[HN Gopher] Apple Vision Pro review
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Apple Vision Pro review
        
       Author : fortran77
       Score  : 283 points
       Date   : 2024-01-30 14:28 UTC (8 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.wsj.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.wsj.com)
        
       | satvikpendem wrote:
       | As long as it's still gimped by not having a true productive OS
       | like macOS, ie making everything go through the app store so as
       | to not cannibalize Mac sales, it will be relegated as simply
       | another form factor for the iPad. The iPad could've been a true
       | Surface competitor, where I could run VSCode on it and compile
       | applications natively, but instead it's just become a media
       | consumption device for most people.
        
         | Eisenstein wrote:
         | > but instead it's just become a media consumption device for
         | most people.
         | 
         | I don't think that is true. I think 'most people' don't need a
         | computer for more than what an iPad can do, and that your use
         | case is more exceptional than common.
         | 
         | Computers as we think of them, with a somewhat permissive
         | operating system that let's you execute whatever you want are
         | probably going to decrease in relevance to somewhere akin to
         | how they were in the 90s -- incredibly powerful devices useful
         | to some people who need them for particular reasons or just
         | like using them. Everyone else will be fine with whatever the
         | equivalent of the smartphone/tablet OS is.
        
           | satvikpendem wrote:
           | Sure, but I still see most people using iPads for media while
           | having a MacBook for "real work," which is exactly what Apple
           | wants, to not cannibalize their own products.
        
             | urda wrote:
             | I'm actually not seeing that and the market numbers don't
             | agree with ya on that. Many less "pro" consumers (not
             | coders or the heavy engineering skew you find here on HN)
             | in my circles have moved away from their traditional Macs
             | as their iPads coupled with their keyboard case of choice
             | or apple pencil (or both) do a lot of their on-the-go.
        
               | satvikpendem wrote:
               | In my circles of even non-tech people, everyone has a new
               | Apple Silicon MacBook now, I rarely see people using
               | their iPad for work.
        
               | ghaff wrote:
               | I've had people at work tell me their kid doesn't want a
               | MacBook because their phone works fine for writing
               | papers. My brain still can't process.
               | 
               | I've never made my iPad work for me on a business trip
               | except for something very short where I won't really be
               | writing. I also don't draw and, while I could probably do
               | photo editing on it well enough, I wait until I get home
               | and use old-school Lightroom.
        
               | poulsbohemian wrote:
               | I'd agree with this, with one little carve out... when I
               | was traveling internationally, it was super helpful to
               | have an iPad and be able to slip in a sim card for a
               | local carrier. That plus slightly smaller size made the
               | iPad a better option than carrying my laptop in those
               | specific circumstances.
        
               | ghaff wrote:
               | Fair point. I don't have an iPad with cellular. Honestly
               | not sure when/if I'll get a new iPad--it's about 6 years
               | old--and I have a long recreational international trip
               | coming up; haven't decided if I'll bring a laptop or not.
        
             | jwells89 wrote:
             | Apps like Procreate have sold a _lot_ of iPads to artists
             | who use them for "real work", as has the Sidecar capability
             | which lets an iPad and Apple Pencil act like a Cintiq with
             | a better screen that's not desk-bound.
             | 
             | It's true that they're limited but that doesn't mean that
             | there isn't work that's well-suited for them.
        
           | ryandrake wrote:
           | Or, the computer manufacturers will try their best to stuff
           | the Permissiveness Genie back into the bottle. It seems with
           | every macOS release, Apple is determined to make more things
           | previous Macs could do either impossible, hidden behind
           | permissions or hidden behind default-off settings.
        
         | wombat-man wrote:
         | Well, you can use your mac's screen inside the vision pro, but
         | I've read the resolution for that is weirdly low, QHD.
         | 
         | Meta isn't really opening up their headset, since the whole
         | point of that adventure for them was to have their 'iphone'
         | type kingdom.
         | 
         | Our best bet might just be Microsoft but they gave up on mixed
         | reality windows, and Idk if they're really gearing up to jump
         | into this product space.
         | 
         | I'm fascinated in the idea of Vision pro, not sure I'm ready to
         | shell out for what is basically just a really great movie
         | watching experience. I can see the movie pretty well on my 4k
         | tv, and I'm not sure the improvement is worth the cash.
        
           | ipsum2 wrote:
           | Side loading apps on the quest is pretty simple using the
           | aptly named SideQuest, it only requires a one time 15 minute
           | set up. Definitely a lot easier than trying to do this on an
           | iPhone/iPad/iQuest.
        
             | PaulHoule wrote:
             | Meta Quest also has full support for WebXR which lets you
             | bypass all the app store BS. You can use this framework to
             | make worlds visible on most XR headsets as well as desktop
             | and mobile
             | 
             | https://aframe.io/
             | 
             | My understanding is that Apple is making excuses about
             | being slow to support WebXR.
             | 
             | As much as the media has benn fixated about the failed
             | _Horizon Worlds_ (which is a very interesting story that I
             | 've never seen elaborated from a software dev's
             | perspective) you might not know that the successful model
             | for Quest is the same as publishing on other game consoles.
             | The market for single-player games for MQ is really healthy
             | but multiplayer games are really thin on the ground which
             | makes the "metaverse" idea look pretty dodgy. I mean, there
             | is the multiplayer VRChat but you're going to have to rub
             | shoulders with weaboos and furries which keeps other
             | obnoxious people away.
        
               | Jcowell wrote:
               | The VisionPro supports WebXR is safari
               | 
               | https://www.roadtovr.com/apple-vision-pro-webxr-support-
               | safa...
        
           | deergomoo wrote:
           | > I've read the resolution for that is weirdly low, QHD
           | 
           | This is something I've been wondering about. The Vision Pro's
           | displays are 4K per eye, for the entire field of view. The
           | monitor I'm sitting in front of is 5K, and takes up quite a
           | bit less than my full field of view.
           | 
           | Surely the virtual Mac screen (and everything, I guess) is
           | gonna be substantially lower resolution than traditional
           | high-DPI screens at normal viewing distances?
        
             | Synaesthesia wrote:
             | It's going to be presented as a 5k Retina display to your
             | Mac, with a 2550x1600 at 2x rendering, downscaled somewhat
             | to a bit over 4k of so. Therefore it will appear kinda like
             | a retina imac. 27 display but not quite as sharp.
        
               | SirMaster wrote:
               | Seems like it would be less than that though?
               | 
               | Depends on your typical FOV to your monitor.
               | 
               | If the headset manages to be 4000 pixels wide, but that
               | is filling say 110 degree FOV, then if your virtual
               | display is 44 degree FOV, it's only going to be
               | represented by about 1600 pixels wide. 4000/(110/44) =
               | 1600.
               | 
               | I wish we knew what the actual resolution of this headset
               | is and what the FOV is.
               | 
               | They say it's 23 MP total, so if the screens were square
               | that would be 3391x3391.
               | 
               | If the FOV is 100 and our virtual screen was 50, then the
               | screen would be 1695 pixels across.
               | 
               | And finally you lose some effective resolution because of
               | the nature of the virtual screen being not aligned
               | perfectly with the headset's panel. Since your head would
               | be slightly askew in relation to the virtual monitor due
               | to head tracking.
               | 
               | https://kguttag.com/2023/08/05/apple-vision-pro-
               | part-5a-why-...
        
               | harpastum wrote:
               | I think your math is correct, and it will be very limited
               | compared to a real-life retina screen, but I think
               | there's also a perceived resolution increase from having
               | binocular vision and moving.
               | 
               | If you hold your head steady while looking through a
               | window with a plastic screen on it, things outside are
               | obstructed. If you move your head slightly back and forth
               | and focus in the distance, the screen pretty much
               | disappears.
               | 
               | Your brain can do some motion smoothing to determine the
               | "actual" content, even if it's sampled. I'm not sure how
               | you could quantify it, and it only helps a relatively
               | small amount, but it's there.
        
         | whafro wrote:
         | But you can see your Mac (running macOS) on it. In that sense,
         | it's "just" a monitor, but far from Apple's most expensive
         | monitor.
         | 
         | Another comment mentions that you're confined to the host
         | computer's "screen" and can't break applications away from that
         | rectangle. But you could imagine that being a possibility in
         | the not-too-distant future.
        
         | gpm wrote:
         | I don't think it's worried about cannibalizing mac sales. If it
         | does that it just means Apple gets to sell computers at a
         | substantial premium with a moat against other manufacturers.
         | 
         | I think it's worried about not being able to apply a 30% tax on
         | third party software.
        
         | kristiandupont wrote:
         | It will have a browser. You can do pretty much anything in a
         | browser.
        
         | matheusmoreira wrote:
         | > it's just become a media consumption device
         | 
         | That's exactly what corporations like Apple want their devices
         | to be.
        
         | losvedir wrote:
         | I feel like this is a gut-level response based on history with
         | the iPad, but doesn't translate to the Vision Pro.
         | 
         | I think it's meant to be used _with_ a Mac for most
         | productivity use cases. That 's how I intend to use mine:
         | VSCode, terminals, compiling all happening on my nearby laptop
         | with the Vision Pro as "just" a 4K monitor, and then extra apps
         | like Slack, Zoom, Safari, Mail, music, etc, floating around as
         | native visionOS windows.
         | 
         | In _addition_ , it can be used as an iPad-like media
         | consumption device, e.g., on an airplane, but I see that as an
         | additional (and for me only supplementary) use case.
        
       | spking wrote:
       | https://archive.ph/OiKhr
        
       | atbpaca wrote:
       | I read somewhere that the FOV is only 100-110, as opposed to full
       | immersion as seen on their marketing material.
        
         | wombat-man wrote:
         | That's what I'm reading too. But reviewers still say it's good
         | for movie viewing.
        
           | Someone wrote:
           | You don't need a large FOV for movie viewing. Even if it were
           | only 60deg, you'd be able see a 2 meter wide screen at a
           | distance of 2 meters (and that's measuring that distance to
           | the edges of that screen; its center would be about 15%
           | closer)
        
             | wombat-man wrote:
             | Yeah that makes sense.
        
         | Kirby64 wrote:
         | I've got an HTC Vive which is also ~110degrees. Although you do
         | initially get the 'looking through ski goggles' feeling when
         | you first put it on, that feeling VERY quickly goes away when
         | you start doing anything inside. It's plenty immersive. Sure,
         | more FoV would be nicer, but it's not like looking through a
         | telescope or something.
        
         | pavlov wrote:
         | The Verge's review says the FOV feels noticeably smaller than
         | the Quest 3 which is 110deg:
         | 
         |  _" The displays have other limitations: the field of view
         | isn't huge, and the essential nature of looking at tiny
         | displays through lenses makes that field of view feel even
         | smaller. Apple won't tell me the exact number, but the Vision
         | Pro's field of view is certainly smaller than the Quest 3's 110
         | horizontal degrees. That means there are fairly large black
         | borders around what you're seeing, a bit like you're looking
         | through binoculars."_
         | 
         | https://www.theverge.com/24054862/apple-vision-pro-review-vr...
        
         | jsheard wrote:
         | I don't think it's even possible to get a fully immersive FOV
         | in that form factor with the current SOTA optics, the few
         | headsets which do have ultra-wide FOVs are enormous bricks.
         | 
         | The widest FOV headset you can currently buy is the XTAL 3 at
         | 180 degrees, and it's huge, despite being a PC-tethered design
         | that doesn't need to make space for a SoC or battery.
         | 
         | https://www.xtal.pro/product/xtal-3-mr
         | 
         | We're a few breakthroughs away from having full immersion _and_
         | a reasonable form factor at the same time.
        
           | dylan604 wrote:
           | I always think back to the Nikkor 6mm fisheye lens[0] for
           | example of what it takes to have 180deg FOV. It's _a lot_ of
           | glass.
           | 
           | [0]https://duckduckgo.com/?t=h_&q=nikkor+6mm+f2.8+fisheye&iax
           | =i...
        
             | jsheard wrote:
             | Amusingly the XTAL 3 MR is only slightly heavier than the
             | Vision Pro despite all the glass it must have inside to
             | produce that FOV.
        
               | filoleg wrote:
               | Yeah, but XTAL 3 MR has zero standalone capabilities and
               | requires being tethered to a rather beefy PC to function
               | at all.
               | 
               | From their own page, the very _minimum_ requirements for
               | the PC are 32GB RAM and an RTX2060 GPU. And that's a
               | minimum, so I am not sure how well it functions with
               | those specs.
        
             | pezezin wrote:
             | That lens is even more impressive, it has a 210o FOV! Yes,
             | it can see behind itself.
        
           | baby wrote:
           | Personally when I use the Quest I don't feel like my view is
           | limited, maybe it is tho but it's non noticeable
        
       | isoprophlex wrote:
       | That... doesn't sound all that bad, to be honest. But will it run
       | Pycharm?
        
         | cpdean wrote:
         | Imagining all the people getting first-degree burns on their
         | face trying to open jetbrains applications.
        
           | lapetitejort wrote:
           | I don't see the problem as long as they're using dark mode
        
             | SushiHippie wrote:
             | They probably meant the heat the CPU generates when opening
             | heavy programs
        
         | CharlesW wrote:
         | No, but remote desktop solutions will be a popular app category
         | for AVP. The developer of Virtual Desktop has announced that he
         | intends to support visionOS, for example.
        
       | tunesmith wrote:
       | One of the aspects of the device that has been under-realized is
       | that when mirroring your desktop/laptop display to the AVP, you
       | can't break out its applications into different areas. You can't
       | pull them away from the desktop window.
       | 
       | This is one of those things that Apple never claimed was
       | supported, and yet there's something about that behavior that
       | feels like such a natural intuitive implication to the technology
       | that a lot of people feel alarmed or even cheated when they
       | realize it's not possible (yet). It's been funny to watch the
       | various discussion threads as people pop up talking about their
       | shocked realization and disappointed feelings.
       | 
       | Update: I did realize when watching the WSJ video that the
       | "mirrored" display actually appeared to have greater "resolution"
       | (more pixels in height and width) than what she had on her
       | laptop. So that's something.
        
         | orenlindsey wrote:
         | You can put VisionOS apps next to the Mac desktop, so it isn't
         | as much of a problem as it seems.
        
         | jwells89 wrote:
         | I wouldn't be surprised if this came in a visionOS update. On a
         | shorter timescale it could also come in the form of third party
         | apps, because there's no technical limitations preventing a
         | server app from cutting out windows on a desktop OS and sending
         | them over a wire to a visionOS client.
        
           | spogbiper wrote:
           | There are third party apps that do this already on the Quest.
           | I believe they can replicate Mac screens, they definitely can
           | replicate Windows PC screens into the VR space. If Apple
           | doesn't provide a 1st party solution I suspect someone else
           | will soon.
        
           | orangecat wrote:
           | _On a shorter timescale it could also come in the form of
           | third party apps_
           | 
           | If Apple approves it, of course. This is one of my major
           | concerns; there's a lot of potentially useful functionality
           | that could be implemented, but you have to jump through the
           | app store hoops and hope that Apple doesn't decide that it
           | conflicts with their idea of what you should be allowed to
           | do.
        
             | jwells89 wrote:
             | Functionally speaking these apps would be scarcely
             | distinguishable from the plethora of screen streaming apps
             | that exist on the App Store already, like Screens and
             | Moonlight. Of course Apple could reject these apps anyway
             | but it seems unlikely.
        
         | leetharris wrote:
         | I agree that this should be considered long term, however...
         | you are able to snap VisionOS / iPadOS apps anywhere around
         | your Macbook view AND you are able to control those very apps
         | with your Macbook trackpad.
         | 
         | So even though you have a sequestered Mac output alongside
         | Vision apps, you can use the same controls for all them
         | simultaneously. This should help in the interim.
        
           | mjamesaustin wrote:
           | Yeah when I found this out, it resolved my concerns. Most of
           | my apps will have a native Vision release (email, web
           | browser, slack, etc.) and my actual monitor screen will only
           | need more professional software (e.g. Photoshop, Illustrator,
           | InDesign).
        
         | cududa wrote:
         | It seems very reasonable this will be a future feature. I've
         | long suspected iPad OS' stage manager feature shipping so half
         | baked was really more of getting the platform ready to support
         | multiple apps and easier manipulation (from a developer
         | perspective) of the double buffered "window" textures - given
         | Vision Pro is based on iPad OS.
         | 
         | With Stage Manager on macOS now, it feels like they have all
         | the primitives in place to "transpose" macOS stage manager
         | windows textures to Vision OS/ the iPad OS foundation.
         | 
         | Though this will be tricky to get right for _all_ apps. Will be
         | interesting to see if it 's a macOS App store only feature/
         | API, opt-in, or some other option
        
           | refulgentis wrote:
           | They shipped iPad Stage Manager half-baked, to get _iPad_
           | developers ready for double-buffered windows, so they could
           | eventually ship the visionOS _macOS_ integration half-baked?
           | Doesn 't sound right at all to my ears, even though I'm
           | stoked for my order!
           | 
           | EDIT: -5* doesn't make sense, this is the most polite way you
           | can point out that getting macOS apps windowed on visionOS
           | has ~0 to do with double-buffered windows on iPad OS. n.b. I
           | didn't use half-baked, OP did.
        
             | cududa wrote:
             | No, I'm saying they shipped iPad stage manager half baked
             | for their own uses/ to refine for AVP. I'm positing that a
             | major reason for macOS stage manager's existence is as a
             | transport layer/ "texture formatter"
        
             | Terretta wrote:
             | I don't think it's half-baked. I think it's lightly
             | toasted. :-)
             | 
             | I use iPad Pro as a kind of sidecar daily driver, in the
             | magnetic dock magic keyboard w/ trackpad.
             | 
             | As I type this, the screen shows a traditional MacOS style
             | dock across bottom, four Stage Manager window clusters I
             | can tap with a thumb on the left, and Safari plus Messages
             | taking 2/3 and 1/2 of screen respectively.
             | 
             | There's more app and pixel real estate than most Windows
             | laptops, and bringing screen sets to the foreground or
             | swapping them back to the side is so natural I almost feel
             | like giving up that space on my Mac as well.
             | 
             | The big thing I saw happen from apps over the past two
             | version of iOS is app devs realizing their windows will not
             | always be full screen or 1/2 screen size, but arbitrary
             | size.
             | 
             | By now, most iPad apps of any serious nature are
             | effectively window size independent, making them play well
             | with others in stage manager. It's easy to see how that
             | would make them play well with the headset one day.
        
             | Jcowell wrote:
             | On another operative, I use Stage Manager everyday of Mac &
             | iPad and it's pretty neat. I actually forgot I was until
             | you mentioned it
        
           | andrewmcwatters wrote:
           | They can already do this with the desktop composition
           | software they use today. All the windows are virtualized onto
           | backing layers that you can draw anywhere and add effects to.
           | It's how window shadows work, and how certain window effects
           | are done.
           | 
           | They just haven't done it.
        
             | ncr100 wrote:
             | So Apple could have done this, but did not. Why?
             | (Speculation and leaks welcome)
             | 
             | - [Profit on basic innovation] Did they want to wait and
             | see how their customers would adopt VisionOS's native free-
             | floating windows, so as to avoid cognitive overload by
             | commingling with MacOS windows?
             | 
             | - [Benevolence to fellow competitors] Did they not want to
             | takeover the existing market of virtualized VR desktops?
        
               | theultdev wrote:
               | Most likely because it wasn't polished, so get it out now
               | in a polished and limited state and now you have a fancy
               | update to tout when it is done.
        
               | realslimjd wrote:
               | I'm reasonably certain it's a combination bandwidth and
               | tech issue.
               | 
               | The Vision Pro is effectively using AirPlay to mirror the
               | whole screen. If you used AirPlay to mirror each window
               | as a whole screen, you'd run out of bandwidth pretty
               | quickly.
               | 
               | The windowing system in MacOS, Quartz Compositor, also
               | isn't built to stream window information. Right now it
               | has a big built in assumption that any windows its
               | displaying are on a screen it also controls. It was
               | probably too big a lift across teams to also re-write the
               | graphics stack for MacOS for the launch of the Vision
               | Pro. Hopefully they get it working in the future, but
               | neither of these problems are easy to solve.
        
             | cududa wrote:
             | I'm aware. I've worked in the space. It isn't as simple as
             | you're making it out.
        
               | refulgentis wrote:
               | Yes, it is.
               | 
               | In fact, there's already a project for it on GitHub.
               | https://github.com/saagarjha/Ensemble
               | 
               | 480 lines total, including comments, headers, whole
               | shebang.
        
               | chaos_emergent wrote:
               | > Ensemble is currently "pre-alpha": it's really more of
               | a demo at this point. There's a lot of things I need to
               | work on and until then it is unlikely I will be taking
               | any code contributions.... The code is definitely not
               | designed for general-purpose use yet, so don't expect
               | much of it :)
        
               | threeseed wrote:
               | Tech demos are often easy to put together.
               | 
               | It's all of the edge cases and UX refinements that takes
               | time.
        
               | refulgentis wrote:
               | Yeah, sure. I'm gonna go ahead and say Apple probably
               | could have found a way to ship this over the visionOS dev
               | cycle.
        
               | AshamedCaptain wrote:
               | Sorry but almost 10 years ago I could do this on Xorg
               | where the worst problem is that compositors cannot
               | redirect input (so you had to kludge new events from
               | scratch). I cannot imagine it would take more than _half
               | an hour_ for someone with macOS display compositor
               | experience to implement it.
        
               | refulgentis wrote:
               | You nailed it, down to how you'd do it without _any_ help
               | from Cupertino: https://github.com/saagarjha/Ensemble
        
               | sleepybrett wrote:
               | It's probably more down to the getting the UI right on
               | apple's end.
        
               | kj99 wrote:
               | Except that doesn't actually do it. It is just a proof of
               | concept.
               | 
               | Try it with a full suite of Mac Apps and you'll find it
               | falls apart because they aren't all well behaved.
        
               | wharvle wrote:
               | I doubt making the windows draw is what's taking them
               | time to get right.
        
               | glhaynes wrote:
               | _I cannot imagine it would take more than _half an hour_
               | for someone with macOS display compositor experience to
               | implement it._
               | 
               | What fools Apple engineering management must be, then!
        
               | kj99 wrote:
               | And the reason Xorg is now dying in favor of a system
               | that _doesn't_ have this capability is because the
               | architecture that enabled it, while cool at the time,
               | severely limited the graphics performance and capability
               | of the applications.
        
               | ubercow13 wrote:
               | What? Doesn't Wayland work this way by design?
        
             | brookst wrote:
             | Yes?
             | 
             | The first iphone didn't have copy/paste.
             | 
             | Apple will always prioritize critical scenarios over nice
             | to have. None of these things are technically difficult,
             | it's just time. I'm willing to believe they released too
             | early, but at some point you have to start learning from
             | real users.
        
             | gorkish wrote:
             | > They just haven't done it.
             | 
             | Literally nobody has done it. It's beyond ridiculous that
             | you can't already show or duplicate an application window
             | on any display you want and allow it to be controlled from
             | anywhere it is visible.
             | 
             | Searching for ways to do this lead one into extremely niche
             | software ecosystems. Please is there any collaboration app
             | out there that makes it seamless to toss windows around
             | like everyone actually wants?
        
               | joshspankit wrote:
               | I feel like multiple people did it back in the original
               | X11 days, and almost certainly when compiz was the new
               | hotness
        
               | jandrese wrote:
               | Isn't this how ordinary spanning monitors works? It might
               | be slightly awkward with AR goggles since the relative
               | orientation of the displays will be constantly changing
               | as your head moves, and what happens to a window you have
               | half on and half off of the Macbook's screen when you
               | look away? Or do you want to have the application jump
               | between devices, like appearing on your fridge when you
               | go for a drink? With the old X11 protocol and a daemon in
               | the middle this was possible but the use cases were
               | extremely limited and the security issues made it a pain
               | in the ass to actually use. With distros moving away from
               | X11 this is only going to get harder, and you have to ask
               | yourself how much you really want it.
               | 
               | This would mean the goggles would be basically just a
               | dumb display for the Mac. It would also be weird to try
               | to move an AR app onto your Mac.
        
         | losvedir wrote:
         | Yeah, I don't think "mirroring" is quite the right term. It's
         | effectively a 4K monitor for the laptop, with the laptop screen
         | going black. Most (all?) Mac laptops don't have a 4K screen, so
         | you have more screen real estate than "mirroring" would make
         | you think.
         | 
         | But this is sufficient for many use cases (or at least, mine).
         | I pre-ordered one with the idea that my main work will be on
         | the 4K monitor, with most of my superfluous apps floating
         | around as native visionOS apps. That's mail, a web browser, and
         | zoom, which all have apps now, and Slack, which I could just
         | use Safari for but may have a native app in the future.
        
           | grumbel wrote:
           | > 4K monitor
           | 
           | It's more like 1080p monitor. The virtual monitor only covers
           | a small part of the VisionPro's display. You can compensate a
           | bit for a lack of resolution by making the virtual screen
           | bigger or by leaning in, but none of that gives you a 4k
           | display.
           | 
           | To really take proper advantage of the VR environment you
           | really need the ability to pull out apps into their own
           | windows, as than you can move lesser used apps into your
           | peripheral vision and leave only the important stuff right in
           | front of you. You also miss out on the verticality that VR
           | offers when you are stuck with a virtual 16:9 screen.
        
             | brookst wrote:
             | 4k is important because of perspective, rotation, and
             | aliasing. Just sending 1080p would look terrible.
        
             | threeseed wrote:
             | It is a 1440p display.
             | 
             | Which is the resolution that the majority of PC users are
             | likely using.
        
           | xattt wrote:
           | Is it mirrored as some HEVC video stream from the laptop, or
           | are UI elements actually rendered on headset itself?
        
           | layer8 wrote:
           | The screen real-estate is the same as for a 1440p screen.
           | From The Verge's review:
           | 
           | "There is a lot of very complicated display scaling going on
           | behind the scenes here, but the easiest way to think about it
           | is that you're basically getting a 27-inch Retina display,
           | like you'd find on an iMac or Studio Display. Your Mac thinks
           | it's connected to a 5K display with a resolution of 5120 x
           | 2880, and it runs macOS at a 2:1 logical resolution of 2560 x
           | 1440, just like a 5K display. (You can pick other
           | resolutions, but the device warns you that they'll be lower
           | quality.) That virtual display is then streamed as a 4K 3560
           | x 2880 video to the Vision Pro, where you can just make it as
           | big as you want. The upshot of all of this is that 4K content
           | runs at a native 4K resolution -- it has all the pixels to do
           | it, just like an iMac -- but you have a grand total of 2560 x
           | 1440 to place windows in, regardless of how big you make the
           | Mac display in space, and you're not seeing a pixel-perfect
           | 5K image."
        
         | hyperthesis wrote:
         | Discontent over this implementation detail shows users are
         | fully sold on the basic idea. Like, if the main complaint about
         | the first Fords was the colour range.
        
           | nimblegorilla wrote:
           | I think it's a more important feature than just a cosmetic
           | color. Imagine if you bought a truck to haul cargo, but were
           | then told it can only transport one type of cargo at a time.
           | That would suck.
        
         | nickrubin wrote:
         | It looks like someone is working on a Mac app that does exactly
         | this, and they seem to have a functional prototype:
         | https://x.com/TheOriginaliTE/status/1751251567641346340?s=20
        
           | wahnfrieden wrote:
           | Unclear if Apple will allow this in the store
           | 
           | edit: Yes I know you can build apps before they're in the
           | store
        
             | LeoPanthera wrote:
             | As long as it's open source, you can sideload onto any iOS
             | device by building it yourself.
        
               | dns_snek wrote:
               | Iff you pay an annual $100 dev fee.
               | 
               | Yes I know you can _technically_ do this without a paid
               | dev account, but it 's practically useless because it has
               | to be re-done every 7 days.
        
             | shadowfacts wrote:
             | It is permitted on the App Store. The developer had a
             | thread on the fediverse several days ago.
        
         | zitterbewegung wrote:
         | The largest portable MacBook Pro 16.2 inch has a 3456-by-2234
         | native resolution at 254 pixels per inch which by default is
         | halved . So I don't know what she means exactly about 4k but
         | there are enough pixels to do a portable 4k display.
        
         | tiltowait wrote:
         | The inability to break out Mac windows curbed a lot of my
         | enthusiasm for the AVP. I hope Apple will eventually add it,
         | but I'm not going to spend $3500 on that hope.
        
           | pmarreck wrote:
           | The fact that pretty much everyone who owns both a Vision Pro
           | and a Mac would want that feature means it's probably going
           | to happen.
        
           | sleepybrett wrote:
           | It will be less of an issue for me if we start seeing native
           | builds of popular IDEs like xcode, intelli-j/goland, etc for
           | vision pro (and other apps for other people say photoshop). I
           | think of the 'projected screen' feature more like a
           | compatibility layer like Rosetta 2. You use it until you get
           | a native build then it stops being a thing you bother with.
        
             | callalex wrote:
             | That will never happen. Nobody will make real software for
             | iOS because nobody wants to pay a 30% fee for the privilege
             | of randomly having their whole business shut down when an
             | app reviewer is in a bad mood.
        
               | huytersd wrote:
               | What world do you live in? The iOS App Store is probably
               | the most full fledged and populated app ecosystem there
               | is.
        
               | callalex wrote:
               | And yet none of the software GP mentioned are available
               | on it.
        
               | huytersd wrote:
               | It's been 1 day.
        
               | callalex wrote:
               | No, iPads have been around for more than a decade.
        
               | huytersd wrote:
               | Are you referring to IDEs? The iPad is not a productive
               | machine. It's for consumption. The VisionOS is for
               | productivity which is very different from anything on iOS
               | so I imagine it's going to be available on it.
        
               | threeseed wrote:
               | IntelliJ, GoLand etc are Java apps.
               | 
               | Windows, BeOS and Commodore 64 apps also don't run
               | natively on the iPad or Vision Pro.
        
         | dirtyv wrote:
         | Appears possible in theory:
         | https://github.com/saagarjha/Ensemble
        
         | wtallis wrote:
         | Streaming an arbitrary collection of windows instead of a
         | single finished, composited framebuffer increases the bandwidth
         | requirements by at least an order of magnitude. That's never
         | going to work well over WiFi.
        
           | ehsankia wrote:
           | As long as the total number of pixels is less, I don't see
           | what that has to be true, at least bandwidth wise? Compute
           | wise, the vision might have to do slightly more to separate
           | the buffer and composite them into the AR view in different
           | places, but the bandwidth should be direction proportional to
           | the number/size of each window. If I can fit all the windows
           | on a 4K screen, then I don't see why the software can't split
           | that and lay it out separate in my view instead of in a
           | single rectangle.
        
           | jayd16 wrote:
           | Just compress the stream. Total pixels increase the vram on
           | the device but popping out a static window shouldn't take any
           | more than a trivial amount of streaming bandwidth.
        
         | mtillman wrote:
         | the iPhone debuted without copy/paste. They'll get to it but
         | maybe not immediately.
        
         | timenova wrote:
         | Further, I wish they added support to make multiple virtual
         | monitors from macOS Workspaces, like what happens today when
         | you attach another monitor. Switching workspaces can be bound
         | to keys in the Keyboard Settings. Moving windows to other
         | workspaces is easy to do with third-party apps like Amethyst.
         | 
         | It feels like the Vision Pro would definitely be a great
         | replacement for people who (want to) buy multiple expensive
         | monitors, but it doesn't fully reach that potential today, and
         | mostly because of software? Although rendering 3 or 4 virtual
         | workspaces through ad-hoc Wifi at 4K 60fps+ low-latency would
         | certainly be a huge challenge.
        
           | reactordev wrote:
           | I do this sometimes on my meta quest. Go into desktop VR and
           | pull up a couple desktop views so I can see things happen in
           | real time on different "screens".
        
         | huytersd wrote:
         | I guess there is something to the macpro being able to handle
         | the output for one screen at a time. If it has to render 4k
         | outputs for 10 different screens simultaneously, performance is
         | going to suffer.
        
         | joshspankit wrote:
         | On Windows of all places (95ish to MEish) there was a remote
         | tool called radmin and it had something that I wish companies
         | had embraced: it hooked in to (maybe even before?) the window-
         | rendering functions and sent the changes over the network. It's
         | hard to explain exactly what I mean because everyone is so used
         | to streaming pictures of the screen over the network (if they
         | even use remote access at all), but you could have _less than
         | 20ms latency while controlling over the internet while using
         | tiny amounts of data_ (50kbps? 100? not sure but somewhere
         | around there).
         | 
         | OSX had the opportunity to follow that path before settling on
         | the "render windows, capture the screen, compress the image,
         | send it over the network to be decompressed" VNC-style remote
         | access that's bog-standard today, and if they had Vision Pro
         | would be set up to be an absolute mind-blowing macOS
         | experience.
        
           | jackvalentine wrote:
           | X windows system basically does that iirc, and I remember the
           | magic you speak of.
        
           | lbussell wrote:
           | Yeah, you can do this with x forwarding on Linux. Not sure if
           | there's a modern Wayland equivalent.
        
             | aidenn0 wrote:
             | Wayland clients don't draw things the way old-school X
             | clients do (neither do modern X clients), so it doesn't
             | make sense at the Wayland level. KDE or GTK could
             | potentially implement something like this though.
        
           | sterlind wrote:
           | isn't that how Xorg remoting used to work as well? the
           | display server and client are separate, so whether the pipe
           | was local or remote didn't matter. In principle, Wayland
           | could do it too, I think, if there were a way to synchronize
           | texture handles (the Wayland protocol is also message-based,
           | but IPCs GPU handles around instead of copying bitmaps.)
           | 
           | I guess one downfall is that that your pipe has to be
           | lossless, and there's no way to recover from a broken pipe
           | (unless you keep a shadow copy of the window state, and have
           | a protocol for resynchronizing from that, and a way to ensure
           | you don't get out of sync.)
        
           | aidenn0 wrote:
           | > On Windows of all places (95ish to MEish) there was a
           | remote tool called radmin and it had something that I wish
           | companies had embraced: it hooked in to (maybe even before?)
           | the window-rendering functions and sent the changes over the
           | network. It's hard to explain exactly what I mean because
           | everyone is so used to streaming pictures of the screen over
           | the network (if they even use remote access at all), but you
           | could have less than 20ms latency while controlling over the
           | internet while using tiny amounts of data (50kbps? 100? not
           | sure but somewhere around there).
           | 
           | This has been done many times before (see e.g. X Windows) and
           | has known downsides. Off the top of my head:
           | 
           | - You need the same fonts installed on both sides for native
           | font rendering to work
           | 
           | - Applications that don't use native drawing functions will
           | tend to be very chatty, making the total amount of data
           | larger than VNC/rdesktop/&c. style "send compressed pictures"
           | 
           | - Detaching and re-attaching to an application is hard to get
           | right, so it's either disallowed or buggy.
        
           | astrange wrote:
           | This can only work until it doesn't, and it won't work in
           | many situations because eg 1. apps aren't going to bother
           | being compatible with it 2. compositing has surprising
           | performance and memory costs, and in this case the
           | destination is more constrained than the source.
        
           | shermantanktop wrote:
           | IIRC many windows apps at that time were using MFC or
           | otherwise composing a UI out of rects, lines, buttons, etc.
           | Then came Winamp and the fad to draw crazy bitmaps as part of
           | the UI. If everyone does that, shipping draw commands is less
           | useful and shipping pixels makes a lot more sense.
        
           | barrkel wrote:
           | This is how Windows Remote Desktop used to work - it would
           | forward GDI instructions to be rendered remotely.
           | 
           | It falls apart as UIs got richer, browsers in particular:
           | they're entirely composited in-app and not via GDI, because
           | GDI isn't an expressive enough interface. So you end up
           | shipping a lot of bitmaps, and to optimize you need to
           | compress them. You might as well compress the whole screen
           | then.
           | 
           | https://www.anandtech.com/show/3972/nvidia-gtc-2010-wrapup/3
        
         | freeone3000 wrote:
         | That's really weird, because even the hololens has this
         | feature. Multiple windows, multiple desktops is how we want to
         | work.
        
       | NoPedantsThanks wrote:
       | No video input, no dice.
       | 
       | This thing could have been useful on day one for lots of people,
       | from drone operators to cinematographers to programmers. But
       | Apple's sad fear of I/O has crippled yet another product.
       | 
       | People should expect that a $3500 video-display device has a way
       | to get video into it.
        
         | jhatemyjob wrote:
         | It's actually insane, it's been over a decade, and nobody put
         | 2+2 together on this. It's right in the name... Head Mounted
         | Display.
         | 
         | I bet Luckey had something like this working in the early days
         | but abandoned it because it wouldn't work for games. What a
         | shame
        
       | spogbiper wrote:
       | What's the killer app? Quest headsets have been out for years and
       | haven't seemed to find one. Well.. besides 3d porn
        
         | jasonsb wrote:
         | It looks like there's no killer app this time. They just bet on
         | the fact that people will buy it because it's expensive and
         | it's designed by Apple.
        
           | joezydeco wrote:
           | Macintosh '84 didn't have a killer app until 1985-1986. And
           | it was a laser printer.
        
             | microtherion wrote:
             | Not sure about the social acceptance of people walking
             | around with a laser printer strapped to their face...
        
         | JumpCrisscross wrote:
         | > _What 's the killer app?_
         | 
         | Movies on airplanes. I'm guessing these will become virtually
         | ubiquitous in the front cabin within a few years.
        
           | ghaff wrote:
           | You mean the front cabin where they have big screens for
           | every seat?
           | 
           | I couldn't see carrying one of these instead of just an iPad
           | for movies. (But then I'm a very light packer.)
        
             | hwbehrens wrote:
             | I think it will be more like the proliferation of noise-
             | cancelling headphones; it's not about what it brings
             | (music, dialog, etc) but about what it blocks out (the
             | ambient sounds). Yes, you can watch a movie on a plane now,
             | but with a headset you _remove_ the depressing, crowded,
             | and claustrophobic visual environment.
        
               | ghaff wrote:
               | Although I'm not sure I want to be _that_ isolated from
               | the environment. (I do use noise canceling devices but
               | they 're in-ear.)
        
             | whartung wrote:
             | Back in the day I was flying back east and had some movies
             | loaded on my iPod Touch.
             | 
             | And I was casually watching one in my seat, the movie was
             | "Blackhawk Down". And it occurred to me how a neighbor
             | might not enjoy watching blood, guns, and violence out of
             | the corner of their eye.
             | 
             | So, I can absolutely see value in a headset style movie
             | experience in public places.
        
               | ghaff wrote:
               | I am perhaps slightly selective about what I watch on a
               | plane--depending somewhat on who is sitting beside me.
               | But my observation is that US airlines have gotten quite
               | a bit less editing-heavy in that regard and, at some
               | level, it's not my problem. (Although I'll be reasonable
               | if someone cares enough to ask me to not watch
               | something.)
        
           | amlib wrote:
           | Wouldn't just about any available headset that costs 10x to
           | 20x less suffice for this?
        
             | spogbiper wrote:
             | Pretty much, but I haven't seen anyone on a plane watching
             | movies with a Quest or similar headset
        
             | filleokus wrote:
             | XReal's glasses seem like they could be enough for this:
             | https://www.xreal.com/air2
        
           | bnolsen wrote:
           | For international flights they have may have a screen on the
           | back of the seat in front of you. Using a tablet or small
           | laptop works just as well without the discomfort of a
           | headset.
        
             | AlexandrB wrote:
             | A tablet also takes up less luggage space and probably has
             | better battery life.
        
         | willio58 wrote:
         | I've seen a few ideas that seem really interesting, just not at
         | the price point Apple is offering. And honestly I'm just going
         | to wait for these headsets to be smaller and lighter too before
         | buying one. I don't think anyone at Apple is under the
         | impression this device is going to be a money maker, but more
         | of a gen-1 device to provide a place to start from for further
         | work.
         | 
         | - Learning instruments in a guitar-hero way (Piano, guitar,
         | drums)
         | 
         | - Cooking with timers and recipes right in front of you (will
         | be even more doable with better internal displays in the
         | future)
         | 
         | - Coding with virtual displays on-demand. This is another thing
         | where we still need more resolution to make it really doable.
         | 
         | - Watching movies. Obviously a solo way of doing this but I
         | could see it being big.
         | 
         | - (once these are much lighter and less intrusive) I could see
         | these being huge for virtual workouts like Yoga, weight
         | lifting, etc.
         | 
         | Also regarding your question, I'm trying to think of the
         | "killer app" is for a currently successful device - iPhone. I
         | mean, camera? Texting? Most people use tiktok a ton but I
         | wouldn't consider that a killer app. I think it's more of the
         | device providing a home for a bunch of different apps.
        
           | spogbiper wrote:
           | killer app for the iphone was a truly usable portable web
           | browser. everything else early iphones did had been done many
           | times before, but a web browser that actually worked pretty
           | well on a portable device was new
        
           | patchorang wrote:
           | Cooking sounds like a nice application, but as soon as the
           | headset steams up/get condensation on the glass it will be
           | quite annoying. I can't imagine cooking in ski goggles.
        
             | MegaDeKay wrote:
             | Worse than that would be when you fry something and the
             | front of your $3500 headset gets splattered in grease. No
             | thanks.
        
               | theshackleford wrote:
               | It's called a cloth and they cost almost nothing.
        
               | Sodman wrote:
               | IDK they're like $19 these days and that's without even
               | knowing if they'll officially list the Vision Pro as a
               | supported device yet or not!
               | 
               | https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MM6F3AM/A/polishing-
               | cloth
        
           | oriolid wrote:
           | > Learning instruments in a guitar-hero way (Piano, guitar,
           | drums)
           | 
           | What would VR add here? For guitar-hero style instrument
           | learning, there are already Yousician, Simply Piano / Guitar,
           | Gibson and Fender apps, and quite a few others.
        
             | bnolsen wrote:
             | rocksmith is the big player here. It's awesome with a big
             | screen TV. VR only gets in the way.
        
             | willio58 wrote:
             | For piano it lines up the keys with the notes on your
             | physical keyboard, so you don't need to look at a separate
             | representation of a keyboard, you can literally see the
             | notes fall onto your piano at the right times. Same thing
             | with the other instruments.
        
               | oriolid wrote:
               | The problem is that once you get past the very initial
               | stage, you want to read ahead of what you play at the
               | moment. At that moment Synthesia-style falling blocks
               | notation becomes difficult to read because the blocks
               | don't have any position reference besides the keys and no
               | time values. Even the scrolling sheet music or tab is
               | distracting compared stationary black and white. With
               | guitar there's the additional problem that you can't see
               | both hands at the same time, and usually you won't be
               | looking at your hands at all. And if you ever want to
               | play without help from the app, you need to learn to find
               | the notes anyway.
               | 
               | This is by the way a great explanation of all the
               | attempts to make music easier to read and how they fail:
               | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eq3bUFgEcb4
        
             | crtified wrote:
             | > What would VR add here?
             | 
             | I'm imagining an AI VR tutor - heck, with some legal
             | deepfake+AI style evolution, perhaps that tutor could
             | actually be a famous player, talking to you.
             | 
             | The 3D view gives, well, a 3D view, and all the advantages
             | it entails. For example, when you are with a physical real
             | world teacher, you don't have a fixed view. You can observe
             | from any angle, the teacher can observe and correct micro
             | errors. And the senses of scale and proportion are intact,
             | unlike viewing on a 2D screen of arbitrary size at
             | arbitrary distance.
             | 
             | Even the simple POV of VR means that you get to see the
             | techniques in-situ - e.g. seeing the expert's hands on your
             | guitar, and how the technique is supposed to look from POV
             | - rather than the standard teacher-student limitation of
             | e.g. guitar, where the student sits opposite the teacher
             | and sees a reversed image.
             | 
             | But to be clear, my vision of how this would be game
             | changing relies upon a level of interplay between hardware
             | and software that is not yet developed. But I expect it
             | will be, in time, because virtualising real world
             | experiences is arguably the core goal of VR, and (correct
             | me if I'm wrong) but nothing in the music tuition world has
             | yet proven superior to having an extremely skilled one-on-
             | one mentor who can personally guide your every step, "in
             | person" - and this is what VR would seek to achieve here.
        
           | karaterobot wrote:
           | Working out with a VR headset on seems like a great way to
           | get the whole thing disgusting. Hope I can put this $3500
           | face computer through the washing machine.
        
           | riversflow wrote:
           | > virtual workouts
           | 
           | Or real workouts. I want to be able to have floating text to
           | read on my runs, and real time biometric data directly in my
           | field of view rather than on my watch would be cool too.
        
         | ENGNR wrote:
         | I think the killer app will be remote work. The social
         | interaction in VR chat is pretty good, if they can bring your
         | work environment in with lots of monitors, and then share parts
         | of it seamlessly and on demand but also have ample 100% focus
         | time, I can see it being better than an office in some ways
        
           | bnolsen wrote:
           | I thought so too but it doesn't take much time for a headset
           | to become uncomfortable. Taking one off and putting it back
           | on is cumbersome.
        
         | MichaelNolan wrote:
         | For me, I think the killer app would have to be something that
         | interacts with the real world. Watching movies, FaceTime, or
         | browsing the internet won't be enough for me to ever buy this.
         | But maybe if there was something like a home repair or car
         | repair app that could in real time identify and inspect the
         | objects, give me visual and audio instructions on how to
         | perform the repair, that could be a killer app. But I'm not
         | sure the AI/ML side is good enough yet to enable that.
        
           | spogbiper wrote:
           | The Microsoft Hololens demos included some examples of this.
           | It certainly looked interesting
           | 
           | example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIsjVaqdNpc
        
             | vaylian wrote:
             | Speaking of the MS Hololens: Is it still a thing and is
             | there a community of 3rd-party developers around it? It
             | showed a lot of promise when it was released.
        
               | pjmlp wrote:
               | Lets say I predict the same future for Apple's device.
        
               | bikson wrote:
               | Hololens are dead. Even their github is not updatel if i
               | remember well 2 years.
        
               | ephemeral-life wrote:
               | They pivoted to military applications and I haven't seen
               | much news about it. It looks like something out of the
               | futuristic call of duty games. It looks super cool, but
               | apparently soldiers didn't like it.
               | 
               | https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_Visual_Augment
               | ati...
        
               | spogbiper wrote:
               | https://www.theverge.com/2023/9/13/23871859/us-army-
               | microsof...
               | 
               | Apparently they are still making them for military
               | purposes
        
           | yunwal wrote:
           | I think even if it were good enough to place some static
           | instructions over a non-disruptive part of your field of
           | vision, with a pleasant way to display embedded images or
           | video, and a hands free control mechanism, I would find that
           | incredibly useful for DIY projects and stuff.
        
         | GeekyBear wrote:
         | Watching sports in 3D with spatial audio.
         | 
         | > According to an exclusive report from The New York Post, NBA
         | Commissioner Adam Silver "said the league is working with Apple
         | to bring a tech-enhanced viewing experience" to its upcoming
         | headset.
         | 
         | When asked about it, he told the outlet: "We're working very
         | closely with Apple."
         | 
         | https://www.tomsguide.com/news/nba-games-could-be-apple-visi...
         | 
         | If there is one group that has a track record for laying down
         | piles of money for hardware like giant televisions and
         | expensive streaming services, it's sports aficionados.
        
           | dpflan wrote:
           | Floor seats will be less desirable...or floor seat patrons
           | are wearing Apple Vision/goggles for the AR (joking! but
           | maybe serious)...
           | 
           | I do agree, just watching a sporting event on a projector
           | where the athletes are life-sized is excellent, on-field
           | cameras already provide a better view of the game then any
           | seat.
           | 
           | Now make it more immersive, and the trick of immersion is
           | very cool. Like The Sphere, that immersion is next level.
           | 
           | Add sports-betting to the Vision experience, that is a great
           | side-car app for this. (I am not pro-bet but see the usage).
        
           | matwood wrote:
           | Meta already has a deal with the nba for select games. Not
           | sure what the usage is like.
        
           | spogbiper wrote:
           | With standard coverage of sports, they cut between cameras
           | and zoom in/out, pan to follow the action etc. Even people
           | attending the game will be watching big screens showing this
           | content some of the time.
           | 
           | I'm wondering how that translates to VR.. do they just
           | teleport you around the arena? That seems like it would be a
           | bit jarring if not altogether sickening.
        
             | curiouscats wrote:
             | It could offer a couple options. One being the main view is
             | like you are there. You see the court in a huge view in
             | your main view. Then, similar, but way better than in
             | person, you have several big views off to the side, for
             | replays, stats, maybe following a view of your favorite
             | player... I would think they we have a way to make it so
             | your view (switches as the action on the court switches to
             | the other basket). That will have to be a good design but
             | just the idea of something like teleporting from your seat
             | with a great view of this half of the court to now having
             | it on the other half.
             | 
             | And for other sports even better I think. With say
             | soccer/football and football (USA) you can have a big
             | overview (like you are sitting at midfield) but then camera
             | angles for closer view of the action...
             | 
             | I think sports viewing could really be incredible. Figuring
             | out exactly how to do it well will take awhile. But it
             | seems to me the kind of thing Apple could do very well.
        
         | danso wrote:
         | For me it's movies. But the fact that Netflix and Amazon
         | haven't updated their Quest apps in years -- nor has Meta
         | bothered building its own movie streaming solution (e.g. making
         | the Quest Browser compatible with streaming services) leads me
         | to think that the active user base might be slim.
         | 
         | Can't imagine doing work is the killer app, not while wearing a
         | headset is more cumbersome than opening a laptop.
        
           | spogbiper wrote:
           | I'm not sure how Apple can make watching movies in VR that
           | much better than they are already on the Quest series and
           | other existing VR headsets. And as you noted it doesn't seem
           | to be a popular use for those devices. Maybe the higher
           | resolution on Apple's headset will win people over?
        
             | GeekyBear wrote:
             | > I'm not sure how Apple can make watching movies in VR
             | that much better than they are
             | 
             | Apple is already making it's own 3D content.
             | 
             | For instance watching a concert shot in 3D with spatial
             | audio may be something that people find compelling. Certain
             | artists, for example Taylor Swift, have fans who are well
             | known to be willing to spend a fortune to attend her shows
             | in person with high end tickets running $750.
        
               | spogbiper wrote:
               | I tried some of the 3d concerts that Quest recorded a few
               | years ago.. it's a neat trick but Apple will definitely
               | need to do something different to make it compelling
        
             | wombat-man wrote:
             | I haven't tried them personally but I think current quest
             | headsets still have visible pixels. The vision pro is Micro
             | OLED with no visible pixels. So it should feel like
             | watching an actual IRL screen.
        
             | theshackleford wrote:
             | It's an incredibly popular use for the quest, Amazon and
             | Netflix just don't own the market, people are watching
             | content elsewhere like big screen/vrchat/various vr
             | players.
             | 
             | Almost NOBODY uses the Netflix app because it's terrible,
             | terrible software.
        
         | TulliusCicero wrote:
         | Quest headsets are already pretty compelling for some use
         | cases, but the tech still needs more advancement (at a
         | reasonable price point) to go fully mainstream.
         | 
         | For a lot of people, Beat Saber and similar games are a killer
         | app for the Quest. It can be good for making exercise fun and
         | accessible at the same time.
        
         | baby wrote:
         | Video games are the killer apps and Quest definitely found it.
         | 
         | The other one that could be huge IMO is attending real-life
         | events like sport, concerts, shows, etc.
        
           | AlexandrB wrote:
           | Both of these suffer from the fact that a good portion of the
           | target audience is going to want to barf as soon as the
           | camera moves. So games are limited in what kind of gameplay
           | they can offer and real life events are stuck with either a
           | fixed location or "jumping" from camera to camera.
        
           | bnolsen wrote:
           | Games like doom3 in VR are just freakin' awesome. blasting
           | some monster coming up behind you by firing over the shoulder
           | takes the cake.
        
         | theshackleford wrote:
         | Sure they have, it's funny how often this is repeated. It's
         | anything social. It absolutely destroys every other technology
         | for interacting with others over distance. There is nothing
         | else like it and when the hardware catches up it will do a lot
         | to shrink the distance you feel between those who live an ocean
         | away from you.
        
       | patapong wrote:
       | I think we are now at a stage where VR hardware has surpassed
       | software. Between this and the Quest 3, we have powerful,
       | polished and consumer friendly devices, but beyond a few niches
       | (fitness, simulation, gaming to some extent), there is nothing to
       | convince users to put the headsets on.
       | 
       | I am hoping we will see a lot of experimentation in the coming
       | years, and I am excited for what the Apple ecosystem will bring
       | to the table. That said, from what I have seen so far this does
       | not seem to be a revolution compared to the current offerings,
       | but an evolution on various fronts, without addressing the killer
       | app question.
        
         | pavlov wrote:
         | It wouldn't be the first time that hardware gets ahead of
         | software.
         | 
         | In 1988-94, the CPUs available in desktop computers were
         | substantially more advanced than the widely used operating
         | systems. Windows 3 and Mac System 6/7 didn't support pre-
         | emptive multitasking, memory protection, or many other features
         | that define a modern OS.
         | 
         | Maybe we'll look back at today's Quest and Vision Pro as
         | similar transitional devices with one foot stuck in the old
         | paradigm, running old-style software.
        
           | pvg wrote:
           | The Apple headset is maybe more akin to the expensive
           | workstations of the time which did make fuller use of their
           | CPU facilities but were neither priced nor aimed at
           | consumers. The headset is not nearly as expensive (especially
           | inflation adjusted) and is ostensibly a consumer device but
           | it's current incarnation seems unlikely to have the kind of
           | mass adoption for the analogy to work out.
        
             | pavlov wrote:
             | The fact that the Vision Pro today mostly runs legacy iPad
             | and web software in 2D rectangles kind of makes it feel
             | like Windows/386 which most people just used to run text
             | mode MS-DOS programs inside GUI windows.
        
             | cgk wrote:
             | Visiting a certain urban area on the east coast, dm me on X
             | if possible to meet up
        
         | lysecret wrote:
         | Im curious what do you have in mind related to fitness?
        
           | TulliusCicero wrote:
           | There's a bunch of VR games/apps that are notable for
           | fitness. Beat Saber is the most well known one that's
           | explicitly a game, Supernatural is maybe the most famous one
           | that's framed as more of a fitness app/service.
           | 
           | But other notable ones include Synth Riders, FitXR, OhShape,
           | Pistol Whip, Thrill of the Fight, and (maybe) Gorilla Tag.
           | And this list is far from exhaustive.
           | 
           | VR is pretty good for fitness just because it can make
           | exercising more interesting, comparable to sports without the
           | need to coordinate with other people (and it's easy to do
           | inside your house, if you have at least a 2m x 2m open
           | space). Major downsides would be having that space available
           | and sweat inside the headset.
        
             | mr_toad wrote:
             | I'd be too worried about sweat damage to use it for serious
             | exercise.
        
               | rpmisms wrote:
               | They're built around that.
        
               | jdietrich wrote:
               | Meta (and many third-party manufacturers) offer a wipe-
               | clean silicone facial interface designed for fitness-
               | oriented users. The hardware isn't waterproof, but it's
               | quite well protected and I'd be perfectly confident to
               | work up a sweat. Quest has calorie tracking, can sync
               | with the fitness tracking features on iOS and Android and
               | can pair with heart rate monitors. Fitness is one of the
               | key segments in VR, because fitness apps and fitness-
               | oriented users have vastly above-average engagement and
               | retention rates.
               | 
               | https://www.meta.com/us/quest/accessories/quest-3-silicon
               | e-f...
               | 
               | https://www.meta.com/en-us/help/quest/articles/in-vr-
               | experie...
        
               | pteraspidomorph wrote:
               | You don't need to worry with most headsets (don't know
               | about AVP). I've been sweating in VR headsets for years
               | and it never did any harm. I saw in the AVP reviews that
               | it has a removable and swappable facial interface, so it
               | should be easy to clean; the same is true of other modern
               | headsets, and before that you had third party face covers
               | or disposable absorbant stickers you could put on the
               | facial interface to keep the sweat away.
        
           | remedan wrote:
           | Not gp but I have multiple friends who got the Quest just to
           | play Beat Saber as a form of cardio exercise.
        
             | rpmisms wrote:
             | Beat Saber is an insanely good game, too. Easy to learn,
             | but the high-level play is just nuts. There's even maps
             | that teach you dances.
        
           | patapong wrote:
           | To add to the suggestions by the sibling comments, Eleven
           | Table Tennis and Racket NX are both great racket-based games
           | with multiplayer and a high skill ceilings. Depending on your
           | personality I think applications like this are much more
           | motivating than going to the gym as a workout.
        
           | espositocode wrote:
           | I'm surprised Apple dropped the ball on fitness here given
           | they already have a fitness platform. Imagine rowing in VR
           | and feeling like you're actually on the water. It would make
           | exercising so much more motivating and interesting.
           | 
           | It turned out the killer Apple Watch feature was fitness, and
           | I don't see why it couldn't have been here.
        
             | progbits wrote:
             | I've used a rowing machine with a VR headset (I don't
             | recall which model, it was a few years ago, but probably
             | some Oculus).
             | 
             | It was fun for a few minutes but not really usable for
             | serious exercise:
             | 
             | - It's heavy and annoying (and this apple product seems
             | even bulkier and heavier). The cable situation is also not
             | great, you need a lightweight cable and ceiling suspension
             | to keep it out of the way, but this is solvable.
             | 
             | - Exercise means you get sweaty. Can't wipe your brow and
             | you have a wet headset on your face.
             | 
             | - You can't see your body and maintain proper form. The VR
             | environment itself is also distracting if you turn your
             | head around to look at stuff moving there.
             | 
             | I much prefer just to have my phone or tablet in fixed
             | place in front of me to watch youtube or some movie.
        
               | jdietrich wrote:
               | _> I've used a rowing machine with a VR headset_
               | 
               | I really don't think that's the best use-case for VR - if
               | you're doing some kind of virtual rowing, a flat screen
               | is going to offer most of the experience with none of the
               | downsides. VR fitness is really about games that are fun
               | in their own right and _happen_ to be physically active.
               | There 's a big cohort of people who hate exercise and
               | would never set foot in a gym, but who will happily spend
               | an hour at their aerobic threshold because they're
               | playing a fun game.
               | 
               | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=291LZGxZS5Q
        
             | rimeice wrote:
             | Yeh I just can't see it working well. Surely it would be so
             | uncomfortable to work up even a minor sweat with this thing
             | strapped to your face.
        
         | RajT88 wrote:
         | > I think we are now at a stage where VR hardware has surpassed
         | software.
         | 
         | Totally agree. I'm waiting for a usable Virtual Desktop app to
         | come out. All the ones I have tried which work on my cheap WMR
         | headset fall short of having floating app windows in view.
         | 
         | I guess there is one of those which works on Meta Quest, but
         | not PC headsets. That's really what you need to be effective
         | working in VR. Just like is mentioned the Apple headset
         | supports.
        
         | baby wrote:
         | People like to say this but my friend just sent me a recording
         | of "drop dead home invasion" with the Quest 3 and my jaw was on
         | the floor. He says it's amazing too.
         | 
         | I've also heard about players spending a lot of time in counter
         | strike games like pavlov.
         | 
         | At this point it seems like there's a TON of things to do in VR
         | (and I'm gonna be honest, there were a ton of experiences too
         | on the Quest 1 when I had it).
         | 
         | I'm just waiting for more live shows and concerts that I can
         | attend from the Quest personally.
        
           | patapong wrote:
           | Oh I agree - I loved my experience with Drop Dead Home
           | Invasion, and there are a lot of amazing experiences overall.
           | But, I do think that most of these have more potential as a
           | "demo", that you do a few times but would not motivate you to
           | use a headset every day, beyond a relatively small group of
           | people.
           | 
           | It is like VR is currently stuck being Kinect in terms of
           | sales and stickiness, while Meta and Apple would both like it
           | to be at least like the Wii, or ideally the iPad.
           | 
           | Personally I have found social experiences to have the best
           | long-term appeal (i.e. Racket NX or Drop Dead with friends),
           | but even there I am not these apps have sufficient mainstream
           | appeal.
        
           | grumbel wrote:
           | The major problem VR has isn't the games, but all the boring
           | and basic stuff, like using 2D apps in VR or running multiple
           | VR apps at the same time.
           | 
           | The discontinued WMR Portal, essentially the Window's desktop
           | in VR, was so far the only software that tried to be a full
           | workspace in VR. But even that was missing a lot of important
           | features and Microsoft gave up on it years ago and never made
           | it accessible to non-Microsoft headsets. It's currently
           | scheduled for removal from Windows.
           | 
           | VisionPro seems very similar to WMRPortal so far, with a few
           | key improvements like allowing apps do add 3D objects into a
           | shared space.
        
         | AlexandrB wrote:
         | Underlying a lot of these discussions is the assumption that
         | there is a future where this is an actually useful, mass-market
         | device. I'm still not convinced this is true.
         | 
         | For example, "killer apps/content" never arrived for 3D TVs and
         | they have largely disappeared from the market. Same with
         | various "waggling" input technologies like the Wiimote and
         | Kinect. There were some _compelling_ uses, like Wii Sports, but
         | these were pretty limited and many other uses of these in games
         | was a case of Nintendo shoehorning the technology into the
         | game.
         | 
         | I think the best pessimist argument is the one offered by
         | Folding Ideas in his metaverse video[1]: Text is really, really
         | useful, and a virtual 3D space is not a good environment for
         | either creating or consuming textual content.
         | 
         | [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiZhdpLXZ8Q
        
           | Vegenoid wrote:
           | I see headsets like this as a way to have multiple, large,
           | monitors that go away as soon as you aren't using them. After
           | having a big dual-monitor setup for years, about a year and a
           | half ago I got rid of them and work with just my laptop's
           | display. I do this so that my desk doesn't have to have
           | monitors on it, and is more conducive to artistic work and
           | mechanical tinkering.
           | 
           | I don't miss multiple monitors so much, but I do often wish
           | for a larger screen. Not enough to put one in my space,
           | though. That's where my interest in the Vision Pro lies -
           | simply a way to project large, high-fidelity, 2d screens.
        
             | nkrisc wrote:
             | I'd rather have small monitors than wear a headset while
             | working.
             | 
             | For less than this headset, I can buy an Ergotron arm and
             | some monitors and have multiple large monitors that have
             | zero footprint on my desk.
             | 
             | No, I can't take my setup with me when I go somewhere, but
             | I don't want to.
             | 
             | I have a hard time seeing this become a mass market device.
             | It'll have its adherents and enthusiasts, but personally
             | find it difficult to imagine even _wanting_ one, let alone
             | using it.
             | 
             | But what do I know, I thought the iPad was goofy. Though I
             | never did end up replacing my gen 2 iPad. Realized I didn't
             | need it.
        
           | jayd16 wrote:
           | >Same with various "waggling" input technologies like the
           | Wiimote and Kinect.
           | 
           | Hasn't VR taken over waggle? I don't think you can say its
           | disappeared when the VR install base is in the 10s of
           | millions.
        
             | dougmwne wrote:
             | Yeah, the Quest seems to be the spiritual successor to Wii
             | sports. It's the closest thing you can buy to that 2006
             | experience. The long dream of wielding a lightsaber on the
             | Wii was finally realized on the Quest, to a quite
             | satisfactory level.
             | 
             | And yet, from a gaming perspective, we still have to crack
             | force feedback and natural locomotion before we have a
             | holodeck. Maybe in 20 more years.
        
         | quonn wrote:
         | > there is nothing to convince users to put the headsets on.
         | 
         | So the hardware is not good enough yet. It will be good enough
         | when I basically don't care, just like I don't care with
         | glasses.
        
           | SoftTalker wrote:
           | Anything goggle-like is a non-starter for me. I'm not even
           | interested in trying it. I don't even like glasses, and I
           | _need_ corrective lenses to be able to see clearly (I wear
           | contacts almost exclusively).
        
         | jdietrich wrote:
         | I'm not sure I've ever liked the term "killer app", because I
         | don't think it's particularly useful in describing real user
         | thinking and behaviour. There was a very long journey from
         | VisiCalc and Wordstar to the modern-day ubiquity of office
         | computing. Different user groups have complex, diverse and
         | overlapping sets of needs and wants that can rarely be
         | distilled into a single application. I'm more inclined to think
         | in terms of Bezos's one-way doors - changes in user behaviour
         | that are sufficiently compelling to be largely irreversible.
         | 
         | I agree that progress has been slow in the consumer space and
         | meaningful long-term adoption of VR has been confined to a few
         | niches; that isn't necessarily an indictment of the long-term
         | prospects for VR, because desktop computers spent much longer
         | in that stage than most people remember.
         | 
         | In enterprise, I think things are more advanced and some user
         | groups have decisively gone through the one-way door for some
         | applications. I think the best example is architecture. If
         | you've done a couple of client presentations in VR, you just
         | aren't going back to showing renders on a flat screen, because
         | immersing the client in a physical space is _that_ powerful. It
         | 's not just a sales tool, but a communications tool - clients
         | can understand and respond to the environment intuitively and
         | give much better feedback as a result.
         | 
         | Industrial and clinical training is less clearly one-way, but I
         | think we're very close in a lot of areas. AR is still less
         | developed than VR, but I do think we're on the cusp of
         | something significant - a sufficiently comfortable standalone
         | AR headset with sufficiently high-quality passthrough can
         | deliver training experiences that can't practically be
         | replicated through other means.
         | 
         | I think one of the most interesting areas of development is in
         | psychiatry. It's still early days, but we're starting to see
         | real, meaningful benefits in RCTs for VR-based therapy of
         | disorders like phobia and PTSD. Some of the most compelling
         | results have been in the very sickest patients - people with
         | psychosis, who often find it impossible to engage with
         | conventional psychotherapy.
         | 
         | https://www.psy.ox.ac.uk/research/oxford-cognitive-approache...
         | 
         | I don't think it's remotely likely that VR will ever replace
         | flat screens, but I do think that VR is slowly growing into a
         | niche but durable HCI platform. Tablets are a reasonable
         | analogy - a lot of people see them as a failure, but they still
         | sell in serious volume and they're often a much better form-
         | factor for specific applications than either a phone or a
         | laptop, especially in industry. Tablets didn't change the
         | world, but nor are they likely to go away.
        
         | treprinum wrote:
         | I personally think MSFS 2020 and Automobilista 2 are killer VR
         | apps. All (wannabe or pro) pilots could learn how to operate
         | any given aircraft in MSFS and relive past glorious racing in
         | A2 on current or historic tracks/cars. Senua and Alyx showed
         | what is possible in gaming as well and why it's so much better
         | than 2D. Elder Scrolls looks great in VR just the controllers
         | make it a joke when fighting (too easy and weird). I still
         | think 4k is too low and 8k will be needed to feel like a 1080p
         | phone.
        
         | IshKebab wrote:
         | I think you've got it backwards. There are plenty of reasons
         | you'd want to put on a VR headset if it weighed as much as a
         | pair of glasses, had a 180 degree field of view and like 5x the
         | resolution of current headsets.
         | 
         | The reason the software doesn't exist is because compelling
         | hardware doesn't exist for it to run on, so nobody bothers to
         | write it.
         | 
         | Apple is imagining this device will be used for productivity
         | but it's still painful to actually wear for long periods. We're
         | a long way from being limited by software instead of hardware.
        
         | stcredzero wrote:
         | _I think we are now at a stage where VR hardware has surpassed
         | software._
         | 
         | How about enabling AIs to create layouts of information on
         | behalf of the user? Like, what if an AI could arrange all of
         | your information for you in a scheme derived from Archy?
         | 
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archy_(software)
        
       | ahmedfromtunis wrote:
       | I can't wait what the Vision Pro 4S-equivalent would look like
       | and what capabilities it would have.
       | 
       | I already imagine how people from 5 years in the future will be
       | sharing photos of the current Vision Pro asking "Remember when
       | this was the best VR headset hhh??"
       | 
       | Sure, VR headsets existed before Apple's foray into that segment,
       | but also did laptops, smartphones, tables computers, smart
       | watches and bluetooth headsets.
       | 
       | And if one to learn from history, all these products categories
       | were significantly improved after Apple entered their respective
       | markets.
        
         | monkeynotes wrote:
         | It's not VR though. The AR angle of this device is why it's
         | compelling. VR is completely blind to your surroundings, Apple
         | Pro could in principle make your public park look like Jurassic
         | Park with full size dinosaurs etc. Blending our reality with an
         | overlayed real time rendering is a massive benefit over
         | straight VR.
        
           | pests wrote:
           | Its not true AR though. Its "record reality then display in
           | VR". You're never looking at the world. Always through
           | screens.
        
             | losvedir wrote:
             | That could just be an initial limitation of technology,
             | though. The Apple Vision "spatial computing" line could
             | move to glasses eventually.
             | 
             | That said, I think the "you're looking at a digital
             | reconstruction of the world" aspect pretty interesting
             | since it means, in principle, everything can be changed as
             | you'd like. Why not turn day to night, night to day,
             | redecorate, block out ads on billboards, re-paint your
             | house, hang paintings, add an extra window to your wall,
             | etc?
        
               | cyberax wrote:
               | To completely reproduce the reality you need to be able
               | to manipulate the phase of light of individual pixels.
               | Basically, make a dynamic hologram.
               | 
               | Without that, you'll be looking at an artificially
               | "crisp" version of the world.
        
             | ThatMedicIsASpy wrote:
             | You're looking at reality with half of the colors your eyes
             | can see, a reality with a limited field of view, a reality
             | which looks much worse as the surroundings become darker.
             | Nothing I've seen is impressive. I'm impressed by the lack
             | of things more than what this thing actually offers.
        
               | pests wrote:
               | Yeah, but that's our reality we know and love.
               | 
               | Why not just get a few projectors or more screens if you
               | want digital environments?
        
             | matwood wrote:
             | It's clear from the commercials I saw that AR is Apple's
             | vision. How long the hardware takes to match that vision is
             | an open question.
        
           | ahmedfromtunis wrote:
           | It _is_ VR, though.
           | 
           | Sure, Apple built the headset so that it mimics AR devices,
           | but it definitely is not one itself.
           | 
           | The technology to build an AR device with the capabilities
           | that Apple boasted is simply not here yet. I'm sure that
           | Apple top-talent is hard at work trying to break the barrier
           | (if it didn't yet), but that'll be for a future version, just
           | not this one.
        
             | CharlesW wrote:
             | When you say "AR devices" I think you specifically mean AR
             | devices that do optical compositing vs. AVP's digital
             | compositing, yes?
             | 
             | > _I 'm sure that Apple top-talent is hard at work trying
             | to break the barrier (if it didn't yet), but that'll be for
             | a future version, just not this one._
             | 
             | To me, it feels like AVP is the final nail in the coffin of
             | the optical compositing evolutionary branch of HMDs. Even
             | if it's someday possible to do well, devices would still
             | need the same realtime subsystem necessary for digital
             | compositing in order to do 3D mapping, object detection,
             | environmental lighting integration, etc.
             | 
             | I understand that in the short-term, camera sensors and
             | displays don't exceed what the human eye can perceive, but
             | those seem straightforward (if not easy) to address.
        
               | crooked-v wrote:
               | Same here. If there's some breakthrough they're not going
               | to ignore it, but I would bet anything that current Apple
               | far-forecasting plans for the "Vision 10" amount to
               | current Vision Pro functionality in oversized wraparound
               | shades, relying entirely on the camera passthrough for
               | vision.
        
       | OrvalWintermute wrote:
       | I'm going to be much more buy these AFTER they announce the
       | virtual slim & fit function on personas
        
       | matsemann wrote:
       | > _Still, there's something great about capturing photos and
       | videos without using your hands, and that means connected
       | eyewear._
       | 
       | Does it? What about gopros or similar action cams, being used for
       | over a decade, and for less than a tenth of the price?
        
         | gfodor wrote:
         | People don't wear those all day. A scenario where people have
         | cameras on their face all day yields a totally different kind
         | of ability to capture serendipitious moments, etc. That's not
         | to say this value proposition is high enough to warrant it, or
         | that we should expect this technology to actually succeed mass
         | adoption, but it is not the same value proposition as what
         | you're talking about.
        
           | matsemann wrote:
           | True, but the quote I'm discussing was in context of filming
           | while being in the slopes.
        
         | baby wrote:
         | I think the rayban meta glasses are a better example
        
       | dottjt wrote:
       | The thing I don't get about spacial computing is: why?
       | 
       | I feel like being able to see everything open at once would be
       | incredibly distracting. I like how I can swipe between app
       | screens on my desktop so that I'm only focusing on one app at a
       | time.
       | 
       | Of course I imagine there are some applications where it's
       | useful, but to me it just feels like the Apple Vision Pro is just
       | a very large screen and they haven't quite figured out what to do
       | with it.
        
         | joshstrange wrote:
         | It's the same reason (some) people love multiple monitors and
         | don't find it distracting. In fact, I feel extremely limited on
         | just 1 or even 2 monitors. I'm hoping that the 4k virtual
         | monitor in AVP will suffice and with windowing tools I think it
         | will since it can be so much larger.
        
         | jccalhoun wrote:
         | I've been a skeptic of VR/AR since Occulus launched. I'm still
         | skeptical after reading the reviews.
        
         | tomjakubowski wrote:
         | > I like how I can swipe between app screens on my desktop so
         | that I'm only focusing on one app at a time.
         | 
         | You can shove the app into a corner of your room, out of your
         | view, and it will be there when you walk over to that corner
         | later. That's part of the idea of "spatial computing" - if we
         | can associate computer objects with real locations in space,
         | maybe we can better harness spatial memory and stuff like that
         | when we interact with them.
        
       | zemo wrote:
       | am I hearing things or at 6:28 does she call her dog "Browser"
        
         | jkubicek wrote:
         | Yeah, that's her dog's name. In addition to being a dog, he's
         | also a published author: https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-dumb-
         | delightful-world-of-pe...
        
       | devit wrote:
       | It seems that a lot of basic information is missing in the
       | review:
       | 
       | 1. How does it compare to an high-end monitor for text
       | editing/programming, web browsing, watching non-VR video, playing
       | non-VR games? Is it better or not?
       | 
       | 2. Is the resolution, latency, FoV and lack of color fringing
       | good enough for it to be indistinguishable from reality in both
       | passthrough and VR modes? If not, how exactly far is it?
       | 
       | 3. Can you run VR games on a PC with multiple desktop GPUs and
       | stream to it? How does it compare to current high-end and ultra-
       | high-end VR headsets?
        
         | robin_reala wrote:
         | On number 3, definitely not.
        
           | zeusk wrote:
           | You can always make an app to stream H265 content from any
           | device :)
           | 
           | Windows even has support for IndirectDisplayDevices - I'm not
           | sure how openXR or SteamVR handles those, however.
        
             | robin_reala wrote:
             | That gives you a flat video presumably, not a VR game.
        
         | jhatax wrote:
         | This review from TheVerge answers some of your questions:
         | https://www.theverge.com/24054862/apple-vision-pro-review-vr...
         | 
         | I recommend the video review as well. Seeing the video call
         | between Nilay, Joanna, and MKB shows how much the tech has
         | advanced but also how much it still needs to evolve to be at
         | the level of FaceTime Video.
        
           | MBCook wrote:
           | I'm excited about the Vision Pro but I now see why some
           | reviewers called the FaceTime "Personas" creepy.
           | 
           | They're like talking paintings in the Haunted Mansion ride
           | with bunch of blur and depth of field. It's way too weird.
           | Joanna's looks a bit like she's been stuck as the replacement
           | person in the Mona Lisa.
           | 
           | A static picture of you or maybe your Memoji (remember
           | those?) would be far preferable.
           | 
           | I'm surprised Apple is shipping Personas.
        
             | crooked-v wrote:
             | I'd rather have just a VRChat avatar. Hook up the eye
             | tracking and the mouth visemes and it'll probably be more
             | likable than the Personas are.
        
             | willis936 wrote:
             | They've also shipped memojis.
             | 
             | Facebook has also shipped meta.
             | 
             | All the money in the world can't buy you an understanding
             | of your market.
        
             | layer8 wrote:
             | They look like the 3D version of police drawings.
        
           | whycome wrote:
           | > "Apple sent zeiss lens inserts for reading glasses, but I
           | just used my soft contacts and it was fine."
           | 
           | lol what kind of review says that. It would be like someone
           | who doesn't even use any kind of vision correction saying "I
           | just used it without glasses and it was fine."
           | 
           | (edit: the review is actually quite good. but that line was
           | bizarre)
        
             | layer8 wrote:
             | Apple said that contact lenses might interfere with eye
             | tracking (or maybe with the iris scanning). So it's a data
             | point if he says he had no problems with soft contacts.
        
           | billiam wrote:
           | Nilay's video review is just fantastic-one of the best
           | consumer technology reviews in written or multmedia form
           | ever. Walt would be proud.
        
         | jsheard wrote:
         | For #3 the question is how you're going to _control_ the games,
         | when the overwhelming majority of existing VR games are built
         | for dedicated VR controllers rather than hand tracking.
         | 
         | Streaming games from a PC to a standalone headset over WiFi has
         | been proven to work with the Quest, but that has proper
         | controllers.
        
           | crooked-v wrote:
           | I feel like the simple hacky solution there is to use Joycons
           | connected directly to the PC for the buttons/thumbsticks.
           | Attach the control inputs to whatever virtual tracking points
           | the vOS app is supplying and voila.
        
             | jsheard wrote:
             | Joycons don't have absolute positioning, only relative,
             | they're not good enough for VR. There is one way you
             | _could_ do it, if you have a Valve Lighthouse setup then
             | you could use Index or Vive controllers, but that would
             | require manually calibrating the two independent tracking
             | systems to align with each other and it 's not exactly a
             | cheap solution if you don't already have the gear.
             | 
             | It's a very niche setup, but a few people already use it in
             | order to combine Lighthouse-based body trackers with a non-
             | Lighthouse headset.
        
               | crooked-v wrote:
               | > Joycons don't have absolute positioning, only relative,
               | they're not good enough for VR.
               | 
               | The point would be that you don't use them for
               | positioning at all, just buttons/thumbsticks. If you've
               | using a Virtual Desktop-like app on the headset then it's
               | already got positioning from the hand tracking.
        
               | jsheard wrote:
               | Oh right, I get you. Yeah that could kinda work but it's
               | putting a lot of faith in the accuracy of the hand
               | tracking.
               | 
               | I suppose an ambitious implementation could try to fuse
               | the hand tracking data with the IMU data from the Joycons
               | for better resolution.
        
         | ericmcer wrote:
         | It does read well as a non-technical review though, where a
         | user would only make note of those things if they were lacking.
         | If the passthrough looked artificial and weird you would
         | imagine that would have come up.
        
       | joshstrange wrote:
       | I know it's v1, I know it's expensive, I know it's limited but I
       | cannot wait to get my hands on it this Friday.
       | 
       | Even with just 1 4k floating screen I think it would be a winner
       | for me but I'm also really excited to see what people come up
       | with in VisionOS itself. I think for a while the sweet spot (for
       | me) with be using a virtual monitor and a handful of VisionOS
       | apps as well. Eventually I hope to be able to pull macOS windows
       | out of a fixed box and arrange them wherever I want but I'm fully
       | aware that might not be this year or even next year.
        
         | dmix wrote:
         | Its coming out on Friday?
        
           | joshstrange wrote:
           | Yes, February 2nd, this Friday.
        
         | wombat-man wrote:
         | Well it's QHD not 4k.
         | 
         | I don't think you'll be able to pull windows out of the mac
         | screen, but apps you might need are in vision OS anyway like
         | safari or messages.
         | 
         | I think my dream would be dual 4k monitors, or maybe a double
         | wide?
        
           | joshstrange wrote:
           | Yeah, I think long-term I'd want a "confluence mode" (a la
           | Parallels) or a large curved screen. Dual/Tri-screens would
           | be fine too but I feel like we can do better with an infinite
           | canvas (though "monitors" might make macOS apps play nicer).
        
       | beanjuiceII wrote:
       | what i am wondering about these devices is, my eyes get tired and
       | strained from VR. I can only game on VR for limited amounts of
       | time, I am a pretty fit person but i sweat a TON, de-fogging
       | these devices has been a gigantic pain point.. does apple vision
       | pro innovate in these areas ? I just felt the occulus devices as
       | oppressive 30+ minutes of use.
        
       | joshstrange wrote:
       | > Q: What if I wear glasses?
       | 
       | > A: The Vision Pro wasn't designed to be worn with glasses.
       | Instead you have to order prescription Zeiss optical inserts for
       | $99. The two monocle-looking pieces snap right into place.
       | 
       | It's $99 for readers (non-prescription) and $149 for a
       | prescription. Very odd that she would have gotten that detail
       | wrong since it's so easy to check and it's been repeated so often
       | in coverage of the AVP.
        
         | jsheard wrote:
         | Not to excuse that mistake but FWIW there are third party
         | manufacturers which sell prescription lenses for various
         | headsets for as little as $50, so there will probably be
         | cheaper options once they start making them for the Vision Pro.
         | The cost to actually manufacture the lenses depends on the
         | strength of the prescription, and most VR lens manufacturers
         | reflect that in their pricing, but Apple appears to be charging
         | everyone the worst-case price and pocketing the difference when
         | you order a weaker prescription.
        
           | sgt wrote:
           | Also, you might be able to take your previous pair of
           | glasses, remove the lenses and grind until they fit. I did
           | something similar to make my own prescription sunglasses
           | (glued in the lenses).
        
           | delfinom wrote:
           | I await the day that Apple adds authentication chips to
           | lenses and locks out 3rd parties.
           | 
           | Basically it wouldn't be them to pass up a accessory sell
           | opportunity.
        
             | wharvle wrote:
             | _Looks around desk at non-Apple monitor, keyboard, mouse,
             | USB hub, and cables_
             | 
             | Yeah, uh, they definitely always do that. It "wouldn't be
             | them" to ever not.
             | 
             | (Hell, the monitor even supports True Tone--and it didn't
             | at first, that arrived in an OS update, from _Apple_ )
        
             | csmiller wrote:
             | Sounded in Gruber's review like they have something that
             | sort of incidentally does that
             | https://arc.net/l/quote/wgcwgxod
        
         | miohtama wrote:
         | Can you use Vision Pro with contact lenses?
        
           | SoftTalker wrote:
           | Sounds like only if you don't also need readers for close
           | focus.
        
       | dang wrote:
       | Also: _Apple Vision Pro review: magic, until it 's not_ -
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39190506 - Jan 2024 (226
       | comments)
        
       | aloer wrote:
       | It is interesting how many here are excited about this for
       | productive computer work. It's also what Apple advertises with.
       | 
       | But what is the account situation like?
       | 
       | For years I've been complaining that I can't easily use my
       | private iPad with my company Mac because they have separate Apple
       | IDs. Things like sidecar for a quick virtual whiteboard are
       | basically impossible.
       | 
       | AirPods have gotten better over the years where today I can
       | freely switch between devices belonging to different Apple IDs
       | with the same AirPods.
       | 
       | But is the Vision Pro like that as well? It would seem weird to
       | exclude the not-so-small group of people working from home but
       | with company MacBooks
        
         | ildjarn wrote:
         | I think Apple want to discourage sharing to increase device
         | sales. It's a great question though.
        
           | wharvle wrote:
           | Its wireless operation seems to depend on Hand Off in some
           | capacity. Most companies probably wouldn't want to grant a
           | personal device access to that on a work laptop, and I bet
           | there are some thorny questions about what to do with
           | incoming Hand Off data from multiple accounts.
        
         | Fauntleroy wrote:
         | The entire screen sharing setup they demo'd in the original
         | Vision Pro demo reels always made me laugh. They've had years
         | to get Sidecar right, and have failed miserably every time. How
         | am I going to believe that they'll get wireless display
         | transmission to work perfectly for this thing?
        
           | mthoms wrote:
           | I haven't used it in quite a while so I'm wondering what the
           | current issues with Sidecar are?
        
           | kemayo wrote:
           | I haven't used the Vision Pro, so I can't say how well it
           | works in practice... but with macOS 14 this year they redid
           | their screen sharing app to, presumably, use whatever
           | technology is underlying the Vision Pro display-sharing. It's
           | really good. Vast improvement over the previous tech
           | (presumably VNC?).
           | 
           | Assuming the Vision Pro screen sharing works using the same
           | stuff, I have high hopes.
        
         | parhamn wrote:
         | I have this issue in a consumer single tenant setting too. I
         | couldn't figure out how to remove photo access from AppleTV.
         | 
         | Ended up creating a new account that was part of my family.
        
         | pmarreck wrote:
         | If your company Mac is locked down to the point where you
         | couldn't just create a separate account on it that is tied to
         | your iCloud account, then it is also unlikely that they would
         | allow you to hook up another device to their network and your
         | work computer in order to have this convenience.
         | 
         | (My partner is corpo; I'm startup, but have worked at corpos.
         | No thanks.)
         | 
         | Better to keep it all owned by the company, in my opinion, and
         | have them issue you an iPad for this express purpose.
        
           | aloer wrote:
           | There's plenty of reasons why you would want to have a
           | separate Apple ID for a company Mac that have nothing to do
           | with overly restrictive permissions from IT.
           | 
           | The main one being a complete separation of calls, messages,
           | calendar, notes and reminders. For my own sake more than for
           | my employers sake.
           | 
           | And many employees with company phones already have that
           | separation. iPhone and Mac is not that uncommon to provide
           | for employees. But an iPad on top? I think that's gonna be
           | much harder to find
           | 
           | And edit: a Vision Pro on top...
        
           | kccqzy wrote:
           | Sure you can create a separate account on your company Mac.
           | But there's no assurance that whatever work resources needed
           | would be available on that second separate account.
           | 
           | If your work is on the traditional model of perimeter
           | protection and trusted intranet, a non-work device can't join
           | the network as you have correctly pointed out. If your work
           | is on the newer BeyondCorp style model, switching to a second
           | account on your computer is going to invalidate the device
           | trust needed to access work resources.
        
         | vismwasm wrote:
         | I thought I was the only one bothered by that! I'd love to use
         | my private iPad with my work Macbook. And at least in my case
         | preventing that definitely won't increase iPad sales: My
         | company won't provide me a work iPad and even if it did it
         | wouldn't work as there are no iCloud accounts attached to our
         | work Macbooks.
         | 
         | Locking you customers into your ecosystem? Fine, whatever. But
         | even within the ecosystem restricting usage in such a way!?
         | 
         | It's been said for years but the iPad could be so much more
         | than a mere media consumption device if it weren't for short-
         | term-profit driven design decisions.
         | 
         | Maybe they do better with the Vision Pro.
        
           | dwaite wrote:
           | Basically the business and education group is about selling
           | to businesses and schools, so they give them the tools they
           | say they need. This means you wind up having configuration
           | options which sound good to operations, but which break
           | ecosystem support - and on BYOD break personal usage.
           | 
           | Literally the only cloud drive product I know of which
           | doesn't work on my corporate laptop is iCloud Drive, because
           | the EMM gave a checkbox to set a flag. As a result, a huge
           | portion of built-in collaborative features and apps just
           | don't work. I have paid seats in other products only to
           | regain functionality lost by that checkbox.
        
         | travem wrote:
         | > For years I've been complaining that I can't easily use my
         | private iPad with my company Mac because they have separate
         | Apple IDs.
         | 
         | I have a similar complaint with my Apple Watch and my corporate
         | issued laptop. When I am using my own computer (mac mini) I
         | love how easy it is to use my watch to login, use it to approve
         | actions, etc. However when it comes to my company laptop I have
         | to type my password in repeatedly. It would be awesome if the
         | watch could be linked to both IDs to make this much more
         | seamless.
        
           | miohtama wrote:
           | Apple's solution is that your corporate should buy you a
           | second watch.
        
             | crooked-v wrote:
             | On the upside, once somebody figures out how to use
             | smartwatches for VR haptic feedback, nerds will have a
             | reason to wear six watches.
        
               | rideontime wrote:
               | Four limbs, two nipples. Math checks out.
        
           | kccqzy wrote:
           | No security-conscious corporation is going to allow you to
           | approve any actions with security implications using an Apple
           | Watch secured by a four-digit passcode, rather than an
           | alphanumeric password on a Mac.
        
         | ehsankia wrote:
         | > But is the Vision Pro like that as well?
         | 
         | It's actually far worse. There's a single user and a "guest
         | mode", but for AR/VR to work with, there's a calibration step,
         | which means that the guest has to go through that step every
         | single time they want to use the device. It might be fine for a
         | real guest using it once, but it would be basically impossible
         | to share the device with someone else. Having to setup the
         | device every single time you use it sounds absolutely terrible.
        
           | SoftTalker wrote:
           | Of course. They want to sell them locked to a user so that
           | every employee or family member needs their own, and can't
           | use the same one at work and at home.
        
           | layer8 wrote:
           | The only reason the guest mode exists is to incite the
           | "guest" to also purchase an AVP after having experienced it.
        
         | dwaite wrote:
         | > For years I've been complaining that I can't easily use my
         | private iPad with my company Mac because they have separate
         | Apple IDs. Things like sidecar for a quick virtual whiteboard
         | are basically impossible.
         | 
         | This is kinda what Managed Apple IDs are for - the work 'owns'
         | the Apple ID it puts into its management profile and can set
         | policy. Apps write into a separate storage container which the
         | company could remote wipe, without affecting the rest of your
         | personal data. If they want to disable things like sidecar,
         | they can do it.. for the corporate apps/accounts/web domains.
         | 
         | I'd' generally assume the multi-user aspect is worse (because
         | face shields and prescriptive inserts) so generalized multi-
         | account is pretty low on the priority list.
        
         | 38 wrote:
         | > AirPods have gotten better over the years where today I can
         | freely switch between devices belonging to different Apple IDs
         | with the same AirPods.
         | 
         | What the fuck. The fact that an apple ID is even involved is
         | absurd. Should be able to just Bluetooth to any device.
        
           | dwaite wrote:
           | You can just bluetooth to any device.
           | 
           | However, pairing an audio device is an exchange of settings
           | and encryption keys, and Apple will sync that pairing that to
           | your entire account. Hold your AirPods near your Phone and
           | tap the button to create the initial pairing, and they start
           | working with your Mac and Apple TV.
        
             | 38 wrote:
             | that doesn't explain the previous status quo, which appears
             | to be that previous (and maybe current) incarnations cant
             | Bluetooth pair without an apple ID.
        
           | crooked-v wrote:
           | You can.
           | 
           | The "freely switch" here is referring to the W-chip multi-
           | device support that will on the fly switch between any number
           | of Apple devices based on what's actively being used at the
           | time, without needing to do any manual connection stuff.
           | 
           | Other non-proprietary Bluetooth devices will generally do 2
           | devices at most, and getting that to work right with
           | microphone input settings can be kind of a nightmare.
        
         | threeseed wrote:
         | > But what is the account situation like?
         | 
         | These devices are going to have your sweat, makeup, odours etc
         | on them.
         | 
         | So you're really not going to want to share a device with
         | anyone else.
        
           | skeaker wrote:
           | Sure you will. Plenty of families share a single VR headset.
        
           | jsheard wrote:
           | The facial interfaces are just held on with magnets, so it's
           | not unrealistic to think that people might swap them out
           | regularly depending on who's using it. The interface is sized
           | for the user so hygiene aside you'd probably want to swap it
           | for a different one anyway.
           | 
           | Unfortunately Apple is charging $200 per extra facial
           | interfaces though.
        
           | astrange wrote:
           | The part that touches you comes off and is personally fitted
           | anyway, so you just don't share that.
        
       | oflannabhra wrote:
       | I really like Joanna Stern, and how she approaches reviews like
       | this. I've watched her review, The Verge's, and MKBHD's unboxing
       | video.
       | 
       | However, the best review I've found that actually transmits what
       | is possible and what it is like to use is Brian Tong's 55 minute
       | review video: https://youtu.be/GkPw6ScHyb4
       | 
       | I'm not familiar with him, but unlike other reviews I've seen, he
       | spends less time evaluating or summarizing, and more time trying
       | to actually use the device. I didn't even realize that you can
       | seamlessly use your Mac to control your visionOS apps, for
       | example.
        
         | npunt wrote:
         | Good review. Most interesting part was at 43:00 discussing the
         | ergonomics and weight, which is the real question for everyone
         | hoping to make this a daily driver.
         | 
         | He said he could wear it _45 mins_ before needing to take it
         | off, that it was overstimulating so you need to slow down how
         | quickly you use apps and move things on screen, and that
         | gestures also were fatiguing. You could tell he was trying to
         | be fair but positive.
         | 
         | Headsets just haven't cracked this nut yet, and tho tech may
         | advance somewhat, they may be limitations inherent to the form
         | factor. Even if it gets really light weight, the issues of
         | overstimulation, headaches, and the amount of neck movement
         | implied may keep these products in a niche. (I say this as
         | someone super excited about AVP)
         | 
         | For everyone used to using their computers all day long wanting
         | to do it in a headset, don't throw your macbooks away just yet.
        
           | crooked-v wrote:
           | I've regularly done 2+ hours of light activity (e.g. mini
           | golf, social hangouts) with my Quest 3 without issues, though
           | I will note this is with a third-party head strap
           | specifically designed to be way more ergonomic and
           | comfortable than anything first-party from Meta or Apple [1].
           | 
           | [1]: https://www.bobovr.com/products/bobovr-m3-pro
           | 
           | A lot of the physical downsides here are basically self-
           | inflicted by companies trying really hard to hide the "nerd
           | factor" necessary for comfort, to the detriment of the actual
           | user experience.
        
             | npunt wrote:
             | Yeah industrial design and ergonomics tend not to have the
             | same goals. Personally I was able to use a Quest 2 for ~1hr
             | without too much issue, but it's not something I'd want to
             | do on the regular.
             | 
             | The big product marketing question is what niche do
             | headsets fit in, and thus whats the ideal single session
             | and daily usage goal for a headset?
             | 
             | If it's about replacing laptops or another high usage
             | scenario, that's a pretty high bar, definitely too high for
             | the next 1-2yrs. I imagine some people at Apple wore dummy
             | see-through goggle ergo tester units of varying weights
             | around all day to get at these numbers :) Wonder what they
             | came back with. Even still, that only gets at weight vs the
             | perceptual ergonomics, skin-feel, etc.
             | 
             | The issue I see with headsets is that there may not be a
             | lot of improvement possible without compromising durability
             | or other factors necessary when going to market. E.g. what
             | if they can't get it below ~400g (making AVP ~40% lighter),
             | but to make the headset comfortable for most people for the
             | usage scenario that makes them mass market (e.g. 2h+
             | sessions daily) requires ~250-300g?
        
       | ijhuygft776 wrote:
       | Why is it so expensive? is it that much better than Meta's
       | devices?
        
       | KolmogorovComp wrote:
       | For me the two takeways from the various reviews are that:
       | 
       | - The Vision Pro is the best VR set that can be done today, with
       | massive investment (rumoured 5e9 USD) and competent staff, and
       | hefty price. It is miles ahead of the competition.
       | 
       | - It's still not enough for most if any practical use, apart from
       | films maybe. The technical requirements for a _really_ useful VR
       | are still largely out-of-reach, and will be for at least the next
       | 5-10 years.
        
         | GeorgeTirebiter wrote:
         | what does "5md USD" mean? I assume USD = US Dollars but "5md" ?
         | 
         | Thank you.
        
           | KolmogorovComp wrote:
           | Oops, fixed. I meant 5 billions (5e9), USD is indeed US
           | Dollars.
        
           | Bluecobra wrote:
           | My guess is that the OP meant to say "5bn USD". I frequently
           | see billion abbreviated to "bn" in UK newspapers such as the
           | Financial Times.
        
           | spaer wrote:
           | Maybe milliard (billion)
        
           | guybedo wrote:
           | probably billions. "md" would be "milliard" and "milliard" is
           | french for billions.
        
           | ghc wrote:
           | I was confused as well, so I checked various European
           | languages for what their word for billion is. I suspect they
           | are french, using an abbreviation for milliard, the French
           | word for billion.
        
             | H8crilA wrote:
             | Not just French, also for example German and Polish.
             | 
             | Milion, Miliard, Bilion, Biliard = Million, Billion,
             | Trillion, Quadrillion
             | 
             | (neither are justified because neither start at the
             | beginning, that is at a thousand :) )
        
         | wilg wrote:
         | Except its the worst VR set if you want to play games.
        
         | kevinak wrote:
         | It really isn't 'miles' ahead of the competition. If anything
         | it is way behind. For example, look at Varjo:
         | https://varjo.com/products/xr-4/
        
           | Eric_WVGG wrote:
           | is that page supposed to scroll or have clickable links or
           | basically anything?
        
             | kevinak wrote:
             | Yes? Not seeing any issues on Safari, Chrome or Firefox on
             | MacOS. Maybe you have some extension that's acting up?
        
           | crooked-v wrote:
           | The XR-4 is already 665g as a tethered headset. I imagine it
           | would be (literally) painfully heavy as a standalone device.
        
       | testmasterflex wrote:
       | Just give me MacOS in goggles so I can work on a plane with a
       | wireless keyboard and intermittently watch something. I could pay
       | 3k for that.
        
       | pedalpete wrote:
       | I'd like to understand how this compares to something like XReal
       | with better UX (I'm assuming the software for XReal isn't great,
       | I've never tried it).
        
       | llm_nerd wrote:
       | The most disappointing aspect to the reviews I've seen is that
       | the cameras -- the things that facilitate the AR -- are not
       | great. They're good, but far from great. In this the example
       | video of a low light situation is terribly noisy, and she
       | complains that she can't read small print because of pixelation.
       | Given that the display itself is very high resolution, this has
       | to fall on subpar cameras.
       | 
       | And the battery life is brutal. Extremely first generation.
        
       | kplex wrote:
       | Have been waiting on Norman Chans review over at Tested, he's
       | been a consistent and reliable reviewer of VR/AR for years now.
       | That plus Adam Savage++
        
       | andy_ppp wrote:
       | I haven't heard much about motion sickness yet, how long can we
       | expect to be in AR before this happens?
        
       | throwaway71271 wrote:
       | The complexity of our systems has increased a lot, and I dont
       | think the tooling has caught up yet.
       | 
       | Its sad that the fastest thing we have now is
       | log.Printf("asdasdf") and grep the logs on the pod :)
       | 
       | Debugging multithreaded application is as difficult as it was 50
       | years ago, maybe VR debuggers will allow us to debug complex
       | interconnected systems or models in a more intuitive environment.
       | 
       | Also I think having hundreds of chats with some llms to
       | investigate specific part of the code/docs fits very nicely with
       | infinite screen space, and using your eyes to focus instead of
       | alt+tabbing
       | 
       | I have my fingers crossed for some insane tooling advancements in
       | the next years.
       | 
       | Does anyone know of any re-inventing the IDE in VR projects that
       | are worth following?
        
       | jackschultz wrote:
       | How much talk is there about how these headsets are going to be
       | used to talk to AI models? I don't see comments about that, but
       | that's what I imagine they'll be used for. Models will be
       | quicker, more efficient, and be able to capture audio, and able
       | to be run on self owned GPUs. Take a google thing, throw a fake
       | looking person and some type of voice on top and presto, you're
       | talking to models.
       | 
       | I feel like that _has_ to be why all major companies are pushing
       | hard on vision products like this. They know AI is coming and
       | need to be there first so their glasses are efficient and adopted
       | where models will be easy additions.
        
       | perryizgr8 wrote:
       | Is the vision pro like iphone or like mac when it comes to device
       | ownership? Can you be root on the system? Can you compile and run
       | programs on it? Or do all apps have to be installed via an app
       | store?
        
       | arctac wrote:
       | 7x the price of Quest 3 which does exactly the same, no thank
       | you.
        
       | stephc_int13 wrote:
       | I quite often have buyer impulse when seeing the newest high-end
       | Apple products. Even if I don't like the brand monopoly, even if
       | I find their design language mostly boring and bland, there is
       | often something weirdly appealing in their marketing.
       | 
       | But in this case, I would probably try this device during half a
       | day if someone gave it to me, but I feel zero desire to own or
       | use one.
       | 
       | It does not enable anything that I can't do better with a real
       | computer, a TV or a smartphone.
        
       | hoistbypetard wrote:
       | I find it interesting that they include the archive.ph link on
       | the front page.
       | 
       | Also, it's hard not to enjoy any review that includes the word
       | "bejeezus."
       | 
       | The thing I most want to know about this device that went totally
       | unmentioned is:
       | 
       | how sharp is the text? Or, how many windows of code can I
       | comfortably see at once and is it more or less than my
       | 30-something-inch monitor?
       | 
       | TBH, that's what will sway me one way or the other on this... my
       | current monitor might have been $3500 nearly 20 years ago. It was
       | $1000+ when I bought it in 2012. If this (or one of its near term
       | successors) could replace it in a way that is better, I'm kind of
       | interested.
        
       | rubyn00bie wrote:
       | It's definitely a bit niche, given the price of the Vision Pro,
       | but I really think Apple needs to invest in first-party "gaming"
       | simulators along with allowing the corresponding hardware support
       | to easily connect to it (likely via a Mac or dock).
       | 
       | From my experience with VR, the only thing I've been absolutely
       | and definitively blown away by was sim racing. Before getting a
       | PSVR2 I had played roughly 70 hours of Gran Turismo 7, now I'm at
       | over 500 hours in the five months I've had a PSVR2. I want to buy
       | a PC-compatible headset to get access to better pedals, wheels,
       | and simulators (games) than I can get on the PS5. It's quite easy
       | to sink many thousands of dollars into the experience. I believe
       | the margin requirements are there for Apple (eventually) when
       | considering the potential for professional training solutions.
       | 
       | But! Without taking ownership of _something_ , creating some IP
       | (intellectual property) to provide a killer app, and inspire
       | other segments, they're going to be hard pressed to make inroads
       | and get this to scale.
        
       | zmmmmm wrote:
       | Lots of surprises on the downside from all the reviews. Pass
       | through much more limited in quality with motion blur,
       | pixelation, distortions, limited color and dynamic range. The eye
       | tracking driven input method which was seen as holy grail turns
       | out to be annoying after a while because people don't naturally
       | always look at what they want to click on. Personas straight up
       | aren't ready. The lack of AR features is the biggest surprise.
       | They tried hard to avoid it being a VR device but all the actual
       | high quality experiences, especially the ones people are
       | impressed by are the VR ones.
       | 
       | For me the biggest issue though is that it can't fulfil it's
       | primary use cases:
       | 
       | Want it for productivity? it can't run MacOS applications and if
       | you want to use your actual Mac it can't do multiple monitors.
       | 
       | Want it for entertainment? people want to enjoy photos, videos,
       | movies _with other people_ and it can 't include them. Even if
       | they have a Vision Pro, I haven't yet seen any sign of ability
       | for multiple people to do these things together.
       | 
       | All up, it all seems far more immature and dev-kit stage than I
       | was expecting.
        
         | crooked-v wrote:
         | > I haven't yet seen any sign of ability for multiple people to
         | do these things together.
         | 
         | The reviews haven't mentioned it, but SharePlay [1] is OS-level
         | functionality and the press releases mention using it with
         | movies, music, and games.
         | 
         | [1]: https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2023/10087/
        
         | MuffinFlavored wrote:
         | I wonder given all this... what the expectations are at Apple
         | from a higher up/board/executive standpoint are
         | 
         | Most of Apple offerings are good:
         | 
         | Watch
         | 
         | iPad
         | 
         | Mac
         | 
         | iPhone
         | 
         | services
         | 
         | Are they really expecting this to just be a hard problem
         | initially that they get better at over time? When is the last
         | time they launched a "so so" product?
        
           | wahnfrieden wrote:
           | Tim Apple reportedly overrode the design team on launching it
           | prematurely relative to their typical standards in order to
           | enter the market and begin iterating before waiting too long.
           | It's the first new product category made under his leadership
           | and he's eyeing retirement, as context.
           | 
           | Btw, don't forget visionOS 2.0 is just 18 weeks away.
        
             | Wingy wrote:
             | The watch is a new product category under his leadership
             | isn't it?
        
               | BOOSTERHIDROGEN wrote:
               | Watch still under Steve, put it in other way, it's last
               | product under his supervision.
        
               | george_perez wrote:
               | Doesn't look like it.
               | 
               | > Ive began dreaming about an Apple watch just after CEO
               | Steve Jobs' death in October 2011. He soon brought the
               | idea to Dye and a small group of others in the design
               | studio.
               | 
               | https://www.wired.com/2015/04/the-apple-watch/
        
               | pulisse wrote:
               | AirPods, too.
        
             | zmmmmm wrote:
             | > It's the first new product category made under his
             | leadership and he's eyeing retirement, as context
             | 
             | I've been wondering how much this is part of the context
             | here. He may feel some pressure that he hasn't really
             | launched a new _major_ product category from scratch in all
             | his time as CEO and if this has been running 10 years as a
             | project now, that it would be a blemish on his legacy to
             | not get it out the door before he leaves. Perhaps without
             | him there it would even be binned which would be even more
             | pressure to deliver it.
             | 
             | Contrary to all that he really seems a bit ambivalent about
             | the device himself, having never allowed himself to be seen
             | publicly using it.
        
           | epolanski wrote:
           | The first two iWatches were borderline pointless/bad.
           | 
           | The first two iPhones weren't as innovative as they make
           | them,just more polished than other symbians with cameras and
           | internet, it took off with apps really in third iteration.
           | 
           | I think visionpro has lots of opportunities in the next
           | iterations, early users will provide feedback this gen.
        
             | checkyoursudo wrote:
             | Are current watches good? I genuinely don't know and am
             | interested. I hadn't gotten one because I was an early
             | iPhone adopter (Gen 1), but haven't been willing to be an
             | early adopter since then. But I would like a watch, if they
             | are good now.
        
               | freeone3000 wrote:
               | If you want a very small cell phone on your wrist, they
               | are good at that. I'm nit sure what they're good _for_ ,
               | but they can be that.
        
             | TillE wrote:
             | > The first two iPhones weren't as innovative as they make
             | them
             | 
             | Yes they were. Multi-touch in particular was a revelation.
             | Making a big screen with one physical button is a simple
             | idea, but making it work _well_ was the hard part that
             | nobody else had figured out.
             | 
             | Those first iPhones were dog slow, sure, but they
             | absolutely defined how smartphones work ever since.
        
           | electroly wrote:
           | Apple Maps falls in that category. Maps was bad when it came
           | out but after years of effort (and a lot of money), it's
           | pretty good now. That was no small feat given how good Google
           | Maps already was when Apple Maps started.
        
             | ChrisMarshallNY wrote:
             | In my area (Long Island), Apple Maps works great (better
             | than Google Maps). I hear that it falls down, in rural
             | areas, though.
        
           | Twisell wrote:
           | The watch first 1-3 generations were clearly "so so".
        
           | outofpaper wrote:
           | Newton and to a much much lesser extent the first iPod and
           | iPhone. But really the Newton while a product that I love and
           | a super profitable line was the last time Apple created
           | something that had so many rough edges.
        
           | lambdasquirrel wrote:
           | So-so in what way? This product is clearly a toy. Which is to
           | say that it is _genuinely_ new. Maybe like how the Apple II
           | was when it first came out. PCs were quite expensive back
           | then too, if I remember correctly. This really will take
           | time. All the important technological things were toys before
           | they became tools.
        
           | ChrisMarshallNY wrote:
           | The first iPhone was pretty terrible. I couldn't get my
           | Marketing peers to take it seriously (which they came to
           | regret).
           | 
           | The first Watch was awful. I love my Series 8.
           | 
           | Don't get me started on the first Mac...
        
         | JacobThreeThree wrote:
         | >The eye tracking driven input method which was seen as holy
         | grail turns out to be annoying after a while because people
         | don't naturally always look at what they want to click on.
         | 
         | This has always been the case and this technology has been
         | around for a while. I'm surprised Apple would have chosen to
         | use it for user input.
        
         | deadbabe wrote:
         | It's my understanding that eye tracking isn't great as an input
         | method, it should be used more for stuff like rendering or NPC
         | interactions.
        
         | risho wrote:
         | i generally agree with the sentiment of this post. it does
         | appear to be a beta/dev kit. i will say that the productivity
         | criticism is a BIT unfair. It may be the case that you can only
         | have 1 MACOS display, but you can have many non macos apps
         | running right alongside the 1 macos display. You could have
         | your macos display doing things that only macos can do, and
         | then run the vision pro version of discord or teams or safari
         | or whatever else you would use that has an ipad/vision version
         | as floating windows separate from the macos display.
        
       | throwanem wrote:
       | > Living room a stress-inducing mess? Go full virtual reality
       | 
       | Or, I dunno. Clean the living room? You can even watch a movie
       | while you do that!
        
       | genman wrote:
       | The question is - can you run Linux on it?
        
       | subsubzero wrote:
       | I could see this taking the place of a TV screen in some
       | households, (smaller ones of course unless you want to spend $15k
       | for the whole family to all watch TV in a living room!). I think
       | a killer feature for this is to pair it with a treadmill and
       | project trails and famous city scapes while you run. That last
       | bit for me might be a reason to buy it as if its winter and icy
       | where you live running on the thread mill is a forced indoor
       | exercise.
        
         | Erratic6576 wrote:
         | I'm looking forward to learning about geography from a huge
         | atlas
        
         | graypegg wrote:
         | The weight would be a major problem there, and needs to be
         | improved before they can honestly pitch cardio with it on.
        
           | GlickWick wrote:
           | With a good head strap i have no issues pushing 165 bpm for
           | 45 minutes or so on the Quest 3. It works well for cardio
           | already.
           | 
           | Honestly headset weight is more of an issue for 4+ hour
           | working sessions than exercise.
        
       | hendersoon wrote:
       | Apple failed to make a compelling argument for purchasing their
       | device. Where's the "killer app"? The original iPhone was a
       | better _phone_ , and a general computing device with a web
       | browser to boot.
       | 
       | Is it to watch movies on a 100" screen on an airplane? The xReal
       | weighs 75 grams and does that for four hundred dollars. It has a
       | HDMI port too, so I can play my steam deck or switch.
       | 
       | Where are the cool AR apps? Where is the contextual data popping
       | up as I drive my car? None of that exists!
        
       | layer8 wrote:
       | I found the details interesting, like how she couldn't really see
       | if pepper was coming out of the pepper mill. Or the cooking app
       | recommending not to actually wear the AVP during cooking due to
       | (presumably) safety reasons.
       | 
       | The spatially placed timers are one of the most compelling use
       | cases I've seen so far, but I wouldn't want to wear 1.3+ pound
       | goggles plus battery for that.
        
       | karim79 wrote:
       | I'm a bit puzzled as to why they did not include at least one
       | HDMI output. Given that it has a fairly impressive hardware spec,
       | it's not hard to imagine someone buying this as a device which
       | could be an face computer when desired, and also for it to double
       | as something like a Mac Mini.
       | 
       | I'm sure it supports Airplay, but being able to plug it in to a
       | real monitor with a wire, wouldn't that make the purchase a bit
       | more appealing?
        
       | phelm wrote:
       | Seems fun that most of the huge engineering effort seems to have
       | gone into making the device feel as if its not there,
       | Passthrough, Persona, EyeSight, and most of the downsides in the
       | review comes from the fact that the device is still there.
       | 
       | The device is a simulation of the dream device that can overlay
       | UI on top of your vision without you looking any different to
       | those around you, I wonder how far away that is.
        
         | mattigames wrote:
         | I don't think it needs to be 100% not-there to reach full
         | popularity, in the shape of glasses or a hat would be good
         | enough, or perhaps something you can put on top of your regular
         | glasses.
        
       | cortexa4 wrote:
       | One of the most mind-blowing use cases of spatial computing was
       | using the Vision Pro while cooking. You could create timers for
       | different activities and place them in the locality of the object
       | that you are tracking. This way you can track the recipe
       | throughout its different stages with these virtual timers over
       | different pots, pans, ovens etc.
        
       | wkirby wrote:
       | This seems like a prank. I simply cannot fathom wanting this even
       | if it were free --- and I own and have used multiple VR headsets.
       | The idea that I'd want to live any significant portion of my day
       | in one seems like absolutely madness.
        
       | oglop wrote:
       | I thought my watch was overpriced and sold under a lie, which
       | then cost me serious money to basically buy the same product
       | again. It works fine, but I will always hate it since I had to
       | buy it twice.
       | 
       | The Macbook went from an amazing piece of tech to a useless piece
       | of RSI inducing crap. You have to buy from system 76 to get
       | anything like the old macbooks.
       | 
       | The phone, well, I was forced into an upgrade this year (as part
       | of the watch fiasco above) and was amazed how underwhelmed I was.
       | I went from an X to a 15 and as far as I can tell, the camera is
       | better and it's a little lighter. That's not enough for the money
       | I had to shell out.
       | 
       | All in all, the company has seemed to be going downhill to me for
       | at least 5-8 years. But, I'm just one consumer of many. Other
       | people seem very amazed by these things which just do nothing for
       | me.
        
       | aenis wrote:
       | It'll be a flop. Noone with a pretty face would be caught dead
       | wearing this, and fashion trends are set by pretty people. Its
       | creepy.
        
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