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 Wordle Hints, Answer and Help for March 9, #1724

Here are hints and the answer for today’s Wordle for March 9, No. 1,724.

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

Today’s Wordle puzzle is a bit tricky, thanks to some unusual letters. If you need a new starter word, check out our list of which letters show up the most in English words. If you need hints and the answer, read on.

Today’s Wordle hints

Before we show you today’s Wordle answer, we’ll give you some hints. If you don’t want a spoiler, look away now.

Wordle hint No. 1: Repeats

Today’s Wordle answer has no repeated letters.

Wordle hint No. 2: Vowels

Today’s Wordle answer has one vowel and one sometimes vowel.

Wordle hint No. 3: First letter

Today’s Wordle answer begins with H.

Wordle hint No. 4: Last letter

Today’s Wordle answer ends with Y.

Wordle hint No. 5: Meaning

Today’s Wordle answer can refer to something done with excessive speed.

TODAY’S WORDLE ANSWER

Today’s Wordle answer is HASTY.

Yesterday’s Wordle answer

Yesterday’s Wordle answer, March 8, No. 1,723, was LOBBY.

Recent Wordle answers

March 4, No. 1,719: THEFT

March 5, No. 1,720: SHEEP

March 6, No. 1,721: GUNKY

March 7, No. 1,722: VOGUE

Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for March 9, #736

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for March 9, No. 736.

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 is kind of funny. 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: Cute enough to eat

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: Food-related pet names

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:

FUDGE, PENT, BENT, DARE, DART, PEST, PETS, PUMP, MILE, MILD, DUMP, DEAR

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:

BEAN, MUFFIN, NUGGET, PUMPKIN, PEANUT, DUMPLING

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is ENDEARMENTS. To find it, start with the E that is two letters down on the far-left vertical row, and wind down.

Technologies

How War in the Middle East Impacted the World’s Largest Mobile Phone Show

Hundreds of companies planned to gather in Barcelona to talk business, but as the conflict disrupted travel, not all of them arrived.

On a Tuesday in the middle of Mobile World Congress 2026, three industry experts gathered for a panel to chat about smart glasses and extended reality tech. But a fourth member of the panel, who was based in Dubai, never made it to the conference. Two days before, the US and Israel launched airborne attacks on Iran, and flights had been grounded throughout the Middle East.

Even thousands of miles away in Barcelona, on the western edge of the Mediterranean Sea, MWC was affected by the conflict. While events and meetings at the world’s largest mobile tech conference proceeded as planned, albeit under the anxious awareness of larger geopolitical events, there were notable absences.

Some booths stood empty, and some meetings scheduled between absent attendees weren’t held. Exhibitors walked the halls and saw a diminished presence from Middle Eastern companies.

While the conflict was just beginning as MWC took place, it had already affected attendees and changed the experience. While distant from the fighting in the Middle East, the war’s impact was just as seriously felt in the middle of a conference about bringing humans together.

The financial, emotional and mental cost of war on a tech conference

The fourth panelist on Tuesday’s panel was supposed to be Roman Axelrod, cofounder of Xpanceo, who would have likely discussed the smart contact lenses the company intended to show off in prototype form at MWC. But neither Axelrod nor the samples ever left Dubai, where the company is based. Conference attendees who walked by Xpanceo’s booth were greeted by employees who had flown in from elsewhere and apologized that they had only hastily made video demonstrations of the technology samples that were supposed to be on display.

I had already planned to chat with Valentyn S. Volkov, co-founder and CTO of Xpanceo, who likewise didn’t make it to MWC. While the company was intentionally headquartered in Dubai as a reliable and predictable jurisdiction for business (as well as centrally located, with many business destinations within a 7-hour flight), the country falls within the airspace of the current conflict. As a result, businesses are losing money, especially funds spent on opportunities at MWC.

«We already kind of lost, I would say, a significant amount of resources — physical, mental, scientific resources — simply because we could not get everyone to Barcelona. We could not get our prototypes to Barcelona as planned,» Volkov told me.

Fortunately, Volkov was in good spirits when I chatted with him over Zoom via a laptop in Xpanceo’s booth. He was safe, noting that local authorities in Dubai were providing «logistic safeness.»

Our chat quickly turned to the smart contact lenses that the company is working on, with plans to roll out functioning prototypes by the end of the year. As Volkov described their potential capabilities, they sounded like the next evolution of smart glasses, like the Google Specs that I saw at Google I/O last year, offering heads-up display information relayed from a nearby phone, and even potentially health data like glucose level readings taken from the lens’ contact with the eye’s tears.

«Those beauties were supposed to be shown for the very first time [at MWC], and we put lots of effort and resources into that. It’s completely bad luck,» Volkov said.

Thanks to modern network technology, Volkov and I were still able to have this virtual conversation — and fortunately, the war had not affected him or the infrastructure where he was. But anyone can tell you the value of having an in-person exchange over one on small screens. What was lost through the wires because Volkov wasn’t there to demonstrate features and concepts of Xpanceo’s products through body language and demonstration?

It’s not hard to imagine scaling that up to all the business conversations and networking opportunities lost to those whose flights were canceled and lives locked down due to the conflict in the Middle East. Some of those meetings could likely be shifted to digital chats like mine, but MWC is a show about making new connections in person, seeing new devices and getting updated on the latest tech trends across the mobile and telecom industries.

But I met some attendees who were suffering the opposite fate, having flown out early from countries now in restricted airspace. They made it to MWC, but it’s too early to tell when they can fly home.

Stranded at MWC, return unknown

I sat down with Said Saidi, an exhibitor at the show, and chatted in between his calls home. I couldn’t imagine the strain he was under with family back in Dubai and no clear idea of when he’d be able to rejoin them.

A resident of the United Arab Emirates for 19 years, Saidi was comforted to be able to chat with his family on the phone every few hours, who he said were safe. Aside from noise made by the defense system and drones coming from Iran, his reports from home said everyone is living peacefully and has no shortage of supplies, and they have so far had no major stress.

Saidi explained that this was counter to misinformation being spread on social media that says people have been stuck in the UAE without accommodation. As he said, and reports have echoed, the government and hotels have provided stranded travelers with free stays.

Saidi caught an early flight out to Barcelona the previous Friday, but most other exhibitors from the Middle East usually fly out on Sunday, he said. By then, commercial flights from the area were largely grounded following the initial strikes by the US and Israel on Saturday morning. He said the impact of this region-wide air travel blackout was stark. After walking around the show floor twice, even all the way out to the startup area at the far end of the convention center, the presence of attendees from the Middle East is «near zero,» Saidi said.

While he made it to MWC, many of the meetings Saidi was supposed to have with peers from other Middle Eastern companies had to be canceled or held online. It’s a loss all around.

«Usually, the main purpose of the exhibition is to show that we are present, we are there, and also to meet new leads and new business,» Saidi said. While executives may normally move in their own circles, at MWC, they can be met on the show floor by anyone. «The exhibition is always a good chance to meet people and do that first handshake and build on it,» Saidi said.

Waiting for the limbo to lift, but the impact remains

In three days of running around the MWC show floor, I tried to gauge the scope of these absences. None was more obvious than in the startup area, 4YFN, which was filled with company representatives from every corner of the Earth — except a strand representing the Palestinian Information Technology Association of Companies. Just two booths were manned out of what was supposed to be seven, with the rest of the startup representatives unable to fly to the show.

The representatives who were there politely declined to comment for this story and weren’t sure when they’d be able to fly back.

Saidi said the same. While he asserted that his company was taking care of him, and that he felt totally relaxed as long as his family was safe back in Dubai, he had no inkling of when he’d be able to return home.

«I have zero expectations,» Saidi said. «At this point in time, we cannot predict anything.»

From within Dubai, during our conversation, Xpanceo’s Volkov had a more optimistic outlook, with significant hope that the situation would stabilize within a week. But if it is a prolonged issue, he said his company would be prepared for that, too. And work is continuing remotely in the meantime.

The war is likely to have an impact on the mobile industry beyond MWC. Analysts have adjusted their previously dim projection on 2026’s expected phone sales to an even bleaker outlook, expecting a 13% drop over the year. Mostly, they blame the RAM shortage, which is plaguing the tech industry as AI data centers gobble up memory.

But when I chatted with International Data Corporation’s Jeronimo Francisco, he noted that the regional chaos of the war with Iran contributed to that drop, at least in terms of disrupting supply chains, increasing the cost of oil and forcing companies to find workarounds for wartime bottlenecks.

«If there was no memory crisis, instead of the market dropping 13% it would drop 5 in the worst-case scenario, something like that,» Francisco said.

It was a poignant moment for the mobile industry. Even as the AI industry-caused RAM shortage is poised to increase phone prices in 2026, MWC was awash in company slogans embracing AI agents and other applications of generative AI. Satellite companies heralded the era of increasing connectivity beyond the range of traditional cell networks. Going to the show is an opportunity to catch wind of exciting trends awaiting phone owners in the months to come.

But even when MWC feels like being in a bubble of wonky news and enthusiastic predictions, sometimes the bubble is popped by global events that significantly disrupt lives. At CNET, we have covered a lot of the coolest discoveries we made at the biggest phone show of the year — but even immersed in the deepest phone dives, it’s important to remember the human impact of conflicts that reach thousands of miles to a convention center in a Catalonian beach town.