Hololens development kit will be $3,000, latest stage demo still misleading

We don't know the price of the final retail version of MIcrosoft's Hololens augmented reality hardware, but during a live event today the company announced that it is now taking applications for development hardware that will cost $3,000, and will ship in the first quarter of 2016.

Microsoft stressed that there are no tethers, and Hololens requires no external computers or devices to work so the price has to be put into a bit of context. Development hardware also tends to be more expensive than the final product but still ... oof.

The stage demo also doubled-down on Microsoft's uncomfortable habit of unrealistic and impossible representations of what the hardware is capable of, showing images that seem to take up the whole stage. The actual field of view for the hardware can be seen below.