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| Apple’s First Headset to Be Niche Precursor to Eventual AR Glasses - Bloomberg Posted: 21 Jan 2021 03:00 AM PST  An attendee uses a hand tracking feature with Facebook's Oculus Quest VR headset during the Oculus Connect 6 conference in San Jose, California, on Sept. 26, 2019. Photographer: Michael Short/Bloomberg Apple Inc.'s first crack at a headset is designed to be a pricey, niche precursor to a more ambitious augmented reality product that will take longer to develop, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The initial device has confronted several development hurdles and the company has conservative sales expectations, illustrating how challenging it will be to bring this nascent consumer technology to the masses. As a mostly virtual reality device, it will display an all-encompassing 3-D digital environment for gaming, watching video and communicating. AR functionality, the ability to overlay images and information over a view of the real world, will be more limited. Apple has planned to launch the product as soon as 2022, going up against Facebook Inc.'s Oculus, Sony Corp.'s PlayStation VR and headsets from HTC Corp., the people said. They asked not to be identified discussing private plans. Apple's typical playbook involves taking emerging consumer technology, such as music players, smartphones, tablets and smartwatches, and making it reliable and easy to use for everyone. This time, though, Apple isn't looking to create an iPhone-like hit for its first headset. Instead, the company is building a high-end, niche product that will prepare outside developers and consumers for its eventual, more mainstream AR glasses. The plans suggest that Apple's first headset will be far more expensive than those from rivals, which cost about $300 to $900. Some Apple insiders believe the company may sell only one headset per day per retail store. Apple has roughly 500 stores, so in that scenario, annual sales would be just over 180,000 units — excluding other sales channels. That would put it on par with other pricey Apple products, such as the $5,999 Mac Pro desktop computer. An Apple spokesman declined to comment.  Attendees visit the Sony PlayStation virtual reality gaming stand at the Gamescom computer games industry event in Cologne, Germany, on Aug. 20, 2019. Photographer: Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg Apple is aiming to include some of its most advanced and powerful chips in the headset along with displays that are much higher-resolution than those in existing VR products. Some of the chips tested in the device beat the performance of Apple's M1 Mac processors. The company has also designed the headset with a fan, something the company usually tries to avoid on mobile products, the people said. The headset, codenamed N301, is in a late prototype stage, but is not yet finalized so the company's plans could change or be scrapped entirely before launch. The AR glasses, codenamed N421, are in an early stage known as "architecture," meaning Apple is still working on underlying technologies. This product is several years away, according to the people, though Apple has previously targeted as early as 2023 to unveil it. The powerful processors and the inclusion of a fan initially led to a device that was too large and heavy with some concern about neck strain in early testing. Apple removed the space VR gadgets usually reserve for users who need to wear eyeglasses, which brought the headset closer to the face and helped shrink the size. And to address consumers with poorer eyesight, it developed a system where custom prescription lenses can be inserted into the headset over the VR screens, the people said. This may expose Apple to regulations governing the sale of products with prescriptions. The company typically sells its devices in dozens of countries, many of which have different prescription rules. Apple is also discussing how it would implement prescriptions at the point of sale online and in retail stores.  Apple originally planned to include less powerful processors and offload much of the work to a hub in a user's home that would wirelessly beam content to the headset. But that idea was squashed by Jony Ive, Apple's design chief at the time, Bloomberg News reported last year. The headset is designed to work as a standalone device, meaning it can operate on a battery rather than be plugged into a wall or a Mac. That's similar to Facebook's latest VR product, while Sony's requires a PlayStation gaming console. Read more: Apple's AR and VR Headset Plans Altered by Internal Differences To further reduce the device's weight, Apple is planning to use a fabric exterior. That's a departure from the metal designs Apple uses for most products, though it has used plastic for devices like AirPods, that need to be light, and fabrics for the HomePod speaker to improve acoustics. Prototypes of the headset, some of which are about the size of an Oculus Quest, include external cameras to enable some AR features. The company is testing using the cameras for hand-tracking and is working on a feature where a user can type virtually in the air to input text. It's unclear if that function will be ready for the first version of the device or if it will ever leave the exploratory stage. The Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted some development with Apple hardware engineers only being able to work on certain days from the office. The company has also faced delays conducting user testing and data collection. That has slowed some decisions in the engineering process. The company is also still grappling with what content and functionality it intends to ship with the device. Virtual reality is still a somewhat nascent technology, with content beyond games still relatively limited. Last year, Apple acquired a company called NextVR, which recorded events such as concerts and sports games in virtual reality. It's also discussed bundling an App Store with the device, which runs on an operating system dubbed "rOS" inside the company. If Apple goes ahead with the VR headset, it would be a precursor to an eventual pair of AR glasses — a product that the company sees as far more mainstream but also more difficult to launch. Microsoft Corp.'s HoloLens 2 and Magic Leap's headset, which emphasize AR over VR, retail for $3,500 and $2,295 respectively. HoloLens mostly focuses on work use cases still, while Magic Leap fell well short of the early hype and slashed jobs last year.  A visitor tries a Magic Leap One during the Virtuality Paris 2019 show on Nov. 21, 2019 in Paris, France. Photographer: Chesnot/Getty Images Europe Apple first added AR to the iPhone in 2017, allowing new mobile games and apps like those for virtually placing furniture in your living room before buying it. Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook has said both virtual and augmented reality have potential, but that AR is the larger opportunity. AR glasses must be packed with small, powerful and efficient electronics to overlay notifications, map directions and other information while supporting internet connectivity and strong battery life. That's a huge technical challenge. Even Oculus, which released its first all-in-one VR headset in 2019, won't include AR features in its first glasses this year. Getting to that point requires years of work on lenses, hardware and software, component miniaturization, production techniques and content creation. Critically, getting most people to wear a computer on their face, even a small one, is difficult. That, in part, doomed Google's early attempt at consumer AR glasses several years ago. By developing a less mainstream initial headset, Apple can invest in the underlying technologies, consumer education, content development and developer relations to give its eventual AR glasses the best opportunity to be successful — when they are ready. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ASUS, MSI & ASRock Z590 Motherboard Prices Detailed – Over $1000 US For Flagship Products - Wccftech Posted: 21 Jan 2021 02:38 AM PST  Various motherboard manufacturers and retailers have started providing pricing information for their Z590 motherboard lineups. ASUS & MSI confirmed the prices for several boards a while back but we also got a word from ASRock on their recently revealed Z590 motherboards. ASUS, MSI & ASRock Z590 Motherboard Prices Revealed - Starting at $189 US & Going Up To $1500 USWhile we have covered all the Z590 chipset based motherboards for Intel's 10th & 11th Gen CPUs over here, we didn't cover the prices back then since they weren't revealed yet. But now, retailers and board makers have provided us with brief information on the prices of their upcoming boards. MSI Z590 Motherboard Prices Starting with MSI, the company listed down a total of 12 Z590 motherboards along with their prices which have seen a definite increase over their Z490 predecessors. The prices aren't that bad if you look in the mainstream and budget segment which mostly stick to the $200-$300 US range. Boards such as the Z590-A PRO and Z590 PRO WiFi will hit an MSRP of $189 and $209 US, respectively. The MAG lineup starts at $229 US and goes up to $239 US since it has only two models listed as of now.
The more premium MPG and MEG lineups feature the most expensive variants. The MSI MPG Z590 lineup starts at $264 US so we are already looking at a $250 US+ tier and goes all the way up to the $324 US Z590 Gaming Carbon WiFi. The MEG lineup starts at $329 US but the most expensive Z590 motherboards in this lineup are the ACE which retails at $489 US and the GODLIKE which retails at $1019 US. Both, the ACE and GODLIKE, come with higher prices than their predecessors, the ACE in Z490 variation was priced at $399 US but that has now increased to $489 US which is a premium of $90 US. The Z490 GODLIKE had an MSRP of around $749 US while the Z590 GODLIKE has a $250 US premium. MSI Z590 Motherboard Prices
MSI, like ASUS earlier, mentions that the following reason for the price increase of its products:
ASUS Z590 Motherboard Prices ASUS on the other hand has listed 13 Z590 motherboards along with their prices but in Euros. The lineup starts at 189 Euro and goes all the way up to 1516 Euro. The most entry-level models which include the PRIME Z590-P and PRIME Z590M-PLUS will retail for 201 & 189 Euro, respectively. ASUS TUF Gaming models will start at 239 Euro and 252 Euro. The premium PRIME Z590-A will retail for 277 Euro.
Coming to the ROG STRIX lineup, we have motherboards in very similar price ranges which start at 328 Euro and go as high as 378 Euro. Lastly, we have the ROG Maximus XIII lineup which starts at a price of 505 Euro. That's what both the APEX and HERO models will cost this time and are a definite increase over their predecessors. The Extreme models are the most expensive motherboards this time around with the standard variant priced at 960 Euros and the Glacial variant positioned as a 1500+ Euro product. ASUS Z590 Motherboard Prices
ASRock Z590 Motherboard Prices Lastly, ASRock mentioned prices for 5 of their Z590 motherboards. Their lineup starts at $194.99 US with the Z590 Steel Legend and goes up to $429.99 US for the Taichi model. ASRock has its flagship priced under $500 US and the mainstream lineup below $300 US. That doesn't mean that they did not increase the prices of their boards, in fact, the Z490 Taichi cost $369.99 US at launch so the new Z590 Taichi is $60 US expensive than its predecessor.
We have also asked Gigabyte for the prices of their Z590 lineup and they should be providing us soon so look back for more pricing info. ASRock Z590 Motherboard Prices
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