Magic Leap Quick Hits: Magic Leap will have a modern permission system

We have gone from a dearth of information to a glut of it. The new magic leap documentation has revealed pretty much everything there is to know about Magic Leap and it is too much for this poor blog to keep up with. I'm going to be writing some quick hits. Small stories that pin point particularly interesting features that can be found in the Magic Leap documentation.​​​​​​​

Magic Leap will have a permission system similar to that found in any smart phone today. 

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Magic Leap Quick Hits: Magic Leap will not force you to watch ads to get content

We have gone from a dearth of information to a glut of it. The new magic leap documentation has revealed pretty much everything there is to know about Magic Leap and it is too much for this poor blog to keep up with. I'm going to be writing some quick hits. Small stories that pin point particularly interesting features that can be found in the Magic Leap documentation.

Advertising in mixed reality could be a disaster. Unfortunately, it is certainly going to happen. So the best thing we can hope for is a considered approach.  Looks like Magic Leap is doing the right thing here.

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Magic Leap Quick Hits: Field of view is 45% bigger than Hololens

We have gone from a dearth of information to a glut of it. The new magic leap documentation has revealed pretty much everything there is to know about Magic Leap and it is too much for this poor blog to keep up with. I'm going to be writing some quick hits. Small stories that pin point particularly interesting features that can be found in the Magic Leap documentation.

Hiding in (almost) plain sight, reality news discovered that information about the Magic Leap FOV is in the developer docs as commented out sections of the source code. It lists the FOV as approximately 45% larger than the FOV of the Hololens.

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Magic Leap Quick Hits: Magic Leap will run at 60 fps

We have gone from a dearth of information to a glut of it. The new magic leap documentation has revealed pretty much everything there is to know about Magic Leap and it is too much for this poor blog to keep up with. I'm going to be writing some quick hits. Small stories that pin point particularly interesting features that can be found in the Magic Leap documentation.

As part of the developer guidelines, Magic Leap is enforcing a frame rate of 60fps.

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Magic Leap Quick Hits: There will be only one App Store

We have gone from a dearth of information to a glut of it. The new magic leap documentation has revealed pretty much everything there is to know about Magic Leap and it is too much for this poor blog to keep up with. I'm going to be writing some quick hits. Small stories that pin point particularly interesting features that can be found in the Magic Leap documentation.

Those hoping for a more permissive application ecosystem on Magic Leap devices have been let down. According to the docs no third party app stores will be allowed.

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You need to stop comparing the Magic Leap One to concept videos from over 3 years ago

Magic Leap is wildly ambitions and secretive. This is incredibly annoying. Their vision is grand but they won't tell us what they are actually doing. This engenders a feeling of negativity. It makes us feel like they are in a secret club and they won't invite us in. It makes us feel like they think they are better than us. That they have a secret Magic power and we can't have it. It brings out our feelings of entitlement. It stretches our patients to a breaking point. It makes us want them to fail. It makes us look at that vision and say "No, you can't do that". 

I get it. I get that feeling. I feel it too.

But it is fundamentally a negative emotion that you should try to overcome.

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Sunday Musings: Karl Speaks and Rony Tweets

Karl Guttag has posted his analysis of the Magic Leap One based on the photos and information that has been released thus far. The effort and time he has put into this is impressive. He managed to deduce the likely dimensions of the device and 3D print a reference design. If you are interested in a deep dive on this then I recommend reading the article. But don't let his negativity bring you down.  Read on for my thoughts on this.

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We only have half of the Magic Leap SDK

Recently, Magic Leap released its SDK to developers so they can start playing with what is possible on the Magic Leap platform. With these tools you can develop a full Magic Leap application to run on the device when it is eventually released. But the documentation and toolkit is incomplete. There is a huge section that is still yet to be released to the public. 

That is, the Lumin Runtime. And it could completely change how you think about apps.

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This week is shaping up to be huge for Magic Leap

GDC is on us and it looks like Magic Leap is coming out in force. 

The team has been tweeting out images of a building decked out with Magic Leap logos and even a shot of a NASA spacesuit just in case we all forgot that TED talk from years ago. 

I expect they will be showing demos in that room to either the press or GDC attendees. Worst case it will only be for select developers but regardless there are going to be many more people that have experiencing Magic Leap by the end of the week. 

At the same time it appears WETA Gameshop is having a coming out party of sorts. They have been working on a game called Dr. Grordbort for over 6 years in tandem with the development of Magic Leap hardware. I suspect we will finally see in-game footage similar to the concept they released years ago. 

 An SDK release is almost certain. This was tweeted by Magic Leaps cloud architect.

 And as users on /r/magicleap discovered https://developer.magicleap.com has changed. Still inaccessible, but the error message is new and the portal below the login appears to be "opening". 

 Should be a fun week ahead. I'm extremely curious how they decide to show footage of the device in action. We are going to know a lot more about what this first iteration of Magic Leap can do. 

 

Magic Leap is looking for more money

So it appears Magic Leap is looking for even more money. This would be on top of the ~$1.4 billion already thrown at the company.  That amount is already unprecedented so talk of further investment is nothing short of astonishing. The thing that got me interested in the company in the first place was the ludicrous amount of investment they had raised from such interesting and respected sources. Piling more on top of this is just wild. 

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Mixed Reality mapping of the world will change the world

We all use Google Maps. It is arguably the most useful part of a smartphone. Being lost is, to a degree, a thing of the past. It is one of the most important innovations in recent memory and is perhaps the 'killer feature' of a smartphone. If Mixed Reality becomes popular, and we stretch our privacy a bit, then we are about to see another massive shift in mapping and how we see the world in general.

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No more mystery: Magic Leaps lessons from recent launches

Magic Leaps next move is a product launch.  Given the press reaction to partial information, a "show don't tell" mentality and a built in scepticism saying anything more at this point will be detrimental unless they can show it all. This product launch will be the most important moment for the company.  Obviously, their product needs to be great. Great products can overcome most obstacles. But not far behind is the messaging they are able to bring to the announcement. Many mediocre products have succeeded because of a good launch and many great products have failed due to a bad one. Whether it be a press conference, a pre-produced video or weeklong party, coming out of the launch announcement with praise from the zeitgeist can be a real difference maker.

There have been a few high profile product launches in the past year that have been fascinating to watch. Between No Mans Sky, The Google Pixel, New MacBooks and, most recently, the Nintendo Switch we have lots of fodder to go though and there is much for Magic Leap to learn. 

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Changing Expectations: What do we expect from Magic Leap now?

We were always hoping Magic Leap were keeping the cards close to their chest in terms of what technology they have developed.  It make sense. When the only people you are marketing to are investors and talent to hire then you want to make it seem like you have something that no one else does.  You want to make it feel like they could be part of something amazing. But that time has come to an end. They are no longer an R&D company. They are a product company or hope to be. They are no longer talking to investors and talent exclusively. They are talking to us. The consumer.

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Opposing evidence: Is Magic Leap actually boring?

If you are interested in Magic Leap (and if you are reading this site, you certainly are) then you really should be reading Karl Guttag's blog. He has done some excellent analysis of the video that Magic Leap has released and come to some conclusions of what technology is being used. Unlike many reports, Guttag far less optimistic about the company. He paints a picture that puts Magic Leap in the same sort of place as many competitors. The advantages such as fiber scanning displays and high resolution are all but a dream in his analysis.

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