Replies to post #143435 on Apple Inc (AAPL)

[drkp187]

Apple special event Oct 18. 10 am

[Investors3]

'Apple Glass' could project AR directly onto a wearer's retina
William Gallagher | Oct 26, 2021

Apple is researching how "Apple Glass," or other future Apple AR devices, could skip tiny screens altogether, and instead use micro projectors to beam the images straight onto the wearer's retina.

Apple may soon have an entirely different meaning for its term "retina display." Rather than a screen whose resolution is so good our eyes can't distinguish individual pixels, there may not be a screen at all.

"Direct retinal projector," is a newly-granted patent, that claims this projecting right into the eyes could be best for AR. Specifically, it could prevent certain ways that watching AR or VR on a headset can cause headaches and sickness.

"Virtual reality (VR) allows users to experience and/or interact with an immersive artificial environment, such that the user feels as if they were physically in that environment," says the patent. "For example, virtual reality systems may display stereoscopic scenes to users in order to create an illusion of depth, and a computer may adjust the scene content in real-time to provide the illusion of the user moving within the scene."

We know all of this, but Apple wants to set the stage for how typical AR/VR systems work, and why there are problems. Then it wants to solve those problems.

"When the user views images through a virtual reality system, the user may thus feel as if they are moving within the scenes from a first-person point of view," it continues. "However, conventional virtual reality and augmented reality systems may suffer from accommodation-convergence mismatch problems that cause eyestrain, headaches, and/or nausea.:

"Accommodation-convergence mismatch arises when a VR or AR system effectively confuses the brain of a user," says Apple, "by generating scene content that does not match the depth expected by the brain based on the stereo convergence of the two eyes of the user."

You're wearing a headset and no matter how light Apple manages to make it, you're still conscious that you have a screen right in front of your face. Two screens, in fact, and right in front of your eyes.

So what you're watching, the AR or VR experience, might be showing you a panoramic virtual vista, perhaps with someone's avatar in the far distance, walking toward you. The AR/VR experience is telling your eyes to focus in that far distance, but what's being displayed is still actually, physically, exactly as close to your eyes as it ever was.

"For example, in a stereoscopic system the images displayed to the user may trick the eye(s) into focusing at a far distance while an image is physically being displayed at a closer distance," continues the patent. "In other words, the eyes may be attempting to focus on a different image plane or focal depth compared to the focal depth of the projected image, thereby leading to eyestrain and/or increasing mental stress."

Beyond the fact that this is obviously, as the patent says, "undesirable," there is a further issue. Today it's still the case that there is a limit to how long a user can comfortably wear an AR/VR headset.

Part of that is of course down to the size and weight of the headset, but it is also to do with these "accommodation-convergence mismatch problems." Apple says this can detract from a wearer's "endurance levels (i.e. tolerance) of virtual reality or augmented reality environments."

Projecting images into the wearer's eyes, by comparison, is a lot more like the way light usually comes into our vision as we look around. There have to be issues about the strength of projection, the brightness of the light source, but this patent doesn't cover those.

Rather, once it's made a case for using projection at all, the majority of the patent is spent on systems and methods for aiming correctly. The projection has to be precise, not just generally in shining into the eyes, but also what gets projected to which points.

Consequently, much of the patent about projecting into the eyes is also about what can be read back from those eyes. Specifically, Apple is once again investigating gaze tracking technology.

This new patent is credited to Richard J. Topliss; James H. Foster, and Alexander Shpunt. Topliss's previous work for Apple includes a patent for using AR to improve the Find My app.

https://appleinsider.com/articles/21/10/26/apple-glass-could-project-ar-directly-onto-a-wearers-retina

[Investors3]

Apple marks 40 years in France, opens Apple Music studio in Paris
William Gallagher | Nov 10, 2021

Apple has announced a new Apple Music studio on the Champs-Elysees in Paris, as it celebrates four decades since it first began operations in France.

Alongside its radio studios in Los Angeles, New York, Nashville and London, Apple's new Paris site will initially be used for long-form interviews. According to a statement, Apple says that it will be used for the LE CODE and Hits Francais programs.

"The studio will also soon host artists who will come to host their own radio shows," says the Apple France announcement (in translation.) "The space will include a radio studio with a DJ booth, as well as a Space Audio listening booth for artists."

"France occupies a special place in my heart," Tim Cook said in the same statement. "Every time I go there, I am inspired by this welcoming, dynamic and deeply creative community of artists and developers. I am delighted to celebrate Apple's 40th anniversary in France with our local teams and the customers and communities they serve."

Speaking to France.TV's "C a Vous" ("It's You") show, Cook said that, "there is nothing about France that is ordinary."

"I love France," he continued. "France is an incredible heart of art and innovation, and really stands at the intersection of creativity. Apple has always aspired to do that, and so we are kindred spirits, in a way."

Apple says that it began with a small sales team in France in 1981. It now has 2,700 employees and runs 20 Apple Stores.

It was also in France where Jean-Louis Gassee first worked for Apple. Gassee later presented the launch of devices such as the Macintosh IIfx, and kickstarted the Newton MessagePad project.

Although he left Apple in 1990, he continues to comment on the company occasionally in his Monday Note blog.

https://appleinsider.com/articles/21/11/10/apple-marks-40-years-in-france-opens-apple-music-studio-in-paris

[Investors3]

Apple halts product sales in Turkey amid rampant inflation crisis
Tuesday, November 23, 2021 3:09 pm

Apple has halted sales in its online store in Turkey in response to a worsening inflation crisis in the country. While Apple has not commented on this situation publicly, it appears the company has halted sales in Turkey due to the inflationary crisis.

Inflation in Turkey is nearly 20%, while the country’s lira currency has plummeted by as much as 15% today.

Natasha Turak for CNBC:

Turkey’s lira crashed to a record low of 13.44 to the dollar on Tuesday, a level once unfathomable and well past what was just last week deemed the “psychological” barrier of 11 to the dollar.

“Insane where the lira is, but it’s a reflection of the insane monetary policy settings Turkey is currently operating under,” Tim Ash, senior emerging markets strategist at Bluebay Asset Management, said in a note in response to the news.

The sell-off was triggered after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan defended his central bank’s continued contentious interest rate cuts amid rising double-digit inflation. He labeled the move as part of an “economic war of independence,” rejecting calls from investors and analysts to change course.

Inflation in Turkey is now near 20%, meaning basic goods for Turks — a population of roughly 85 million — have soared in price and their local currency salaries are severely devalued.

For perspective, at this time in 2019, the lira was trading at roughly 5.6 to the dollar. And that was already making news, as it was a dramatic drop in value from the mid-2017 level of 3.5 to the dollar.

Turkey’s currency has been in a downward slide since early 2018, thanks to a combination of geopolitical tensions with the West, current account deficits, shrinking currency reserves, and mounting debt — but most importantly, a refusal to raise interest rates to cool inflation.

MacDailyNews Take: Once again, healthy economies, consumer confidence, and consumer spending are essential to Apple in every market in which it operates, lest it cease to operate.

https://macdailynews.com/2021/11/23/apple-halts-product-sales-in-turkey-amid-rampant-inflation-crisis/