[RajT88]

If both companies are successful (a big "If"), this means in some years, we'll be hitting another sci-fi milestone for what the future looks like. Thousands of dollars today, but in ~10 years, smartphone prices and hopefully smartphone battery life.

It took a bit longer than we'd have liked, but like... Our present is starting to look like the future imagined back when I was a kid. It's very exciting.

With a lot less Yakuza.

[bathtub365]

This is the same thing people said about the HoloLens 1 at the same price point 6 years ago. I’m skeptical since neither of these are a consumer product and the price hasn’t moved much.

[cercatrova]

It's interesting, the Cyberpunk style worlds were made in the 80s when Japan was still dominant, so people thought Japan would continue dominating. But that didn't quite turn out how we expected. So it's funny to see Japan still so prominently depicted in future settings, kanji on buildings and people with katana running around, but it's nowhere near like that in the real world.

[kortex]

They are still the 3rd largest economy in the world. Katanas would still be weird. Unless it's a mall ninja.

[dylan604]

Does a mall ninja ride a Segway?

[RajT88]

Sure, as long as they have a bunch of knives and guns and swords and shit.

The original "Mall Ninja" story unironically talked about wheeling around in a golf cart. It's a short stone's throw to a segway from there.

https://lonelymachines.org/mall-ninjas/

[dylan604]

Does the ninja need to be dressed in traditional ninja attire or can they cosplay as a mall cop?

[justinclift]

TLDR. Some of the Mall Ninja's comments seem to have been prophetic though:

> What good are the cops going to be if a shooter shows up at your > workplace??? How about your kid’s school, remember Columbine? I’ll > tell you what the cops will do, call the SWAT team and screw > around trying to locate the front door for 30 minutes, ...

;)

[wcerfgba]

This was hilarious, thanks for sharing!

[numpad0]

It’s not exactly like that but not nowhere near[1] ;)

1: Hatsune Miku on a Kabuki-cho billboard over news headline reporting US-Russia tensions over Ukraine(2014) https://twitter.com/kno2502/status/440101207596494850

[kristopolous]

Maybe I'm out of the loop but is there any additional use case or function compared with such devices in say 1995?

More lightweight, sure, higher pixel density, sure, but that's not a context that changes the offer.

In actual human computer relationship and function, it just feels like Myron Krueger's Videoplace from the 1980s is being perennially reinvented.

Please tell me how stupid and out of touch I am. I probably just don't get it

[ROTMetro]

I think we are all working toward the same goal of making this our reality:

http://milweesci.weebly.com/uploads/1/3/2/4/13247648/mannapd...

[onlyrealcuzzo]

I just honestly don't think the average person wants VR.

I suspect headsets will become a thing when they're cheaper than TVs - just because the the display will be much better. Combined with ear buds - I think it'll just be a way better budget TV experience for some.

Other than that - I don't ever see it going anywhere near mainstream like cell phones or even smart buds.

[Nextgrid]

I'm not sure it's exciting.

The cancer called advertising has already consumed consumer tech, the vast majority of people are complacent with the situation, and the only escape is real-life where cost, technological and physical limitations prevent the same level of advertising (yes there are billboards, but that's nothing compared to what digital advertising has become).

VR would essentially remove all those limitations, and since people are complacent and clearly don't mind it, we'd end up in a world like this video depicts: https://vimeo.com/166807261. Hell, Facebook or "Meta" is going all-in on VR for a reason.

[thom]

Are we really going to end up in VR worlds outside of gaming though? It seems a horribly inefficient way to do most non-physical tasks compared to just text or voice. Why walk somewhere when I can click a link? The attraction of headsets for me is the potential for an effectively infinite resolution, no-distraction desktop. But that desktop is still largely going to be single planes of text and widgets. And even then, I’m not wearing the thing on a bus so all the other interfaces still need to exist.

Everyone seems desperate for anime Microsoft Bob and I just don’t see it.

[Dayshine]

Aren't we talking about AR not VR?

Hololens is AR too.

So this is for things like projecting onto surfaces or creating 3d models for presentation. Hololens's big example is elevator repair where it projects datasheets onto walls so you can see them without needing a spare hand to hold a phone/document.

[thom]

Yeah and I think those sorts of use cases are valid. I just thought the comment above was more about the SF depictions of VR (i.e. the metaverse) being close, which I think is fanciful.

[chaostheory]

Magic Leap is just a zombie at this point. NReal has a better and more realistic strategy.

Historically, Microsoft doesn’t know how to make revolutionary product lines profitable and sustainable long term. Kinect was an amazing concept with consecutive poor execution. My memory might be off but they also had 1st crack at iPod, and their current foray into both VR and AR are both underwhelming so far. MS does best when they wait and copy a proven concept. Even then success isn’t always guaranteed

We still will be hitting sci-fi soon. Just not with those companies. I have more faith in Apple, Sony, and Meta. Google will try again and I would be surprised if Amazon didn’t try as well

[function_seven]

> We still will be hitting sci-fi soon. Just not with those companies. I have more faith in Apple, Sony, and Meta. Google will try again and I would be surprised if Amazon didn’t try as well

I just had a really weird realization when reading through your list of potential successors. ("Apple, Sony, and Meta"). There's only one name on that list I root for.

Meta? Fuck no. Obviously not them. Nothing else to say here.

Apple? Eh. Sure. I have no ill will against Apple. I have many reasons to continue admiring what they do, and I have some reasons to oppose them (the walls on the garden seem a little too high). On balance they've dominated consumer tech for the best reason: their shit is solid and innovative.

SONY. It's been too long since they last lead technology and design trends. Sony was the Walkman, the CD, the Trinitron. There's never been a remote control as good as a Sony. They have a sleek-but-utilitarian design aesthetic. In the 80s and 90s, you just couldn't go wrong if you picked a Sony for your TV, stereo, or whatever.

For some reason I really want them to be ascendant again. To have a resurgence the same way Apple did starting with the iMac in 1997.

[OliverM]

I think the PS5 shows that they're doing a huge amount of things right. But they don't seem to have the same kind of _vision_ apple does (even if you dislike that vision). They still seem to value hardware over software while I think Apple sees them as inseparable parts of a whole.

[chaostheory]

I don’t feel that Sony will be the market leader in this round because they are exclusively focusing on games only.

[happycube]

They might've had Windows Media stuff to license before the iPod, but the Zune came later. (and the right parody phrase didn't exist then... "Welcome to the social... distancing.")

[happyopossum]

> With a lot less Yakuza.

Hey, we’re talking about the future - there’s still time.

[jerome-jh]

Smartphone took off thanks to the capacitive touchscreen. Before that people were like "look at that weirdo with his/her bulky phone and stylus, he/she'd be better off with a notepad". VR headsets need a similar technological leap to become mainstream. It is not just price. The key issue is being able to see the wearer's eyes. This is the only thing that can solve the weirdness issue.

[blululu]

This history is a contraction of more than a two decades of continuous development. Watch the matrix (1998) and you will see small, stylish cell phones everywhere. The capacitative touch screen is important, but pretty much everyone who bought a gen1/2 iPhone already used a feature phone that they used chronically.

[beowulfey]

Yeah, when you think about it, this is only 2-4 times the price of a high end laptop. If the tech is cool that’s not outrageous