The evolution of Apple gadgets

The evolution of Apple gadgets

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The evolution of Apple gadgets

First released in June 2007, the original iPhone revolutionized technology. But it wasn't Apple's first major gadget. Here's a visual trip through Apple's many gadget hits and misses.

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Newton MessagePad

Let's start with Apple's inaugural mobile device, the Newton MessagePad, first developed in 1993.

The personal digital assistant was the first hardware to feature handwriting recognition, but the ahead-of-its-time innovation was discontinued in 1998.

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iPod Classic

Introduced in 2001, the first-generation iPod revolutionized music consumption. The hardware included a black-and-white LCD screen and a 5GB hard drive that could store up to 1,000 songs. 

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iPod U2 Special Edition

Not every iPod was a hit, though.

Introduced in 2004, the U2 special edition black iPod came equipped with an eye-friendly red click wheel... and a price tag $50 higher than the original model. 

Sales were so poor that the flop is now a collector's item fetching tens of thousands of dollars.

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iPod Photo

Unveiled in 2004 -- along with the U2 Special Edition iPod -- the iPod Photo is an upgraded version of the fourth-generation device. This iPod supported several photo types and it could be attached to a TV.

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iPod Mini

Released in February 2004, the iPod Mini featured the same touch-sensitive scroll that the third-generation iPod had. The difference in the device -- other than being smaller -- was the click wheel.

The iPod Mini was discontinued in 2005. 

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iPod Shuffle

The smallest iPod model, and the first Apple device to use flash memory, was released in January 2005. The shuffle played random songs that were previously loaded by the user. 

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iPod Video

Coming off the iPod Photo, Apple introduced the fifth-generation iPod a year later. This upgraded version was the first Apple digital audio device that could play video. This is also the last iPod model to use a glass face. 

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iPod Nano

In 2005, Apple decided to replace the iPod Mini with the Nano. The tiny device, equipped with a color screen, stored music with flash memory. The first-generation Nano had a battery life of up to 14 hours. 

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First-generation iPhone

After years of rumors, Apple finally announced their first smartphone in January 2007. As Steve Jobs put it at the unveiling of the smartphone in 2007, the iPhone is a combination of a "widescreen iPod with touch controls", a "revolutionary mobile phone" and a "breakthrough internet communicator."

Time magazine named it the Invention of the Year. 

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iPod Touch

Released the same year as the first-gen iPhone, the iPod Touch is similar to the smartphone except it's lighter, cheaper and doesn't use a cellular network. 

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3rd-generation iPod Nano

With a design that mirrored the iPod Classic, the third-generation Nano was the first model of the device to allow video playback. The iPod Nano came in multiple colors and two storage sizes, 4 and 8GB. 

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Apple TV

Unveiled as "iTV" in 2006, the first-generation Apple TV, a digital media player, needed an iTunes connection to work. The following year, Apple released a major update that turned it into a standalone device. 

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iPhone 3G

In July 2008, Apple's second-gen iPhone 3G was released with a multitude of upgraded features. The improved hardware included a sleek and sturdy design, an improved battery and a rear camera. 

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iPad

Nearly two decades after releasing the Newton MessagePad, Apple re-entered the tablet game with the iPad, a 9.7-inch touchscreen display.

After just 80 days on the market, Apple sold 3 million iPads. 

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iPad Mini

Announced in 2012, the iPad Mini is the fifth product in the Apple's line of tablets. The device's screen is nearly 2 inches smaller than the original iPad. 

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iPhone 5S

Released in 2013, the iPhone 5S was the first Apple smartphone to incorporate the Touch ID technology that allows a user's fingerprint to unlock the device. 

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iPhone 5C

The iPhone 5C, made out of a durable hard-coated polycarbonate shell, was the first of Apple's smartphones to be offered in different eye-friendly colors. 

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iPhone 6 Plus

In September 2014, Apple officially unveiled the iPhone 6 Plus, a smartphone with a huge 5.5-inch display and an upgraded camera. 

In the next version, the iPhone 6S Plus, Apple introduced the force-touch feature. 

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Apple Watch

Introduced as the "next chapter in Apple's story," the Apple Watch was released in four different options: Apple Watch, Apple Watch Sport, Apple Watch Edition and Apple Watch Hermes.

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iPad Pro

The first iPad Pro, released in November 2015, is the largest and most powerful Apple tablet on the market. The 12.9-inch device was offered in three different colors: gold, silver and space gray.

In 2016, a 9.7-inch iPad Pro was announced with the addition of the rose-gold color option. 

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Apple Pencil

The Apple Pencil, released in 2015, is a digital stylus for the iPad Pro. The Bluetooth device can detect force, and it's designed specifically for drawing and other creative activities.  

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4th-generation Apple TV

In the first major update since 2010, the fourth-generation Apple TV promised to be the future of television. The update included the addition of Siri and a new touch remote that featured swipe-to-select functionality. 

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AirPods

Released in December 2016, the AirPods' wireless Bluetooth earbuds offer a ton of functionality. The headphones have Siri capability and sync through iCloud, and they support any Bluetooth 4.0 device. 

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Meta Offers Look at What Might Follow the Quest 2 as It Pursues a VR Future

Meta Offers Look at What Might Follow the Quest 2 as It Pursues a VR Future

This story is part of Making the Metaverse, CNET's exploration of the next stage in the internet's evolution.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg holds up a bulky virtual reality headset called Butterscotch. It's a prototype, used only for research. But it's part of the puzzle Meta is trying to solve to make its plans for the metaverse a reality.

The image resolution in Butterscotch is about two and a half times better than the Quest 2, the VR headset Meta sells to consumers and is critical to making virtual worlds seem more realistic. In a video conference, Zuckerberg said the resolution is good enough for people to see objects clearly from 20 feet away.

Meta said its Butterscotch prototype headset's resolution is high enough to read the 20/20 line vision line on an eyechart in VR, outperforming the Quest 2 and Rift headsets.

Meta

Creating more realistic VR images, Zuckerberg said, will help people feel like they're physically there with another person, even if they're not in the same room. A more realistic sense of presence, though, will take more than just improving the resolution in VR headsets, he said.

"Being able to express yourself in as immersive and realistic of a way as possible is a very powerful thing," he said. "We're in the middle right now of a big step forward towards realism."

Meta has big plans for the metaverse, virtual spaces for work, play and socializing. But the company, formerly known as Facebook, has a long and daunting to-do list to check off before it can reach that goal. Headsets need to properly track motion and be more comfortable if Meta wants more people to buy these devices. 

Meta hasn't said how many headsets it's sold, but it's not making a profit from its metaverse business and doesn't expect to for a long time. In the first three months of this year, Meta's metaverse business Reality Labs lost $2.96 billion, Meta said in an earnings report. The company is making a long-term bet on what comes after the mobile internet, pinning its future to the metaverse. Zuckerberg has been trying to get people interested in VR for years after the company purchased VR headset maker Oculus for more than $2 billion in 2014.

Zuckerberg's ambitious vision for the metaverse sounds like it's straight out of science fiction. He wants people strapping on his headsets to feel like they're in the physical presence of a loved one or coworker. In the future, he says, people might not even need to buy TVs.

"If you have a good mixed reality headset or augmented reality glasses, then that screen or TV that's on your wall could just be a hologram," he said. 

That vision is a long way off. Though Meta has improved its VR headsets, using them takes you to cartoon-like virtual spaces that feel more like video games than the real world. The company has tried to clear out its list of projects -- Meta has reportedly scrapped a smartwatch and postponed the release of AR glasses -- to cut down on expenses. It still plans to release wrist wearables and AR glasses to consumers. And it still has to address harassment and privacy in virtual worlds, problems Meta has struggled to combat on its social media sites. 

Still, improving the displays in VR headsets might entice people to try out more virtual spaces.

Meta researchers showed what mixed reality goggles could look like but said it was just an idea at this point.

Meta

Mixed reality goggles 

During the video conference, Zuckerberg and Meta employees showcased an illustration of Mirror Lake, one of the company's most ambitious projects. The headset resembles a pair of ski goggles and blends the physical and digital worlds, a technique known as mixed reality. 

Mixed reality goggles, like Mirror Lake, are also in their early stages. Mirror Lake is just a concept and Meta hasn't built these goggles yet, so they don't know if their idea works. 

It could be a step toward sunglasses-like AR headsets, which overlay digital information on scenes of the real world. Meta wants to bring these AR products to market eventually, but they're still a lot of hardware to wear anywhere outside a home. 

Meta hopes Mirror Lake will harbor a retina resolution-level display with HDR, eye tracking, a method for creating multiple eye focus points, prescription lenses and holographic lenses that use lasers to create 3D visuals. 

The headset could eventually include displays on the outside to show a wearer's eye and face expressions while wearing the goggles, a research idea Meta has previously presented and Apple is reportedly working on too.

Meta has created many different types of prototypes over the years as it tries to improve the technology in VR headsets.

Meta

New visual tech in an array of experimental headsets 

Meta also showed off Holocake 2, its thinnest and lightest VR headset capable of playing PC VR games. The prototype could help the company build smaller VR headsets in the future. And reducing a headset's weight will enable people to be in virtual worlds for a longer time. 

Resembling the design of Microsoft's HoloLens 2, the device uses holographic lenses, which simulate a regular lens' optics but are flatter than the curved lenses used in VR devices like the Quest 2. Most VR headsets have thick lenses, which is why the front of the device looks so heavy, Zuckerberg said. Instead of sending light through a thick lens, Holocake 2 sends light through a hologram of a lens. Meta also reduced the distance between the eye and the VR display to reduce the bulk of the headset. 

Holocake 2, though, requires lasers to make its holographic lens optics work, and finding consumer-ready lasers that would work in headsets is still tough. Using holographic optics can shrink down the bulky VR headset design so Meta can add other tech, like more cameras, eye tracking and a type of lens that could make VR more comfortable. 

To improve VR, Meta is applying a test that evaluates whether what's displayed in a VR headset can be distinguished from the real world, said Meta Reality Labs Research head Michael Abrash. The company is calling this the visual Turing test, a reference to English mathematician Alan Turing, who developed another test in the 1950s to determine if a computer can think like a human.

No VR technology has passed the visual Turing test, Abrash said. While VR creates a sense of presence, people know that what they're looking at is virtual and not real.

Meta outlined four obstacles to creating better displays: resolution, focus, distortion and high dynamic range, used to improve an image's brightness and contrast. 

One issue is that VR headsets have substantially less color range, brightness and contrast than TVs, laptops and cell phones, Abrash said.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg holds up a prototype headset called Starburst that includes a bright lamp. 

Meta

Holding up a prototype VR headset called Starburst, Zuckerberg noted the device includes a bright lamp. He called Starburst "wildly impractical" but said researchers are using the heavy headset to improve future devices.

Meta also developed another prototype called Half Dome that includes a varifocal lens that can help people's eyes focus better in VR, making nearby objects look sharper. People who used this type of lens experienced less fatigue and blurry vision. They also had an easier time identifying smaller objects, reading text in VR and reacting to environments more quickly. 

Even after years of development, Half Dome isn't ready for consumers because Meta is trying to make sure eye tracking and other parts of the device work properly. The technology needed to make varifocal work is still difficult to get into a consumer headset.

"As hard as it is to build the first version of something, it can often be even harder to get it into a shipping product," Zuckerberg said, adding he's "optimistic" consumer units "will come soon." 

Later this year, Meta is expected to release a new, more expensive VR headset called Project Cambria, which will be the company's first VR headset with eye tracking. After that, it's unclear when or if any of this next-gen display tech will make it into any headset. What's notable is that Zuckerberg and Abrash acknowledge that current VR displays still don't rival the quality of 2D displays on a TV or smartphone.

If they want VR to be more than a novelty, it's a problem they'll need to solve.

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