Oculus Rift Update: Facebook Hired Former Apple Designer To Lead VR Hardware & Apple Currently Developing AR Glasses

Facebook hired a big name for their Oculus VR development. Michael Hillman, a former designer at Apple as the head of hardware at its Oculus VR division.

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, said wants the company to own the future of virtual reality. The hardware is really not easy to master and to do so, they need a person that will bring them closer to it.

Michael Hillman works in Apple for 15 straight years, he started in the company as the lead designer on the iMac, then promote to other company jobs before taking charge of the desktop in general. He left Apple in 2015 and worked as the Vice President at Zoox, a self-driving vehicle startup, Apple Insider noted. In his new company, Hillman will report to Oculus chief operating officer Hans Hartmann, who joined the virtual reality unit in May 2016.

According to Oculus spokesperson, they are really excited to have Michael Hillman leading the hardware organization. "We have a world-class hardware team that led the development of Oculus Rift and Touch, and we are going to keep investing in hardware as we push the boundaries of VR technology and build next generation consumer VR products."

The VR Headset technology, like the Facebook Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, have so far been limited to a niche market. Aside from expensive price, the device requires a high-end computer and wide space to move around. As for now, no Mac is powerful enough to support the devices and Oculus still won't support Apple's MacOS anytime soon.

Speaking of Apple and VR technology, there are reports saying that the company is developing Augmented Reality glasses and aiming it to shift from research to a consumer product. In partnership with the optical specialist Carl Zeiss, rumors suggested that this light-field AR glasses will launch this year with an estimated cost of $1,000.