When Apple unveils its mixed reality headset on Monday, there’s one use case that Mac users will especially find interesting. If they pull it off, I think Reality Pro may be poised to become the ultimate Mac display that Apple would never make.
The highly connected Mark Gurman at Bloomberg reported earlier this year one thing the Reality Pro headset can be used for is serving as a Mac display. The way it works already sounds pretty cool.
“Users will be able to see their Mac’s display in virtual reality but still control the computer with their trackpad or mouse and physical keyboard,” he writes.
Consider me intrigued. Personally, I would rather throw money at an Apple Studio Display ($1349.99, reg. $1599) if I were display shopping, but the rumored $3000 headset will obviously be more than a screen for your Mac. I do think the headset-as-a-Mac-display could actually be compelling – assuming you bought it for more than being a monitor.
A few days ago, I spent some time working from a friend’s office. He’s less of an Apple purist than me, so he had displays that I’d never tried. He had one in particular that honestly changed how I could use my Mac: the LG 49WQ95C-W ($1196.99, reg. $1499.99).
This thing is a 49-inch curved ultra-wide display that has so much room for activities. I mean, it fit no fewer than 18 – count ’em – 18 individual TweetDeck columns. I felt like Morgan Freeman’s Lucious Fox character in The Dark Knight behind Batman’s massive surveillance system.
Okay, not quite, but that’s my point! Apple’s Reality Pro XR headset could potentially treat macOS like a 360-degree Freeform canvas. Wrap a TweetDeck window with 50+ columns around you. Line up a dozen other apps below TweetDeck.
Have Messages off to your left side and Slack off to your right side. Hear a ding from the left? It’s Messages. Get pinged from the right? Glance over, it’s Slack. Place your trackpad and keyboard on a surface in your lap, take a spin in your desk chair, and have each window in its own space without overlapping – no Mission Control required to see every open window. The whole thing could be Mission Control!
Now I do expect Apple to let you go that far with using Reality Pro as your Mac display? Probably not. It’s more likely than Apple ever making a 49-inch curved ultra-wide display, though, and admittedly, the LG thing could use the Retina Display treatment of Apple’s monitors.
What Reality Pro is actually capable of doing will finally be revealed on Monday, June 5, at Apple’s keynote event for WWDC 2023. 9to5Mac will be in attendance so stay tuned for our in-person experience from Apple Park!
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