Apple AR glasses are one of those tech products that we’ve been hearing rumors about for years, but now we’ve had the biggest leak yet, one that may have revealed almost everything about them.
The Apple AR glasses will simply be called Apple Glass, and they will retail for $499 (roughly £410 / AU$765), according to Jon Prosser (a reputable leaker) on his Front Page Tech YouTube show. That’s just for the frames though, so if you need prescription lenses you’ll need to pay extra for that.
As for when Apple Glass will be announced, it seems like that’s a bit up in the air, with the earliest possibility apparently being alongside the iPhone 12 – which itself will be delayed from September to October, according to Prosser.
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He claims that Apple wants the Apple Glass to be one of its famous “one more thing” announcements at the event, but that the company also wants to launch the glasses at a major event where the media is present. That might count out the iPhone 12 launch if social distancing is still in place.
In that case, the Apple Glass announcement will apparently move to March 2021 instead. But that shouldn’t have any impact on when you can actually buy the wearable, as Prosser claims it won’t hit stores until at least the final quarter of 2021, and maybe not until early 2022. So there’s still a long wait ahead if this information is accurate.
As for what you’ll get when you finally can buy the Apple Glass, supposedly the prototype Prosser has seen has a plastic frame, but he added that he wouldn’t be surprised if the material changed for the final product.
There’s apparently a LiDAR (light detection and ranging) scanner on the right edge, but no conventional cameras. We’ve recently seen a LiDAR scanner on the iPad Pro 2020. It’s used for judging distances and can power augmented reality experiences. According to Prosser, all the data from the iPad’s LiDAR will be sent to the Apple Glass team so they can make the experience as good as possible for the wearable.
All on iPhone
Other details about Apple Glass include that all data will apparently be processed on a connected iPhone – which likely helps keep the cost down, battery life up, and the frames compact. He mentions that this is akin to how the original Apple Watch worked.
You’ll apparently be able to display data on both lenses, with a new ‘Starboard’ interface being used, which you can control with gestures both on and in front of the frames. Apple Glass will also apparently be capable of scanning proprietary Apple QR codes, and only the person wearing them will be able to see that there’s anything displayed on the lenses.
Finally, Prosser added that the Apple Glass will come with a plastic stand to wirelessly charge them, and that there’s no sunglasses version as Apple is apparently struggling to get the display to work with tinted lenses.
That’s a whole lot of information and as ever with leaks we’d take it with a pinch of salt, but the source is reputable and seemed confident of the information. Of course, details may well change before launch even if they’re accurate now. With any luck we might find out how accurate all this is in October.
