Apple eyes eye scanning for VR headset

October 14, 2022

Earlier this week, Meta CEO Marc Zuckerberg took to the stage to reveal the company's latest headset, the Meta Quest Pro.

Apart from showing off some new life-like, photorealistic avatars, the Quest headset still leaves a lot of tech-industry watchers scratching their heads.

Despite pouring billions of dollars into its development, what is the VR headset actually good for?

No one seems to know. Zuckerberg failed to show a good use-case for the headset, and there's reports that even the team developing it avoids using it.

Nobody, it seems, wants to take Zoom meetings in the Metaverse.

Apple is also developing a pair of AR/VR headsets, according to a long string of rumors, the latest being that Apple's headset will scan your iris to identify you.

Of course, we officially know very little about Apple's AR/VR headsets, which haven't been announced. However, Tim Cook has said several times that AR is "profound," and he's always very bullish about its future.

Apple has a long history of coming up with sector-defining products from behind closed doors.

Let's hope Cupertino has a better vision for AR/VR than we saw on display this week from Zuckerberg.

-- Leaned Kahney, EIC.

Apple’s much-rumored AR/VR header won’t use Face ID or Touch ID. Instead, the mixed-reality device will reportedly scan the iris of the wearer’s eye to identify them. Perhaps the feature will be called Eye ID.

A Brazilian court fined Apple a second time for not bundling chargers with the iPhones it sells in the country. The court imposed a fine of 100 million reals ($19 million).

Bad Sisters, the Apple TV+ black comedy about the murder of a bad man and the five women who stood to gain from it, draws its delicious first season to a close this week. John Paul’s dead. Matthew’s closer than ever to finding the killer, but red herrings abound.

If you want scary-good deals on Microsoft software, head to the big Halloween Sale at software activation keys provider CdkeySales.com. Pro tip: Use promo code CULT and you'll save even more!

Roku is best-known for its streaming media devices. But it’s branching out with a whole-home strategy that will see a range of smart-home gadgets, including security cameras, lights and plugs, go on sale next week at Walmart, the company said. But a report indicates the company isn’t saying yet whether its new gadgets will work with the new Matter smart-home connectivity standard supported by Apple and other companies.

The third-generation of Eve Light Switch adds support for Thread and will be updated with Matter, keeping it on the cutting edge of smarthome tech. The smartswitch continues to support Apple HomeKit. It can be used as either a single-pole or 3-way switch.

The latest model in the Mophie Powerstation Plus line of external batteries includes two integrated charging cables —Lightning and USB-C. This simplifies charging an iPhone, iPad or Mac. The 10,000 mAh power bank can extend the battery life of these devices by hours.

The Apple Pencil is fun to use for both writing and drawing on the tablet. But wouldn’t it be more rewarding if it felt more like writing and drawing on real paper? SwitchEasy's PaperLike iPad Screen Protectors offer an inexpensive way to make the iPad screen feel more like paper when you use Pencil. And better yet, you can get the screen protector at 20% off in the Cult of Mac Store from October 14 through October 21.

The price of Netflix dropped like a rock for those willing to watch commercials. The streaming service announced Thursday that its new ad-supported subscription plan is only $6.99 a month – 30% to 55% below the current cost. The new option will debut in November 2022.

On October 14, 2005, Tim Cook was announced as Apple's new chief operating officer, continuing his upward climb through the company's ranks.

Once in a while a computer setup comes along that shows off its owner’s invention. Sometimes it’s something perfectly utilitarian and sometimes it’s something weird and wonderful (examples below). In today’s featured MacBook Pro and Intel NUC PC setup, we find a nifty folding MagSafe charging stand just about to go on the market.

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One more thing ...

"First law of demos is that demos will always crash. And the second law of demos is that their probability of crashing goes up with the number of people watching. So, if something goes wrong today, have some compassion for the demoer." -- Steve Jobs, introducing the NeXT Cube in 1988.

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