Apple is reportedly developing xrOS to power the next ecosystem of devices - Macworld

With 2022 ending connected a somewhat quiescent enactment with conscionable 1 autumn event, each eyes are connected 2023. But caller Macs, iPads, and iPhones mightiness not beryllium the prima of 2023. Instead, a caller study suggests Apple is readying an wholly caller ecosystem.

According to Bloomberg, Apple is “ramping up enactment connected a mixed-reality headset” that is owed to yet motorboat successful the caller year. Along with the hardware, which has managed to debar large leaks truthful far, Apple is moving connected a caller dedicated operating strategy called xrOS, arsenic good arsenic an xrOS App Store for third-party software. Like iOS and macOS, the caller sanction suggests the level is simply a large constituent of the headset.

Bloomberg had antecedently reported that Apple’s OS was being developed nether the realityOS name, but the caller xrOS branding suggests Apple has bigger plans for the ecosystem. Bloomberg notes that “xr” stands for extended reality, which encompasses some virtual and augmented world devices and applications. Like iOS and macOS, xrOS volition apt represent a afloat level of devices with features that complement each different and Apple’s different devices.

One of the xrOS devices volition surely beryllium a headset—or perchance two if Apple continues to abstracted its products into Pro and non-Pro models—but different could beryllium thing a small smaller and adjacent much personal. In a patent filing with the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, Apple has described a “Self-Mixing Interferometry-Based Input Device” oregon an Apple Ring. As spotted by Patently Apple, Apple describes the strategy arsenic an “SMI-based motion input strategy including astatine slightest 1 of a wearable instrumentality oregon a handheld device.” 

Such a strategy would evidently enactment highly good successful conjunction with a headset. Apple besides shows the Ring moving with an Apple Pencil for AR applications. An Apple Ring would besides presumably person wellness features that enactment independently from a headset arsenic well, akin to the Oura Smart Ring that tracks sleep, readiness, and activity.

Work connected Apple’s mixed-reality “metaverse” has been steadily ramping up, with rumors pointing to a 2023 launch. The headset volition reportedly diagnostic a brace of 8K displays and an M1 processor, and travel with a hefty terms tag. But if the rumors of a caller level and ecosystem are true, the terms and the hold volition beryllium worthy the investment.

Author: Michael Simon, Executive Editor