Apple Hires Jaunt VR Founder Arthur van Hoff

Apple this month added Jaunt VR founder Arthur van Hoff to its AR/VR team, according to van Hoff's updated LinkedIn profile that was first noticed by Variety.

Van Hoff is now working as a senior architect at Apple, with no other detail provided. His company, Jaunt VR, created VR capture hardware, including a $100,000 3D VR camera, the Jaunt One.


Rumors of troubles at the company started in 2018, and in October, Jaunt VR let go of much of its staff, pivoting from VR hardware to augmented reality. Jaunt is now focusing on building a platform for the scaled creation of AR content.

At the time, van Hoff said he would be leaving Jaunt by the end of 2018, and it appears he ended up at Apple instead. It's not clear specifically what he's doing at the Cupertino company, but given his expertise in AR and VR, he's likely joined Apple's augmented and virtual reality efforts.

Prior to founding Jaunt, van Hoff was CTO of Flipboard, software and services CTO at Dell, and an engineer at TiVo.

Rumors have suggested Apple is working on developing a set of AR smart glasses, which could be released as soon as 2020. Apple also has other AR/VR prototypes in the works, and there have been mixed rumors that have also pointed towards the possibility of some kind of virtual reality hardware product in the future.

Related Roundup: Apple Vision Pro
Buyer's Guide: Vision Pro (Buy Now)
Related Forum: Apple Vision Pro

Popular Stories

iOS 26

iOS 26.1 Coming Soon: New Features for Your iPhone and Release Date

Monday October 27, 2025 7:55 am PDT by
The upcoming iOS 26.1 update includes a handful of new features and changes for iPhones, including a toggle for changing the appearance of the Liquid Glass design, "slide to stop" for alarms in the Clock app, and more. Below, we outline key details about iOS 26.1. Release Date Given that Apple has yet to seed an iOS 26.1 Release Candidate, which is typically the final beta version, the...
iOS 26

6 New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 26.1

Wednesday October 29, 2025 4:22 am PDT by
Apple is about to drop iOS 26.1, the first major point release since iOS 26 was rolled out in September, and there are at least six notable changes and improvements to look forward to. We've rounded them up below. Apple has already provided developers and public beta testers with the release candidate version of iOS 26.1, which means Apple will likely roll out the update to all compatible...
maxresdefault

Apple TV 4K Could Still Launch Before 2025 Ends: All the Rumored Features

Monday October 27, 2025 4:51 pm PDT by
Apple is designing an updated version of the Apple TV 4K, and rumors suggest that it could come out sometime in the next couple of months. We're not expecting a major overhaul with design changes, but even a simple chip upgrade will bring major improvements to Apple's set-top box. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. We've rounded up all the latest Apple TV rumors. ...
iOS 26

Apple Seeds iOS 26.1, iPadOS 26.1, and macOS Tahoe 26.1 Release Candidates

Tuesday October 28, 2025 1:07 pm PDT by
Apple today provided developers and public beta testers with the release candidate versions of upcoming iOS 26.1, iPadOS 26.1, macOS Tahoe 26.1, tvOS 26.1, watchOS 26.1, and visionOS 26.1 updates for testing purposes. The RCs betas come a week after Apple released the fourth betas. The new betas can be downloaded from the Settings app on a compatible device by going to General > Software...
M6 MacBook Pro Feature 1

M6 MacBook Pro: Release Date, Pricing, and What to Expect

Monday October 27, 2025 9:15 am PDT by
Apple this month refreshed the 14-inch MacBook Pro base model with its new M5 chip, and higher-end 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models with M5 Pro and M5 Max chips are expected to follow in early 2026. However, these machines will represent the final update to the current design, with Apple reportedly developing a completely new version of the MacBook Pro packed with next-generation hardware...
macos tahoe

Here Are Apple's Release Notes for macOS Tahoe 26.1

Tuesday October 28, 2025 1:21 pm PDT by
Apple today provided developers and public beta testers with the release candidate version of macOS Tahoe 26.1, which means the update will likely see a public launch next week. The release candidate includes notes on what's in the update, so we have a full picture of the new features that Apple has included. macOS Tahoe 26.1 adds AutoMix support over AirPlay, improved FaceTime audio...
iPhone Car Key Kia

Another Vehicle Brand Gaining iPhone Car Keys Support

Tuesday October 28, 2025 5:27 am PDT by
Apple is preparing to bring support for its digital car key feature to Jetour vehicles, according to evidence uncovered on Apple's backend by MacRumors contributor Aaron Perris. Introduced in 2022, Car Keys allows an iPhone or Apple Watch to unlock a vehicle through the Wallet app. A digital version of a car key is stored in Wallet, and unlocking can be done by holding an Apple Watch or...
iPhone 17 Pro Cosmic Orange

8 Reasons to Wait for Next Year's iPhone 18 Pro

Thursday October 30, 2025 4:42 am PDT by
Apple's iPhone development roadmap runs several years into the future and the company is continually working with suppliers on several successive iPhone models at the same time, which is why we often get rumored features months ahead of launch. The iPhone 18 series is no different, and we already have a good idea of what to expect for the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max. One thing worth...
ipad mini 7 feature blue

OLED iPad Mini: Release Date, Pricing, and What to Expect

Wednesday October 29, 2025 7:13 am PDT by
Rumors are stoking excitement for the next-generation iPad mini that Apple is reportedly close to launching. So what should we expect from the successor to the iPad mini 7 that Apple released over a year ago? Read on to find out. Processor and Performance Apple is working on a next-generation version of the iPad mini (codename J510/J511) that features the A19 Pro chip, according to...

Top Rated Comments

SirChristopher Avatar
86 months ago
OMG VR GO AWAY!
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Scooz Avatar
86 months ago
Love the latest hires.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
djcerla Avatar
86 months ago
So many short-sighted folks around here.

OF COURSE Augmentd Reality is the future. It’s as clear as it was clear the smartphone was the future in 2007. Indeed, many scoffed at the concept back then.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
now i see it Avatar
86 months ago
pivoting from VR hardware to augmented reality ('https://blog.jauntxr.com/the-future-of-jaunt-is-ar-b621451b0547')
Factual evidence that VR is going nowhere.
The last grasp is AR. It's still rocking the hype train (as VR did) so we're going to have to hear about all its promises for sometime yet to come.

The future is not about staring at a screen while engaging in the real world- as much as the electronics companies want us to think so
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
bladerunner2000 Avatar
86 months ago
What for? Apple's hardware is a steaming pile of crap that will never be able to run anything in VR.

Unless Apple is finally planning on making a good computer?
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
twolf2919 Avatar
86 months ago
The future is not about staring at a screen while engaging in the real world- as much as the electronics companies want us to think so
Your understanding of AR is wrong and, therefore, your conclusion. With AR, you don't stare at a screen while engaging in the real world. With AR you engage with an informationally enriched real world. There are endless uses for this. I could rattle off a half dozen that would help me personally just while typing this.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)