instead of four different ways of doing one thing, you get the best/easiest. And everything that is important for most people is there: Layers with layer masks, blending modes, adjustment layers, tools for drawing and painting, auto exposure, distortion and so on.

Over on the left you’ll find the Layers palette, which is key to using many of the app’s more powerful features. You can create both raster (bitmap) and vector layers.

Pixelmator Pro presents an effectively clean and sparse experience, keeping your focus on the image.

In a narrow column on the right are the tools. There are precise tools for selecting objects and colours, and both preset and customizable brush styles, all of which are neatly arranged in a palette that runs down the right-hand side of the main editing window.

Foundry

One of the most eye-catching AI features is called ML Super Resolution and uses machine learning to magnify low-resolution images. With some images it is almost magical, but when we tested back in 2021 the results were mixed. Faces looked like they’ve been painted, straight lines became wavy, and although noise and pixelation disappeared to make the image “cleaner,” it looked unreal in return. See image above for example.

ML Crop is an automated cropping function based on the golden spiral that should help you get images with an effective composition. When we tested this we didn’t get results that we wouldn’t have made manually. Which is as it should be.

The program provides a useful selection of text and vector graphics tools, so that you can design documents that go beyond pure photography. You can use masks to isolate specific parts of a layer or image, there are powerful and precise histograms for adjusting colour and lighting.

There are also little helpful touches, such as the Colors histogram. Have you ever attempted to adjust a color in an image, but you don’t see much of an effect? Making green areas greener, for instance, sometimes requires decreasing the blue or cyan tones, but that’s not always visually evident. When you’re manipulating colors, the Colors histogram gives you a sense of how prevalent the colors are within the image to help you target which ones to adjust.

The Colors histogram.

Pixelmator Pro has a unique way of showing control points for effects. When you apply a new effect, such as a vignette, a control point appears in the middle of the screen, adhered to a virtual thread connecting it to the Vignette controls in the Effects panel—it even pops with a little physics-simulated bounce. In this case, the point controls the center of the vignette area. Other controls, like the Perspective Transform, tie multiple control points to sections of the effect, like Top Left, Top Right, and so on.

To make it clear which control point belongs to which effect, virtual threads connect them.

Most of the editing you do in Pixelmator Pro is non-destructive, that is, if you regret it later you won’t have to go back to that particular step. For example, when you edit aspects such as exposure or saturation or add an effect like a vignette, the changes aren’t burned into the image’s pixels. They can be changed or removed at any time on a per-layer basis.

But that does not apply to everything, for example not a change of perspective. This is also the case in competing programs, but more annoying for those who work with text in images is that Pixelmator Pro, unlike both Photoshop and Affinity Photo, cannot retain editable text when you change the perspective of the text. For example, if you want to put text on a sign in a photo, you can’t fill in a temporary text, position and change the perspective of it so that it appears to be in the same plane as the sign, and then change the text. As soon as you change the perspective, it is rendered and becomes pixels.

Updates in the latest version

Rather than getting a major update every year or so, Pixelmator Pro tends to release regular updates that add a few new features every few months.

The developers are alert and over the years have added many requested features that were not initially there when it was first released in 2017.

The version 2 update in 2020 offered a fully customizable and refreshed user interface. Almost every element of the user interface, from the toolbar to every single menu and switch, was updated and refined. The update added over 200 new presets and more than 50 vector shapes for the color adjustment, effect, style, shape and gradient tools.

2.0.6 update (in 2022) added some new video tooltips that can help to explain how many of the main tools work, and point you towards some online tutorials if you need a little more help.

Version 2.1 brought the ML Crop tool (discussed above). This automatic cropping tool uses machine learning to get the best results. You choose things like aspect ratio and whether the crop should follow a rule of thirds or the golden spiral. Cropping in general also become faster, especially for large images with many layers.

In 2.1 the text tool was also improved with additional settings such as size, spacing and ligatures. The Paint tool has gained a brush gallery and search function, and a brush can be used to draw lines and edges. The program also gained a quick fill function: Drag and drop a color from the color palette directly onto a layer and suddenly the entire layer is filled with that color.

Version 3.0 focused mainly on adding new templates and mock-ups for creating different types of documents and projects. These include templates for posters, maps, logos, social media projects, general graphic objects and even print templates for magazine covers. You could say that with this update Pixelmator took on InDesign and Pages (Pages and InDesign are still more effective at their jobs though, and Pages is free). Version 3.1 added full compatibility with macOS Ventura.

Macwelt

However, v3.2 was a big update that introduced the ability to import and adjust the appearance of video files as well as static photos–Pixelmator Pro this time taking on video editors. Basic video editing tools include operations like trimming, cropping, and color adjustments. You can add text, images, shapes and apply masks to videos. Pixelmator Pro also comes with video templates for quick projects and posts on YouTube or even professionally made film titles. Export options include the option to create GIFs from videos and common formats such as MP4 and MOV. We found the layer management to be a great advantage when editing video because numerous effects, filters, and other applications can be easily placed over the imported film and checked before the finished result is exported.

Pixelmator Pro bietet für Videos professionelle Vorlagen

Macwelt

Version 3.3 arrived in February 2023 and added a new Remove Colour tool.

Usability

Our only real complaint is that Pixelmator does tend to just throw features onto the screen and then leave you to figure out how everything works. It’s not the most intuitive program for newcomers to get to grips with, and tends fill the screen with controls and palettes and just assume that you know what you’re doing.

There are lots of tutorials and Help files on the Pixelmator website, but we can’t help thinking that Pixelmator Pro needs something similar to the Guided Edits that are found in Photoshop Elements, which provide simple step-by-step instructions for using some of that program’s more complex tools and features.

Verdict

There’s no doubt that Pixelmator Pro’s powerful array of editing tools represents excellent value for money, and the video editing features that arrived at the beginning of 2023 make this app even easier to recommend. Plus there’s a seven-day free trial also available as well.

Professional Software

Pixelmator Pro review: An affordable alternative for pro Photoshop users

tigaman webdesign — Mon, 26 Jun 2023 14:21:42 +0000

Macworld

At a Glance

Expert’s Rating

Pros

No monthly subscription required
Impressive range of editing features
Constantly updated
Layer management for videos

Cons

Not as easy to use as we would like – we’d like to see step-by-step instructions built in

Our Verdict

With a powerful set of editing tools and excellent value for money, this is a good alternative to Photoshop.

Best Prices Today: Pixelmator Pro

Pixelmator Pro Free Trial

View Deal

We review a number of Photoshop alternatives here: Best photo editing software for Mac as well as some free options here: Best free photo editing app for Mac.

Tools and editing features

Over on the left you’ll find the Layers palette, which is key to using many of the app’s more powerful features. You can create both raster (bitmap) and vector layers.

Pixelmator Pro presents an effectively clean and sparse experience, keeping your focus on the image.

Foundry

The Colors histogram.

To make it clear which control point belongs to which effect, virtual threads connect them.

Updates in the latest version

Rather than getting a major update every year or so, Pixelmator Pro tends to release regular updates that add a few new features every few months.

The developers are alert and over the years have added many requested features that were not initially there when it was first released in 2017.

2.0.6 update (in 2022) added some new video tooltips that can help to explain how many of the main tools work, and point you towards some online tutorials if you need a little more help.

Macwelt

Pixelmator Pro bietet für Videos professionelle Vorlagen

Macwelt

Version 3.3 arrived in February 2023 and added a new Remove Colour tool.

Usability

Verdict

Professional Software

Apple Retail Stores will be key for the Apple Vision Pro spatial computer

tigaman webdesign — Tue, 13 Jun 2023 18:59:09 +0000

‘Tis Apple Retail Stores that will be key to presenting and selling Apple Vision Pro spatial computers to the world.

Apple Vision Pro: Apple’s first spatial computer

Michael Steeber for Tabletops/a>:

For Vision Pro, Apple needs to both familiarize customers with the fit and finish of the device as it did with Apple Watch and convey a totally new sensory experience as it did with AirPods Pro. Additionally, Specialists will need to introduce customers to the concept of spatial computing.

Ultimately, the onus of ushering in the era of spatial computing will be on the Specialists and Creatives. The Vision Pro retail experience must be guided from end to end. Apple Stores started as a place to educate, and as technology faded to the background, customers began to intuitively understand their tools and seek out the Apple Store as a product destination. But visionOS is a fundamentally new paradigm that thrusts the role of education front and center once again.

These are just some of the many new challenges and opportunities Vision Pro will bring to Apple Stores. The dawn of spatial computing transforms far more than just the way we interact with software. This new category of device will impel Apple to reshape the retail experience around a more immersive, personalized environment. It’s an incredibly exciting moment.

MacDailyNews Take: As Steeber says in his full article, outside of a handful of flagships, nearly every Apple Retail Store will need to make the best use of their existing space to fit in Apple Vision Pro and the ability to demonstrate it to many, many customers.

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David Pogue: Apple Vision Pro ‘is one freaking mind-blowing piece of tech’

tigaman webdesign — Fri, 09 Jun 2023 20:21:11 +0000

Apple this week unveiled Apple Vision Pro, a revolutionary spatial computer that seamlessly blends digital content with the physical world, while allowing users to stay present and connected to others. Longtime tech writer David Pogue tried it out in Apple’s hands on area and found it to be “one freaking mind-blowing piece of tech.”

Apple Vision Pro

Vision Pro creates an infinite canvas for apps that scales beyond the boundaries of a traditional display and introduces a fully three-dimensional user interface controlled by the most natural and intuitive inputs possible — a user’s eyes, hands, and voice. Featuring visionOS, the world’s first spatial operating system, Vision Pro lets users interact with digital content in a way that feels like it is physically present in their space. The breakthrough design of Vision Pro features an ultra-high-resolution display system that packs 23 million pixels across two displays, and custom Apple silicon in a unique dual-chip design to ensure every experience feels like it’s taking place in front of the user’s eyes in real time.

David Pogue via Medium:

I spent half an hour trying the Apple Vision Pro headset. Here’s the punch line: This is one freaking mind-blowing piece of tech.

I mean, when Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone in 2007, you could feel the paradigm shifting in real time.

This was like that, but better…

[T]he result is so advanced and polished, it makes Meta’s VR headsets look like Blackberries…

[A]t the outset, you won’t be able to order the Vision Pro online. You’ll have to visit an Apple Store to get a custom fitting in person. You’ll get a guided tour while you’re at it…

Photos: It’s just like the Photos app on the iPhone or Mac, except that the photos can be huge. Wall-sized. And when you open a panorama photo — oh my God.

Watching Movies: Oh man. Oh man. This thing does a beautiful simulation of a dazzling, 4K movie screen right in front of you — literally the most pristine visual experience you’ve ever seen, up to “100 feet” diagonal.

Dinosaur Encounter: The demo ended with an insanely compelling interactive video… the wall of the demo room split open to reveal a gigantic screen playing a CGI dinosaur scene. An immense dino — some kind of raptor? — lumbered in, noticed me, and looked directly at me.

As I moved around the room, he continued to stare, tracking me.

And then, curiosity thoroughly piqued, the dinosaur — oh man — stepped out of the screen and into the room.

It was another one-shot, virtual-reality magic trick — but man, what a trick. If your heart rate doesn’t shoot up the first time you see it, you’re in a coma.

MacDailyNews Take: Apple Vision Pro, regardless of price, even in the first generation, is going to sell better than most people, perhaps even those at Apple, think.

Does anyone even remember that the first iPhone didn’t have a front camera, a flash, video recording, or GPS? And there was no app store. You got 16 apps, and you were happy. By those standards, this very first Vision Pro looks like a far more finished machine. It’s as though Apple unveiled the iPhone X back in 2007. — David Pogue

There’s much more in the full article – recommended – here.

Please help support MacDailyNews. Click or tap here to support our independent tech blog. Thank you!

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David Pogue: Apple Vision Pro ‘is one freaking mind-blowing piece of tech’

tigaman webdesign — Fri, 09 Jun 2023 20:21:11 +0000

Apple Vision Pro

David Pogue via Medium:

I spent half an hour trying the Apple Vision Pro headset. Here’s the punch line: This is one freaking mind-blowing piece of tech.

I mean, when Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone in 2007, you could feel the paradigm shifting in real time.

This was like that, but better…

[T]he result is so advanced and polished, it makes Meta’s VR headsets look like Blackberries…

[A]t the outset, you won’t be able to order the Vision Pro online. You’ll have to visit an Apple Store to get a custom fitting in person. You’ll get a guided tour while you’re at it…

Photos: It’s just like the Photos app on the iPhone or Mac, except that the photos can be huge. Wall-sized. And when you open a panorama photo — oh my God.

Watching Movies: Oh man. Oh man. This thing does a beautiful simulation of a dazzling, 4K movie screen right in front of you — literally the most pristine visual experience you’ve ever seen, up to “100 feet” diagonal.

Dinosaur Encounter: The demo ended with an insanely compelling interactive video… the wall of the demo room split open to reveal a gigantic screen playing a CGI dinosaur scene. An immense dino — some kind of raptor? — lumbered in, noticed me, and looked directly at me.

As I moved around the room, he continued to stare, tracking me.

And then, curiosity thoroughly piqued, the dinosaur — oh man — stepped out of the screen and into the room.

It was another one-shot, virtual-reality magic trick — but man, what a trick. If your heart rate doesn’t shoot up the first time you see it, you’re in a coma.

MacDailyNews Take: Apple Vision Pro, regardless of price, even in the first generation, is going to sell better than most people, perhaps even those at Apple, think.

There’s much more in the full article – recommended – here.

Please help support MacDailyNews. Click or tap here to support our independent tech blog. Thank you!

Support MacDailyNews at no extra cost to you by using this link to shop at Amazon.

The post David Pogue: Apple Vision Pro ‘is one freaking mind-blowing piece of tech’ appeared first on MacDailyNews.

Apple Highlights Vision Pro’s Accessibility Features with Head, Wrist, and Index Finger Controls

tigaman webdesign — Wed, 07 Jun 2023 22:26:21 +0000

Apple’s new Vision Pro headset is controlled with eye and hand movements by default. For those with accessibility needs, however, features like VoiceOver, Pointer Control, and Dwell Control will allow users to interact with visionOS in other ways. In a WWDC session for developers, Apple has provided more details about these features.

Pointer Control

Pointer Control will allow the Vision Pro to be controlled based on head, wrist, or index finger position rather than eye tracking. Users will be able to adjust movement sensitivity to further fit their individual needs.

Dwell Control will provide on-screen options for Tap, Scroll, Long Press, and Drag, allowing for users to interact with the interface without using their hands.

Dwell Control

There’s also Guided Access, an accessibility feature that will promote focus by restricting visionOS to a single app at one time. Apple says the feature aims to minimize distractions by backgrounding other apps, removing non-essential UI elements, and suppressing hardware button events that could be distracting.

Guided Access

Apple’s screen reader VoiceOver will be available on the Vision Pro. Users will be able to set up a VoiceOver shortcut in the Settings app on visionOS that allows for the feature to be activated with a triple press of the Digital Crown.

Vision Pro is launching in early 2024 in the U.S. for $3,499, and more details about the headset are available in our Vision Pro roundup. For more details about the accessibility features, check out Apple’s WWDC session.

Related Roundup: Apple Vision Pro

Related Forum: Apple Vision Pro

This article, "Apple Highlights Vision Pro's Accessibility Features with Head, Wrist, and Index Finger Controls" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Apple Vision Pro Testers Share Impressions: ‘By Far the Best Headset’

tigaman webdesign — Tue, 06 Jun 2023 15:19:37 +0000

Apple on Monday unveiled the Vision Pro, its long-awaited AR/VR headset. While the headset is not launching until early next year, some media outlets and YouTubers received a 30-minute guided demo of the device and shared their first impressions. The testers were not allowed to take photos or videos of the demo experience.

In a tweet, tech columnist Joanna Stern described the Vision Pro as “by far the best headset out there.” In a report for The Wall Street Journal, she elaborated that “the interface and hand gestures are intuitive, 3-D movies are finally making sense and a huge dinosaur felt like it really broke through a wall right in front of me.”

Stern did point out some negative aspects, including the headset feeling heavy and making her feel a bit nauseous when switching between virtual reality and augmented reality modes. And while the Vision Pro has some innovative features to reduce feelings of isolation, such as showing the wearer’s eyes through the front glass, Stern said it will still be a challenge for Apple to convince customers to wear the device.

In a video, well-known tech YouTuber Marques Brownlee said the Vision Pro has some features that are “the best I have ever seen in any VR headset, by a mile,” including eye tracking and hand tracking. These advanced technologies do not come cheap, of course, as the Vision Pro will be priced at a staggering $3,499. Brownlee also pointed out that the headset lacks haptic feedback since it does not have controllers.

TechCrunch‘s Matthew Panzarino said Apple has “delivered nothing less than a genuine leapfrog in capability and execution” with the Vision Pro.

“Every bit of this thing shows Apple-level ambition,” said Panzarino. “I don’t know whether it will be the ‘next computing mode,’ but you can see the conviction behind each of the choices made here. No corners cut. Full-tilt engineering on display.”

MacRumors is in attendance at WWDC and will be publishing our own first impressions of the Vision Pro soon. In the meantime, check out our first in-person look at the headset. For more details about the Vision Pro and its visionOS operating system, check out our coverage of Apple’s announcement from Monday.

Related Roundup: AR/VR Headset

Related Forum: Apple Vision Pro

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xrOS: What to Expect From the Software Designed for Apple’s AR/VR Headset

tigaman webdesign — Mon, 29 May 2023 20:59:50 +0000

The Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), Apple’s annual developer and software-oriented conference, is now just a few days away. As with previous years, Apple is expected to introduce major updates to all of its operating systems, but unique to WWDC 2023, Apple is also very likely to unveil xrOS, the software that will run its much-rumored AR/VR mixed-reality headset. Here’s everything we’re expecting from it.

xrOS: What’s in a Name?

Apple has not publicly acknowledged the existence of its headset, but internal Apple sources have confirmed that the operating system will be called xrOS, and Apple has used hidden shell companies to trademark the name in various countries.

‌xrOS‌ is meant to stand for “extended reality,” hinting at the augmented and virtual reality functions at the heart of the head-mounted device. The backend capitalization also conforms to the naming conventions Apple has adopted for all of the operating systems in its ecosystem.

According to reporting by Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman, Apple sees the headset as a device for gaming, watching streaming video, video conferencing, health and fitness, and interfacing with other people. Therefore ‌xrOS‌ will be focused on providing the best possible environment for delivering that content.

Apple-registered wordmark for “‌xrOS‌” in New Zealand

xrOS User Interface

‌xrOS‌ is believed to have an iOS-like interface that will be familiar to iPhone and iPad users, but presented to them and interacted with in an entirely new way.

We are expecting a dedicated Home Screen containing apps and customizable widgets, all of which can be rearranged, and all viewed on dual high-resolution 4K micro OLED displays with up to 3,000 pixels per inch for a rich, realistic, and immersive viewing experience.

Both of the user’s hands and eyes will be tracked by more than a dozen optical cameras, and the wearer is expected to be able to look at an on-screen item to select it, and use a hand gesture like a pinch to activate the item on the screen.

The now defunct-Google Glass: An early example of an AR interface

The ‌xrOS‌ software could even potentially project AR app interface elements onto actual objects in the real world for a mixed-reality overlay kind of effect.

Apple is also said to be working on an in-air typing feature that is expected to be a bit rudimentary at launch, with Apple to make notable improvements over time.

Apps

At the core of ‌xrOS‌ will be re-imagined versions of stock Apple apps like Safari, Photos, Messages, Maps, Apple TV+, Apple Music, Podcasts, Reminders, and Calendar, as well as a FaceTime app customized for the headset. The Maps app will also feature, and could incorporate some of Apple’s Look Around and landmark functionality, allowing users to explore cities around the world.

Users will be able to work on several apps at the same time, while an ‌xrOS‌ App Store will host made-for-headset apps, as well as existing ‌App Store‌ content. Apple is also said to be adapting ‌iPad‌ apps for the headset’s 3D interface.

In addition, Apple is set on transforming several existing services and apps into immersive viewing experiences. For example, users will be able to watch videos in virtual reality environments as if they were looking at a giant screen, or participate in guided meditations accompanied by immersive visuals, audio, and voiceovers.

Some of the apps and services said to offer radically different experiences in ‌xrOS‌ include Apple Fitness+, ‌Apple TV+‌ (with a focus on viewing sports content like MLB and MLS), and a 3D version of Apple’s collaborative Freeform tool. As for ‌FaceTime‌, with all of the cameras that the headset is expected to have, one-on-one chats are said to feature realistic avatars which mimic the user’s actual facial expressions and body movements.

Apple is also said to have created a Books app for reading in virtual reality, a Health app focusing on psychological wellness, and a Camera app that can take images from the headset’s cameras.

Gaming and App Creation

To get people to purchase the mixed-reality headset, Apple will need to convince users that the software experiences are worth it. That will require not only compelling first-party experiences, but also innovative third-party apps from developers.

Iron Man VR on the Meta Quest headset

With gaming reportedly a focus, Apple is said to have been working with a select number of game developers to help them update their existing content for mixed reality, but Apple reportedly also has a robust set of tools available that will allow non-developers to create their own AR/VR experiences. According to one report, customers will be able to create and release AR apps for the headset using Siri as an assistant, even if they do not have the ability to code.

The report likens Apple’s tool to Minecraft and Roblox, which allow anyone to easily create 3D tools and worlds. Apple is said to be utilizing technology that it acquired from Montreal-based startup Fabric Software in 2017, and customers would be able to distribute the AR apps they create on the ‌App Store‌ alongside developers.

It’s worth noting that the report cites sources who last saw demonstrations of the tool in 2021, so the report is based on older information and it’s possible that Apple’s plans have changed at least slightly in the time that has passed since. Whether this latter report is still accurate is something we should learn soon.

When is xrOS Coming?

Apple’s software tools for the headset are likely to be revealed at ‌WWDC 2023‌, giving developers time to create AR and VR apps and experiences for the headset before it launches. In that sense, we won’t see the full version of ‌xrOS‌ until the headset is officially released to the public, and that isn’t expected to happen until later in the year.

For everything else we know about the headset, including all the hardware details, be sure to check our dedicated AR/VR headset roundup.

Related Roundup: AR/VR Headset

Tag: xrOS

Related Forum: Apple Glasses, AR and VR

This article, "xrOS: What to Expect From the Software Designed for Apple's AR/VR Headset" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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