The Globe and Mail reports in its Saturday edition that Apple is widely expected to announce a new headset that will blend video of the outside world with the virtual one at its annual software developer conference next week. A Reuters dispatch to The Globe says that Apple chief executive officer Tim Cook and Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg are jockeying to define how consumers will put to use a new generation of technology where real and digital worlds converge. Mr. Zuckerberg has laid out a vision of the "metaverse," a parallel digital universe where people will gather together to work and play, and has had products out for years. Apple marketing chief Greg Joswiak, by contrast, recently called the metaverse "a word I'll never use." Officially, Apple's device so far is just a rumour. Apple's presentations at its Worldwide Developers Conference start at 10 a.m. in California on Monday. Until now, the company best known for iPhones has limited its augmented-reality efforts to technology that works on existing devices, for instance by enabling retailers' apps to show virtual furniture in a customer's living room. Analysts say that the Apple device could cost near $3,000 (U.S.) and look like a pair of ski goggles.