Apple’s VR vision takes center stage

it a slow time in the world of gadgets and consumer technology, a purgatory of products between CES and phone ad season, resulting in a scarcity of device news. Right now, there’s only one thing to do in this week’s gadget roundup: it’s good to dive into the rumors and find out what Apple is doing.

Once again, new details have been leaked about Apple’s current plans for an AR/VR headset and mixed reality ecosystem. Thanks to messages from bloomberg and InformationApple’s vision for its most anticipated device in recent years has become increasingly clear.

Apple seems interested in building a device that will replicate its mobile iOS in a virtual or augmented world. The headset, which Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman says will likely be called Reality Pro and launch later this year, will use internal and external cameras to track eye and hand movements so you can fiddle around with AR objects that are projected into the real world. space. This will allow you to make AR FaceTime calls with a realistically displayed video of the person wearing the headset. This will reportedly work for one-on-one calls, where multi-person calls will show them all as slightly terrifying Apple Animoji cartoons.

Apple is also discreetly creating an AR software environment in which it and other companies can create apps. Apparently, Apple used technologies commonly used in video games, such as procedural generation, to create virtual environments such as a meditation garden and even an interactive Dr. Seuss story.

The headset will reportedly cost around $3,000, with cheaper models scheduled for release in 2024 or 2025.

Here’s some more gadget news this week.

Microsoft will stop selling Windows 10

Considered by many to be a pretty decent OS, Windows 10 is phasing out its mostly good successor. Microsoft says that after January 31st don’t sell anymore Windows 10 licenses.

But that doesn’t kill the OS completely – at least not yet. On the Windows 10 store page, the disclaimer states that Microsoft will support Windows 10. until October 14, 2025. This is roughly a decade of the life of an OS that matches Microsoft’s past support for its popular operating systems. (Microsoft ended support for the highly popular Windows 7 in 2020, more than a decade after its release.) However, it does signal that Microsoft is looking to transition more fully into the Windows 11 era. The company has released the first major update for its new OS in September last year.

Substack Gets Private Mode

Substack, the independent newsletter and blogging platform that has become a darling of independent journalists, gets private mode. It works like your cheeky Finsta account or Twitter Circle, where messages can only be seen by people you approve. Directly comparing it to Instagram’s private mode, the company says it will give Substackers the ability to test feeds or make posts available only to friends or certain communities. (You know it’s only a matter of time until some writer accidentally posts a 8,000-word lewd text on the front page.)

There is an almost nostalgic appeal to this movement. After all, having a blog that few people read is likely to be very familiar to those of us who were online around 2007.

U TikTalking 2 Me?

TikTok has been in the news a lot lately, mostly because everyone is trying to ban the app in the US. However, the app continues to release silent updates to its platform. The last one is the ability customize who you receive DM from.

You can choose between accessing private messages from everyone, shared followers, or suggested friends. The suggested friends mode will allow you to send DMs to people you have added through your contacts or other social networking services such as Facebook. You can also disable DM entirely. It’s not as comprehensive as Instagram’s recent quality of life updates to protect younger users, but it’s clear that TikTok is prioritizing DM as a way to keep people interacting on the app.