Oliver Haslam on February 27, 2023, 1:59 pm

Apple’s Mixed Reality Headset Could Feature Air Typing And Won’t Need An iPhone, Report Claims

Apple’s much-rumored AR/VR headset could have a fancy in-air typing feature, according to a new report. It’s also said that the device won’t require an iPhone in order to be set up for the first time, unlike the Apple watch.

Writing his weekly Power On newsletter for Bloomberg, Mark Gurman says that the Apple AR/VR headset is currently being tested with a form of air typing.

The headset, which is rumored to be called Reality Pro, could allow people to type in thin air — although Gurman does warn that the feature is proving problematic. People might want to use an iPhone to do typing duties instead, he says.

A key feature for text input — in-air typing — is available on the latest internal prototypes, I’m told. But it’s been finicky in testing. So if you get the first headset, you still may want to pair an iPhone to use its touch-screen keyboard.

One thing that people won’t need to use an iPhone for is the headset’s initial setup, Gurman reports. While he says that the headset will be capable of handling getting all see tup on his own, there will be the option to transfer data from an existing device. The headset will either download data from iCloud and Apple’s services or connect to an iPhone for data transfer, Gurman reports.

We’re still waiting for Apple to officially announce a headset that we’ve been hearing of for years. That’s finally expected to change this year, but it’ll be expensive — reports suggest the headset will cost around $3,000 at launch.