In a piece written for Bloomberg, Mark Gurman looks at some of the most recent rumors of apps that could be coming to the Apple VR headset. We've looked at the sports, gaming, and fitness rumors, but there is more nestled within Gurman's story that is worth looking at – one such rumor is a throwaway sentence about Apple Books.
Presumably, Apple will be bringing its extensive selection of eBooks over from the normal app to the new one, letting you download and read books to your VR headset – although this isn't the only use that the app could see on something that is supposed to augment reality.
Read in VR
Apple Books appears only once in the article but is an interesting mention nonetheless. Gurman tells us that "the company (Apple) is working on a version of books for the headset that will allow readers to read in virtual reality." Nothing more is said of the rumor, although it warrants investigation. There is nothing about what this could mean – whether you'll be reading virtual books in VR or whether VR could enhance the reading of paper-based books. Maybe it's a little of both, with reading attached to one of the best iPhones or iPads.
There are other cursory mentions of other apps as well, such as the camera app. "The company is also testing a camera app that can take pictures from the headset." It's long been known that the headset will feature a camera (if not only to make the AR functions work), but what other uses it will have remain something of an enigma. If you can imagine taking a picture of the Arc de Triomphe with a VR headset strapped to your face, then all the power to you – and this might make Apple VR even more exciting to you.
As always, we'll have to wait until WWDC 2023 before we know too much more about the uses of the Apple VR headset, or 'reality Pro' as some think it will be called. Given these features were only cursory mentions in Gurman's piece, this could mean that they're not even day-one features, so they may not even be announced this year.
