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Comment by netsec_burn | Hacker News Reader

Watching early Apple presentations and modern presentations shows the company prioritizing sales over innovation. Now we see a phone that is marginally better than the previous year, with taglines like "the best iPhone ever". The future is AR and gestures in my opinion, if keyboard input speed is ever an issue then a glove Swype interface would work. Many smaller companies have already set the stage nicely, such as the currently monocular Vuzix Blade (https://www.vuzix.com/products/blade-smart-glasses).

Edit: Guess HN thinks we're going to be carrying screens in our pockets forever.

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While we are definitely going to have more AR, I'm not convinced that it's the future at all. But I guess that's the case with most people and most technologies until they become ubiquitous.

AR still seems like a solution looking for a problem.

Funny, I've felt the same thing about VR. With AR, I can think of a million practical applications. With any kind of VR that is short of full sensory immersion, I can't think of a single practical use.

Has VR ever been sold as "practical"? I've never seen it used for anything than gaming. That's a large enough market to justify the tech IMO.

The only games that really appealed to me as a use case for VR are "Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes" and using it as a virtual cockpit for mech/dog fighting sims, otherwise it just seems like a thing I have to have on my head for not much gain.

I think it is used for pornography a fair bit though

> With any kind of VR that is short of full sensory immersion, I can't think of a single practical use.

If you've ever had to use a hardware "simulator" to train on Big Hardware like a plane or submarine, using VR as a replacement is an "obvious win." Rather than dedicated rooms with all sorts of custom fake hardware that only a few people can use at a time, you can buy one classroom full of VR equipment, and then every student can do their simulator runs in parallel, allowing each student far more total simulator-time. As well, to switch to a simulation of newer-model hardware, you just need a new piece of VR software, rather than entire new rooms full of molded plastic and slapshod wiring.

Wouldn't you still need the fake controls? It reduces the problem, but doesn't get rid of it entirely.

If the future is AR, it's a good thing Apple is one of the leading companies in this area.

I would not say even their software AR is leading AR in general (assuming you are referring to ARKit). They have no hardware AR devices, correct me if I'm wrong. What are they leading?

Isnt every phone a potential AR device? The Minecraft demo at WWC comes to mind.

Every recent iphone (6s and newer) is an AR device. You can load up an Ikea app, and check how the furniture you're interested in looks in your room, or if that end table will actually fit between the wall and your couch. There was an estimate 2 years ago that there were 700 million iphones in active use. Let's assume that the current number isn't any larger and that 6/7 are recent enough to use ARKit, so let's say 600 million AR devices. I'm willing to bet that is more than all other AR companies combined.

They aren't selling any AR devices. Doesnt mean they aren't developing and testing them internally.

What's a "hardware AR device"? Anything with a screen and a camera. You don't need immersion for AR. Pokemon Go is AR.

I guess you're confusing AR and VR. VR needs dedicated hardware. AR doesn't. And Apple is one of the leaders in AR because they already ship state-of-the art AR devices in the millions.

The idea of having to wear a glove to type is horrid.

As with the iPod, iPad, and iPhone, I fully expect Apple to wait for things like smart glasses to evolve a bit before jumping into the fray with a mass-market application. Being one of the first-to-market has never been their thing.

They are pretty far from first to market. I'd say Google was first to market with Glass, along with several competitors including Vuzix. Apple developed ARKit, which would work nicely with glasses technology. I agree a glove is a little too complex, but an eye tracking Swype would be a useful innovation.

I think eye tracking Swype sounds horrific.

I think I'd feel sick if I had to type anything of any length, and I don't even get motion sickness usually.

Gestures are not the future for one simple thing: physical fatigue.

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