Glasses or no glasses, this year’s WWDC is all about AR

Image: Apple

Generally speaking, Apple's software is excellent. Even as the company has spread its focus among more platforms than ever, it is still focused on one thing. The biggest mistake Apple makes nowadays is putting the URL bar on the wrong part of the screen, which is what happened with Apple Maps.

There is a sense that Apple's software is at least very close to being done. Over the last couple of years, the company's software announcements have been mostly iterative and small. Quality-of-life improvements to FaceTime and new types of ID that work in Apple wallet were some of the big announcements of last year. New settings menus were rolled out, with new controls for notifications, focus mode settings, and privacy tools.

This is not a problem. It isn't the fact that Apple is the best fast- follower in the software business, it's the fact that they are quick to adapt and polish everybody else's new ideas about software. Everything Apple has to offer is feature-filled, long- lasting, stable, and usable. A lot of companies try to change everything all the time and end up creating problems where they don't exist. Apple is a machine that is hard at work honing every part of it's devices.

We are at a point in technology where more needs to be done by Apple. It is now clear that augmented reality and virtual reality are Apple's next big thing after the phone. As augmented and virtual reality come to more of our lives, everything about how we experience and interact with technology will have to change

Apple has shown off augmented reality for a long time. There are demos on the other side of the camera. We haven't seen a lot of information from the company about how we're going to use augmented reality. A new software paradigm and a few new input devices are going to be needed by the company that loves to rave about its products. This year, we are going to see that.

Last year, Apple showed that you could take a picture of a piece of paper with your phone and it would recognize any text on the page, and that's when I remember. Live Text is an augmented reality feature that uses your phone's camera and artificial intelligence to understand and catalog information. The tech industry thinks that is the future, and that is what they are doing with maps and lens. Apple needs more information about Live Text.

Image: Apple

One thing that augmented reality will require is a more efficient system to get information and accomplish tasks. People won't wear augmented reality glasses that send Apple Music ads and news notifications every six minutes. Full-screen apps are going to be a thing of the past.

It sounds like this year's theme will be "Use your phone without getting lost in your phone." According to Mark Gurman, we could see an Apple lock screen that shows useful information without you having to open it. A better way to keep people from opening their phone to check the weather is to have it look more like an iPad. You can do basic tasks without having to open an app if you use the rumored interactivewidget. If Apple can make it easier to set up and use Focus mode, it will be a really useful tool on your phone and on your augmented reality glasses.

I would expect Apple to continue to bring its devices closer together in order to make it easier for people to use it. With a full line of Macs and iPad running on Apple's M chip, there is no reason for the devices not to share more DNA. Universal Control, which was the most exciting iOS 15 announcement even if it didn't ship until February, is an example of what it looks like for Apple to treat its many screens as part of an ecosystems. An iPad in a keyboard dock is a Mac if the iPad is brought true freeform multitasking to the iPad. Apple used to avoid that close proximity, but now it seems to be embracing it. If it sees all these devices as accessories to a pair of augmented reality glasses, it will need them all to do well.

The last time Apple had a new idea about how we use gadgets was when the iPhone was launched. The industry has been on a yes-and path since then and has never really deviated from the basics of multitouch. All of that will be broken by the use of augmented reality. Otherwise, it can't work. Companies are working on neural interface, trying to perfect gesture control, and trying to figure out how to display everything from translated text to maps and games on a tiny screen in front of your face. The best ideas from Meta are already being sold, while the best ideas from Google are coming out. It's time for Apple to show the world how it thinks an augmented reality future will work. There will be a headset or no headset at the event.