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Thursday, February 01, 2024
What the Vision Pro Could Mean for the Future of Mixed Reality (and Apple)
Lifehacker: A lot of you have bought an Apple Vision Pro, it turns out—200,000 if reports to be believed. While Apple sells way more iPhones, iPads, and Macs than that, the Vision Pro is, at this point in time, effectively sold out, days before its official Feb. 2 launch date.
I was really interested when the Vision Pro was first announced, and what its use in the real world was going to be. I think that this article did a very good job of breaking down a lot of facets of the launch. I think one of the most interesting ideas that the article touched on was the concept of how the hardware and software experiences of XR interact with each other. Seamless XR experiences seem like the way of the future, but it takes extensive development of both the hardware and software for that dream to become a reality. For developers to develop interesting applications for XR use, there has to be a good XR headset for that software to run on. Conversely, for an XR headset to be useful there have to be interesting apps that run on it. I think that the Apple Vision Pro serves as the first step in this cycle, giving developers hardware and users to work with. Ideally, over time both the hardware and software will get better, just as the hardware and software of modern phones have improved over time.
I have stayed pretty up to date on the Apple Vision Pro, not that I ever plan on ever buying one with that current price tag on the item, but I love watching all of the tech reviews and seeing people rip into how heavy it is. Aside from that, I do think that the frontier that Vision Pro is opening up is intriguing, the merging of the physical world and AR technologies in everyday life. I find the section about the apps available on the headset to also be interesting. I didn’t know about the big-name companies including YouTube, Netflix, and Spotify, that opted out of making apps specifically for the Vision Pro. Overall, this article is really thorough about the positives and negatives of the headset and they touched on some very detailed topics that I haven’t seen in any other tech reviews I have read or watched. f
I've been keeping up with the news surrounding the Vision Pro headset, and I've seen some really interesting discussions on both sides. Some people seem to claim it is incredible and never seen before and will change many things about our lives. On the other side, some people are very pessimistic, claiming it is useless, bulky, or just not good in some other ways. I believe that both of these views are too extreme. The facts of the matter are that there is some new technology with the Vision Pro, and I find it incredibly fascinating and impressive, regardless of its actual use. I agree with the article that it is currently not a piece of technology that would be a good fit for the majority of people, both because of its features and high price point. I also agree that I could see significant change with this and that it may eventually become much more widely used. It likely won't be as ubiquitous as the iPhone, but almost all technology starts with many skeptics, and much of the technology then grows to be widely accepted, and I see that as the most likely case for the Vision Pro.
Wow, the future really is now. Just earlier today I saw a video of a person walking into traffic wearing one of these things. And a video of a guy driving with one on, and a lot of other crap. I think these are pretty wacky when you think about what they are on a fundamental level. Imagine holding your phone up to your face all the time but also still being able to see, I guess. What a terrifying world we live in. I think it really says something about how some people are on their phone all the time. Stuff like this, that puts it in perspective, makes me want to live alone in Alaska for the rest of my life. I kind of hate how phones are affecting us as a society. But honestly, someone is going to make a sick game that you can play on this and then I’ll change my mind and say they’re really awesome. I don’t know, it’s gonna be what it’ll be.
Over the past few days I’ve been seeing a lot of reviews about the Vision Pro and it’s a surprisingly mixed bag for a new release of an Apple product (acknowledging that this is the first of it’s line and not just a new iPhone with some snazzy features). There are definitely some aspects that are still in beta but some features seem genuinely useful to an extent like the expanding mac and iPad display functionality. Mixed reality as a concept is one that is interesting to me, although I am cautious about how eager I am about the idea as I imagine widespread use of it and what that could mean for our fundamental relationships with how we interact with the world. We’re already seeing a version of it with those sunglasses with tiny embedded cameras that can film anywhere without other people knowing and other wireless devices that conduct internet searches and bypass the need for a phone. We’re on a fascinating, kind of scary technological trajectory and I’m curious (and to be honest, vaguely apprehensive) to see where we end up with it.
“A lot of you” being 200,000 is a somewhat misguided statement to open the article with considering that is around average for VR headsets. I think this article does describe it best though, it’s cool. Just that, cool. It’s cool you can use your Apple apps in the headset. It’s cool you can have Facetime calls in the headset. But it’s not worth it yet, in any sense of the word. The headset (to my knowledge) can’t be used for any VR game and can’t even be used for things like watching a movie in a movie theatre environment like being provided with steamVR’s “big screen” mode. None of the Vision Pro’s (don’t even get me started on using pro in a product that doesn’t even have a nonpro version to compare to) features do much besides be cool. Even what most so far have described as the most useful feature, the Mac screen mirroring is limited to one screen at a time for seemingly no reason as having infinite screens for your laptop seems like a huge selling point as it is also something really easy to do. The price is also a very Apple price as it starts at more than double the most expensive vr headsets on the market while only being better than some and only at certain features.
Apparently I live under a rock, because I had no idea this vision pro thing existed. I feel like maybe a couple months ago I saw an image of the “apple mixed reality headset” but I dismissed it as a joke and an edited image. I can’t believe it’s actually a thing. I really don’t understand the appeal of it, as I am someone who prefers to not be fully immersed in my computer when I am doing my work, as typing on the computer without a good sense of the outside world seems like an awful experience, but then again, I am not a fancy tech bro. I also don’t know a lot about the whole “mixed reality” versus “virtual reality thing” so I could have a vital misunderstanding of what makes the concept of walking around with the internet merged into the everyday world appealing. Also, I’m somewhat concerned about the general safety of the thing, I’ve seen a lot of videos of people crossing streets and going about their lives, which seems like a massive brewing danger situation.
7 comments:
I was really interested when the Vision Pro was first announced, and what its use in the real world was going to be. I think that this article did a very good job of breaking down a lot of facets of the launch. I think one of the most interesting ideas that the article touched on was the concept of how the hardware and software experiences of XR interact with each other. Seamless XR experiences seem like the way of the future, but it takes extensive development of both the hardware and software for that dream to become a reality. For developers to develop interesting applications for XR use, there has to be a good XR headset for that software to run on. Conversely, for an XR headset to be useful there have to be interesting apps that run on it. I think that the Apple Vision Pro serves as the first step in this cycle, giving developers hardware and users to work with. Ideally, over time both the hardware and software will get better, just as the hardware and software of modern phones have improved over time.
I have stayed pretty up to date on the Apple Vision Pro, not that I ever plan on ever buying one with that current price tag on the item, but I love watching all of the tech reviews and seeing people rip into how heavy it is. Aside from that, I do think that the frontier that Vision Pro is opening up is intriguing, the merging of the physical world and AR technologies in everyday life. I find the section about the apps available on the headset to also be interesting. I didn’t know about the big-name companies including YouTube, Netflix, and Spotify, that opted out of making apps specifically for the Vision Pro. Overall, this article is really thorough about the positives and negatives of the headset and they touched on some very detailed topics that I haven’t seen in any other tech reviews I have read or watched.
f
I've been keeping up with the news surrounding the Vision Pro headset, and I've seen some really interesting discussions on both sides. Some people seem to claim it is incredible and never seen before and will change many things about our lives. On the other side, some people are very pessimistic, claiming it is useless, bulky, or just not good in some other ways. I believe that both of these views are too extreme. The facts of the matter are that there is some new technology with the Vision Pro, and I find it incredibly fascinating and impressive, regardless of its actual use. I agree with the article that it is currently not a piece of technology that would be a good fit for the majority of people, both because of its features and high price point. I also agree that I could see significant change with this and that it may eventually become much more widely used. It likely won't be as ubiquitous as the iPhone, but almost all technology starts with many skeptics, and much of the technology then grows to be widely accepted, and I see that as the most likely case for the Vision Pro.
Wow, the future really is now. Just earlier today I saw a video of a person walking into traffic wearing one of these things. And a video of a guy driving with one on, and a lot of other crap. I think these are pretty wacky when you think about what they are on a fundamental level. Imagine holding your phone up to your face all the time but also still being able to see, I guess. What a terrifying world we live in. I think it really says something about how some people are on their phone all the time. Stuff like this, that puts it in perspective, makes me want to live alone in Alaska for the rest of my life. I kind of hate how phones are affecting us as a society. But honestly, someone is going to make a sick game that you can play on this and then I’ll change my mind and say they’re really awesome. I don’t know, it’s gonna be what it’ll be.
Over the past few days I’ve been seeing a lot of reviews about the Vision Pro and it’s a surprisingly mixed bag for a new release of an Apple product (acknowledging that this is the first of it’s line and not just a new iPhone with some snazzy features). There are definitely some aspects that are still in beta but some features seem genuinely useful to an extent like the expanding mac and iPad display functionality. Mixed reality as a concept is one that is interesting to me, although I am cautious about how eager I am about the idea as I imagine widespread use of it and what that could mean for our fundamental relationships with how we interact with the world. We’re already seeing a version of it with those sunglasses with tiny embedded cameras that can film anywhere without other people knowing and other wireless devices that conduct internet searches and bypass the need for a phone. We’re on a fascinating, kind of scary technological trajectory and I’m curious (and to be honest, vaguely apprehensive) to see where we end up with it.
“A lot of you” being 200,000 is a somewhat misguided statement to open the article with considering that is around average for VR headsets. I think this article does describe it best though, it’s cool. Just that, cool. It’s cool you can use your Apple apps in the headset. It’s cool you can have Facetime calls in the headset. But it’s not worth it yet, in any sense of the word. The headset (to my knowledge) can’t be used for any VR game and can’t even be used for things like watching a movie in a movie theatre environment like being provided with steamVR’s “big screen” mode. None of the Vision Pro’s (don’t even get me started on using pro in a product that doesn’t even have a nonpro version to compare to) features do much besides be cool. Even what most so far have described as the most useful feature, the Mac screen mirroring is limited to one screen at a time for seemingly no reason as having infinite screens for your laptop seems like a huge selling point as it is also something really easy to do. The price is also a very Apple price as it starts at more than double the most expensive vr headsets on the market while only being better than some and only at certain features.
Apparently I live under a rock, because I had no idea this vision pro thing existed. I feel like maybe a couple months ago I saw an image of the “apple mixed reality headset” but I dismissed it as a joke and an edited image. I can’t believe it’s actually a thing. I really don’t understand the appeal of it, as I am someone who prefers to not be fully immersed in my computer when I am doing my work, as typing on the computer without a good sense of the outside world seems like an awful experience, but then again, I am not a fancy tech bro. I also don’t know a lot about the whole “mixed reality” versus “virtual reality thing” so I could have a vital misunderstanding of what makes the concept of walking around with the internet merged into the everyday world appealing. Also, I’m somewhat concerned about the general safety of the thing, I’ve seen a lot of videos of people crossing streets and going about their lives, which seems like a massive brewing danger situation.
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