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People often talked about Steve Job's reality distortion field but Apple shipped real products that did change the world. I will believe in a magic leap when I

People often talked about Steve Job's reality distortion field but Apple shipped real products that did change the world. I will believe in a magic leap when I see it appear, not when I hear all the hype machine output.

Tloewald 12y ago
I think it's odd that they're doing this kind of PR push when their product is so tenuous. If you look at Carmack's keynote and the low level detail of how Occulus is struggling with latency and precision in head tracking, the idea that these guys will tackle a whole swag bag of deep problems in some kind of predictable time frame is pretty ridiculous. My guess is they've made promising inroads in the core display technology (lcd occlusion plus fiberoptic scan projection) that is very impressive on its own, but everything else they've got is merely state of the art.
- coldcode 12y ago
  Without PR push you don't get the big bucks. Apple for sure today doesn't need that so they can afford to stay quiet.
  - Tloewald 12y ago
    Comparing it with Apple is totally unfair of course. Even Apple does pre-announcements (e.g. for the iPhone and WATCH) when it makes sense. That said, given that they have patents on some of this stuff, you'd think they'd at least show some demos when they're trying to get developers interested in the technology (see the Unite 2014 presentation). Personally I think published demonstrations of working products should be a requirement for obtaining patents (and, where appropriate, source code should be placed in escrow and released when the patent expires).
- tfinniga 12y ago
  PR push? This article doesn't seem like a PR push at all. It seems like someone scraping as much information out of as many sources as possible. If it was a PR piece, they'd have animations and pretty renders about how all the things work and where they're going. Instead there are patent diagrams and quotes from job listings. This seems more like journalism.
  - Tloewald 12y ago
    Did you see the video of the Unity 2014 presentation? That's a PR push aimed at developers where they have literally nothing concrete to show.
    - josephpmay 12y ago
      It's a push to get developers to work for the company, not to get excited about the platform
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- dannyr 12y ago
  PR to me means the company itself is involved. Magic Leap seems to be keeping its silence. What they are doing is the opposite of a PR push.
- dmritard96 12y ago
  Agreed on some level. It leaves me with, well either they have some awesome breakthroughs at each point along the critical path or that they are so close that its possible that they overcome whatever is left.
- aetherson 12y ago
  Yes! People's take on Magic Leap is so credulous. It's like they believe that this company is going to produce something with all the virtues of the Oculus Rift + Google Glass and none of the problems with either on a fraction of the budget and in a fraction of the time. It just obviously won't happen.
- acqq 12y ago
  I also started to read the article and one every third sentence thought "if it were true, Carmack would already work on that and tell us all." It does sound suspicious to assume that they magically solved these hard problems.
remon 12y ago
I agree but the level of funding and big names involved do seem to indicate there is some substance there as well. I'm fascinated.
baldfat 12y ago
We are talking about something new in the works. Just like everyone else besides Apple they need to get the word out BEFORE the product to get funding etc.. I don't see how Magic Leap deserves a remark alluding to vaporware???
oh_sigh 12y ago
Yeah, I got a really weird feeling in the video of Graeme Devine from the bottom of the article. He introduced himself as being from magic leap, and kind of paused, as if waiting for people to break out into applause for the company that no one really knows anything about.
Sophistifunk 12y ago
cough Segway cough

Tloewald 12y ago

I think it's odd that they're doing this kind of PR push when their product is so tenuous. If you look at Carmack's keynote and the low level detail of how Occulus is struggling with latency and precision in head tracking, the idea that these guys will tackle a whole swag bag of deep problems in some kind of predictable time frame is pretty ridiculous. My guess is they've made promising inroads in the core display technology (lcd occlusion plus fiberoptic scan projection) that is very impressive on its own, but everything else they've got is merely state of the art.

coldcode 12y ago
Without PR push you don't get the big bucks. Apple for sure today doesn't need that so they can afford to stay quiet.
- Tloewald 12y ago
  Comparing it with Apple is totally unfair of course. Even Apple does pre-announcements (e.g. for the iPhone and WATCH) when it makes sense. That said, given that they have patents on some of this stuff, you'd think they'd at least show some demos when they're trying to get developers interested in the technology (see the Unite 2014 presentation). Personally I think published demonstrations of working products should be a requirement for obtaining patents (and, where appropriate, source code should be placed in escrow and released when the patent expires).
tfinniga 12y ago
PR push? This article doesn't seem like a PR push at all. It seems like someone scraping as much information out of as many sources as possible. If it was a PR piece, they'd have animations and pretty renders about how all the things work and where they're going. Instead there are patent diagrams and quotes from job listings. This seems more like journalism.
- Tloewald 12y ago
  Did you see the video of the Unity 2014 presentation? That's a PR push aimed at developers where they have literally nothing concrete to show.
  - josephpmay 12y ago
    It's a push to get developers to work for the company, not to get excited about the platform
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
dannyr 12y ago
PR to me means the company itself is involved. Magic Leap seems to be keeping its silence. What they are doing is the opposite of a PR push.
dmritard96 12y ago
Agreed on some level. It leaves me with, well either they have some awesome breakthroughs at each point along the critical path or that they are so close that its possible that they overcome whatever is left.
aetherson 12y ago
Yes! People's take on Magic Leap is so credulous. It's like they believe that this company is going to produce something with all the virtues of the Oculus Rift + Google Glass and none of the problems with either on a fraction of the budget and in a fraction of the time. It just obviously won't happen.
acqq 12y ago
I also started to read the article and one every third sentence thought "if it were true, Carmack would already work on that and tell us all." It does sound suspicious to assume that they magically solved these hard problems.

remon 12y ago

I agree but the level of funding and big names involved do seem to indicate there is some substance there as well. I'm fascinated.

baldfat 12y ago

We are talking about something new in the works. Just like everyone else besides Apple they need to get the word out BEFORE the product to get funding etc.. I don't see how Magic Leap deserves a remark alluding to vaporware???

oh_sigh 12y ago

Yeah, I got a really weird feeling in the video of Graeme Devine from the bottom of the article. He introduced himself as being from magic leap, and kind of paused, as if waiting for people to break out into applause for the company that no one really knows anything about.

Sophistifunk 12y ago

cough Segway cough