Bloomberg News’ Mark Gurman has revelaed details about Apple’s upcoming mixed-reality headset, specifically mentioning that the separate, pocketable tethered battery pack will connect via a new proprietary power port.
Previous reports from Gurman, supply chain analyst Ming Chi-Kuo, and The Information revealed that after much internal debate, Apple decided to move forward with a headset design that works with an external battery pack connected by a wire.
This is because including the battery inside the headset would make it too bulky and heavy for some users.
Gurman writes that the headset will have two ports: USB-C and a new proprietary power port. The USB-C port will be used just for data, whereas the proprietary port will be used for “a charging cable that goes into the headset and has a round tip that inserts magnetically.”
The cable will be permanently attached to a battery pack that is “about the size of an iPhone but thicker” and has an aesthetic similar to Apple’s official MagSafe battery pack for the iPhone. The pack will also have to be charged, of course, and it will use a USB-C connection to connect to a MacBook Pro-like wall charging brick.
MacDailyNews Take: Gurman’s report says that a fully charged external battery will power the headset for two hours, so multiple battery packs, expected to be sold individually by Apple, would be required for longer sessions.
Moving the battery pack to the user’s pocket will, of course, make the headset significantly lighter, hence more comfortable that it would have been with an integrated battery.
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Apple? Using a proprietary connector? That’s unpossible! Oh wait! What am I thinking?
I am 95% sure this has an integrated battery. However, it is claimed the integrated battery will only last under heavy graphics conditions, around 45 minutes or so. Thus, the secondary/optional battery packs.
Somewhere in the second and their generations, Apple will be able to jump that battery life to over 1. – 1.5 hours, and that’s when secondary packs are likely to fade in need a bit.
I should think that once the headset can move over 2 hours per charge w/out secondary power source, it’s a battery-pack-less device for 90% of it’s use cases.
when the EU mandated that everyone MUST use USB-C for charging i breathed a sigh of relief, finally i’ll get an iPhone with USB-C and we can get rid of all proprietary chargers and cables, finally a universal charging connector. But no, “The USB-C port will be used just for data”, ie: no charging ability, and “cable will be permanently attached to a battery”. !!??! GAAAAAA!!!! NOOOOOOO!
This doesn’t sound like something that people will likely walk around in public with so it’d be strange if you can’t just keep it plugged in at home. Maybe you go temporarily blind after 2 hours.