Apple has unveiled a long-rumoured headset that will place its users between the virtual and real worlds.
After years of speculation, Apple CEO Tim Cook hailed the arrival of the sleek goggles, dubbed Vision Pro, at the company's annual developers conference in California.
Here's what we know about the new product.
It comes with a hefty price tag
Vision Pro will start at $US3,499 ($5,286).
That's more than three times the cost of the most expensive headset in competitor Meta's line of mixed and virtual reality devices that currently dominate the budding AR/VR market.
It has various capabilities
Apple framed the Vision Pro as the equivalent of owning an ultra-high-definition TV, surround-sound system and state-of-the-art camera bundled into a single piece of hardware.
The device will be capable of toggling between virtual reality, or VR, and augmented reality, or AR, which projects digital imagery while users can still see objects in the real world.
It will be equipped with 12 cameras, six microphones and a variety of sensors that will allow users to control it and various apps with just their eyes and hand gestures.
Apple said the experience won't cause the recurring nausea and headaches that similar devices have in the past.
It's hoped to capture more of the market
Apple executives have spruiked Vision Pro as "unlike anything created before" and more advanced than existing goggles, which have failed to capture the wider public — such as Meta's Quest, Google's Glass, and Microsoft's HoloLens.
"The core difference to me is Zuckerberg is trying to create a virtual world that he wants us to be in, and it seems to me that Apple wants to keep us still anchored in our world and just augment it," Carolina Milanesi, an analyst at Creative Strategies, said.
The various capabilities make clear that Apple is trying to be different, with Apple's vice-president of the Technology Development Group Mike Rockwell saying its first spatial computer required invention across nearly every facet of the system
"Through a tight integration of hardware and software, we designed a standalone spatial computer in a compact wearable form factor that is the most advanced personal electronics device ever," Mr Rockell said.
It will change the way users FaceTime
FaceTime calls take advantage of the room around the user, with everyone on the call reflected in life-size tiles.
It will also use spatial audio, so it sounds as if participants are speaking right from where they are positioned.
Users wearing Vision Pro during a FaceTime call are reflected as a Persona — a digital representation of themselves created using Apple's machine learning techniques — which reflects face and hand movements in real time.
Users can do things together like watch a movie, browse photos, or collaborate on a presentation.
It will be available to the public soon
Apple's headset will be available early next year in the United States.
The company said the device will reach other countries later in 2024 — there's been no specific mention of Australia's time frame.
The headset was unveiled alongside other new features
Apple introduced investors and tech fans to a raft of new offerings at the conference on Monday.
They include a 15-inch MacBook Air, a powerful chip called M2 Ultra, improvements to its iOS software and a long-awaited tweak to prevent its autocorrect from annoyingly changing a common expletive to "ducking".
