Apple may be working on virtual reality, but it's destroyed the evidence

Update: The job listings previously spotted on Apple's website - including the one described below and another, for a VR hardware engineer - have disappeared.

It's unclear exactly why, but as Venturebeat speculates, Apple may have regretted tipping its own hand too early and removed the ads to mitigate any further damage.

Then again, maybe they simply filled the positions. Either way, they're not likely to comment any time soon (read: ever), so for now we'll just have to keep on guessing.

Original story follows…

Virtual reality is currently the realm of Oculus Rift, Samsung and Sony - with a little Google thrown in - but Apple may soon join the fray as well.

It certainly seems that way based on an Apple job listing for an app engineer with experience with "virtual reality systems."

"This engineer will create high performance apps that integrate with Virtual Reality systems for prototyping and user testing," the ad reads.

It also lists iOS and OS X app development and "VR/AR development" experience (i.e. virtual reality/augmented reality) as requirements.

Read between the screens

Naturally the listing doesn't go into detail beyond these requirements, but it's not hard to see where Apple might be going with it.

Virtual reality is still on the cusp of really taking off, but with heavy hitters like Sony (with Project Morpheus), Facebook (which owns Oculus VR) and even Google (which punked everyone with a cardboard headset this year) in the mix there's little doubt that it will.

There are even third-party accessories, like the Pinć, that do for the iPhone what Samsung's and Oculus's Gear VR does for the Galaxy Note 4, turning it into a VR display mounted to your face.

Add Apple in officially and you just might be looking at the next big thing in tech.

• The consumer-ready Oculus Rift will launch in public beta by summer 2015

Via 9to5Mac