Apple announces Vision Pro Headset launch date, Asus unveils smart glasses
Apple has announced its long-awaited Vision Pro headset will go on sale on 2 February in the United States. US customers have been given the option to pre-order the $3,499 (£2,749) mixed-reality device from mid-January, though no date has been set for a UK launch. It is the first major new product to be released by the firm since the Apple Watch launched in 2015. After years of rumours during development, the company revealed the headset in June 2023. But there have been issues since then. According to the Financial Times, Apple has more than halved its production forecasts, dropping from an estimated one million units to 400,000 in 2024. BBC
The 2024 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is a showcase of cutting-edge technology, and BMW used the Las Vegas event to demonstrate some of its latest digital tech. One headline innovation it was promoting was augmented reality via glasses – and we tried it. The BMW augmented reality (AR) headset comprised a pair of XReal Air 2 glasses from the AR manufacturer of the same name. The glasses (which can be modified to include prescription lenses) work in a similar way to the kind of head-up display that you’d get in a high-spec BMW, with images projected from the top of the glasses frame on to 45-degree glass behind the lenses that overlays the images on to the car’s surroundings. AutoExpress
Asus has screens aplenty at this year’s CES, including one for your face. The AirVision M1 is a pair of glasses housing a wearable display, which shows content from a connected phone or computer. The glasses include a 1080p Micro OLED display with a 57-degree vertical perspective field of view, making it a sizable screen in front of your eyeballs. The AirVision M1 might sound familiar, but it adds a couple of interesting new features: a touchpad embedded on the left temple so you can make adjustments to the display. You can also pin the virtual screen in a specific location. The Verge
An autonomous robot designed to tackle potholes using AI is to venture out of a controlled environment and be tested on actual roads for the first time. The machine called ARRES (Autonomous Road Repair System) PREVENT can identify and characterise potholes and cracks using artificial intelligence. It can then automatically fill them up to keep out surface water – which otherwise can seep through causing further damage. Should it be successful, ARRES could save time and money identifying potholes that could worsen due to neglect, and reduce the disruption they cause to motorists. Sky News
Amazon faces fresh industrial action in the UK, after members of the GMB union at a new fulfilment centre in Birmingham voted to strike over pay and conditions later this month. The GMB says “up to 100” workers will take part in the strike at the warehouse, which opened in October – a small fraction of the total workforce – but it hopes to use the action to boost the profile of the dispute and recruit more supporters. GMB members at the site have chosen 25 January as their first strike day, exactly one year after a stoppage by workers at Amazon’s Coventry warehouse, in what was the first action of its kind against the company in the UK. The Guardian
Top fund manager Terry Smith has warned that the race to dominate artificial intelligence (AI) may not produce a clear “winner”. The 70-year-old stockpicker, who manages £24bn of assets at Fundsmith, said he was sceptical about investors’ ability to identify developers most likely to benefit from AI. No single company would corner the market, he predicted. In a letter to investors on Tuesday, Mr Smith said: “Maybe there won’t be a winner, either in the provision of large language models or their use. Telegraph
