Do you know that for sure? How are we certain that the serial port isn't being used by the waist-mounted battery pack?
> there needs to be a better solution than trying to balance them on your head.
There is one - you plug it in. You can use all the Quest headsets while they're tethered to power if you want, it just defeats the purpose of owning a wireless headset. The battery life of those units will definitely last longer than your meeting, presuming the VR sickness doesn't hit you first.
All-for-all, I have to believe this rumor is fake because Apple doesn't make products like this. If Apple does release a VR headset, I doubt it will look like what's described here.
Lightweight headset connected via Thunderbolt 5 to a combined battery/CPU pack or desktop Mac.
Hopefully they just drop the standalone element altogether and go all-in on a nice tethered experience.
That's if you're into gaming which Apple isn't.
I suspect the future of VR is going to be at a desk, sofa, bed etc. with virtual screens, meetings, educational lessons, movies etc.
The problem is, none of that stuff is appealing. It's not only not a killer app, it's not even a profit driver. Games move some units, but even that is arguably clunky when you're not fully leveraging 6DOF.
So, what's the point of making a mobile headset that's not intended to be moved around? Why tether a headset that could be plugged into another machine altogether?
b) Given the complaints about the weight and poor battery life of the Meta Quest Pro there needs to be a better solution than trying to balance batteries on your head.
Waist level pack makes a lot of sense especially since if you're sitting at a desk there is simply no need for batteries.