Apple turned the iPod into a status symbol. A headset might be a taller order. | Photo by Justin Sullivan / Getty Images ‘This is the single greatest thing that could happen to this industry.’ As Apple prepares its long-rumored jump into augmented reality on Monday, doubts have shadowed every step of the way. There are reports of frequent changes in direction and skepticism inside Apple’s ranks. The device has allegedly been hard to manufacture and required numerous compromises. The process has taken years longer than Apple expected. And at a rumored $3,000, even Apple reportedly expects slow short-term sales. But among AR professionals, the mood is jubilant. “This is the single greatest thing that could happen to this industry,”…

Illustration by Hugo Herrera for The Verge If Apple’s mixed reality headset is going to succeed, it’s going to be because of the apps. On Monday, Apple will take the stage at its 2023 Worldwide Developers Conference to talk about FaceTime and Apple Books and all the other cool built-in stuff you’ll be able to do with its ski goggles strapped to your face. But if it can’t get third-party developers on board, and those developers don’t figure out how to build life-changingly great stuff for those goggles, the Reality Pro (or whatever it’s called) doesn’t stand a chance. Apple knows this better than anyone, of course. The iPhone took off when apps like Instagram and Uber showed what you…

The 34th annual Worldwide Developers conference is less than a week away, and it's going to feature one of the most exciting keynote events that we've had in recent years. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. Apple is expected to introduce its first new wearable since the launch of the Apple Watch, plus there are new Macs coming and notable features for iOS 17 and watchOS 10. This guide highlights everything rumored to be coming at WWDC 2023. Hardware We don't always get hardware at WWDC, and in fact, the event usually focuses on software. Every once in awhile, though, Apple has a new product to show off that's timed well for a June launch, and that's…

This is what iOS 7 looked like in September 2013 — three months after Apple first announced it. | Image: Apple iOS 7 brought a bold new design, but much of what was introduced in that release still serves as the foundation for what we see on our iPhones today. Heading into WWDC 2013, Apple had a lot to prove. The company was still licking its wounds from the botched launch of Apple Maps in iOS 6, and complaints had been growing around iOS’s increasingly stale design. Though the iPhone was by then a proven hit, iOS was starting to look outdated. Remember the notepad-like Notes app? The weird linen background behind Notification Center? The felt-ish green background of the…

Macworld It’s not long now until Apple should be revealing the latest iteration of iPadOS to the world. Here’s all we know so far about potential release dates, new features and which models will be able to run the software. It’s everything you need to know about iPadOS 17. iPadOS 17 release date: When will iPadOS 17 come out? There’s no official date from Apple as yet, but it does have a pretty reliable history of releasing software versions around the same time each year, as you can see from the dates below. iPadOS 16: October 24, 2022iPadOS 15: September 20, 2021iPadOS 14: September 16, 2020iPadOS 13: September 24, 2019 With the exception of the last version, which was thought…

Macworld Each year Apple releases a major update for iOS, the operating system on your iPhone. The current version, released last year, is iOS 16, and it doesn’t take a genius to predict that 2023 will see the launch of iOS 17. This free software update will bring a raft of interface tweaks, bug fixes, and new features. It’s like getting a new iPhone without paying a penny. In this article, we discuss everything you need to know about iOS 17. We cover its release schedule and when you can expect the beta and final versions to come out; how to get it when it does; the models of iPhone that are likely to be able to run iOS; and…