Rony Abovitz appears to have given not-so-subtle clues that Magic Leap One officially launches on August 8, 2018.
I plan on getting myself up around 5 am California time to refresh the Magicleap.com homepage. I believe Magic Leap’s CEO is hinting that 8:08 am Florida time we’re due for details and updates on their Magic Leap One Creator Edition. That is based on his Twitter background image (seen above containing the numbers 8-8-18) and this tweet linking to the Wikipedia page for the “Roland TR-808” drum machine. Some close watching Reddit users appear to be the first to notice these hints and point them out.
Abovitz previously tweeted that some press have been allowed to see Magic Leap’s hardware. We have yet to see Magic Leap One Creator Edition and look forward to the chance to finally get a real hands-on look at the hardware. While we haven’t seen the hardware itself, at GDC earlier this year we started to get a picture of their effort to build a headset that understands its environment to a degree unmatched by the rest of the market.
The trick @magicleap appears to be trying to solve is creating a “nuanced” connection between the digital and real world. Additional data from a variety of sources informing an advanced AI system should help make that possible. pic.twitter.com/9BHJkul2Mk
— Ian Hamilton (@hmltn) March 20, 2018
The company has previously granted access to outlets like Rolling Stone and Wired that do a good job of painting Abovitz’ vision for Magic Leap, but without a shipping product in hand they’ve had less to explain about the startup’s efforts to commercialize their ideas. Will that start to change with the newest round of articles? Beyond the hands-on reports we can expect, does “launching” Magic Leap One on August 8, 2018 mean that we also have a price for the Magic Leap One Creator Edition? As a reminder, the system is expected to include three pieces: Lightwear (headset), Lightpack (side-worn computer) and controller.
Given that this day has finally arrived, here are some of the questions we hope to see answered in the near future:
- When can we see it in stores?
- Do they have a specific ship date planned?
- How good is the interaction with voice or hand gestures?
- How often does the hardware fail?
- How do the optics work?
