The full saga of Apple?s troubled mixed reality headset has been revealed

A series of reports in The Information paint a detailed picture of progression, politics, and problems facing Apple's plan to develop a virtual, augmented, or mixed reality headset since the initiative picked up steam back in 2015.Citing several people familiar with the product, including some who worked on it directly, the reports describe a contest of wills over the direction of the device. The report sheds light on Apple's direction for the device, which Bloomberg recently reported is nearing launch.The Information's sources say that Apple's mixed reality efforts began almost accidentally when the company purchased a German AR startup called Metaio to use some of its technology on Project Titan, its self-driving car project. The wearer could see the people around them through an external camera feed.Rockwell and his colleagues developed and released ARKit in 2017, an application development suite that allowed developers to make AR apps for iPhone and iPad using technologies and techniques that could be adapted to a headset later.The decision to make the headset a standalone device reportedly caused significant headaches.