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The best macOS Menu Bar apps to use for your Apple Mac in 2022
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For many users, the menu bar on their Mac sits there, a little unloved, as a necessary but barely used part of macOS. But Apple wants to make the menu bar a useful part of your productivity workflow. And that’s why developers offer a range of ways that you can use the menu bar as a versatile tool. We’ve looked at one of these options from Apple – shortcuts – before. 

There’s an enormous variety of apps that you can add to your menu bar. Depending on whether they are for work or personal use, you can usually find a tool to meet your needs.

We’ve highlighted a few to get you started, but there are thousands more for you to explore on the App Store. They are a great way to save time and effort and make the most of the customization afforded to you by macOS.

What is a menu bar app?

The menu bar is much more customizable than some may realize. Found at the top of macOS, it’s the equivalent to parts of the taskbar found in Windows 11. Beyond looking at the time and connecting to your Wi-Fi, menu bar apps offer a wealth of different functions that, by placing them on the menu bar, can cut out additional steps that an app currently does for your needs.

Many of these can help with boosting your workflows and productivity. Instead of trawling through the Applications folder to select a single function from one app, you can just click on the app in the menu bar. While it seems incredibly simple, these can transform your workflow on your Mac, while offering you far more control over how you organize your desktop.

Quick View Calendar

Quick View Calendar on macOS menu bar

(Image credit: QuickView Calendar)

Free to download on the Mac App Store, Quick View does what it says on the tin. Instead of having to open your desired Calendar app from the dock to check a date, you can go to your menu bar and be greeted with a calendar, ready to browse.

Not only does Quick View only give you a monthly view, but it also allows you to display the number of the week if you need that shown. There are no other features here – it displays the date and that’s it, but it's the ease of use here that really shines.

You may be browsing in Safari to check for an upcoming event for instance, and with a quick hover over your menubar with your mouse, you can check Quick View for the relevant information, without leaving the web browser.

As it’s free on the Mac App Store, you can try it for a week and see if it fits your workflow.

AirBuddy 2.5

AirBuddy on macOS

(Image credit: AirBuddy)

So far, Apple hasn’t brought out a feature that allows you to view the battery status of your devices on your Mac. Alongside this, it can be a challenge in connecting your AirPods peripheral to your Mac, as there are moments where they’ll connect to your iPhone without realizing it. This is where AirBuddy 2 comes in.

Created by Gui Rambo, the app allows you to easily check the battery status of your AirPods by clicking the AirPods case on your menu bar, which will display the status of your devices. They do need to be connected to your Mac first, but after this one-time requirement, they’ll show.

There are also other helpful features once these are connected to your Mac. You can change the noise cancellation setting through a keyboard shortcut or connect them to a nearby device without you doing anything else. Update 2.5 also adds a number of new features; the most significant being the fact that AirBuddy will now work with non-Apple or Beats devices when they are connected to the Mac.

For a one-time fee of $ 9.99 / £10.99 / AU$ 11.99, AirBuddy expands how you can connect your wireless Apple devices to your Mac without simply connecting and disconnecting them from the Bluetooth menu.

Hand Mirror

Hand Mirror app on menu bar, on macOS Monterey

(Image credit: Hand Mirror)

We live in a world where video calls are everywhere. Whether it’s Zoom, FaceTime, or Skype, video calling happens regularly in our work and social lives. And we’ve probably all been in that situation where we need to join into a video meeting and your hair isn’t done, or the family dog has knocked over a plant in the background.

Free to download on the Mac App Store, This is where Hand Mirror comes in, without the additional steps that are often required in many video-conferencing apps.

It’s a simple app that doesn’t do much else, but it achieves exactly what it sets out to do. With one click, you can make sure that you and your environment are set up exactly as you want before joining that call.

Flow

Flow on macOS Monterey

(Image credit: Flow)

With the numerous distractions of rolling news, social media and other notifications on your Mac, a simple to use timer app is a great productivity tool to give you control of how you use your time more effectively.

Flow is based on the Pomodoro Technique, which is where you focus on a discrete task for a set amount of time, before taking a short break. Flow helps this by providing a simple timer in your menu bar, so you can see at a glance how long you have left before your next break. 

You can set the duration of both your periods of focus and the length of your breaks, to fully customize the balance of work and rest. It also allows you to block apps on your Mac, to further minimize distractions. 

If you pay for the Pro version at $ 1 / £1 / AU$ 1 a month, or a lifetime license for $ 20 / £20 / AU$ 20, you can also block specific websites. As productivity apps for the menu bar go, this is a great option. Clean, simple to use, and even has a Dark Mode theme. 

Cheat Sheet

CheatSSheet showing Adobe Photoshop shortcuts

(Image credit: CheatSheet)

Most of us have been in that situation where you want to use a particular feature on your Mac, only to find yourself having to navigate through menus and submenus while being fairly sure there is a simple keyboard shortcut. This is where CheatSheet comes in to alleviate that frustration.

Free to download, CheatSheet provides you with a list of keyboard shortcuts for whichever app you are using at that particular time. Being able to quickly access a reference sheet can save you enormous amounts of time, especially for repetitive tasks.

Perhaps ironically, the more you use it, the less you will need to use it, as you will start to remember the most frequently used shortcuts. And pretty soon, you’ll stop having to switch from keyboard to mouse and back again.

iStat Menus

iStat menu on macOS

(Image credit: iStat)

Perhaps you’re a power user, or maybe you just love seeing the inner workings of your Mac. Either way, iStat Menus 6 will throw more information than you could ever need at you.

As a system monitoring app, this tells you exactly how your computer is performing: CPU and GPU monitoring, memory stats, memory usage, temperatures, disk usage, and battery levels can all be viewed from the menu bar with just a few icons.

This level of detail doesn’t come for free, however. But for a one-off cost of £8.99 / $ 8.99 / AU$ 8.99 from the Mac App Store, or $ 14.39 / £13.49 / AU$ 14.99 directly from iStat, which also includes 6 months of weather data, you're getting an awful lot of information. It’s also highly customizable, so you can choose exactly what information you want to see, and how it looks. 

Minesweeper

Minesweeper on macOS, on menu bar

(Image credit: Minesweeper)

Everyone needs a little downtime, and when used in conjunction with the Flow timer, what could be better than five minutes playing Minesweeper as a short break?

Minesweeper is a very simple but highly addictive game that involves clearing a grid of mines as quickly as you can. The simplest premise for a game can fit perfectly on your menu bar. 

Free to download from the Mac App Store, it sits on your menu bar, ready to take your attention away for when you're struggling with ideas.

This sits on your menu bar unobtrusively, and with one click, you can start playing. It’s a perfect game when you have a few minutes free for a quick break. 

ColorSlurp

Color Slurp on macOS through menu bar

(Image credit: Color Slurp)

Free to download from the Mac App Store, this tool is particularly useful for designers and developers. ColorSlurp allows you to choose the exact colors you need with accuracy and precision, thanks to a quick overview in the menu bar of what color it’s identified, and you can copy this into your photo editing app of choice thanks to the magnifier tool.

Being able to have complete control over your color palette is ideal for graphic designers, website developers, and others. Most importantly, it’s an enormous time-saver and a more accurate method for selecting your colors compared to having to use screenshots to pick out colors.

Bartender 4

Bartender 4 settings

(Image credit: Bartender 4)

With the previous apps we’ve mentioned, your menu bar may be starting to look a little cluttered if you've decided to install them all. With this in mind, we suggest Bartender 4, an award-winning app that allows you to decide which items on your menu bar are displayed.

Available to download as a free trial and to buy for £13.91 / $ 15.99 / AU$ 16.49, you can customize the spacing between menu bar items, and make use of the bar to access your hidden items, especially if you have a lot of menu bar apps and shortcuts.

It also offers a quick search function to allow you to find menu bar apps via your keyboard. It’s a great way to keep your menu bar tidy and organized.

Control Center

Control Center in macOS

(Image credit: Apple)

It would be remiss of us to compile a list of menu bar apps without mentioning the one that comes pre-installed on macOS. Control Center is the macOS equivalent of the iOS feature of the same name, which first appeared in macOS Big Sur back in 2020. It sits unobtrusively in your menu bar, available for you to control a host of options. 

This tool gives you control over a number of what might be considered ‘essentials’ such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Airdrop. 

Brightness and volume levels can also be adjusted from here, as well as media controls for any content you're playing in the background. Finally, there are options for Focus mode and Screen Mirroring. You can also add Accessibility Shortcuts if you wish. 

This one may be preloaded, but it’s a feature that you’ll find yourself using more often than usual, mainly because it offers many useful functions, all in one location. 

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Best music production apps for Macs in 2022
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Being great at guitar or an improvisation king on the piano is only one facet of making good music. In the modern age, being technically great isn’t required if you’re creative enough. How you put together your music is just as important as being able to make it in the first place.

The DAW, or digital audio workstation, is what you need to look at if you’re interested in production. This will allow you to record yourself, and it will actively change the way you make music. Learning to compensate for parameters or workaround systems will shape the way you go about putting everything together.

For this reason, picking the right DAW is important and you're often better off exploring around a little bit before you settle on what works for you. Unfortunately, with the time and money required to do so, this can be a bit of a challenge.

With your MacBook in hand, we will be recommending our picks of the best free music production software suites.

GarageBand screenshot

(Image credit: Future)

1. GarageBand

The best free app

Intuitive
Free
Great selection of tools and instruments
A little simple

If you’ve booted up a Mac before, you will be familiar with this software package from Apple. Coming pre-installed on Apple devices, this is a usable and intuitive application with lots of useful built-in features.

You only need to plug in your midi, guitar, or keyboard to create music instantly. With the quick help function, it explains everything you can see in easy-to-grasp concepts, making it a great app for those just starting out.

It has some great functions like a smart drummer, which means you don’t need to create a drum track to have a nice beat in the background. It also has some nice packs to try for midi, like great piano sounds, some orchestral sounds, and some good effects for the guitar.

If you’ve never bothered with music production before, try this before you try anything else on this list. From here, you can read the list and pick your favorite app based on what you like.

Logic Pro screenshot

(Image credit: Future)

2. Logic Pro

Apple’s flagship application

Great selection of tools and instruments
Very powerful application
Tons of customization options and features
Can have issues with unofficial plug-ins

As the software is still making changes and adapting to the latest M1 chips, there are issues using unofficial software sometimes and it can get a little complicated to start. If you have the time to dedicate, this is one of the very best pieces of software you can find.

If you like GarageBand but just want more out of it, Logic Pro is where you should go from here. This is a great piece of software, offering more sounds to choose from, more robust features to customize your songs, and just general better usability.

It's correct to assume that GarageBand is essentially a 'lite' alternative to Logic – a  solid usable app that has some noticeable drawbacks. Logic gets rid of these and adds even more functions. It has better live looping and more intricate tempo options. 

It also has plenty of extra software and built-in sounds to get full and vibrant music out of your projects. Alongside this, there are much better mixing options that can give you extra options for the bass and equalizers, depending on the types of genre you're focusing on, making it great for those looking to finish a full song, ready to go on an album.

It also has great intuitive methods to export your songs onto iOS or iPadOS if you want to take your projects on the go.

Pro Tools screenshot

(Image credit: Future)

3. Pro Tools

The industry standard

Different price tiers
Great cross-platform use
Few moment-to-moment issues
Regular fees
Steep learning curve

Pro Tools is the industry standard when it comes to DAWs and there’s a reason for that. It’s powerful, can handle pretty much anything you throw at it and it is great when using across platforms.

If you want to work on a project with someone else or want to learn the software most professionals are used to, this is a valuable application to learn.

That said, it can be a little hard to get used to. It isn’t quite as intuitive as our previous choices and is loaded with options. Pro tools can be used for free with a trial but will cost you more in the long run with monthly/yearly plans.

Pro Tools' cloud features and great plug-in options make the app a fantastic choice, albeit with a steep learning curve and high price. If you’re looking for something complex that is used by industry professionals, this is the app for you.

Ableton Live 11 screenshot

(Image credit: Future)

4. Ableton Live 11

For those who like to improv

Unique selling point
Great for live sessions
Some great instruments and loops
Quite expensive for the best version
UI could be better

Ableton Live is an excellent app for those who like to improvise. All of its software is based around live sessions, giving your music a raw feel. It’s much better at allowing you to just sort of jam, then fine-tune every aspect of your music.

Out of all the paid apps here, this one could be bought alongside another (if you have the cash and patience) as its unique selling point makes it worth trying regardless. There are three central price tiers for the app; the top one is rather expensive, but the cheaper options are a good start.

Its focus on live play means there are some pretty solid built-in loops and instruments to use, perfect for setting up a track. Where other apps often get lost in the weeds, figuratively speaking, Ableton Live is great for just letting you in there to mess around.

If you like the idea of composing on the fly, you should try this one out.

FL Studio screenshot

(Image credit: Future)

5. FL Studio

For those who like to loop

Loop-based writing leads to some interesting songs
Has some good effects
Fun to play around with
Live recording is a little limited
Can be a little confusing

Originally known as FruityLoops, FL Studio has come an incredibly long way since its release two decades ago. Its functionality is entirely based around loops, making it great for genres like EDM or trap.

You essentially build loops in a separate track and place them into your main track. This means coming up with ideas that are only used once or ever-changing songs can become a tedious process.

While it has the ability to play and record, fixing that afterward becomes a little bit of a hassle due to its architecture. The loop-focused build of this software often makes you write a little outside what you’re used to, which is great but also gets in the way of your own ideas.

This also makes learning it a little confusing but, if you can get over that learning curve, it’s a solid and versatile DAW that may make you think outside the box.

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Did Apple win CES 2022 without even being there?
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Google, Intel, Nvidia, AMD. These and other companies made it a mission to mention Apple in some way at this year’s CES.

While Apple wasn’t actually at the event in Las Vegas, it still felt like everyone was talking about the company.

If you watched Intel and Nvidia’s live streams, you would have heard about products that were faster than Apple’s M1 Max chips for example (although further research looks to have put cold water on these claims by both companies already).

It’s only when you scratch the surface that you find that Apple has already been regarded as the winner at CES this year in a variety of categories, without being there in any official capacity.

Apple was in the eye of many at CES 2022

Intel was quick to compare its newest Alder Lake chips with the M1 Max, currently available in the MacBook Pro 14-inch and 16-inch models. The press release directly states that the Intel Core i9 chip is faster than the M1 Max, but when you consider the heat that dissipates from this CPU compared to Apple’s chips, there’s more than just speed that Apple beats the competition on.

Intel comparing its Core i9 chip with Apple's M1 Max

(Image credit: Intel)

The Core i9 can draw up to 115 watts of power, while the M1 Max requests 60 watts in regular use, and it usually doesn’t exceed 90 watts when macOS demands more power from the chip.

But this is just one example from Intel, as the company also showcased Apple Watch and iMessage integration with upcoming Evo PCs through Screenovate, an app that was recently acquired by the company in December.

Google also announced an effort to mimic the connectivity that Apple’s ecosystem of devices boasts. Soon, you’ll be able to pair multiple devices through an upcoming feature called Fast Pair. This allows your Android phone to unlock your Chromebook, or having your Pixel Buds being able to swap between your phone and laptop with no issue.

However, this isn’t just about Google and Intel being inspired by Apple’s software features.

But wait, there’s more

Find My is Apple’s service of integrating with other products that can be found through the Find My app. It’s the same method that AirTags offer, but the company is allowing other companies to use the same technology. Targus was one example at CES by integrating Find My into a backpack.

Belkin also announced earbuds that would feature Find My, alongside a mount for the iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 series that will be able to track your face, ideal for video calls or for creating the next viral TikTok video.

There’s also more efforts by companies such as Eve to integrate Apple’s HomeKit, which is a way of managing your home devices through the Home app, so you can control lights, your heating, and soon window blinds to switch on and off around your home when needed.

These are just some examples of what was announced at CES 2022, but it only shows how Apple was everywhere at the event, but not present itself. The only time where someone from Apple appeared at CES was in 2020 when Jane Horvath, Apple's senior director of privacy, took to the stage in a privacy roundtable.

And, the year before, the company decided to put up a banner in front of CES promoting the fact that your information is stored on your iPhone only.

Apple showcasing a privacy banner back at CES 2019

(Image credit: Future)

This just proves that Apple doesn’t need to be at CES – companies such as Belkin with its products and Intel with its charts do the hard work for the company regardless. While there’s still doubt on whether events like this are still needed in a post-pandemic world, the underlying theme was that companies are getting ready to suit up for a battle that’s mostly, already been won by Apple.

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Best portable apps of 2022
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The best portable apps make it simple and easy to run programs straight from a USB stick or cloud storage to any device.

Portable apps are programs that don't have to be installed, and don't change your PC's settings. Provided there’s enough space available, you can store portable apps anywhere – an internal drive, an external storage device like a USB stick or SD card, on a networked drive, or a cloud storage service like OneDrive or DropBox. 

Portable apps have several advantages: they make it easy to switch between different computers because you can take your software with you, they don't interfere with any other programs installed on your PC, and they can be used on PCs with restricted user permissions (at work or school, for example).

Some portable apps have an ‘installer’, but don't worry – this just unzips a compressed file archive and saves the extracted files to a location of your choice; it doesn’t make any changes to your system files. Other portable apps are provided as a regular ZIP file for you to extract yourself. 

The program itself is an EXE file, but the extracted folder will also contain associated files including fonts and settings, which are essential for it to run. Some portable apps have optional language files, which will add to the size considerably, so consider opting out of these unless you need a language other than English.

Here, then, are the best portable apps currently available. 

We've also featured the best small business apps.

(Image credit: portableapps.com)

1. Google Chrome Portable

Best portable browser app

Access the internet
Login to Google services
Some data not transferable

All the popular browsers have portable editions, but for sheer convenience we've opted for Google Chrome Portable. Because it's linked to your Google account, all your bookmarks and preferences are automatically synced, making it the best choice for working on the move.

Chrome also supports hundreds of extensions, though you might want to be a bit picky about which you install – they can bump up the disk space requirements considerably.

A couple of pointers to note are that passwords are not saved between PC's by default, and that certificates are not managed by Chrome but by windows so these won't transfer with you.

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(Image credit: LibreOffice)

2. LibreOffice Portable

Best portable office app

Full office suite
Documents on the go
Missing charts

LibreOffice Portable is the largest of the portable apps here, but it's still amazingly compact considering it's a full office suite. You’ll need an external drive if you want to carry it, but you can easily keep it in the cloud (Google Drives gives you a free 10GB to play with, and DropBox gives you 2GB). 

LibreOffice Portable includes almost all the programs from the installable version of LibreOffice: Writer (word processing), Calc (spreadsheets), Impress (presentations), Draw (vector drawing), Math (formulas), and Base (databases). The only thing missing is Charts – though you can create graphs and other visualizations using Calc.

Like many portable apps, LibreOffice Portable is made using open source code. This takes some time, so it's a few versions behind the installable version of LibreOffice. However, that time has been well spent and it's well optimized for use on the move, with easy access to documents stored on a networked drive, an FTP server, or cloud storage account.

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(Image credit: GIMP)

3. GIMP Portable

The best portable graphics app

Full version release
Graphics on the go
Photo editing
Large program size

The portable edition of GIMP, the free open source graphic and image editor, should be fine to install on any modern USB stick or any other storage media.

GIMP Portable is a hefty folder thanks to all the necessary resources, including brushes, plugins and fonts. The need to access all of these means GIMP Portable takes a little while to launch, but once it does you've got the perfect tool for advanced photo editing, wherever you are.

It's easy to open files from a local drive, networked storage, or a URL, making GIMP Portable brilliant for editing pictures remotely. The portable edition is based on the full version's current stable release, so you'll get all the latest features and built-in extensions.

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(Image credit: portableapps.com)

4. VLC Media Player Portable

The best portable media app

Free and open source
Audio playback
Video playback

VLC is one of the most capable and widely-supported media players around. Its main appeal is its ability to play pretty much any audio or video file or stream, without the need to download additional codecs.

That flexibility makes VLC Media Player Portable extremely handy. Keep it in reserve and if you come across an awkward file that won't play nicely with your regular music or video software, you've got the perfect tool for the job.

VLC Media Player Portable can handle files from any location, including local drives, network storage, and streams. You can even supplement it with extensions to integrate it with specific services – though bear in mind that this will add to its size considerably. 

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(Image credit: CCleaner )

5. CCleaner Portable

Best system maintenance app

Clears temporary files
32 and 64 bit versions
Free to use

CCleaner is the biggest name in system maintenance. It makes it easy to clear out clutter like temporary files and cookies that not only takes up valuable space, but can also put your privacy at risk.

CCleaner Portable is a handy toolkit that you can run on any PC in need of a good spring clean. The download includes both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of the program, so you can pick the right one for the OS running on the afflicted machine. 

CCleaner Portable is ideal for helping out friends and family members whose PCs have started to slow down (though always check before deleting their cached logins). Oh yes, and if you’re running it from your Downloads folder, don’t worry – it won’t try to delete itself. 

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(Image credit: Emsisoft)

6. Emsisoft Emergency Kit

Best anti-malware portable app

Free to use
Amti-malware program
Quarantines infections

Most of the portable software here is nice to have to hand, but Emsisoft Emergency Kit is essential – particularly if you’ve been lumbered with the role of unofficial tech support for your friends and relations. 

Emsisoft Emergency Kit isn't a replacement for antivirus software; instead, it's designed to save your bacon if your PC has already become infected with something unpleasant. If your machine is acting strangely, just run the program, update its database of threats, and scan for nasties.

If anything suspicious is found, Emsisoft Emergency Kit quarantines it to preventing it from affecting system files, then gives you the option to delete it, or release it back into the wild.

Read our full Emsisoft Emergency Kit review.

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Wordle is distracting everyone in 2022 – but what is it?
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If you’re spotting posts on social media that feature green and white dots, Wordle is responsible.

Created by Josh Wardle back in 2013 as a side-project, Wordle was revived in 2020 as a way for him and his partner to play each day during the pandemic. In three months since he made the game public in November, it’s amassed more than 300,000 players playing daily.

Its ubiquity is in its simplicity. There’s no mobile app to download from Apple’s App Store or Google’s Play Store, there’s only a website and a way to share your results on social media.

If you fancy having a go yourself to see what all the fuss is about, here’s how to play the game each day if you’re curious to jump in and have a go.

How do you play Wordle?

Every day at midnight, a new word is posted on the site, where you need to guess the five-letter word in six tries or less. If you type in a word that features yellow colors, these are correct but in the wrong order. However, letters highlighted in green are correct and in the right order, so you can attempt to guess the word in other tries, with keeping the letters that are green in the same place.

Guessing words on Wordle

(Image credit: Future)

Thanks to your web browser, Wordle will remember your streak for however long you guess the correct word. You can also share this to your social site of choice in the form of a grid, to show your friends how quickly you figured out today’s word.

See more

Plans for the future?

Wardle has no current plans to make Wordle chargeable, telling BBC Radio 4 Today (at 1:26:40) that he sees no need for it. “I’m not making money from it; there are no ads, no plans to monetize. I don’t intend to. Why can’t something just be fun?”

But there are 2,500 words that have been organized by Wardle to appear in the game each day, after looking at all of the five-letter words in the dictionary, and whittling them down. As they’re randomized, Wardle doesn’t know which word is coming next.

So far it’s an addictive game, but time will tell if it’s still a game we’ll be playing by the end of the year, or whether we’ll see Wordle evolve into its own app.

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What can we expect from Apple’s rumored AR/VR headset in 2022?
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Every few years, an Apple product that's not confirmed by the company, builds momentum in rumor and speculation until it’s impossible to avoid.

The iPad had it when it was rumored to be called the iSlate in 2009, while the Apple Watch was thought to be a next-generation iPod nano around 2013. The Apple headset that’s going to introduce VR and AR to its customers is the latest in these rumors of what could be launching next from Apple.

Augmented and Virtual Reality has seen huge improvements in recent years, with companies such as Oculus and Valve refining the experience and offering storefronts where you can play a variety of VR games.

But Apple has a chance to redesign its ecosystem to adapt to VR and AR in interesting ways that have not been attempted before.

A VR iTrooper

Apple VR

(Image credit: Future)

It’s not clear whether this rumored headset will both feature AR or VR features, or whether there are two headsets that will cater to each instead. But Apple has a way of adapting its apps into other devices while not compromising on features, while making them unique to the device in question.

With many operating systems ending with ‘OS’, we suspect that rOS, to stand for reality could be a good candidate for the software that the headset will run on, as it works for both VR and AR.

In previous years Apple lays down the groundwork for what’s coming, such as the iPhone for the iPad, or 3D Touch appearing in the Apple Watch and then seeing it debut in the iPhone. With this in mind, Siri could be a big hint towards what it’s planning for the headset.

Earlier this month, an Apple Music Voice Plan was released, where you can control your music only by Siri for $ 4.99 / £4.99 / AU$ 4.99 a month.

This plan could be a great fit for the headset, as you don’t need to use anything tangible to navigate your music, only through Siri. Browsing the App Store or choosing another app to use through Siri could be an intuitive way to use the headset without having to use controllers similar to the Meta Quest 2.

Spatial Audio, a feature in Apple Music again where you can turn your head and the sound will feel as though it's coming from one specific place, could also work well for the headset.

But when it comes to games, this is where the controllers would be a must and an inspiration for developers.

A VR App Store

Apps in VR are only beginning to diverge from giving short experiences like Beat Saber, to communication and accessibility such as what META is announcing for the metaverse and avatars. Seeing FaceTime VR or AppleTV+ VR is a tantalizing thought, but developers could transform the apps they already have available, into being made into a native VR headset app.

Apps like CARROT and TikTok could benefit from what the headset may offer, especially if widgets also make their debut.

What about AR?

Then there’s the aspect of AR. Augmented Reality allows you to have certain bits of digital information in a normal lens. Imagine a pair of glasses that has a section of the lens where it shows live information, such as a widget or push notifications.

This is something we’re already seeing in some apps, especially the Measure app. Others such as IKEA can allow you to place furniture in the camera’s viewfinder on the iPhone, to see if it fits your room.

There’s no reason why this headset could have both by switching modes. Seeing live widgets in a corner of a lens as you walk around your house is a tempting prospect, as it saves you from checking your phone from your pocket, or glancing at your Apple Watch.

WWDC in 2022 could showcase what developers could do with the headset, and with Apple’s Silicon chips showcasing how much power they can achieve with far less power consumption than an Intel and AMD CPU, we could see the first-generation headset feature impressive battery life for an app store that could show what AR and VR could do in the Apple eco-system.

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