As Apple CEO Tim Cook was winding up to reveal the company’s new Vision Pro headset on Monday, I was struck by his very particular choice of words: “So today, I’m excited to announce an entirely new AR platform with a revolutionary new product.”

Catch that? He didn’t say “VR” or “virtual reality,” which might have positioned the headset and its new software more directly against Meta’s headsets. Before we knew anything about the Vision Pro — what it looked like, what it could do, what it cost — Cook said that Apple was announcing a new augmented reality platform, setting us up for a device that would enhance and not obscure the world around us.

Though Apple made its Vision Pro and visionOS pitch all about augmented reality, the device...

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