If such a device does surface, it’s likely to be one of the most divisive reveals in recent memory. To some, the headset is more of a “science project” than a serious product. But to others, it could be the shot in the arm that the virtual reality and augmented reality communities have been waiting for.

Here’s everything you need to know.

New MacBook Air, Mac Studio and Mac Pro

Apple kicked off the day with a few new computers announcements. For years, the company’s popular MacBook Air computers only came with a 13-inch screen, making it great for travel but lacking for folks who needed to immerse themselves in work a but more. That’s where a new, $1,299 15-inch Air model comes in — even with that bigger screen, Apple claims its 11.5mm frame makes it the thinnest 15-inch laptop in the world.

Inside the new MacBook Air is a bit of familiar silicon — Apple’s M2 processor, which we tested last year. The company claims it’s dramatically faster than the fastest Intel-powered MacBook Air, which may be true, but just be warned: if you splurged on one of Apple’s not-that-old M1 Mac laptops, you probably won’t notice a big leap in performance — we sure didn’t.

The same can’t be said for Apple’s other new computers, which skew heavily toward power users. Updated versions of the company’s tiny, $1,999 Mac Studio workstations now run on Apple’s M2 chips, including a new, high-powered version called the M2 Ultra that basically stitches two of the company’s already-fast M2 Max chips together.

Unless you’re dealing with lots of, say 8K video, though, you’ll almost certainly never need to worry about investing in one of Apple’s Ultra machines. And that’s especially true for the company’s updated Mac Pro, which retains its existing cheese grater design and comes with that ridiculous Ultra chip across the board — all of which starts at an eye-watering $6,999.

Apple to debut headset as industry cuts back

It’s not clear when Apple plans to officially release this new device or how much it plans to charge when it does. Early estimates have pegged the wearable’s price around $3,000, far more than the current crop of high-end virtual reality headsets produced by companies like Meta and HTC.

But that hardware is only part of the equation. Apple is also expected to show off some of the software and experiences that the headset makes possible — the reasons it hopes enthusiasts will actually spend thousands of dollars on its new product.

That early suite of features is said to include tools for virtual meetings and workouts, the ability to use the headset as an external display for Mac computers and a way to interact with existing iPad apps, according to a Bloomberg report. Apple is also expected to show off new games and features for watching videos.

While Apple’s headset finally seems like a lock for this year’s conference, its debut arrives in a period of change for the “extended reality” or XR industry, a blanket term to describe a handful of related technologies that include virtual reality, augmented reality and mixed reality.

In a quest to make Meta — which produces the Quest series of headsets — leaner and more efficient, CEO Mark Zuckerberg has overseen waves of job cuts, some of which have affected the company’s AR/VR-focused Reality Labs division. Microsoft is said to have trimmed workers on its virtual- and mixed-reality teams as part of the company’s high-profile layoffs, announced early this year.

That’s not to say the industry has lost faith in these technologies. Days before Apple’s conference, Meta announced that it would begin selling its latest headset — the $499 Quest 3 — later this year. And Samsung all but confirmed in February that it’s working on an XR headset in partnership with Google and Qualcomm. But it’ll be on Apple to prove that its headset is viable and valuable in a way that others aren’t yet, despite their years-long head start.