Top Stories: Apple Vision Pro Release Date, iOS 17.3 Coming Soon, CES 2024 Recap

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Apple's Vision Pro headset finally has a release date in the U.S., and it's coming up quickly! Alongside that announcement, we learned a bit more about the device and what to expect with the ordering process.

top stories 13jan2024
Other news this week included Apple starting to pay out claims for the high-profile class action lawsuit that claimed Apple was "secretly throttling" older iPhones with degraded batteries, an approaching release of iOS 17.3 and related updates, and the annual CES tech event in Las Vegas, so read on below for all the details!

Apple Vision Pro Launches February 2, Pre-Orders Start Next Week

After being unveiled at WWDC 2023 last June, Apple's long-awaited Vision Pro mixed reality headset now has a release date: Friday, February 2. Pre-orders begin on Friday, January 19 at 5 a.m. Pacific Time. Availability is limited to the U.S., with more countries to follow later this year.

Apple Vision Pro with battery Feature Blue Magenta
Pricing starts at $3,499 with 256GB of storage, and ZEISS optical inserts will be available for $99 to $149. If you're planning to order, make sure to check out Apple's tips to make sure you're ready.

Apple refers to the Vision Pro as a "spatial computer," and it offers a combination of augmented reality and virtual reality features. The headset is powered by an all-new visionOS operating system, which can be controlled with a user's eyes, hands, and voice.

Learn more in our Vision Pro roundup.

Apple Vision Pro: Here's Everything You Get in the Box

In its press release announcing the Vision Pro's launch date, Apple revealed the various items that will be included with the headset.

Apple Vision Pro Dual Loop Band Teal Feature 2
Apple says the headset will ship with two types of head bands (a Solo Knit Band and a Dual Loop Band), a light seal, two light seal cushions, a cover for the front glass, a polishing cloth, an external battery pack, a USB-C power adapter, and a USB-C charging cable.

Apple Vision Pro Features 16GB of RAM

Apple's upcoming Vision Pro headset is equipped with 16GB of unified memory, according to files related to the device in Xcode 15.2.

apple vision pro chips
Our finding in Apple's app development tool confirms a June 2023 report from Bloomberg's Mark Gurman that said the Vision Pro would be equipped with 16GB of RAM, and that is also the same amount of memory that was included in Vision Pro development kits.

Apple Sends $92 'Batterygate' Payments to iPhone Users

Apple in 2020 agreed to pay up to $500 million to settle a class action lawsuit in the U.S. that accused the company of "secretly throttling" some iPhone models, and payouts finally started going out this week to individuals who submitted a claim.

iPhone 6s MacRumors YouTube
iPhone users have received $92.17 per claim from Apple, according to multiple MacRumors readers. The deadline to submit a claim was in October 2020.

iOS 17.3 Coming Soon With These Two New Features for Your iPhone

iOS 17.3 has been in beta testing since mid-December, and the upcoming software update includes two new features for the iPhone, including Stolen Device Protection and collaborative Apple Music playlists.

iOS 17
Related: When Will iOS 17.3 Be Released?

Apple seeded the third beta of iOS 17.3 this week, and the update will likely be widely released later this month.

CES 2024 Recap of Apple-Related Announcements

The annual CES tech conference was held in Las Vegas this week, and there were a handful of Apple-related announcements as usual.

CES 2024 Day 1 Thumbnail 2
Check out our CES 2024 news hub for a recap of new HomeKit accessories and more.

Also be sure to watch our Day One, Day Two and Day Three videos for more highlights.

MacRumors Newsletter

Each week, we publish an email newsletter like this highlighting the top Apple stories, making it a great way to get a bite-sized recap of the week hitting all of the major topics we've covered and tying together related stories for a big-picture view.

So if you want to have top stories like the above recap delivered to your email inbox each week, subscribe to our newsletter!

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Top Rated Comments

klasma Avatar
klasma
16 weeks ago

Stolen Device Protection
It’s nice that Apple is now acknowledging when they are stealing a feature.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ChrisA Avatar
ChrisA
16 weeks ago
I think Asus might have just killed the Vison Pro

https://edgeup.asus.com/2024/asus-glasses-intro

This Asus product looks like what I want to actually want to use. The Apple product is simply too physically large to be practical.

The other thing is that Asus does not need a killer app to justify the glasses, it is just a screen. Use it for existing games or office work or just to watch a movie.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Realityck Avatar
Realityck
16 weeks ago

Apple refers to the Vision Pro as a "spatial computer ('https://www.macrumors.com/2024/01/09/vision-pro-developers-asked-to-avoid-vr-branding/')," and it offers a combination of augmented reality and virtual reality features. The headset is powered by an all-new visionOS operating system, which can be controlled with a user's eyes, hands, and voice.
Apple as this example avoiding any of the common acronyms they used in WWDC 2023 so they can hype the Vision Pro as totally new platform using technology they seem to have invented.

Mac World recently said it in a recent article.

Apple is desperate not to be compared to the several years worth of mixed reality products on the market already, going out of its way to use “Spatial Computing” to describe the product and insisting developers avoid terms like AR, VR, MR, and so on.
For several years it's always been about Augmented Reality on their developer pages.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
klasma Avatar
klasma
16 weeks ago

I think Asus might have just killed the Vison Pro

https://edgeup.asus.com/2024/asus-glasses-intro

This Asus product looks like what I want to actually want to use. The Apple product is simply too physically large to be practical.

The other thing is that Asus does not need a killer app to justify the glasses, it is just a screen. Use it for existing games or office work or just to watch a movie.
No cameras, no AR and no VR (apart from the screen), no eye tracking, no input methods, but yes the form factor is more like it, and if it works well, it will be more compelling to the “portable virtual monitor” crowd than the AVP.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
citysnaps Avatar
citysnaps
16 weeks ago

Actually they didn't.
In the early 1990s, as field of Virtual reality was beginning to be commercialized beyond academic and military labs, a startup called Worldesign in Seattle used the term Spatial Computing to describe the interaction between individual people and 3D spaces, operating more at the human end of the scale than previous GIS examples may have contemplated. The company built a CAVE-like environment it called the Virtual Environment Theater, whose 3D experience was of a virtual flyover of the Giza Plateau, circa 3000 BC. Robert Jacobson, CEO of Worldesign, attributes the origins of the term to experiments at the Human Interface Technology Lab, at the University of Washington, under the direction of Thomas A. Furness III. Jacobson was a co-founder of that lab before spinning off this early VR startup.

In 1997, an academic publication by T. Caelli, Peng Lam, and H. Bunke called "Spatial Computing: Issues in Vision, Multimedia and Visualization Technologies" introduced the term more broadly for academic audiences.
And that's fine, as from the above it appears to now be a generic descriptor. That Apple is using "spatial" in characterizing what their product does makes sense and it would certainly apply to AR applications. Much better than "AR" seeing as though the general public likely doesn't know what that means.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
I7guy Avatar
I7guy
16 weeks ago
Looking forward to is 17.3. Stolen device protection is a welcome addition.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
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