New Apple Mixed Reality Headset Details; Samsung Grabs Mercedes Designer for Design Chief; Meta Picks Up Lens Maker Luxexcel; Tesla Miss on Q4, Despite Increase

More has leaked out about Apple’s Mixed-reality headset. According to theverge.com, it will sport a digital crown on the right side like the Apple Watch for switching to real-world view. Also, Apple has gone back to a waist mounted battery pack, throwing in the towel for now on trying to power it from the head strap. The units will have multiple, interchangeable head strap designs like the Apple Watch. The headset incorporates small motors to automatically adjust its lenses, and each eye will have at least one cam to track its movement. The Apple headset is built from aluminum, glass, and carbon fiber to reduce size and weight. We say built, because apparently Pegatron has already assembled thousands of prototype units. The headset has a 120 degree field of view…more than Meta Quest Pro and the Valve Index at 106 degrees. It will apparently even be able to run existing iOS apps…albeit in 2D. The down side? It’s still projected to cost about $3000! Yeah, I know…’shut up and take my money!’

Samsung has picked up a former Mercedes-Benz designer to fill their design chief position. Engadget.com reports that Hubert Lee will head up the Mobile eXperience (MX) Design Team. The team is responsible for the flagship Galaxy S line of smartphones. Lee had been chief design officer of Mercedes-Benz China, and also lead Mercedes’ design team in the US. Will he be the ‘Jony Ive of Samsung’ and give the Galaxy line the ‘wow factor’ of Apple products? Stay tuned!

Meta has picked up smart lens maker Luxexcel. The firm specializes in 3D printing prescription lenses for smart glasses. Theverge.com says the tech is pretty exciting, but it will probably be several years before we see the prescription lenses incorporated into mixed reality headsets or glasses…or mixed reality integrated into the smart lenses, depending on how you look at it. Whichever it is, Meta continues to push forward in augmented and mixed reality. 

Tesla delivered 405,278 vehicles the last quarter of 2022, a record number. That’s the good news. The down side…it missed Wall Street expectations of 420,000- 425,000, according to TechCrunch.com. The EV maker actually produced 439,701 vehicles, giving them a total production of 1.37 million in 2022. As we have reported previously, Tesla offered rebates in the US. In addition, they had to offer discounts in Mexico and China. We’ll have to wait a bit to see how that affected the company’s margins.

I’m Clark Reid, and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.