Apple WWDC 2023: Vision Pro Headset now a reality & 15″ MacBook Air is here

Apple took to the 2023 Wordwide Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) to announce a slew of new products and OS updates.

Arguably the headliner of the WWDC was the reveal of a mixed-reality headset which Apple calls Vision Pro. This has been the subject of heavy rumours leading up to the event, it’s now finally a reality.

Apple Vision Pro

From the outset, the Vision Pro looks like something from a dystopian sci-fi film. It’s bulky, to say the least, and is certainly an attention-grabbing headpiece.

Attention grabbing for two reasons: the first being you’ll look like something out of Robocop; the second being that you must be earning healthy amounts to afford that $3499 price tag. That’s an estimate RM16,000 by the way.

Once you do have it on, the Vision Pro sinks you into a sphere of apps and digital content. If you think scrolling can’t get any easier than finger-swiping, it just did. The Vision Pro is navigated primarily through eye movement and voice.

For instance, if you wish to search something on web browser, you simply have to look at the microphone icon and speak.

All your apps are presented to you in augmented reality which blends into the real world. According to Apple, it will even react to light and cast shadows to emulate real-world physical objects. If you are wondering, this is the work of Apple’s ‘first ever spatial operating system’, vision OS.

As you would have already imagined, the Vision Pro will allow you to enlarge apps in your view. You’ll essentially have a personal theatre to yourself when it comes to movies and gaming. In terms of audio, the speakers on the Vision Pro is located right by your ears for fully immersive Spatial Audio.

You’ll also be able to capture photos and videos on the Vision Pro simply by pressing a button at the top of your goggles.

There is no front facing camera as you would find on your smartphones or laptop, but you would still be able to FaceTime. How? Through face tracking technology which creates a digital persona that looks exactly like you, and mimics your movement in real-time.

As for your own point-of-view, your participants will show up in tiles which you can move around easily and load apps side-by-side for seamless multitasking.

For now though, the Vision Pro isn’t something that will be worn too commonly outside. Not just because it’ll mess with your fashionable aesthetics, but because external battery only supports 2 hours of usage. If plugged in, you can have all-day in your augmented sphere.

The Vision Pro will be available in the US early next year, at a price of $3499.

15″ MacBook Air

The WWDC also saw the introduction of the new 15″ MacBook Air.

This is powered by the M2 Chip, with an 8-core CPU and 10-core GPU which Apple boast is 1.4x faster than the already-speedy M1 chip.

In addition to its lightning-quick processing, it also holds out for a solid 18 hours on batteries thanks to battery-saving performance of the M2.

You’ll also have all the pretty things you’ll find on a flagship Apple laptop, such as Liquid Retina Display and Spatial Audio.

In classic MacBook fashion, the 15″ version is 3.3lbs (or 1.5kg) light and 11.5mm thin.

It packs 2 Thunderbolt / USB4 ports, MagSafe 3 charging, and a 3.5mm headphone jack.

The MacBook Air 15″ will be available in Malaysia soon enough. For now, both variations are listed on Apple Malaysia’s website, but with a ‘currently unavailable’ delivery status.

You’ll have the choice of an 8GB/256GB version, with memory and storage configurable up to 24GB/2TB. The MacBook Air 15″ starts from RM6,199 in Malaysia.