Technologies

Apple’s Mixed Reality Headset: What to Expect From WWDC’s Big Reveal

Long-awaited and still mysterious, Apple’s VR headset could be the spark for a whole new wave of hardware and software.

Apple’s next big product looks like it’ll cost $3,000, rest on your face and need to be tethered to a battery pack. Whatever this expected VR headset ends up being, it isn’t immediately clear what it’ll do or who it’s for. The Reality Pro headset, as it’s expected to be called when it’s likely unveiled at Apple’s WWDC developer conference on June 5, is Apple’s biggest new product in nearly a decade. It’s also totally different than anything Apple has ever made before.

VR headsets have been a standard consumer tech thing for years, and your family, or families you know, may already have one lying in a corner. They’re used for games, fitness, creative collaboration, even theater. Still, VR and AR have been outlier technologies, not deeply connected enough to the phones, tablets and laptops most of us use every day.

Apple could change that. And of course, don’t expect the word «metaverse» to be uttered even once. The metaverse became Meta’s buzzword to envision its future of AR and VR. Apple will have its own parallel, possibly unique, pitch.

A connection to everything?

I pair my Quest 2, from Meta, to my phone, and it gets my texts and notifications. I connect it to my Mac to cast extra monitors around my desk using an app called Immersed. But VR and AR don’t often feel deeply intertwined with the devices I use. They aren’t seamless in the way my watch feels when used with an iPhone, or AirPods feel when used with an iPad or Mac.

Apple needs this headset to bridge all of its devices, or at least make a good starting effort. Reports say the headset will run iPad apps on its built-in 4K displays, suggesting a common app ecosystem. It’s also possible that the Apple Watch could be a key peripheral, tracking fitness and also acting as a vibrating motion-control accessory.

VR is a self-contained experience, but mixed reality – which Apple’s headset should lean on heavily – uses pass-through cameras to blend virtual things with video of the real world. In Apple’s case, its own devices could act as spatially linked accessories, using keyboards and touchscreens and ways to show virtual screens springing from real ones.

Apple’s expected headset is supposed to be self-contained, a standalone device like the Quest 2 and Quest Pro. But that interconnectivity, and its position in Apple’s continuity-handoff connected ecosystem, is a big opportunity and a big question mark.

However, Apple does have a big AR head start: Its iOS ecosystem has supported AR for years, and the iPhone and iPad Pro already have depth-sensing lidar scanners that can map out rooms in ways that Apple’s headset should replicate. Apple could emphasize making its existing AR tools on other devices more usable and visible through a new interface.

Apple’s head of AR, Mike Rockwell – the person expected to be leading this new headset’s development – told me in a conversation about AR in 2020 that «AR has enormous potential to be helpful to folks in their lives across devices that exist today, and devices that may exist tomorrow, but we’ve got to make sure that it is successful. For us, the best way to do that is to enable our device ecosystem, so that it is a healthy and profitable place for people to invest their time and effort.»

Quest Pro VR headset, being worn while sitting at a desk — The Quest Pro and other headsets already support hand tracking. Will Apple refine the technology?

Meta

How do we control it?

I’m less curious about the Apple headset display – which sounds extremely promising with a possible 4K resolution per eye and a Micro OLED display – and more focused on how Apple solves what we do with our hands.

Interfaces in VR and AR are very much a work in progress. VR has tended to lean on split game controllers for most inputs, with optional (and steadily improving) hand tracking that still isn’t perfected.

Apple isn’t expected to have any controller at all with its Reality Pro headset. Instead, it’ll likely use both eye tracking and hand tracking to create a more accurate and possibly streamlined style of interface that could make targeting intended actions feel faster. Eye tracking already works this way, sometimes, in headsets that use it: The PlayStation VR 2 has some games that use eye tracking for controlling menus.

Accessibility is a big question here. Apple’s design choices are often very accessibility-conscious, and VR and AR headsets often rely on eye movement or physical hand movements that aren’t always easy for everyone. Voice control is a possible option here, or maybe some Apple Watch-connected functions that improve gesture accuracy and offer some touch controls could be in the cards, too. I don’t know. Apple already added some gesture controls for accessibility purposes on the Apple Watch, so the door’s open.

A lot of hand gestures in VR feel complicated to me, and involve lots of movement. Can Apple make a gesture language that feels as intuitive and as easy as multitouch on iPhones and iPads? It’s a big hurdle.

A woman wearing a VR headset punches an object, shattering it — Supernatural has been a popular VR fitness app for the Meta Quest 2 for years.

Within

Fitness focus

VR has already been a surprisingly effective fitness tool for years. Apple could address a whole bunch of opportunities that could open the landscape a lot further, though.

I’ve used Beat Saber and Supernatural on the Quest 2 for years as home exercise options, but the Quest 2 (and most VR headsets) aren’t designed with fitness in mind. Foam and silicone face pieces get sweaty, hardware can feel weirdly balanced, and no company has really spent targeted effort yet on making headgear that’s aimed at breathability and comfort like a piece of athletic equipment. There are plenty of third-party Quest accessories that help, but it still feels like an imperfect situation.

That’s Apple’s wheelhouse. After designing the Apple Watch, AirPods and, most recently, the Watch Ultra’s new straps, conceiving of materials and design that could feel better during workouts seems like an achievable goal. If the Reality Pro feels like a better piece of workout gear, it could inspire others to invest in better designs, too.

Apple should, and could, integrate the Apple Watch and fitness and health tracking into the headset’s functions. The Quest 2 can do this too to some degree, but most smartwatches and fitness trackers, like Fitbit, don’t have deep connections with VR headsets yet. They should, and again, introducing a clear wearable relationship between watch and headset feels like an overdue bridge.

Of all the things I’m trying to imagine Apple positioning an expensive headset to be in people’s lives, a fitness device keeps coming to mind as a much more likely proposition than a gaming gadget. Not that many people own gym equipment, or have space for it. Could headsets fill that role? I think they could. For me, they already do, sometimes.

Will Apple just focus on making it a great wearable display?

I’m starting to wonder if maybe Apple’s first goal with Reality Pro is just to nail a great audio/video experience. I’ve thought of VR/AR glasses as eventually needing to be «earbuds for your eyes,» as easy to use and as good as headphones are now. VR and AR headsets I’ve used all far short of being perfect displays, with the exception of the highly expensive Varjo XR-3. Could Apple achieve making the Reality Pro a headset that looks and sounds good enough to truly want to watch movies in?

Some reports that the Apple headset runs iPad apps, and that perhaps the iPad Pro with its lidar/camera array is in fact the «developer kit» for the headset, make me wonder if the headset will feel like a wearable extension of iOS rather than a whole new experience.

Inside a pair of VR goggles, showing lenses and a dial with numbers on the outside — The inside of the Vive XR Elite: prescription adjustments allow a wide range of vision to fit… but not as wide as mine.

Scott Stein/CNET

What about my glasses?

VR and AR headsets aren’t making it easy for me to live with my own eyewear. Some hardware fits right over my own chunky glasses, and some doesn’t. As headsets get smaller, a lot of them are trying to add vision-adjustment diopters right into the hardware – like the Vive XR Elite – or add optional prescription inserts.

Maybe someday we’ll have AR glasses that double as our own everyday glasses, and Apple can morph into a Warby Parker optical shop for its retail glasses fittings. In the meantime, these sometimes-on headsets also need to work without being annoying. Am I going to have to order prescription lenses? And how? And will they fit my needs? It’s a big responsibility for VR/AR manufacturers, and I’ve found that some of the insert options don’t meet my heavily near-sighted needs.

What are the killer apps?

Finally, of course, I’m curious about how this headset is defined. The Quest 2 is a game console with benefits. The Quest Pro was aimed at work. The PlayStation VR 2 is a PS5 extension.

The iPhone was a browser, an iPod, and an email device at first. The iPad wanted to be an easy way for users to read and look at the web. The Apple Watch was a fitness device, iPod, and wrist-communicator. What will Version One of the Apple Mixed Reality Headset be positioned as?

Apple did pepper a ton of extras into the Apple Watch at first, almost to test the waters with possibilities: a camera remote, a virtual way to send love taps and scribbles, voice memos. Reports of an avatar-based FaceTime, multiscreen immersive sports, and maybe 3D immersive versions of Apple’s already 3D-enabled Maps are clear starts. Apple’s collaborative Freeform app could be pitched as a mixed reality workplace, and movies could be watched in a virtual theater, in a way that VR headsets have enabled for years (but maybe here with an even better display and audio). AR-enabled iPhone and iPad home improvement apps, 3D scanning apps, and games could be ported over, leaning on similar lidar-scanning AR functions in-headset. Apple fitness workouts, clearly, could be big. Gaming? With Arcade, or some early partners, sure.

Will any of these be enough? Will Apple define a territory that right now has had a hard time defining itself beyond gaming? This first headset may not be the one most people buy, but it could be the one that tries to map out some clear directions for development beyond gaming. With Samsung and Google’s headset on the horizon, and possibly a lot more after that, these devices will start to reinvent themselves as they become more phone-connected and portable. Apple could have an early chance at shaping that narrative… or, if it doesn’t, others will get a chance after Apple. We’ll likely know more, or at least get an early glimpse, at WWDC.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for March 13 #740

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for March 13, No. 740.

Looking for the most recent Strands answer? Click here for our daily Strands hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Today’s NYT Strands puzzle might be easy for fans of a certain musical genre. Some of the answers are difficult to unscramble, so if you need hints and answers, read on.

I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: Mountain band.

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: Traditional tunes.

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:

BLUE, GAME, CHAR, CHARM, SARGE, SEEN, BRAT, BRIT, RILE, NOSE, DARN

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you have all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers:

BANJO, FIDDLE, GUITAR, MANDOLIN, HARMONICA

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is BLUEGRASSMUSIC. To find it, start with the B that’s three letters to the right on the bottom row, and wind up and around.

Quick tips for Strands

#1: To get more clue words, see if you can tweak the words you’ve already found, by adding an «S» or other variants. And if you find a word like WILL, see if other letters are close enough to help you make SILL, or BILL.

#2: Once you get one theme word, look at the puzzle to see if you can spot other related words.

#3: If you’ve been given the letters for a theme word, but can’t figure it out, guess three more clue words, and the puzzle will light up each letter in order, revealing the word.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for March 13, #1006

Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for March 13, No. 1,006.

Looking for the most recent Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Today’s NYT Connections puzzle is kind of tough. That purple one is a real head-scratcher, once again. Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.

The Times has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. Players who are registered with the Times Games section can now nerd out by following their progress, including the number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak.

Read more: Hints, Tips and Strategies to Help You Win at NYT Connections Every Time

Hints for today’s Connections groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: I don’t want that.

Green group hint: Time to count.

Blue group hint: Not floors or ceilings.

Purple group hint: Sounds like…

Answers for today’s Connections groups

Yellow group: «No thanks.»

Green group: Kinds of numbers.

Blue group: Kinds of walls.

Purple group: Homophones of non-numeric amounts.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is «No thanks.» The four answers are later, nah, next time and pass.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is kinds of numbers. The four answers are even, irrational, perfect and prime.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is kinds of walls. The four answers are Berlin, brick, fourth and Great.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is homophones of non-numeric amounts. The four answers are awl (all), nun (none), phew (few) and sum (some).

Quick tips for Connections

#1: Say the clue words out loud, pausing before and after each. That helps you hear the words in the context of a phrase. The Connections editors love to group words together that are used in similar phrasing, like ____ Up.

#2: Don’t go for the obvious grouping. These editors are smart. Once, they offered SPONGE, BOB, SQUARE and PANTS in the same puzzle. None of those words were in the same category. If you like, hit the «shuffle» button to give yourself a different perspective on the words.

#3: Break down any compound words and look for similarities. «Rushmore» was once in a puzzle where the connection was that each word started with the name of a rock band.

Technologies

iPhone Lost and Battery Drained? Here’s How You Can Still Find It

Even a dead battery can’t keep you and your misplaced iPhone apart. This is the ultimate guide to using Find My to locate a dead iPhone.

You’d think it’s impossible to lose track of an iPhone you carry everywhere, but we do it all the time — too often before we have a chance to charge it. Apple’s Find My feature, with its crowdsourced Find My Network, will usually pinpoint the phone’s location. But what about when the battery is totally drained?

Turns out Find My works even then. It sends your phone’s location to iCloud, even when the device is off. For added defense, Stolen Device Protection secures sensitive data, such as credit cards and passwords.

If you have an iPhone 11 or newer model (excluding the 2020 and 2022 iPhone SE, the iPhone 16E and iPhone 17E), you have the ultra-wideband chip for offline finding. As long as Find My is enabled and you’re signed in to your Apple ID, you can locate your iPhone even if the battery is dead. Before panicking, follow these steps to recover your phone.

Apple Find My and Find My Network aren’t the same

Apple Find My and Find My Network are different, which can be confusing. While Find My is the name of an app, the Find My Network is what allows you to locate your device when it’s offline, turned off or low on power. It’s also how AirTags update their locations automatically, even when buried at the bottom of luggage on a plane.

You can use the Find My Network feature within Apple’s Find My app or sign into your Apple ID at iCloud.com to locate your misplaced iPhone. Plus, the app also allows you to add other Apple products and items that you want to track to your Find My Network.

How to turn on Find My and Find My Network

You need to make sure Find My and Find My Network are set up to allow you to locate your switched-off iPhone. Open Settings and follow these steps:

Tap on your name in the Settings menu.
Go to Find My > Find My iPhone and make sure the switch is toggled on.
Below Find My iPhone, you’ll see Find My Network and Send Last Location toggles. Turn them on, too.

You can check if your iPhone is discoverable even when it’s switched off by going to the power menu: Swipe down from the top-right corner to view Control Center and press and hold the power button in that corner, or hold the side and volume down button. Under the «slide to power off» slider, look for «iPhone Findable After Power Off.» Your iPhone is now all set to be found, even if a thief turns it off.

However, there are a few exceptions. If your iPhone hasn’t sent its location to Apple through Find My in the last seven days, you’ll see «No location found» next to your device. It can happen if there’s an issue with your device’s location services.

How to find a lost iPhone with the Find My app on another Apple device

Now comes the hard part: What happens after you lose your iPhone? Assuming you’ve completed the steps above, you can keep calm. If you have another Apple device, such as an Apple Watch, iPad or MacBook, follow the steps below to locate your misplaced or stolen iPhone. This will also work on a friend’s or family member’s device that you’ve shared your location with.

Open the Find My app and locate your iPhone in the list under the Devices tab. You should see it in this list (even if it’s powered off) as long as you have previously enabled the Find My iPhone, Find My Network and Send Last Location options.
Tap or click the name of your iPhone. This should take you to a menu with several options for finding your phone or marking it as lost.
If you misplaced your iPhone and you’re sure that it’s nearby, tap or click Play Sound or Directions to make the device play a sound or get directions to the device’s last recorded location, respectively.
If you’re sure your iPhone is stolen, tap Activate under the Mark As Lost option. This immediately locks the device with your passcode, suspends Apple Pay and displays a custom message with your contact information for anyone who finds it. You can also use Send Last Location to locate the last known location of your device.

How to find a lost iPhone if you don’t have another Apple device

In case you don’t have another Apple device, you can sign into your iCloud account in a web browser to find your lost iPhone (though this option can be troublesome if you don’t have another Apple device because of two-factor authentication). Follow these steps to use a web browser to see your lost iPhone’s location:

Go to icloud.com/find and sign in with your Apple ID.
Go to the Devices list.
From here, use the same options for playing a sound, marking your device as lost or erasing the device as you would in the app.

You can also disable Control Center access on the lock screen while traveling abroad to prevent a thief from turning off data or enabling Airplane mode. To do this, do the following:

Go to Settings > Face ID & Passcode (or Touch ID & Passcode) and enter your passcode.
Under the Allow Access When Locked section, toggle off the Control Center option.

This option can add some inconvenience to day-to-day use, but I recommend turning off Control Center while traveling.

These settings give you the best chance of finding your iPhone if it’s been stolen and turned off. For more iPhone tips and advice, check out our guide to the Camera Control and how to block distracting websites.