Apple is predicted to announce a blended actuality headset - its first brand-new product for eight years - at its annual occasion for builders.

The tech large's WWDC showcase is normally reserved for software program reveals - notably the subsequent main updates for its iPhones, iPads, and Macs - however this yr contemporary {hardware} is on the playing cards.

An Apple headset has lengthy been rumoured, and experiences counsel the corporate will lastly unveil its first foray into an more and more crowded subject throughout Monday's occasion.

It could be the agency's first totally new product since the Apple Watch debuted in 2015.

Hold up, what's 'blended actuality'?

You will probably have come throughout digital and augmented actuality in recent times, and possibly even tried them.

Virtual actuality is all about inserting you into a wholly digital world, chopping you off from the skin world, and placing every thing out of your front room cabinets to your pet cat in danger.

It's been an enormous yr for these sorts of headsets - the PlayStation VR2 launched in February, whereas Meta has introduced the Quest 3 will launch this autumn. Both are centered on gaming, and priced round £500.

Augmented actuality as an alternative locations digital components into the actual world - you mess around with this on a regular basis in your cellphone by way of issues just like the Ikea app, Snapchat filters, and Pokemon Go.

Try augmented actuality from Sky News:Decorate your home with some festive funPut the King's coronation crown in your living room

Mixed actuality takes that idea additional - quite than some swish digital furnishings and pocket monsters merely being overlaid on to your environment, the concept is you may work together with them as in the event that they had been actually there.

Imagine engaged on a digital sculpture at your actual desk, for instance, or a surgeon-in-training practising a fancy operation on a digital affected person.

It sounds costly...

Mixed actuality has already proved to be an costly proposition - Meta's premium Quest Pro headset, which is extra focused in direction of business and schooling than leisure, launched at £1,499 final October.

After a poor crucial reception and disappointing gross sales, with Mark Zuckerberg's metaverse pitch failing to move customers and investors alike, it has since dropped to a cool £999.

Apple has by no means been afraid of a hefty price ticket, and experiences counsel its headset will price as a lot as $3,000 (£2,409), placing it means above the beginning value of its telephones, tablets, and computer systems.

Given that, and that it's being introduced at WWDC, it can probably be focused at professionals and builders at first, quite than the typical buyer.

What will Apple's headset supply?

Bloomberg experiences communication and productiveness might be among the many headset's essential use circumstances, and quoted an individual who labored on the system as saying it is a "status symbol" product.

It's been tipped to boast 4K decision photos, full physique movement monitoring, half a dozen cameras to supply views of the skin world, and the identical type of highly effective M2 chips seen in its Macs.

The headset can also be anticipated to run its personal working system, so you'll be able to navigate by way of actions and your voice, quite than an tailored model of a well-recognized iPhone or Mac interface.

And simply as Apple's units have separate App Stores, the headset could have its personal, with bespoke variations of the software program you are used to on iPhone. Fingers crossed we additionally get terrifying full-scale variations of our Memoji avatars.

According to Bloomberg, Apple will launch the headset - tentatively dubbed Reality Pro - in late 2023 or early 2024.

What else can we count on from the occasion?

WWDC will nonetheless dedicate loads of time to present merchandise.

This yr's massive iPhone replace, iOS 17, will arrive in time for the subsequent handset in September.

We already find out about a few of the new options coming, notably an accessibility choice permitting customers to create an artificial voice that sounds just like them.

It is geared toward individuals who undergo situations that might imply they lose their capacity to talk in future.

The largest new software program characteristic rumoured is a panorama mode for when your iPhone is charging, which might basically flip it into a sensible show, equally to Google's new Pixel Tablet. It may present issues like calendar appointments at a look, quite than simply notifications or the time.

Updates to the iPhone's software program are sometimes mirrored on the iPad, so the identical characteristic may seem there too.

Macs and the Apple Watch also needs to get some consideration - there are rumours that widgets, which have shaken up iPhone and iPad dwelling screens in recent times, may come to the latter.

There's additionally discuss of a brand new MacGuide Air, with a much bigger measurement of 15 inches.

We do not have to attend lengthy to search out out - WWDC 2023 kicks off at 6pm UK time on Monday.