“Apple may leverage augmented reality on the iPhone to help pave the way for a future smart glasses product, UBS said in a note to investors Tuesday,” Todd Haselton reports for CNBC.
“Apple recently launched its ARKit developer tools, which will allow its partners to build new augmented reality applications for millions of iPhones already in the hands of consumers,” Haselton reports. “‘dvanced sensors and camera capabilities will enhance the iPhone; eventually there could be independent hardware offerings, perhaps iGlass,’ UBS analyst Steven Milunovich said. ‘We can imagine a pair of glasses with quintessential Apple design (iGlass), which enable a Hololens-type experience,’ the company said, referring to Microsoft’s bulky alternative.”
However, the amount of compute power and sensors required likely pose a serious design challenge. If Apple could find a way to send massive amounts of data from the eyeglasses to the iPhone where the bulk of the compute would occur, the eyewear could have a more attractive design. The issue then becomes how to transfer massive amounts of complex data between devices quickly. — UBS analyst Steven Milunovich
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Well, despite the name that works so well on multiple levels, they wouldn’t be called “iGlass” or “iGlasses.” To fit with Apple’s post-i naming conventions, we’d expect “Apple Glasses” (memories of Google’s flop will have faded), “Apple Specs,” or something along those lines.
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I don’t see this as being any different than Google Glass. As MDN used to call it, spywear. I don’t wanna see a bunch of damn fools runnin’ around with those spy glasses videotaping every single thing they see. If you video tape me without permission, you’re goin’ down Bronx style. Apple, please stick to computers and phones, and leave these geek toys to those Linux and Google nerds.
Apple and screwgle are night and day bub. Is it safe to assume you were in the same class as catagorizing the iPad as, just a bigger version of iPod touch? Probably so 😉
I never said anything like that. I just don’t like this “smart glass” car.
It works if the glasses themselves are effectively no diferent than existing glasses, indeed may be existing glasses to all intranets and purposes. Some way away I suspect though in the mean time more specialist versions for business and gaming might become available.
IBM already combines Watson with Hololens in prototype form in its labs to lend that AI’s specialist abilities to AR. So it’s pretty much bolted on with their existing business links to Apple (re. the iPad plus Apps plus Watson integration) building rapidly, that this will become deeply integrated with Apples AR efforts as the next stage of the business orientated collaboration. Apple may well offer its take on glasses for that effort as it supplies the hardware in the present efforts. And talk of ‘Apple glasses’ likely relates to such a potential product at this stage methinks.
Yep, and I could not give less of a s**t (right along with any Eddie Cues delusions of cultural competence). What else you got, Apple?
We can all be iGlass-holes
I don’t remember, but didn’t the google glasses have a video camera which is one of the reasons people didn’t want people wearing google glasses around them.
If the Apple Glasses don’t capture video, and I can get them in prescription, I would be tempted.
But for AR to work, they would probably require some type of camera.
I think the majority of the problem with Google Glasses is they look incredibly dorky and offensive. If Apple glasses look similar to current fashion trends then there will be less blowback if they have cameras.
Speaking of public camera use… 2017 is much different than a few years ago. Today many people are filming Instagram and Snapchat clips in public places. I haven’t heard of anybody getting into brawls because of this trend.
I doubt the product would not have some image capture capabilities (if not initially, eventually) so you could enjoy still shots or video of some ‘favorite’ place or happening that was viewed while wearing them.
To avoid camera use, I suppose Apple could use sound or radar type tech instead or maybe IR laser pulses to determine distances.
No, not ‘glass’ please. The term ‘glasshole’ is already firmly embedded in contemporary culture.