Rumor: Apple Glass will cost $499 and may be shown this year

Apple would like to show its Apple Glass for the first time in October this year, or in March next year. They would look like regular glasses and contain a time-of-flight sensor. Augmented reality images are displayed on both lenses.

Apple wants to announce the AR glasses as a ‘one more thing’ at the presentation of the iPhone 12, says Jon Prosser in his YouTube show Front Page Tech. That presentation should take place in October. However, Apple would only like to show the glasses if media can be present at the event and that is still the question due to the corona crisis. Apple may therefore postpone the first announcement of the AR glasses until March 2021.

Although Apple may already be showing the glasses this year, they would not actually be available until the fourth quarter of 2021 or the first quarter of 2022. According to information from Prosser, who has proven to have reliable sources within Apple in recent months, the frame of the Apple glasses will cost $ 499. There are also costs for prescription lenses. There would be no sunglasses yet, because the technique for displaying images does not work on tinted lenses.

All data processing is done on an iPhone that must be connected to the Apple Glass, just like with the first generation of the Apple Watch. Prosser does not have details about how the glasses display images. He does say that the glasses can project images in both glasses. The Apple Glass would only have a lidar on the frame, or a time-of-flight sensor. It wouldn’t have a camera on it, which could alleviate concerns about privacy.

The controls work by tapping the frame and making hand gestures in front of the glasses. Apple would internally call the interface Starboard. The glasses could also scan special Apple QR codes, but substantive details about this are not yet available.

Prosser says he saw a video of a prototype and that the glasses frame is made of plastic. In the final version, that could be metal. According to the YouTuber, Apple Glass is the definitive marketing name and a standard is included on which the glasses can be charged wirelessly. There have been rumors for years about Apple’s augmented reality glasses. There are said to be several versions in development, including VR glasses.