14 DAY TRIAL // Apple is known to be working on new AR features for its upcoming iPhone 8, as even Tim Cook said he was “very serious about AR” and stated the intention to bring the technology to the masses.
A new report by The Financial Times shows that Apple has been working on AR glasses for over a year now and that the new device would arrive sometime next year. Apparently, Apple started allocating resources towards augmented-reality over a year ago, but its integration into separate glasses would take until 2018.
Apple isn’t the only company that might launch AR glasses next year, as Facebook is reportedly also working on a new product, and Mark Zuckerberg said that the glasses would be “small enough to take anywhere.”
Apple will also integrate AR technology in upcoming iPhones
But a somewhat unknown startup will beat both Apple and Facebook to announcing new AR glasses later this year. Magic Leap will release AR glasses that would cost about $1,000 and compete against Microsoft’s HoloLens.
The glasses would be smaller than the ones offered by Microsoft and have a wider field of view. However, they will be larger than a regular pair of glasses. The glasses would also be tethered to a pack that incorporates a battery and processing components. The pack would be small enough to be put in a pocket or attached to a belt.
A previous report mentioned that Apple’s upcoming AR glasses would wirelessly connect to an iPhone and stream videos or app content. Apple is said to have assigned hundreds of engineers to work on the new technology, some of them focusing exclusively on the new iPhone.
AR features on the new iPhone would allow users to take a picture and then change the depth of the entire image or the depth of specific objects inside the pic. Users would also be able to isolate certain objects inside images and tilt them 180 degrees.
If the rumors are true, then we will be able to see the result of Apple’s efforts in AR development with the launch of the iPhone 8 later this year.