• Apple and Meta have been pouring significant capital into augmented-reality “smart glasses.” One source told Bloomberg that Tim Cook reportedly “cares about nothing else” from a product development standpoint. If he can beat Mark Zuckerberg to a pair of stylish smart glasses that make an impact in the market, he might just beat the accusations he doesn’t have the same panache for groundbreaking products as his predecessor, Apple cofounder Steve Jobs.

While the iPhone accounts for roughly 56% of Apple’s revenue, according to its quarterly earnings report released in January, the company’s CEO Tim Cook is hot for augmented reality, the technology that underpins the not-nearly-as-popular $3,500 Vision Pro headset. (Production on the Vision Pro reportedly halted in January amid slow demand.)

In fact, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, a longtime Apple reporter with deep connections inside the company, Cook is “hell-bent” on creating a pair of truly smart glasses before Mark Zuckerberg can at Meta. A source with knowledge of the matter told Gurman “Tim cares about nothing else.”

“It’s the only thing he’s really spending his time on from a product development standpoint,” the person said.

After years of teasing, Apple finally released the Vision Pro in February 2024. The headset offers both virtual and augmented reality experiences: Thanks to an array of cameras on the device that point outward, as well as cameras that track your eye movements inside the goggles, it can appear as if virtual and digital elements exist in your real environment that you can interact with (that’s augmented reality), but you can also enjoy complete immersion in realistic virtual environments (virtual reality). While great for watching movies in virtual environments (like the surface of the moon), it’s also a capable work device, since it can mirror what you’re doing on your Mac computer(s).

Meta, meanwhile, has been working on VR and AR technologies for quite a long time. Facebook acquired Palmer Luckey’s Oculus VR for $2 billion in 2014, and released its first consumer VR headset, the Oculus Rift, two years later in 2016. Meta began laying the groundwork for AR experiences as early as 2017, but its hardware plans really took shape when in 2021 it released Ray-Ban Stories, a pair of smart glasses with cameras and audio built-in. Last year, it unveiled a pair of augmented-reality smart glasses called “Orion” that blew several journalists away, but those are still in development.

Zuckerberg previously said Apple and Meta have a “very deep, philosophical competition” in AR and VR, since Apple’s approach involves a tight integration of hardware and software (as it does with all its devices), whereas Meta’s vision revolves around a device-agnostic experience so its software can live on different types of VR and AR devices, including those not made by Meta. The Meta CEO believes the “metaverse” will be the successor to the mobile internet, where your virtual avatars can move between platforms for work, play, and of course, socializing. (Investors, meanwhile, haven’t been as thrilled with how much money Meta has been pouring into the metaverse.)

Zuckerberg, however, is a major proponent of the technologies. He notably shared a three-minute review of Apple’s Vision Pro on Instagram shortly after its debut, but, as you might expect, he mostly criticized the device and used it as an opportunity to advertise Meta’s Quest 3 headset, saying his company’s device is lighter and cheaper. But the video highlighted the competitive nature between the two companies on this emerging technology. Basically, both Apple and Meta are racing to make their devices’ form factors smaller and more powerful until they finally achieve a hardware product that looks like a normal pair of glasses, albeit much more high-tech.

Cook has been hot on the potential of augmented reality for most of his tenure at Apple—and has been a vocal advocate for the technology, on the record, for roughly a decade. In a quarterly earnings call in July 2016, Cook said “we are high on AR for the long run,” while mentioning the success of Pokémon Go, the hottest mobile game at that time that relied heavily on augmented-reality tech.

Later that year while appearing at Utah Tech Tour, Cook said he predicted “a significant portion of the population on of developed countries” to have AR experiences “every day, almost like eating three meals a day, it will become that much a part of you.

“Few people in here think it’s acceptable to be tethered to a computer,” he said. “We’re all social people at heart. Even introverts are social people,” adding “AR will become really big.”

Over the years, Cook mentioned how he was “incredibly excited by AR” because he could “see uses for it everywhere.”

“I can see uses for it in education, in consumers, in entertainment, in sports. I can see it in every business that I know anything about,” he said at a 2017 event hosted by the University of Oxford.

While Cook has made Apple more successful than the company has ever been from a financial standpoint, the Vision Pro is one of the few original hardware products launched during his tenure as CEO, so it makes sense that it’s one of his sole focuses “from a product development standpoint,” as Bloomberg‘s source told Gurman. Steve Jobs, Cook’s predecessor and Apple’s cofounder, was considered a “visionary,” however, having a major hand in designing and launching Apple’s most iconic products including the iPod, iPhone, iPad, Mac (desktop and laptop configurations, including the wildly popular MacBook Air) and getting the deals done to make the iTunes Store possible. (Music streaming as an industry may not have come to pass without it.)

Cook was Apple’s COO under Jobs: He was considered an operations expert and a key to making Apple’s supply chain in Asia a profitable enterprise. But when Jobs died in 2011, many questioned Cook’s ability to shape landmark products in the same way Jobs could. The Apple Watch and AirPods have been major successes under Cook, but other products like the HomePod or AirTags haven’t created as much hype. On the contrary, those products may have generated undesirable publicity. And with Apple reportedly canceling its plans for a car, Cook is likely feeling more pressure for such a costly investment as the Vision Pro to succeed.

Both Apple and Meta are spending a significant chunk of change on research and development, which is key to getting these AR-powered goggles small enough to look like a stylish pair of high-tech glasses. Apple allocated $31.4 billion to R&D in 2024, a near-5% increase from the year before, while Meta earmarked a whopping $43.9 billion to R&D last year, a 14% jump from the year prior.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

• Luigi Mangione, accused of murdering UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, is seeking to avoid the death penalty by arguing that Attorney General Pamela Bondi’s public comments and political framing of the case have violated his right to a fair trial. His legal team claims Bondi’s statements, which presume Mangione’s guilt and promote a political agenda, have prejudiced the jury pool and corrupted the judicial process.

Luigi Mangione, the 26-year-old man accused of murdering UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York last year, is seeking to avoid the death penalty in the state by saying his case has become politicized.

Mangione has pleaded not guilty to state and federal murder charges after Thompson was gunned down outside a hotel in Manhattan in December. A manhunt for Thompson’s killer ensued after the perpetrator fled the scene on a bike and escaped via Central Park.

An Ivy League graduate and UPenn alumnus, Mangione was arrested in Pennsylvania in connection with the case and was subsequently charged.

Thompson’s murder sparked a widespread conversation about healthcare in America, as well as some ugly reactions. Some people have chosen to support Mangione for his alleged action, believing he was challenging the status quo of corporate America.

Despite Mangione amassing supporters, high-profile individuals also called for the heaviest of sentences for the suspect accused of murdering Thompson, a father of two.

Attorney General Pamela Bondi was one of them, saying on April 1: “I have directed federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty in this case as we carry out President Trump’s agenda to stop violent crime and Make America Safe Again.”

Bondi followed up the statement with a shared post on the U.S. Justice Department’s Instagram page, which read: “Luigi Mangione’s murder of Brian Thompson—an innocent man and father of two young children—was a premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America.”

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A post shared by U.S. Department of Justice (@thejusticedept)

This statement is highly unusual, as it states that Mangione has committed the crime he is on trial for—a direct contraction of his legal right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty.

Moreover, Bondi’s statement presents further legal ramifications for Mangione’s right to a fair trial, protected under the Sixth Amendment.

Chief among the issues is that potential jurors for the trial—tasked with having no prejudice about the defendant before proceedings begin—may be influenced by Bondi’s statement and presume his guilt instead of being convinced by evidence.

Once again, Mangione’s right to an impartial jury is constitutionally protected.

As such, Bondi’s statement—complete with a name drop for President Trump and implied guilt on the part of a suspect who has yet to go before trial—has been blasted by Mangione’s defense team as a “political stunt.”

In a filing on Friday seen by Fortune, Mangione’s team wrote: “The stakes could not be higher. The United States government intends to kill Mr. Mangione as a political stunt … the Attorney General’s actions and public statements in this case have not followed the usual course.

“Because the Attorney General has chosen to proceed in this way, Mr. Mangione’s due process rights have already been violated and the manner in which the government has acted has prejudiced the grand jury pool and has corrupted the grand jury process.”

The White House and the Department of Justice have been approached by Fortune for comment.

Avoiding the death sentence

Mangione’s team is seeking to avoid the death sentence because of Bondi’s actions.

The filing explains: “Because the Attorney General’s direction to the [Southern District of New York] prosecutors—issued publicly, as a press release—to seek a death sentence for Mr. Mangione is political, arbitrary, capricious, a breach of established death penalty protocol and has now indelibly prejudiced this process, the government should be precluded from seeking the death penalty.”

Mangione’s lawyers have also demanded a list of actions be taken to ensure their client’s right to a fair trial, including screening grand jurors for exposure to Bondi’s public statements and “restraining” Bondi from making any further statements.

They also request that Bondi confirm she has read legal materials outlining a suspect’s right to a fair trial.

Moreover, the defense has asked for notes and documents sharing how the Southern District of New York considered a death penalty option, and asked the “government to produce … any emails, records, documents, memoranda and notes of any communication between a government official and anyone advocating for the death sentence.”

On day one of her role as attorney general, Bondi penned a note titled ‘Reviving The Federal Death Penalty And Lifting The Moratorium On Federal Executions.’

Representatives for Mangione’s lawyers told Fortune they had no further comment.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

• The Academy Awards will recognize stunt design with an Oscar. The new category will be a part of the show beginning in 2028. Stunt performers have previously not been acknowledged by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

Action movies would be pretty boring without stunt workers, but while the films and lead actors have always been contenders for an Academy Award, stunt workers have not. But that’s about to change.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, last week, announced that beginning in 2028, it will hand out an Oscar for achievement in stunt design.

The award will be presented during the Academy Awards broadcast, rather than handed out at a separate ceremony days prior.

“Since the early days of cinema, stunt design has been an integral part of filmmaking,” Academy CEO Bill Kramer and Academy president Janet Yang said in a statement to Variety. “We are proud to honor the innovative work of these technical and creative artists, and we congratulate them for their commitment and dedication in reaching this momentous occasion.”

The launch of the new category will coincide with the 100^th anniversary of the Academy Awards. Rules will be announced in 2027 and films from 2027 will be eligible for the first stunts Oscar. Among the films currently scheduled to release that year are Avengers: Secret Wars, the sequel to Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, the untitled sequel to The Batman, and an untitled Star Wars film.

Director and producer (and former stuntman) David Leitch, who led the stuntman-focused film The Fall Guy, was in charge of the push to recognize stunt performers.

“Stunts are essential to every genre of film and rooted deep in our industry’s history—from the groundbreaking work of early pioneers like Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, and Charlie Chaplin, to the inspiring artistry of today’s stunt designers, coordinators, performers, and choreographers,” he told Variety.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com