Ahead of Apple’s announcement of its first mixed-reality headset on Monday, a new custom lens on Snapchat, based on renders made by MacRumors and Marcus Kane, offers a realistic look at the headset’s proportions and fit on a user’s face.
The headset’s design and functionality have been extensively covered, with many renders based on leaked details of the headset making the rounds on the web. The filter shared on Twitter by Ben Geskin works by placing a 3D model of Apple’s mixed-reality headset on a user’s face, allowing users to move and get a sense of how the upcoming headset could look like when it’s being worn.
The Information reported this week that the upcoming headset, expected to be called “Reality Pro,” is the most technologically advanced product Apple has ever made. That same report described the headset’s design as slightly thicker than an iPhone, placing it as one of the thinnest mixed-reality headsets on the market. The headset is expected to sport a suite of advanced hardware, including:
- A combined total of 8K microLED displays, 4K for each eye
- A peak brightness of 5,000 nits
- An iris scanner for biometric authentication
- Dual Apple silicon chips for powerful performance
- A MagSafe-like external battery pack that will be worn by a user when the headset is in use
- Advanced eye and hand-tracking system powered by a dozen cameras
WWDC 2023 Expectations
In the run-up to WWDC 2023, Apple has been teasing the beginning of a “new era” on Monday and teasing developers that they’ll be able to “code new worlds.” This year’s WWDC conference is expected to be one of Apple’s most jam-packed events in recent memory as the company prepares not only to announce the launch of an entirely new product category with the headset but also the new “xrOS” operating system, several new Macs, on top of the annual updates to iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, macOS, and tvOS.
Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman tweeted earlier this week that Monday’s keynote could be one of Apple’s longest keynotes to date. For context, WWDC in 2017, which featured a large slate of new hardware and software announcements, including the HomePod, a teaser at the iMac Pro, the new iPad Pro, iOS 11, watchOS 4, and more, ran for two hours and 19 minutes. Last year’s WWDC keynote featured the announcement of the new M2 chip, a redesigned MacBook Air, and an updated MacBook Pro, which was under two hours long at one hour and 48 minutes. The keynote will kick off on Monday at 10 a.m. Pacific Time.
Stay tuned to Supercharged and Twitter for the latest coverage of WWDC 2023. We'll be providing live updates on all the announcements, as well as in-depth analysis and commentary.
