It’s the Slow weather in the world of gadgets and consumer tech, a product purgatory between CES and phone announcement season that leads to a dearth of device news. For now, there’s only one thing to do in this week’s gadget news roundup: dig deep into the rumor mill and understand what Apple is up to.
Again, new details have been leaked about Apple’s ongoing plans to build an AR/VR headset and mixed reality ecosystem. Thanks to reports from Bloomberg and The Information, Apple’s vision for its most anticipated device in years is becoming clearer.
Apple seems keen on creating a device that replicates its mobile iOS experience in a virtual or augmented domain. The headset, which Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman says will likely be called Reality Pro and release later this year, will use internal and external cameras to track eye and hand movements so you can play with objects. AR that are projected into real spaces. It will enable AR FaceTime calls, with realistically rendered video of the person wearing the headset. Apparently this will work for one-to-one calls, where calls with multiple people will show them all rendered as Apple’s slightly horrifying Animoji cartoons.
Apple has also quietly built an AR software environment in which it and other companies can build apps. Apparently, Apple has leveraged technology usually used in video games, like procedural generation, to create virtual environments like a meditation garden and even a Dr. Seuss story.
The headset is reportedly priced around $3,000, with cheaper models slated for an eventual release in 2024 or 2025.
Here’s some gadget news from this week.
Microsoft will stop selling Windows 10
Windows 10, widely considered a pretty decent operating system, is being phased out in favor of its generally excellent successor. Microsoft says after January 31, it will no longer sell licenses for Windows 10.
But that doesn’t kill the OS entirely, at least not quite yet. On its Windows 10 store page, a disclaimer states that Microsoft will support Windows 10 until October 14, 2025. That’s about a decade of life for the operating system, which is on track with Microsoft’s past support of its popular operating systems. (Microsoft stopped support for the hugely popular Windows 7 in 2020, more than a decade after its release.) Still, it signals that Microsoft is eager to transition more fully into its Windows 11 era. The company has released the first major update to its new operating system last September.
Sub-stack gets private mode
Substack, the independent newsletter and blogging platform that has become the darling of freelance journalists, is getting a private mode. It works like your Finsta or Twitter Circle account, where only people you’ve approved can see posts. Comparing it directly to Instagram’s private mode, the company says it will give Substackers a way to test feeds or make posts only available to friends or certain communities. (You know it’s only a matter of time until a writer accidentally posts a horny 8,000-word screed on the main page.)
The move has an almost nostalgic appeal. After all, having a blog that few people read will probably sound very familiar to those of us who were online around 2007.
U TikTalking 2 me?
TikTok has been in the headlines a lot lately, mostly because everyone keeps trying to ban the app in the US. Yet, the app continues to push silent updates to its platform. The latest is the ability to customize who you receive DMs from.
You can choose between being available for everyone’s DMs, common followers, or suggested friends. Suggested friends mode will allow DMs from people you have added through your contacts or other social media services like Facebook. You can also completely disable DMs. It’s not as comprehensive as Instagram’s recent quality of life updates aimed at protecting younger users, but it’s clear that TikTok is prioritizing DMs as a way to keep people interacting on the application.