Apple’s Vision Pro mixed reality headset will run on visionOS, company executives announced following the bombshell reveal of its long-rumored wearable at WWDC 2023. The operating system, internally codenamed “Oak,” has reportedly been in development since 2017. It’s existence further leaked via source code references last February. Behold, the dawning of the spacial computing era.

The new headset will an immersive mixed-reality 3D interface that, “frees apps from the boundaries of a display,” according the the company. This means that instead of being displayed in a separate virtual environment, the app windows will appear to float in the physical space in front of the user can be moved and scaled just as they would on a desktop — except now, it can be your actual physical desktop, not just your laptop’s home screen. The virtual screens Vision Pro displays can appear as gigantic as 100-foot wide wraparound billboards with advanced Spatial Audio.

Vision Pro’s applications will skew hard towards gaming, media consumption, and communication and will offer Apple apps like Messages, FaceTime and Apple Arcade. Apple is already working with a number of media companies to bring their products and content into the new Vision Pro ecosystem. This includes Disney which, as part of its 100th anniversary celebration, announced Monday that it will bring immersive features to Disney+ content, “by combining extraordinary creativity with groundbreaking technology,” Disney CEO Bob Iger said. “Disney+ will be available ‘day one,’ [of the headset’s availability].” It appears that ESPN content won’t be far behind, based on the few glimpses we saw during the demo.

Apple’s announcement comes just days after rival Meta unveiled its own mixed reality headset, the Quest 3. 

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apple-realityos-ar-vr-headset-operating-system-wwdc-2023-185901735.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget – Apple details visionOS, the software that powers the Vision Pro headset