Meta’s big push into the metaverse may already be slowing down significantly. According to a report from The Information, Meta has a limited supply of material for VR/AR headsets and will only produce devices as long as it has the capacity.
In particular, that means the death of the Quest Pro, despite being less than a year old. A potential Quest Pro 2 seems to be off the table.
Though the Quest Pro was the first of its kind, it didn’t land with reviewers as well as Meta may have hoped. It was an expensive device for what was clearly an early adopter-only product.
Meta’s change in direction comes not long after Apple announced its Apple Vision Pro, which is significantly more expensive at $3,500. However, Apple’s VR headset has some time before its 2024 launch, and it remains to be seen whether it will live up to its exciting promises.
Meanwhile, upon launch, the Meta Quest Pro faced considerable criticism, including notes on its excessive weight, awkward fit, cheap materials, and underperforming software. Many felt it was not worth its $1,500 price tag, and Meta even dropped its price to $1,000.
In time, we’ll see if Meta plans to reintroduce the Meta Quest Pro after observing the reception of Apple’s Vision Pro. Notably, Meta previously faded out its metaverse plans in favor of artificial intelligence and has more recently been busy launching the Threads social media platform to compete with Twitter.
The Quest 3 is still due out later this year, so Meta hasn’t given up on VR entirely. However, for now, high-end mixed-reality headsets are no longer of interest to the company.
Apple is less than a day away from launching its highly anticipated OLED MacBook Pro with a touch-sensitive screen. But it appears that the upgrade is going to cost a pretty penny. According to a report by Bloomberg, Apple is reportedly eyeing a starting price of $2,899 for the 14-inch MacBook Pro, while the 16-inch version could start at $3,399 in the US.
"At $2,899, the 14-inch model would mark the highest starting price for a new MacBook Pro model, surpassing the $2,799 Apple charged for a 17-inch version introduced in 2006," says the report. The report claims that Apple is targeting a minimum price hike of $400 for its upcoming redesigned 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models.
I've spent a good amount of time digging into the spec sheet of the new M6 MacBook Pro (14-inch), and for all intents and purposes, this is a classic Apple "chip and connectivity" refresh. It's not a full redesign. The chassis, Liquid Retina XDR panel, speakers, ports, and battery, all of them carry over unchanged.
However, the M6 brings more cores, stronger on-device AI, higher memory bandwidth on the larger configs, and modern wireless. Here’s the practical rundown of what actually improved, and whether those gains are worth your money.
Two new highly requested iCloud plugins just got added to ChatGPT, giving people who rely on Apple’s Mail and Calendar services a way to search emails, check appointments, and manage their schedules directly through the chatbot.
The integration is rolling out to all ChatGPT plans, including the free tier. You can access it on the web, desktop, and iOS.