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Big Money, Big Dreams, Big Expectations and a Lot of Hype: Magic Leap One AR Headset Goes on Sale for $2,295 in Certain US Markets (cnet.com)
After earning the moniker "tech's most secretive startup" from Wired and telling Forbes in 2016 it was going to ship its system "soon-ish," the company is finally releasing the $2,295 Magic Leap One. For now, it will be available for purchase in limit U.S. markets. CNET: It includes a high-powered, moon pie-shaped computer called the Lightpack, a handheld remote called Control and a steampunk-inspired headset with round lenses and patented optics. That's called Lightwear. There's just one thing: Regular folks like us aren't the intended audience. At least not yet. This "Creator Edition," says CEO Abovitz, is part of a "controlled market release" in just a handful of cities in the United States for the developers and creative types Magic Leap will woo this year and next. The goal: for those makers to dream up the experiences (aka content) it needs to convince us to become Leapers. The company is already showing investors and partners prototypes of its smaller (and hopefully less expensive) Magic Leap Two and Magic Leap Three, but won't say when they'll be released. Magic Leap, valued at $6.3 billion as of two months ago, counts Google, Alibaba, Warner Bros, AT&T, and several top Silicon Valley venture capital firms and about a dozen other big names as its investors. More about the product going on sale here.
All the hallmarks of a classic Silicon Valley startup scam: initial, extremely high-priced product made available in limited quantities, illustrious sponsors spoken of in hushed tones, and absolutely no value proposition of any kind whatsoever.
I hate to say this but the product seems a little too expensive compared to what people are willing to pay for. Occulus Rift and HTC Vive which are both working VR solutions are at least half this amount (not including needing a really powerful PC) are struggling to survive. I don't see how this is going to work. Also people joked about Google Glasses looking goofy considering it was a version of AR overlay. So good luck, but it seems destined to fail.
It's exciting to see another computer independent headset coming out this year
Apparently it's so exciting that it was easy to miss this in TFS: It includes a high-powered, moon pie-shaped computer called the Lightpack.
It includes a high-powered, moon pie-shaped computer called the Lightpack.
But it's only visible once you have them on.
The Goggles -- they do nothing
If the universe is someone's simulation -- does that mean the stars are just stuck pixels?