[HN Gopher] Traveling with Apple Vision Pro
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Traveling with Apple Vision Pro
        
       Author : tosh
       Score  : 306 points
       Date   : 2024-10-16 13:48 UTC (9 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (azadux.blog)
 (TXT) w3m dump (azadux.blog)
        
       | edmundsauto wrote:
       | I recently took a long flight and brought my Quest device, set to
       | travel mode. It worked great! Pretty much the same experience as
       | this article describes.
       | 
       | One protip, I bought a 512G flash drive and loaded it with
       | content. Then I could pop the drive in and play movies off it. I
       | did not want to deal with needing connectivity for DRM or other
       | server checks.
       | 
       | Highly recommend that people try this out, the next time you
       | travel. It's a killer use case for VR.
        
         | illegalsmile wrote:
         | Sounds great, what did you use for audio?
        
           | kreetx wrote:
           | Would guess regular wired headphones/earplugs, as bluetooth
           | has a lag which is pretty bad for gaming.
        
           | edmundsauto wrote:
           | There's a headphone port in the Quest 3. I just got a $20 set
           | of wired headphones for it. I think you can connect via
           | Bluetooth for wireless but I have t tried.
        
         | candiddevmike wrote:
         | Aside from the Meta integration which will always be a non-
         | starter for me, it would be great if Quest and other headsets
         | followed Apple's design with an external battery pack. I wonder
         | if there are/will ever be "dumb headsets" that are powered/ran
         | by a phone.
        
           | romanhn wrote:
           | You can extend your Quest with third-party accessories to do
           | this. I got a better head strap with external battery support
           | + 2 batteries and charger from BoboVR. With the magnetic
           | snap-in the batteries can be easily replaced mid-play, in
           | essence providing infinite charge time.
        
           | sofixa wrote:
           | XREAL Air do this, the headset itself is the size of
           | sunglasses, and powered by the USB C used for display in.
        
           | dylan604 wrote:
           | The very first gen of untethered headsets were powered by the
           | phone. They quickly realized that the phone stack in that
           | phone stole too many resources to reach the performance they
           | wanted. The Quest came out "shortly" after that Carmack
           | presentation.
        
           | thecapybara wrote:
           | I have a Quest 2 and a Quest 3 - both headsets allow you to
           | continue using them while they're plugged into an external
           | battery pack or charger, so you can absolutely do this
           | already.
           | 
           | I agree it'd be nice to have an external CPU pack for heat
           | and weight reasons, but we're not quite there yet. The
           | closest thing currently is wireless streaming via a PC
           | running Steam VR, but that's not exactly portable.
        
           | numpad0 wrote:
           | I believe XREAL headsets are exactly that. Bulky sunglasses
           | form factor, Pepper's Ghost optical setup, dumb display by
           | itself + 3DoF for comfort with an adapter, takes DP Alt
           | input.
        
           | blensor wrote:
           | Pretty much yes, there are already hints that this will be
           | coming but for the current experience what would be the
           | benefit Quest with battery included is already the same
           | weight as the Vision Pro without the battery. So just add an
           | external battery bank via USB and you have the same weight
           | experience
        
             | talldayo wrote:
             | Yeah, as a first-gen Quest owner I got no idea what they're
             | going on about. My favorite feature is how light it feels
             | with the battery included - I can use it comfortably with
             | _no wires_ for 2-3 hours, then take it off and let it
             | recharge. If I need more runtime, I plug it in.
             | 
             | If Meta made new versions of the Quest without the battery
             | built in I think I'd actively avoid it.
        
           | agar wrote:
           | Do you know that you can create a Meta account with a one-
           | time email address, fake name, and no connection to any other
           | Meta service but the Quest platform? That may still be more
           | connection to Meta than you prefer, but to many "Meta
           | integration" implies an automatic linkage to Facebook or
           | Instagram.
           | 
           | They only recommend your real name in case you need to
           | recover your account.
           | 
           | From
           | https://www.meta.com/help/quest/articles/accounts/account-
           | se...:
           | 
           | ---- To create a Meta account using your email address, you
           | will need to provide:
           | 
           | Email: You can only create one Meta account per email
           | address.
           | 
           | First and last name: We recommend using your real name in
           | case you need to recover your account or manage your store
           | purchases.
           | 
           | Birthday: You need to be at least 13 years old (or the
           | applicable age in your region) to set up and manage your own
           | Meta account. If you are between 10 and 12 (or the applicable
           | age in your region), then you need a Meta account that's
           | managed by a parent or guardian.
           | 
           | Password: This must be at least 8 characters. Avoid passwords
           | that someone could easily guess.
        
         | piyuv wrote:
         | How did you acquire the content? Buy the blu-rays and rip them?
        
         | calf wrote:
         | I have a Quest One collecting dust, but now I'm thinking it
         | might be fun to bring it on a long flight if I know the onboard
         | entertainment will be really lacking--some airlines I've been
         | on have really reduced the TV/movie selections for some reason.
        
           | ghaff wrote:
           | An iPad works pretty well for in-flight entertainment like
           | video or reading. Though I'll just bring a Kindle on a
           | shorter trip where I sort of know I won't be watching video.
        
       | willemlaurentz wrote:
       | Agree with author that the plane seems to be the only place where
       | it is socially acceptable to wear the skimask.
       | 
       | My wife still makes fun of me when I'm working at home with
       | Vision Pro - I wouldn't wear it out in public. See:
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41836437
        
         | throwaway48476 wrote:
         | I saw someone parked in their car wearing one.
        
         | ljf wrote:
         | It is also one of the few public places to 'safely' do it.
         | 
         | Would you feel comfortable wearing one and limiting your
         | awareness of your surroundings on a public bus? In a coffee
         | shop? Sitting outside a coffee shop? In a park? In a pub?
         | 
         | And also your answers may be yes if you are male, but I can
         | imagine in the current world we live in a lot of women would
         | feel potentially at risk if they were wearing these in public.
        
           | tesch1 wrote:
           | Train travel is great with one too.
        
             | prmoustache wrote:
             | You have a whole screen (large windows) at the side of your
             | seat with landscape and stuff to actually enjoy on a train.
        
               | dagmx wrote:
               | You assume that most train rides offer a good view, and a
               | view that the commuter would find novel.
               | 
               | If I'm taking a commuter train every day , my view is not
               | something great. Most of the time it's rundown houses,
               | tunnels or fences. This has been my experience in the UK,
               | US and Canada.
               | 
               | If I'm taking a more long distance train, you assume I'm
               | sat on the side with a view. Ever taken a mountain train?
               | One side just gets rocks wizzing by.
               | 
               | You also assume they're travelling in weather and a time
               | of day that affords them a good view. Traveling at night?
               | Traveling in misty weather?
               | 
               | And all that aside, you assume they'd prefer to look at
               | the same things you do.
        
               | prmoustache wrote:
               | I guess that is based on experience as I have commuted in
               | the swiss alps for years by train. There is even a tunnel
               | when you are comming from Freiburg in direction of
               | Lausanne/Geneva where you can count down the exact moment
               | the tourists will let escape a collective woooaaaaah once
               | the train exit the tunnel to a majestic view of Lake of
               | Geneva with the alps and the Mont Blanc in the
               | background.
               | 
               | There are some views you never get tired of looking at,
               | especially as seasons, weather, clouds and time of the
               | day makes it an ever changing postcard.
               | 
               | All in all in most of europe the trains usually offer
               | nice views and I often find myself daydreaming about
               | climbing that dirt trail on the left with my bike, riding
               | my motorbike on that twisty road on the right side a few
               | minutes later and what kind of life was it living 500
               | years ago in the old castle I can see here.
        
               | dagmx wrote:
               | This feels like you're judging others for not being
               | fortunate enough to live in the same place you do. It's a
               | bit narcissistic of a viewpoint imho.
        
               | pests wrote:
               | At the same time, I feel you are being dismissive of the
               | beauty around us every day. I used to bus the same route
               | every day for months; and every day I would look out my
               | window and just take it in. People watching, seeing
               | buildings grow under construction, the changing of the
               | trees. The sunset is always beautiful, imo.
               | 
               | Why must we always escape?
        
               | dagmx wrote:
               | Because not everyone has the same view afforded to them
               | at all times?
               | 
               | Again, you are fortunate to have a view that you enjoy.
               | That doesn't extend to others, unless you believe that
               | there are no other situations on the planet other than
               | your own.
        
               | IncreasePosts wrote:
               | Aren't you escaping too? You could be alone with your
               | thoughts, but instead you are piping inconsequential
               | outside details into your brain.
        
               | FredPret wrote:
               | I think he's just saying he has a nice train ride.
        
               | dagmx wrote:
               | No, he's telling other people to also act like he does.
               | 
               | It's great he can enjoy it but it's self centered to tell
               | others to do the same.
        
               | kridsdale3 wrote:
               | This is one of the most tone-deaf moments I have ever
               | seen in an internet discussion. The guy lives in the
               | closest thing we have to heaven on earth, a bountiful
               | paradise of gorgeous beauty admired from afar the world
               | over, and says to those of us living in crap-world that
               | we should be grateful for what nature gives us.
        
               | CPLX wrote:
               | I mean you literally live in Switzerland. It's the most
               | photogenic place on the planet.
               | 
               | Some of us live in places like Baltimore, or Staten
               | Island.
        
               | prmoustache wrote:
               | I am not living there anymore and I still like to take
               | the train and enjoy looking at the window. Sometimes it
               | is just looking at people doing stuff.
               | 
               | You might find that real life is boring, I find that most
               | tv shows and movies are super predictable, following the
               | very similar scenaristic mechanics and aren't more
               | entertaining. Obviously some are also very nice, but
               | these are the ones you would like to watch comfortably on
               | your sofa or in a theater, not in a train or plane
               | anyway.
        
               | richardw wrote:
               | Maybe record that amazing commute so the less fortunate
               | train travelers can play it on an Apple Vision Pro? Bit
               | of a rubbish arrival surprise at work, but we can solve
               | that next!
        
               | brailsafe wrote:
               | Still, are those temporary inconveniences so dull that
               | you can't read a book or something? Why cling to a
               | desperate need for hyper stimulation when you could just
               | relax with a newspaper or book. Oh jeez, it's misty out,
               | and I forgot my ridiculous VR goggles, guess I'll just be
               | sad :(
        
               | dagmx wrote:
               | Because other people might enjoy things other than books
               | or newspapers?
               | 
               | Seriously, is everyone on here so narcissistic that they
               | can't imagine other people want other things?
        
               | jedberg wrote:
               | When I take trains in Europe, I tend to look out the
               | window, and they often have nice views.
               | 
               | When I take trains in the USA, I usually look out for a
               | few seconds every couple of minutes, because it's mostly
               | the same -- lower-middle class housing or warehouses if
               | we're in a city, or ugly terrain outside of a city.
        
               | erickhill wrote:
               | You'd enjoy the Amtrak from Seattle to Vancouver along
               | the water at sunset. You can buy a glass of wine and
               | enjoy the majestic views.
        
               | samatman wrote:
               | Having ridden both routes, the Amtrak from Denver to Reno
               | has a spectacularly better view than the Eurostar from
               | London to Brussels. The food is also better.
               | 
               | These kinds of broad comparisons are utterly useless.
               | Continents are much too large for that kind of thing to
               | be anything resembling accurate.
        
               | Arrath wrote:
               | I have to say, taking the night train from Moscow to St
               | Petersburg was eye opening.
               | 
               | I went from modern metropolis of skyscrapers and tower
               | cranes to run down rusty industrial facilities that
               | wouldn't look out of place in a STALKER game to sod
               | roofed villages that look as they might have when
               | Napoleon was making an ill fated expedition. Then of
               | course a vast expanse of nothing at all.
        
               | threeseed wrote:
               | That gets old after about an hour.
               | 
               | Especially if you're travelling through cityscapes that
               | aren't that appealing.
        
               | cchi_co wrote:
               | It's nice to have something to switch to
        
         | baxtr wrote:
         | Can you elaborate on the working part?
         | 
         | I tested the device in an Apple Store and was blown away by the
         | experience. Such an amazing tool to explore, enjoy and relax.
         | 
         | The work part though? I had the same feeling as with the iPad
         | early on. I need a keyboard and a mouse to be productive.
        
           | nine_k wrote:
           | I don't see why won't you be able use a keyboard if you can
           | touch-type. I can imagine that a CAD or an animation app
           | could make great use of the 3D views, a mouse for precise
           | coordinate input, and a keyboard for numeric and text input.
           | 
           | I wonder how soon will Maya or CATIA offer good enough
           | integration. Maybe they already offer it at the high end.
        
           | theturtletalks wrote:
           | Apple Vision Pro can recognize a Macbook and turn that screen
           | into the "theater" screen so you can continue using your
           | Macbook as is with the keyboard and trackpad.
           | 
           | There was even a Youtuber that got annoyed of the black
           | screen on the Macbook when doing this that he removed the
           | screen from a Macbook altogether[0].
           | 
           | 0. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUa_pPUbpGQ
        
           | Terretta wrote:
           | > _The work part though? I had the same feeling as with the
           | iPad early on. I need a keyboard and a mouse to be
           | productive._
           | 
           | Both my iPad Pro and my Vision Pro have a keyboard and
           | trackpad:
           | 
           | - The iPad Pro of course uses the excellent Magic Keyboard.
           | 
           | - The Vision Pro uses an Apple keyboard w/o numpad side by
           | side with the Magic Trackpad, in a custom tray to hold both.
           | (Make sure that your carryon's front pocket can hold the full
           | tray.)
           | 
           | For sure if I thought I could only do work on a MacBook not
           | an iPad Pro (what most people seem to think, insisting iPad
           | is a consumption device), then I definitely couldn't work on
           | a Vision Pro.
           | 
           | But once you've figured out how to code (e.g. VSCode using
           | blink code, or Koder, Working Copy, Textastic, etc.), do
           | graphic design (e.g. Affinity suite), or run Office on an
           | iPad (Teams, Outlook, Word, PowerPoint, Excel), the Vision
           | Pro does those too but with "all the app windows at once"
           | (ofc, iPad Pro 13" makes excellent use of Stage Manager for
           | window groups).
           | 
           | All that said, I haven't felt a burden to pull AVP out on the
           | plane.
           | 
           | iPad Pro 13" HDR with AirPods Pro USB-C using Spatial Audio
           | that anchors to your iPad screen seem more than enough.
           | Especially since you can share audio with a seat mate who
           | also has AirPods, and both watch the same movie together.
           | 
           | Not often talked about: for doing real work, do consider a
           | fresh glasses prescription and the Zeiss add-ins. To keep
           | windows rectangular instead of trapezoid, insist you're under
           | 40 regardless of your age, otherwise Zeiss do a stealth
           | "progressive" that warps window sizes.
        
             | cheschire wrote:
             | I had no idea that's what Spatial Audio meant. I thought
             | naively that it was just another marketing jargon for
             | surround sound.
             | 
             | Now I wish I had gone for the bose QC ultra buds instead of
             | the QC II buds.
        
           | sleepybrett wrote:
           | It's really unfortunate that they decided for an ios variant
           | instead of a macos variant for the vision pro. Even if the
           | power of macos (a real filesystem and the software library)
           | is hidden behind a 'expert mode' or some shit.
           | 
           | I want to replace my macbook, I don't want to replace my
           | ipad. I can't work properly on my ipad unless i'm using it as
           | a dumb terminal. And at the price point of a macbook that's
           | what it should be replacing.
           | 
           | People may point out that i can use it to mirror my macbook
           | screen.. but now i'm paying 2x to replace a screen. I think
           | this is a primary misplay in he vision pro strategy.
           | 
           | Give me a windowing system that lets me place windows, not in
           | a little box that is essentially a virtual monitor, but
           | wherever i want in my immediate vicinity. Let me put my
           | goland/ide window front and center, let me put a terminal to
           | the left, and my music player above.. whatever.
           | 
           | I'd take a vision pro with much of the compute hardware
           | stripped out but that I can tether to a macbook via
           | usbc/thunderbolt as well.. just not an ipad strapped to my
           | face.
        
           | cchi_co wrote:
           | The Vision Pro might be brilliant for consuming content, but
           | if you're trying to get work done...
        
         | cchi_co wrote:
         | At least you've got some tech freedom at home
        
       | latexr wrote:
       | > Be it by train or by plane, it offers an unparalleled
       | opportunity to selectively tune out your environment and sink
       | into an engaging activity like watching a movie or just working
       | on your laptop.
       | 
       | The more time passes, the less I can shake the feeling that the
       | world would be better if we tuned out our environment less.
       | 
       | > But damn, based on how well it all works now, you can just tell
       | by the 4th or 5th generation, Apple Vision Pro will be on the
       | face of every frequent flyer.
       | 
       | If it even gets that far. I'd almost be willing to take that bet,
       | but 5 generations for this device could mean more than a decade
       | so I don't think any of us can say for sure.
       | 
       | All that said, I haven't read the full review yet and I doubt
       | it'll do anything to convince me, but still I appreciate you
       | writing it up and putting it out there. From what I've read so
       | far it looks well thought out and it clearly took some effort, so
       | kudos.
        
         | 39896880 wrote:
         | >The more time passes, the less I can shake the feeling that
         | the world would be better if we tuned out of our environment
         | less.
         | 
         | Depends on what environment that is. I mean, is there some
         | value in hearing an ambulance siren at full volume while I'm
         | walking down the street? Or the sound of people trying to get
         | my attention to hand me some flyer? Or the sound of the BART?
        
           | realreality wrote:
           | Yes, it would be wonderful to be able to tune out the
           | wretched poor people. Maybe a future headset will include a
           | forcefield to actively repel potential muggers or oncoming
           | vehicles.
        
           | adamc wrote:
           | I think there might be some psychological benefit just in
           | experiencing life and being in the moment, even though it
           | isn't all pleasant.
           | 
           | I listen to books or music during a lot of my daily walks,
           | but I've noticed that when I don't, I sometimes experience
           | life differently.
        
             | chasd00 wrote:
             | i agree but i think what the parent and other folks up
             | thread are saying makes sense. It's nice to have the choice
             | to tune in or tune out but no one wants that decision made
             | for them. No one wants to be forced to engage with 100+
             | random people in very close proximity with really no option
             | to standup let alone leave like on a plane. Another way to
             | look at it is imagine the person to your left and to your
             | right are super fans of the political party opposite to
             | yours. That wouldn't be very fun unless you like to fight
             | for 3hrs.
        
           | luismedel wrote:
           | I like to be able to ear any siren around me, to be honest.
           | They're the way they are for a reason.
        
             | renewiltord wrote:
             | This is kind of why I like living near highways and train
             | tracks. Most people live in suburbs and they don't hear the
             | noise of the city. They just miss out on so much
             | environment. Sadly, my wife hates this (she is not in tune
             | with her environment) and so we moved from a place where
             | there were crazy people screaming to a place which is
             | relatively quiet.
             | 
             | Sometimes I'm at home and there aren't any sirens or bells
             | or people screaming and I just think about how out of touch
             | we are with the environment.
             | 
             | This has spread to everyone. Paul Graham has lost his
             | connection to the environment and instead writes about
             | silence. What a fool! If only he was more in touch with his
             | environment.
        
               | chasd00 wrote:
               | > Sometimes I'm at home and there aren't any sirens or
               | bells or people screaming and I just think about how out
               | of touch we are with the environment.
               | 
               | at least in the suburbs you can engage with and
               | experience the leaf blowers.
        
               | rootusrootus wrote:
               | Anecdotally, I heard _way_ more leaf blowers while living
               | in the city than in the suburbs. Lots of times in the
               | suburbs people just leave them on the ground. But it gets
               | to be a gross mess pretty fast in an urban environment so
               | they are cleaned up relentlessly through the fall.
        
               | JoshTriplett wrote:
               | I genuinely can't tell if this comment is serious or
               | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe%27s_law .
        
             | 39896880 wrote:
             | They are designed to be heard at a distance and through
             | automobile glass, not walking beside it on a sidewalk.
             | Besides, the siren is not a meaningful signal to me: I'm
             | not on the road.
        
             | Dylan16807 wrote:
             | "at full volume"
        
         | mtalantikite wrote:
         | I generally agree with this sentiment of people being too
         | tethered to technology and not paying attention to the world
         | around them, but I don't see a problem with it on a flight.
         | You're generally going to be seated in one place for hours at a
         | time. It's much more infuriating to be walking out of the
         | subway here in NYC and people are just in zombie mode walking
         | up the stairs slowly while staring at their phones. Or down
         | busy streets. Or driving in their cars.
         | 
         | I coincidentally demoed the Vision Pro this past weekend and
         | expected to hate it, but was pretty impressed with it. I
         | definitely don't want people walking around NYC with it
         | strapped to their faces, but on a long plane or train ride I
         | can see it being pretty nice.
        
           | bbor wrote:
           | Well put! Though I would argue that the issue being discussed
           | is not short-term distraction in highly dangerous situations
           | like driving a car or sharing a sidewalk in NYC, but rather
           | the long-term psychological effects of filling every spare
           | moment with entertainment. Ever since being forced to bus an
           | hour+ to high school (sans smart phone! Can you imagine?!)
           | I've learned to appreciate what long stretches of
           | contemplation can do for a person. Or, at least, do for me.
           | 
           | Of course, my attention span typically maxes out around 2h
           | unless I'm in a particularly thoughtful place in life, such
           | as my bus ride to a new city after undergrad graduation, or
           | the flight home after a big family event. And, of course,
           | being in the window seat is a must -- you'd have to be
           | something of a zen master to peacefully "raw-dog" a flight by
           | just starting at the seat in front of you!
           | 
           | Rant aside, I absolutely agree that being stuck in place for
           | hours at a time is good reason to want _some_ form of
           | entertainment, and this is arguably the perfect application
           | for VR. Being stuck on a long bus /train/plane without
           | entertainment can feel downright claustrophobic, and it's not
           | like there's any communication with others anyway. Other than
           | the nice flight attendants, which we still have, for some
           | weird reason -- I thought it was a nice touch to clarify that
           | talking to them with the headset for more than a phrase or
           | two feels disrespectful.
        
             | latexr wrote:
             | > Though I would argue that the issue being discussed is
             | not short-term distraction in highly dangerous situations
             | like driving a car or sharing a sidewalk in NYC, but rather
             | the long-term psychological effects of filling every spare
             | moment with entertainment.
             | 
             | Correct. And I also had in mind how those individual
             | psychological effects affect our interactions with the rest
             | of reality and other living beings, which collectively
             | shapes society.
             | 
             | I'm reminded of something I read years ago (I don't recall
             | the source at all and am likely adding details) which
             | argued that US politics were less aggressively divisive in
             | the past because politicians from both sides regularly saw
             | each other and spent time together, meaning they could form
             | more empathy and see the opposition as real human beings
             | and not caricatures. As they spend less time together, it's
             | easier to fall into the trap of seeing the other side as a
             | "them" unworthy of respect.
             | 
             | > I thought it was a nice touch to clarify that talking to
             | them with the headset for more than a phrase or two feels
             | disrespectful.
             | 
             | Agreed.
        
             | jon-wood wrote:
             | > Other than the nice flight attendants, which we still
             | have, for some weird reason
             | 
             | They're trained to get everyone off the plane in under 90
             | seconds in case of emergency. The handing out of drinks and
             | snacks is a pleasant side effect of their presence.
        
             | mtalantikite wrote:
             | > but rather the long-term psychological effects of filling
             | every spare moment with entertainment.
             | 
             | Oh, for sure. I mean I'm in my 40s and have never owned a
             | TV and have spent every morning with my meditation practice
             | for a very long time. Even on 14+ hour flights I tend to
             | just sit there, maybe listening to music a bit, but largely
             | doing my meditation practice. I'm totally on board with
             | people being present in their environments.
             | 
             | But of all the places for someone to use something like the
             | Vision Pro, an airplane seems totally reasonable to me. I'm
             | much more concerned with people needing to scroll TikTok
             | while on the escalator at Whole Foods and what that says
             | about society than someone watching a movie on an
             | international flight!
        
         | nordsieck wrote:
         | > The more time passes, the less I can shake the feeling that
         | the world would be better if we tuned out our environment less.
         | 
         | That may or may not be true in general, but air travel is one
         | of the most oppressive environments people regularly find
         | themselves in. Being in an extremely crowded environment with
         | very little personal space is psychologically uncomfortable for
         | a lot of people. And it's basically not possible to escape that
         | environment until the plane lands, which is typically hours of
         | time. If it's OK to tune the world out anywhere, it's got to be
         | in an airplane.
        
           | latexr wrote:
           | > That may or may not be true in general, but air travel is
           | one of the most oppressive environments people regularly find
           | themselves in.
           | 
           | What do you think is going to happen if, as the author
           | predicts, "Apple Vision Pro will be on the face of every
           | frequent flyer"?
           | 
           | My prediction is that the experience would get even shittier.
           | Since everyone would be tuned out, there'd be even less
           | reason for the airline to care.
        
             | tesch1 wrote:
             | My prediction is that airlines will start offering VR
             | headsets much like they added seatback screens.
        
               | latexr wrote:
               | Lovely, just what we need: cheap devices with a motion-
               | sickness-inducing laggy passthrough, poor resolution
               | screens (when they work at all), covered in other
               | people's face grease.
        
               | tesch1 wrote:
               | Solution: bring your own!
        
               | JoshTriplett wrote:
               | Devices owned by someone else pointing a camera at your
               | eyes and doing eye tracking...
        
               | makeitdouble wrote:
               | I'd bet on them removing screens and not replacing them,
               | potentially also getting rid of the headphone jack.
               | 
               | Perhaps they extend the charging ports some airlines are
               | offering, with a bit more juice than a phone's battery to
               | let people use their device for a bit longer.
        
               | chasd00 wrote:
               | That's a really interesting idea. Do planes have access
               | to Starlink now? I could see a market for passengers to
               | purchase a vr headset and decent inet connection on a
               | flight. It would be tough to keep the headsets in good
               | shape and clean though...
        
               | nordsieck wrote:
               | > Do planes have access to Starlink now?
               | 
               | There's a number of airlines that have signed contracts,
               | like United. I think it'll take a while for everything to
               | be completely rolled out.
        
               | asciimov wrote:
               | Sounds like a lovely way to get pink eye.
        
             | nordsieck wrote:
             | > My prediction is that the experience would get even
             | shittier. Since everyone would be tuned out, there'd be
             | even less reason for the airline to care.
             | 
             | What can the airlines do to make it worse? I suppose they
             | could cut out soda and pretzels. And get rid of the HUD on
             | the back of the chair. But I don't think most people care
             | that much about that stuff, especially since a lot of
             | chairs have power outlets on them, even in coach.
             | 
             | IMO, the thing that people really care about is the amount
             | of space they have access to - both width and depth. And
             | I'm not sure how much more airlines can realistically
             | squeeze that.
        
           | dkdbejwi383 wrote:
           | > That may or may not be true in general, but air travel is
           | one of the most oppressive environments people regularly find
           | themselves in.
           | 
           | Most people don't regularly travel by plane. This is a very
           | "1%" (as shorthand for a privileged minority of people
           | globally, not literally exactly 1% of the population)
           | problem.
        
             | aaomidi wrote:
             | > Most people don't regularly travel by plane. This is a
             | very "1%" problem.
             | 
             | Except, they do in a country like the US that has massive
             | distances between cities.
        
               | tsimionescu wrote:
               | Even in the US, _most_ people (50+% of the population)
               | certainly doesn 't _regularly_ (say, more than once a
               | decade) travel by plane.
        
               | renewiltord wrote:
               | 49% in the last year according to this
               | https://www.airlines.org/dataset/air-travelers-in-
               | america-an...
               | 
               | Statista survey pre-pandemic says majority fly every year
               | https://www.statista.com/statistics/316365/air-travel-
               | freque...
               | 
               | Americans fly quite often.
        
               | tsimionescu wrote:
               | Oh wow, I didn't imagine it's this many people. I stand
               | corrected, thank you for looking up the numbers.
        
               | dwaite wrote:
               | Families tend to get spread out and vacations tend to be
               | very short. There is a strong encouragement to meet for
               | recognized holidays, so these are by far the busiest
               | times at airports.
               | 
               | Last year, the prediction was 4.7 million people in the
               | US traveling by plane over the thanksgiving holiday,
               | which demolishes the 1% comment immediately.
        
               | dkdbejwi383 wrote:
               | 4.7m is ~0.05% of ~8bn
        
               | aaomidi wrote:
               | If you look at everything in the larger group of world
               | population you'll end up with a lot of useless info.
        
               | jandrewrogers wrote:
               | You are greatly underestimating how common it is for
               | Americans to travel by plane. Almost half of Americans
               | fly at least once a year. It is sufficiently inexpensive
               | that almost everyone can readily afford to.
        
               | diggan wrote:
               | I think that's supposed to be
               | 
               | > Except, they do in a country like the US that don't
               | have any other suitable alternatives
        
               | rootusrootus wrote:
               | A little bit of both, and they are related. Trains are a
               | tough sell because they aren't competitive for most
               | travel. Even at 300kph, they're only good for local-ish
               | travel (by that, I mean up to perhaps as much as 1000km).
               | Would be great for Portland to Seattle, or Portland to
               | LA, but if you're going out of region (which is extremely
               | common), an airplane will be way faster and almost
               | certainly cheaper too.
               | 
               | I'd _love_ a moderately fast train, say 200kph, between
               | cities like Portland and Seattle. That 's a _great_ use
               | case.
               | 
               | But as a nationwide network, there won't ever be a
               | suitable rail alternative, unless it gets subsidized.
               | Amtrak is already stupidly expensive for what you get.
        
             | jazzyjackson wrote:
             | They didn't say most, they said people.
        
             | DrScientist wrote:
             | 1% of 300 million is still a 3 mill market size in the US
             | alone.
        
             | MPSimmons wrote:
             | I don't think it's a 1% problem, but it's a 40% problem:
             | 
             | https://www.airlines.org/new-survey-nearly-90-percent-of-
             | ame...
             | 
             | 44% of Americans flew commercially in 2022.
        
               | dkdbejwi383 wrote:
               | There's a whole world outside of the USA.
        
               | petesergeant wrote:
               | Sure, but 11% of the global population fly in a year
               | 
               | https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S095937
               | 802...
        
               | dkdbejwi383 wrote:
               | And how many of those are regular vs. irregular trips?
               | 
               | Probably not enough to make the statement that flying is
               | a situation people find themselves in regularly.
        
               | renewiltord wrote:
               | Yeah, but "Rest of World cannot afford luxury travel" is
               | not a notable fact. The US is rich. Americans are rich.
               | For many things, the US is the only market where it's
               | feasible. A self-driving car is useless in India (1/6 of
               | all people), for instance. Labour costs are too low.
               | 
               | It's clear the Vision Pro didn't find its market but I
               | don't think it's an air travel thing.
        
               | talldayo wrote:
               | 80% of _those_ people are flying economy class and
               | already get along fine with earbuds and their phone. The
               | remaining 20% that can afford something like Vision Pro
               | almost certainly will choose not to.
        
               | macintux wrote:
               | People used to get along fine with a magazine or book;
               | that doesn't mean they weren't ready for something
               | better.
        
               | talldayo wrote:
               | _If_ those uncertain people decide they want to distract
               | themselves with VR, do you think they 'll buy the $350
               | headset or the $3,500 one?
               | 
               | I just don't see the market Apple envisions
               | materializing. I'd expect 20 people to be using a Quest
               | in economy before you see 2 people using a Vision Pro in
               | business.
        
               | PierceJoy wrote:
               | The author specifically says he believes people will be
               | using the 4th or 5th iteration of the Vision Pro for this
               | purpose. Why are you comparing prices of devices that
               | won't exist for another 5+ years?
        
               | talldayo wrote:
               | Because you and I both know Apple will never be price-
               | competitive with the commodity segment. They are a luxury
               | brand that relies on luxury margins, so I want to know
               | why their business model will succeed.
               | 
               | If plane seating is anything to go by, most people don't
               | _want_ a luxury experience but a practical and cheap one
               | instead. Most seats aren 't reserved for premium
               | passengers because they are a minority, maybe a
               | profitable audience but not at all the primary one.
        
               | ponector wrote:
               | >The most recent such poll was conducted online between
               | January 9-31, 2023, in which Ipsos interviewed roughly
               | 11,000 adults age 18+ from the continental U.S., Alaska,
               | and Hawaii.
               | 
               | Same poll can result with statement "100% of Americans
               | use internet."
        
               | stnmtn wrote:
               | Well, about 94% of the American population use the
               | internet so it's a good base by which to conduct reliable
               | surveys.
        
               | ghaff wrote:
               | And a lot of those probably flew once to visit family at
               | the holidays.
        
             | mat_epice wrote:
             | Google's AI tool says that 20-25% of the world's population
             | flies at least three times a year. Not a good source, but
             | at least a surprising statistic if true.
             | 
             | Some hard data says that 12% of US flyers take 66% of
             | flights [1]. Those are all likely very frequent fliers, and
             | is much more than 1%.
             | 
             | 1. https://www.businesstraveller.com/business-
             | travel/2021/03/31...
        
           | goalieca wrote:
           | > most oppressive environments people regularly find
           | themselves in.
           | 
           | It's boring but not oppressive. It's okay to let the mind
           | wander without completely disconnecting yourself from
           | reality.
        
             | aaomidi wrote:
             | This completely depends on the person. The environment of a
             | plane (dry humid air, loud engine humming, babies crying
             | etc) is oppressive to a lot of people, even more so if
             | you're neuro-atypical.
        
             | blargey wrote:
             | I hope you repeat that lecture to everyone wearing an
             | eyemask trying to sleep, or wearing heaphones for their in-
             | flight movie (god forbid they brought noise-cancelling
             | ones!)
        
             | michaelt wrote:
             | The flying experience is oppressive in the sense of being a
             | constricting, heavy-handed and overbearing environment,
             | indifferent to your inconvenience or discomfort.
             | 
             | Where else can you get a full body cavity search, be denied
             | water, be delayed by several hours without so much as an
             | apology, be nickle-and-dimed with overpriced shitty food
             | and $5 fees for a cab to drop you off, and have your
             | luggage smashed up, all under one roof?
             | 
             | Of course, I'm not sure the Apple Vision Pro can do much to
             | improve on the situation.
        
           | Staross wrote:
           | >And it's basically not possible to escape that environment
           | until the plane lands
           | 
           | Ever heard of closing your eyes ?
        
             | Dylan16807 wrote:
             | For five hours?
             | 
             | It takes a _lot_ of meditation practice to get up to
             | "entire plane flight" level.
        
           | bentcorner wrote:
           | Weirdly enough I love being on a plane (and airports).
           | There's something psychologically freeing about them that I
           | feel whenever I fly. I look forward to flying so much. And
           | it's not like I'm flying first class or anything - I fly
           | economy every time.
           | 
           | Maybe if I flew more frequently I'd grow to dislike it (I fly
           | maybe once a year), but honestly airports and flying are my
           | favorite part of a trip (yes, I like them more than any
           | possible destination). TBF I haven't flown to anywhere
           | particularly exciting but I fail to imagine any place
           | matching the pleasure of an airport + flight. After writing
           | this it sounds ridiculous but I'm 100% serious - I can't
           | quite explain why I enjoy it so much.
        
             | chasd00 wrote:
             | I don't like flying that much but airports are an
             | interesting place. I like people watching and just the
             | spectacle of it all.
             | 
             | There's some funny tweets about airports like: "The airport
             | is a lawless place, want to get drunk at 7AM? Go right
             | ahead. Tired? Just sleep on the floor. Chips cost $15".
             | 
             | edit: came back to post this, i definitely get an odd
             | feeling of liberation once i'm at an airport. I travel
             | sometimes for work and once i get in to the airport waiting
             | to board I feel like work and every day life ceases for a
             | time and i'm free to do whatever. It's odd because i'm
             | trapped in this building with hundreds if not thousands of
             | other people waiting to get on a pressurized metal tube
             | blasting through the sky at hundreds of miles/hr. Nothing
             | very liberating about that but for some reason being in the
             | airport feels that way to me.
        
               | bentcorner wrote:
               | > I travel sometimes for work and once i get in to the
               | airport waiting to board I feel like work and every day
               | life ceases for a time and i'm free to do whatever.
               | 
               | Yes, this is very much how I feel. 0 responsibilities and
               | there's nothing I can actually accomplish during my time
               | there. I just sit there reading a book or something, just
               | waiting.
        
               | floren wrote:
               | Can't stand airports, because from the instant you
               | arrive, the success of your trip is now basically out of
               | your hands but also incredibly precarious.
               | 
               | Maybe there's some ticketing snafu and it takes an hour
               | just to drop your checked bag (sanctimonious carry-on
               | fliers hold your posts like you hold the seventeen bags
               | you try to drag on the plane)
               | 
               | Maybe security is insanely backed up or just run by
               | incompetents, like the time at SFO where it took them 30
               | minutes to screen the 10 people in front of me.
               | 
               | Then once you get past security, a whole new list of
               | potential problems comes up:
               | 
               | Maybe the incoming flight is delayed, possibly delayed so
               | much you're going to miss your connection.
               | 
               | Maybe you'll board but the plane will be broken because
               | the airlines don't believe in preventive maintenance, and
               | you'll have to deplane again.
               | 
               | Maybe you'll board but due to various circumstances in
               | airport operations you spend 3 hours sitting on the
               | tarmac while the airplane gets increasingly hot and your
               | toddler gets increasingly fussy.
        
             | dfxm12 wrote:
             | Do you have to deal with the TSA where you fly? I take
             | psychological damage any time I have to deal with them.
        
               | bentcorner wrote:
               | I do - I like to arrive early at the airport so it's just
               | a long line to me. Unpacking my stuff to get xrayed is
               | indeed a hassle but it's not a big deal to me.
        
               | ghaff wrote:
               | I have TSA pre-check and while you still have lines now
               | and then 5 to 10 minutes is pretty normal when I leave
               | for a flight.
        
               | dfxm12 wrote:
               | Waiting in line is not the problem.
        
             | arethuza wrote:
             | I actually don't mind the flying bit too much but I
             | absolutely _hate_ airports...
        
           | croes wrote:
           | In a crowded plane you don't want to sit next to someone who
           | tuned out their environment
        
             | Dylan16807 wrote:
             | Why not? It sounds pretty good to me.
        
               | croes wrote:
               | Tuned out, plays something like fruit ninja and makes a
               | hard cut to the right ... in your face
        
           | makeitdouble wrote:
           | > people regularly find themselves in.
           | 
           | To me this is the most intriguing part of it all.
           | 
           | I understand tech reviewers and journalists raving about
           | having something to do on planes, as they probably spend an
           | awful lot of time there. Then perhaps sales people also
           | flighting on company's dime.
           | 
           | But regular people don't spend much time on planes, and many
           | of them don't need it to be an entertaining or efficient
           | time, they can just spleep if the flight is long enough (I
           | can't imagine lugging along a luggage the size of the Vision
           | Pro for just a 2 hour flight)
           | 
           | In particular the plane staff won't let you tune completely
           | out if you're awake: the whole safety sequence , take off and
           | landing, turbulences, the in-flight meal, all the guidance
           | for international flights, your neighbours when you've pulled
           | the middle seat etc.
        
             | throw4950sh06 wrote:
             | Many regular people bought tablets, expensive noise
             | canceling headphones and other hardware with the express
             | purpose of using it on a flight 2-6 times (1-3 round trips)
             | a year. Of course, it gets used outside of a plane too -
             | but that applies to VR gear just as well.
             | 
             | If they can get the price below $1500, I'm sure many
             | regular people will buy it even if they fly less than 10
             | times a year.
        
           | RandomThoughts3 wrote:
           | > And it's basically not possible to escape that environment
           | until the plane lands
           | 
           | You can buy a business class ticket. I will hasard that the
           | overlap between people who can afford to buy a 3000$ VR
           | headset and people who can fly business is pretty much total.
        
           | skhr0680 wrote:
           | > psychologically uncomfortable
           | 
           | My brother in god, you can travel from any point of the Earth
           | to any other point on the Earth in less than a week. At what
           | point are modern people going to "deal with it"?
        
             | nordsieck wrote:
             | > My brother in god, you can travel from any point of the
             | Earth to any other point on the Earth in less than a week.
             | At what point are modern people going to "deal with it"?
             | 
             | Clearly people do "deal with it" since lots of people fly
             | all the time. But that doesn't mean that the experience
             | can't be improved.
        
               | ghaff wrote:
               | But the improvement has almost nothing to do with
               | entertainment options. It's about space and comfort. To a
               | lesser degree cabin service but that quite a way down the
               | list.
        
           | moolcool wrote:
           | > air travel is one of the most oppressive environments
           | people regularly find themselves in
           | 
           | How much of this would be solved by VR though? To me the
           | unpleasantness of flying mostly comes down to physical
           | discomfort. The seats are cramped, the air is dry, the food
           | isn't great, the bathroom situation is uncomfortable, and you
           | can't really walk around. VR would visually transport you
           | somewhere else, but physically, you're still very much on a
           | plane.
        
             | countvonbalzac wrote:
             | There's a reason people watch movies on planes - it's to
             | distract you from the uncomfortable environment you're in.
             | VR is more immersive than a 2D screen so it's more
             | distracting.
        
             | threetonesun wrote:
             | As someone with generalized anxiety I hate almost every
             | part of flying from the point at which I leave the house
             | until I arrive, but none of what you mentioned bothers me
             | terribly.
             | 
             | I'd be curious to try a device like this and see if it
             | helps. I usually just use noise cancelling headphones and
             | play a game or watch movies, which isn't too different from
             | removing myself into VR, but I'm also aware that sometimes
             | completely removing my sense of my surroundings can be more
             | unnerving.
        
           | kccqzy wrote:
           | > Being in an extremely crowded environment with very little
           | personal space
           | 
           | I don't disagree with you but I can tell you don't take the
           | NYC subway or Paris metro or the London Underground with any
           | regularity. If you think an airplane is "extremely crowded"
           | then you have no words to describe actual mass transit.
        
           | ghaff wrote:
           | And then the person next to you needs to jostle you because
           | they need to use the bathroom.
        
         | keiferski wrote:
         | > The more time passes, the less I can shake the feeling that
         | the world would be better if we tuned out our environment less.
         | 
         | Agreed 100%. Apologies for linking to my own essay, but I think
         | this can be more generally stated as a difference between
         | "isolated" and "integrated" arts. A device like the Vision Pro
         | (and most tech devices, for that matter) is pushing society
         | further and further into isolated chambers, and thus further
         | incentivizing media and creators to focus on creating isolated
         | aesthetic experiences, not ones that are integrated with the
         | environment.
         | 
         | This is such a baseline unquestioned assumption that we have
         | about the structure of the tech economy, that to think a
         | company like Apple would make a device that brings people
         | together in the real world seems absurd.
         | 
         | I wrote a bit more about this idea here:
         | https://onthearts.com/p/modern-culture-is-too-escapist-part
        
           | bbor wrote:
           | Thanks for sharing, I for one found it relevant! I've always
           | found it somewhat monstrous how much art is in museum
           | archives -- surely "showcasing stuff behind glass" is
           | something our civilization can manage??
           | 
           | I'd quibble that what you're really pointing to here is
           | capitalism, though. Architecture isn't monotonous because of
           | our cultural attitude towards architects/Architecture, it's
           | monotonous because capitalists build most buildings, and
           | they're predictably interested in perceived efficiency above
           | all else. There's good reason to argue that beautiful
           | surroundings augment worker productivity so it's not even a
           | clean tradeoff, but in practice, only the richest companies
           | and universities end up taking that risk with beautiful
           | structures[1][2][3] and/or sculptures/fountains/gardens/etc.
           | Obviously, the same dynamic applies to the exclusivity of
           | contemporary art galleries and private collections.
           | 
           | In Apple's(/"tech"'s) defense, I think they'd absolutely love
           | to sell integrative products whenever possible. The Nintendo
           | Switch was originally marketed[4] as such, and despite being
           | a bit goofy, I imagine it helped sell a lot of units. That's
           | why Apple spent ungodly amounts of money trying to make real
           | AR work before compromising with "passthrough" -- they know
           | that people are social creatures, and that a huge driver of
           | their sales is perceived social value.[5] Again: the problem
           | is the system of incentives, not individual bad actors.
           | 
           | [1] Google's newest 'Bayview' campus:
           | https://blog.google/inside-google/life-at-google/bay-view-
           | ca...
           | 
           | [2] Huawei 'Ox Horn' campus: https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/co
           | mments/1fuo1tt/huawei_has_bu...
           | 
           | [3] Vanderbilt University's main campus:
           | https://admissions.vanderbilt.edu/wp-
           | content/uploads/sites/4...
           | 
           | [4] "The rooftop party"
           | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzJdYXk6tjA
           | 
           | [5] The iPhone's status among teens:
           | https://www.phonearena.com/news/Heres-why-iPhones-are-so-
           | pop...
        
             | keiferski wrote:
             | I agree that the fundamental issue may simply be capitalism
             | itself, but I am more prone to blame it on a kind of
             | individualism, both in culture and in the nature of how
             | corporations sell products as individual objects to
             | individual people, and not to any larger social
             | organization. (Except as a placeholder for a group of
             | individuals.)
             | 
             | The difficulty is in imagining some kind of economic
             | structure in which an Apple or Microsoft could make
             | billions from selling products/services that are somehow
             | public goods, or enhancing public spaces. We can conceive
             | of top design minds at Apple spending billions to create a
             | new personal computing device, but the same minds working
             | on a way to improve public spaces - say, by removing
             | graffiti easily, or planting trees easily - just somehow
             | doesn't make sense or fit into the "types of things" they
             | would do.
             | 
             | It may also just be a fundamental structural issue, as I
             | talked about in the latter part of the essay. There are far
             | fewer legal restrictions on individual objects than there
             | are on spaces. I.e., while everyone can use an iPhone
             | everywhere, using a device to remove graffiti would come up
             | against all sorts of property rights laws.
             | 
             | It's quite a difficult topic to wrap one's mind around, at
             | the end of the day. But yeah in general I agree that it's
             | not necessarily individual bad actors, and incentives are a
             | huge part of it.
        
           | frankvdwaal wrote:
           | I have a little unproven hypothesis that fits that last
           | statement, that it would be absurd for a company like Apple
           | to bring people together in the real world.
           | 
           | My hypothesis is that these companies want to make money by
           | "taking" your senses. They want your attention to be with
           | them at all times, by being in your ear so you'll hear them,
           | by being on your wrist so you'll feel them, by being on your
           | eyes so you'll see them.
           | 
           | I'm thinking these companies are building up technological
           | ecosystems - Apple's specialty! - that they hope will
           | eventually form a proxy for you to experience reality.
           | Because if they can convince you to experience life through
           | them, they'll have your wallet too.
           | 
           | Maybe it's just a silly thought of mine, but it kind of fits.
        
             | polo wrote:
             | Very well put. I agree with you, and yet I still wouldn't
             | give up using my Vision Pro. Though I hope I'll be able to
             | draw the line at the Apple NosePods ;-)
        
             | samatman wrote:
             | This is such a strange take to me.
             | 
             | A phone is fundamentally a communications device. I use
             | mine to catch rides, figure out where I'm going, call and
             | text my loved ones, all of these things connect me to other
             | people. I listen through headphones to music, and to talk
             | to people, neither of these are isolating experiences.
             | AirPods even have a mode which specifically turns off audio
             | when someone is speaking to you, I like this, because I do
             | enjoy listening to music or a podcast when I'm alone at the
             | grocery store, and I do not like to be isolated by that
             | from people around me, or the cashier.
             | 
             | I also use it to take photos, and then share them with
             | people I care about, sometimes photos _of_ people I care
             | about, which I can then enjoy when they aren 't around.
             | These things enhance my senses, they don't steal them.
             | 
             | Phones certainly have some _apps_ available which are
             | addictive, I see people enduring self-imposed isolation in
             | the presence of others due to that addiction, and that 's
             | sad, which is why I've dropped those social networks from
             | my life and don't have those apps installed. Apple doesn't
             | make those apps though, the closest thing is Messenger,
             | which is a way to communicate with others, it doesn't have
             | upvotes, it isn't public, none of those things.
             | 
             | I don't see a way to square all that with the thesis that
             | Apple's specialty is isolatory sensory theft. Even the
             | headset, which is clearly not designed to enhance the
             | social parts of life, has several features which exist
             | specifically to connect the user at least in part to their
             | surroundings, and I think the fact that Apple never sold a
             | VR headset without those features is a better reflection of
             | their corporate philosophy than some paranoid yarn about
             | how they make more money if users are cocooned in some
             | Apple-provided sensory replacement bubble.
             | 
             | Did you mean to say Meta? Because if so, you made the
             | mistake twice in the same post.
        
         | nonameiguess wrote:
         | It's obviously hyperbole. I'm a fairly frequent traveler at
         | this point and probably will continue to be in another decade,
         | and there is no plausible future in which I'm strapping on a VR
         | headset for the duration of a flight. Sometimes I'll read a
         | book but not consistently. More often than not, I watch the
         | landscape pass and get a thrill out of recognizing landmarks
         | from high above. I also like to count the rubberized tracks in
         | a city as it consistently surprises me how many there are when
         | I can never seem to find one to run on where I actually live.
         | 
         | On the other hand, I try to take a middle ground here. As much
         | as I get annoyed and shake my fist at clouds these days when
         | I'm trying to run past people on the sidewalks and they've got
         | their faces buried in phones and don't see me coming, I can
         | recognize a lot of people seem to have a deep-seated need for
         | non-stop mental stimulus they don't seem to get from the real
         | world for whatever reason and I'm not going to judge them for
         | that. They're just different from me and that's fine.
         | 
         | But I do exist too and it'd be nice if reviewers like this
         | didn't typical mind everyone, either.
        
         | dagmx wrote:
         | What environment on a plane would someone be better out not
         | tuning out?
         | 
         | It's a multi hour flight. I don't know anyone around me, most
         | are asleep.
         | 
         | Many people already tune out the noise with their noise
         | cancelling audio products.
         | 
         | Why would it be weird to tune out the visuals too?
         | 
         | The Vision Pro lets me also see people while wearing it and
         | they can see my eyes. If I'm tuned out and someone approaches
         | me they fade through.
         | 
         | Meanwhile someone with the headset can watch movies on a larger
         | screen and feel less claustrophobic.
        
           | jayd16 wrote:
           | Well they probably mean it would be nice if people were bored
           | enough to be friendly.
        
             | dagmx wrote:
             | That would require a serendipitous level of
             | 
             | - sitting next to someone who you get along with and don't
             | run out of things to talk about for the entire duration of
             | the flight
             | 
             | - neither one of you wanting to sleep or do anything else
             | for the duration of the flight either
             | 
             | - not caring about the other passengers around you who
             | might also want to sleep
        
               | latexr wrote:
               | I was on a flight not too long ago where the two people
               | sitting next to me had apparently just met. They were
               | from different countries travelling for different
               | reasons. They had a friendly chat for a while about where
               | they were from, why they were on that plane, and some
               | things they enjoyed to do. The whole interaction lasted
               | maybe twenty minutes, from sitting to take off. Then they
               | said "cheers", one of them went to sleep and the other
               | began watching something on the phone. They didn't speak
               | again until we landed and from the outside it didn't feel
               | any of them felt awkward for even a second.
               | 
               | I'm not suggestion you strike up a conversation with your
               | seat partner on a plane, but if you do you don't have to
               | feel beholden to them.
        
               | Dylan16807 wrote:
               | So what I get out of this is that while they were nice
               | and friendly and had a good chat, they _also_ tuned each
               | other out for basically the entire flight. Sounds like an
               | example in favor of dagmx 's argument, which is not to be
               | unfriendly, but that friendliness is rarely a way to pass
               | multiple hours in a plane.
        
               | latexr wrote:
               | They didn't "tune each other out" nor did they tune out
               | the world entirely. Any of them could have resumed the
               | conversation if they wanted to. Heck, _I_ could have
               | easily started up a conversation with them if I felt like
               | it. That's not tuning out, it's simply not interacting.
               | 
               | Have you never sat in someone's company, be it a pet or
               | another person, each doing your own thing yet the
               | presence of another made it more pleasant? That doesn't
               | mean tuning out the other person, quite the contrary.
        
               | Dylan16807 wrote:
               | The intangible benefit of "I could have talked to them,
               | but didn't, and it was nice to be nearby" is going to be
               | a minuscule part of the plane experience.
               | 
               | It doesn't support the idea above of "it would be nice if
               | people were bored enough to be friendly" as a way to
               | handle entire plane trips, it just suggests a slightly
               | different way of focusing on your own activities.
               | 
               | And what you described versus a vision pro is like, a
               | difference between being 75% tuned out and 85% tuned out.
               | It's not all that impactful.
        
               | dagmx wrote:
               | And with a headset on, they could have still resumed the
               | conversation.
               | 
               | Or is it also rude if one tries to sleep? Or if they
               | decided to listen to music or watch a movie on the
               | screens?
               | 
               | Really the fact is that all those things are normalized
               | and this isn't. The arguments against it would equally
               | apply to all of the rest of the things people do on
               | planes to occupy their time.
        
               | dagmx wrote:
               | Your story just says what my comment does though. They
               | ignored each other the rest of the time.
               | 
               | Nobody is saying you tune out the entirety of the world
               | the second you sit down. But there is an awful amount of
               | people acting like the environment around you on a plane
               | is worth paying attention to the entire time
        
         | beepbooptheory wrote:
         | There is something subtle going on with the "passthrough"
         | feature. All the marketing and fans continually point to it in
         | a way that feels like tacit acknowledgement of this very point
         | wrt "tuning out." We are all primed for full VR Wall-E
         | experience machines to suck us up into our own world, but the
         | future seems to be more and more about the overlay. Not
         | replacing one picture with another, but just painting and
         | filtering ontop of the original. Not "I am somewhere else right
         | now", but "I am here, but I am doing something you can't see."
         | 
         | Which, I gotta say, is an even darker formulation at the end of
         | the day! Like at least if we all plugged in and went the Oasis
         | we are truly _sharing_ some base experience of the place; or if
         | its going to be solitary experience machines, at least those
         | experiences would be holistically directed towards me in some
         | consistent package; but with this stuff, you start to think
         | about how much more ground these crooks can still take in
         | stratifying the experience of simply the world itself as we
         | perceive it.
        
         | tyfon wrote:
         | We're getting closer and closer to the world Solaria in Asimovs
         | universe.
         | 
         | I'm personally trying (and to some degree failing) to disengage
         | from screens and other digital interactions.
         | 
         | My advantage is that I live quite remotely and can just hop
         | into my boat and go fishing or something without the phone, but
         | the craving that result in are scary.
        
         | leeoniya wrote:
         | > it offers an unparalleled opportunity to selectively tune out
         | your environment and sink into an engaging activity like
         | watching a movie or just working on your laptop.
         | 
         | https://southpark.fandom.com/wiki/Buddha_Box
        
         | plandis wrote:
         | > The more time passes, the less I can shake the feeling that
         | the world would be better if we tuned out our environment less.
         | 
         | I'm curious what you do on a 6 hr plane ride that's not tuning
         | out your environment?
        
           | latexr wrote:
           | Read, sleep, think, stare out the window... While you can
           | argue reading and sleeping are tuning out the environment,
           | I'm never completely disengaged from my surroundings. Even if
           | you stare at a screen with headphones on1, someone can still
           | get your attention via your peripheral vision.
           | 
           | Either way, I get why people do it, I was making more of a
           | general point. It's common for me to be walking down a street
           | and see other people, also walking, so glued to their phones
           | they notice _nothing_ around them, to the point they have no
           | reaction to near collisions.
           | 
           | I also find it telling that while the author mentioned (and I
           | quoted) planes and trains, all of the many responses so far
           | has centred on planes.
           | 
           | 1 Which I don't do but won't criticise anyone for it either.
        
         | vunderba wrote:
         | _> The more time passes, the less I can shake the feeling that
         | the world would be better if we tuned out our environment
         | less._
         | 
         | While I appreciate the sentiment behind the statement, try
         | living in an area where 90% of the environment is car stereos
         | with subwoofers cranked so loud that you can practically see
         | the air vibrating around you and get back to me. Given that (at
         | least in the west), noise pollution is never really going to be
         | properly legislated, the ability to tune it out is a god send.
        
           | latexr wrote:
           | On the flip side, continuously tuning out discomfort is a
           | vicious cycle. You need to feel some of it to be motivated to
           | do something to change your situation.
           | 
           | I'm not advocation for _never_ taking a break, I'm saying
           | that we keep doing more and more of it and should perhaps
           | consider dialling it down. Or at the very least not take
           | tuning out as a slam dunk desired benefit without adverse
           | consequences.
        
         | aspenmayer wrote:
         | I read recently that Apple is working on foldables for 2026 and
         | AR/XR glasses for 2027, and a non-pro Apple Vision I think next
         | year?
         | 
         | https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2024-10-13/apple-...
        
       | jonpurdy wrote:
       | For those who wear N95s on planes, I can confirm that 3M Aura
       | 9205+ works great with Vision Pro* and doesn't hinder using it at
       | all, nor reduce comfort, at least for my head and face shape.
       | 
       | * - Tested during my 30 min demo (more like 45 mins) at the Apple
       | Store.
        
         | klabb3 wrote:
         | Not criticism, genuinely curious: why? I thought cabin air was
         | exceptionally well cycled and filtered, much more so than other
         | indoor spaces.
        
           | isodev wrote:
           | At the very least so one doesn't sneeze over the person on
           | the next seat.
        
           | jonpurdy wrote:
           | I used to think this especially since airlines touted how
           | good the air filtration was when COVID hit.
           | 
           | It's actually quite poor and significantly worse than most
           | indoor spaces I've entered (most spaces aren't great at
           | around 800-1600ppm). On planes I've measured* very high CO2
           | levels (1800-4000ppm), with the worst air during boarding and
           | deplaning. This matches the findings of others (both amateur
           | and professional researchers).
           | 
           | * - using Aranet4
        
             | Dylan16807 wrote:
             | Are CO2 levels a useful way to measure filtration?
             | 
             | Are we expecting almost all the clean air to be from
             | outside, minimal amounts from recirculation?
        
               | jonpurdy wrote:
               | Apologies, I specified "filtration" but meant "quality",
               | which I would define as filtration + fresh air intake.
               | 
               | I'd have expected a better mix (more fresh air) since
               | even with filtration removing many particulates and
               | viruses, high CO2 levels still cause worse cognitive
               | performance.
        
               | Dylan16807 wrote:
               | It's hard to get lots of fresh air into a pressurized
               | plane, so I'm willing to have a good bit of leeway on
               | that front. And airflow patterns are important; a lot of
               | fresh air running from front to back would likely do more
               | harm than good.
        
             | criddell wrote:
             | How does an N95 help with CO2 levels?
        
               | macintux wrote:
               | I would wager it's not a matter of helping filter out
               | CO2, but rather CO2 is one way to assess how effective
               | the air management is on a plane.
        
           | jeffbee wrote:
           | Airplane air is clean but there are just too many people
           | aboard and for too long. Something like a quarter of all air
           | travel passengers get a respiratory illness within a week.
           | Some hypothesize that the incredibly low humidity of cabin
           | air (in most aircraft, except the very newest) makes it
           | easier to acquire infections. A face mask, in addition to its
           | normal role, also solves this problem because it is very
           | humid _inside_ the mask.
        
           | sbrother wrote:
           | I don't know, but I always tended to get sick after flying. I
           | started wearing a mask while flying during COVID and it's the
           | one place I still do it. Not scientific but I feel like I
           | have gotten sick after flying less frequently since then. It
           | could even just be the effect of making myself breathe humid
           | air in what's normally an extremely dry environment.
        
           | AnarchismIsCool wrote:
           | There are long periods where the filters aren't running
           | during startup and shutdown, you'll notice once the seatbelt
           | sign turns on at the beginning and right after it turns off
           | at the end, things get stale super quickly and the temps
           | start rising. That's because they turned off/haven't switched
           | to air supplied by the jetway yet.
        
         | RJIb8RBYxzAMX9u wrote:
         | Slightly OT but I much prefer the 9211+: the vent[*] makes a
         | difference in comfort when worn over long periods. Or the 9105
         | / 9105S which sticks out further away from the face, and its
         | elastic design makes it a bit quicker to don / doff at
         | checkpoints.
         | 
         | [*] Yes I'm prioritizing my comfort over safety for others, but
         | that's the American Way (tm), isn't it.
        
           | JoshTriplett wrote:
           | There are masks with full N95 filtration that have a fan
           | built in to pull the air through the filter. Makes it much
           | more comfortable to wear for long periods.
           | 
           | (I switch to a mask with no metal in it for airport metal
           | detectors, but I can switch back again immediately
           | afterwards.)
        
             | iyn wrote:
             | Any recommendations for such masks?
        
           | jonpurdy wrote:
           | Thanks for this recommendation; I was considering ordering
           | these for my next trip since they should fit the same as
           | 9205+.
           | 
           | (I don't see an issue with wearing an exhalation vent next to
           | folks who aren't wearing masks themselves. If they cared
           | about the air they'd also be wearing a mask. If I sat next to
           | someone wearing one I'd switch back to the 9205+.)
        
           | btbuildem wrote:
           | I really wish they were made in not-stark-white. And, is it
           | just me, or have these steadily been going up in price?
        
             | justin66 wrote:
             | 3M make some colorful Aura masks, for Brazil. I wish they
             | were more universally available.
             | 
             | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSs4KMEuWkk
        
           | leptons wrote:
           | Same here. I use the Honeywell Saf-T-Fit masks, with the
           | exhaust, either N99 or P100. They have a soft cushion where
           | it touches the face and I find it's far superior in comfort
           | on long flights to masks without the soft inner part. A
           | little more expensive, but I'll never fly with a regular N95
           | again.
           | 
           | https://www.amazon.com/Honeywell-14110404-SAF-T-FIT-
           | Particul...
        
       | amelius wrote:
       | > But damn, based on how well it all works now, you can just tell
       | by the 4th or 5th generation, Apple Vision Pro will be on the
       | face of every frequent flyer.
       | 
       | And they can stop paying extra for business class, because it
       | stops mattering.
        
         | diggan wrote:
         | The times I've flown business, the best part has been how the
         | seat can fold down fully so one can sleep property and lying
         | down. None of the other stuff really mattered to me.
        
           | joshstrange wrote:
           | Just flew across the Atlantic on lay-flat seats. They are
           | absolutely a massive improvement over anything I've flown in
           | before but I still couldn't sleep well. Maybe I'm too big (6'
           | 2" and not skinny) but I couldn't lay completely flat because
           | I ran out of leg room as the seat reclined.
           | 
           | It was an amazing ride other than that.
        
         | abecedarius wrote:
         | Sounds like you're under 6' tall. (I've never flown business-
         | class, though.)
        
           | yitianjian wrote:
           | Or a normal/skinny weight. Even my shoulders are too wide for
           | modern economy seats.
           | 
           | I fly a lot of business class, and the comfort and space is
           | what you pay for, not entertainment. But having good wifi
           | helps a lot, even in a cramped seat.
        
       | aeturnum wrote:
       | This is the main reason I see to get a vision pro - basically a
       | travel friendly monitor. Glad to see it does well under these
       | conditions, though it's still a tough sell considering the price
       | tag.
        
       | woodrowbarlow wrote:
       | tangent, but: i think reclining your seat in economy class is
       | incredibly selfish. i wish they'd weld them all.
        
         | digital-cygnet wrote:
         | It's always interesting when I see this take because I was
         | raised the opposite way and was really surprised to learn a few
         | years back from articles like [1] that some people consider
         | this an etiquette breach.
         | 
         | From what I can tell there are two populations: those who
         | prefer to recline and those who prefer not to. As long as an
         | entire column of seats belongs to one population you're fine
         | (if everyone wants to recline no one loses space, we all just
         | shift around to a configuration in which everyone is more
         | comfortable). But when you have someone more comfortable
         | staying upright sitting behind a recline-preferenced person,
         | that's where issues arise. It's not clear to me whether it's
         | morally wrong for the front person to recline in that case,
         | given that's basically just preferencing the default of
         | "upright", which is arbitrary.
         | 
         | Nothing here should be read as justifying people who don't pay
         | attention to what's going on behind them and/or recline
         | suddenly/aggressively. It's always something that should be
         | done with a glance behind and a smooth, gentle motion. Maybe
         | also a word to the person sitting behind though again I'm not
         | convinced that's a moral imperative.
         | 
         | [1] https://thepointsguy.com/airline/airplane-seat-reclining-
         | eti...
        
           | redhed wrote:
           | Personally I don't get on a high horse about it and just deal
           | with it, but if the person ahead of me reclines I lose leg
           | room that me reclining does not give back.
        
           | woodrowbarlow wrote:
           | i do prefer to recline. i choose not to, even though the
           | airline says that i am entitled to, because i know that
           | reclining has a high likelihood of inconveniencing the person
           | behind me (primarily due to loss of legroom and inability to
           | use a laptop).
        
             | mft_ wrote:
             | Same here; except I'll recline after dinner on long-haul
             | flights, because that's the point virtually everyone does,
             | especially when the lights are dimmed. I would never
             | recline on <4 hour flights, and am irked by those who do.
             | 
             | (I wonder if it simply driven by an individualistic vs.
             | collectivist mindset?)
        
         | malthaus wrote:
         | nice stance to have if everyone around you has the same in a
         | full plane.
         | 
         | as soon as one person starts reclininig, you can die on that
         | hill all alone and i'm reclining faster than you can sigh in
         | disappointment
        
         | pmarreck wrote:
         | A little bit of reclining means the difference between my head
         | drooping forward or to either side if I fall asleep (very
         | uncomfortable) or staying in a vertical position with the
         | weight slightly on the back of the head (far more comfortable).
         | 
         | This is really a case of "don't hate the player, hate the game"
         | (be mad at the airlines for packing people in like sardines,
         | don't be mad at the people for trying to take a bit of extra
         | comfort which has been made available to them)
        
           | tesch1 wrote:
           | Or get mad at yourself for not paying for more space.
           | Airlines are a business, and you chose that particular seat
           | knowing full well ahead of time what the parameters of that
           | purchase were.
           | 
           | Would airlines be able to offer more space for more money?
           | Sure they would. Would people pay for it? The market has
           | already answered!
        
             | pmarreck wrote:
             | That's fair if you fail to consider that I am 6'3", my
             | partner and child are much smaller, and I'd essentially be
             | the only one to gain from such an upgrade while having to
             | pay for 3x, unless I wanted to sit separately from them and
             | endure much consternation. lol
        
           | woodrowbarlow wrote:
           | (for the record, i don't get mad at people over this and i
           | don't think people should get mad at others for this.)
        
         | BugsJustFindMe wrote:
         | Being in an airplane seat for any amount of time is unpleasant.
         | IMO, getting upset at the person in front reclining the
         | allocated 2 inches to ease some of that discomfort sounds
         | vaguely narcissistic. If you want to get upset, get upset at
         | the airline.
        
       | DutchRanger wrote:
       | I take out my earbuds even saying Hi to the bus driver I can't
       | imagine talking to a flight attendant while wearing a VR device.
       | It seems very uninterested in the person you are talking to.
       | 
       | Could be just me but I think a lot of older generations share
       | this experience. It is not hard to take out your earbuds or take
       | off your VR device to show you are paying attention to the person
       | you are talking to.
        
         | cybrox wrote:
         | There's a huge shift in this field at the moment. I personally
         | find it disrespectful to talk to people while wearing
         | headphones/earbuds and I'd still consider myself young but a
         | lot of younger people, especially u25 seem to find this
         | completely normal.
         | 
         | I'm not sure I like this development. Ignoring the
         | "disrespectful" part, it has become accepted to toy with your
         | phone while listening to someone and let's be honest, we all
         | know you're not REALLY listening or engaging with the
         | conversation.
        
           | LeafItAlone wrote:
           | I personally also take them out. But don't see it as rude or
           | disrespectful if others don't.
           | 
           | Especially with AirPods gaining hearing aid functionality, it
           | shouldn't be a sign of lack of focus.
           | 
           | As an aside, I personally able to concentrate _more_ in
           | certain scenarios when I am fiddling or have background noise
           | playing. It quiets the part of my brain that otherwise gets
           | distracted. I use that method for video conferences to
           | increase the amount I am focused on the speaker and content.
        
           | Quothling wrote:
           | I think your perception of what is being played inside the
           | earbuds may be why you're confused about this. Around here
           | it's extremely common for people to keep their earbuds in for
           | short conversations, but everyone will pause and activate
           | surrounding sounds while they talk. There are obviously
           | assholes who don't, but in general it's completely normal to
           | assume someone wearing earbuds is listening to you.
           | 
           | Contradictory to your experience with it being young people
           | who wouldn't listen to you it tends to be the 45ish business
           | man who continues to talk on their phone in my experience.
        
             | drcode wrote:
             | > in general it's completely normal to assume someone
             | wearing earbuds is listening to you
             | 
             | Just because you emphatically state that something is
             | normal, that does not make it normal
        
               | Quothling wrote:
               | I think it's a little disingenuous for you to take what I
               | said out of the context I said it in, but you're right as
               | far as it's in my anecdotal experience. Which is why I
               | said "around here", but I guess I could've made it even
               | clearer.
        
           | darknavi wrote:
           | What about earbuds aiding in hearing? Lots of scenarios where
           | earbuds can help with hearing and not impede it. I use AirPod
           | Pros on flights for cancelling out the loud background noise
           | of the plane but it makes talking to others much easier.
        
             | kccqzy wrote:
             | It doesn't give any social cues on how you are using it.
             | That is, people cannot tell whether you are using earbuds
             | to block outside sound or to enhance outside sound.
             | Therefore it doesn't work, until social norms change.
             | 
             | I remember the real hearing aids of yesteryear. They look
             | sufficiently different from earbuds that they are always
             | acceptable.
        
               | KTibow wrote:
               | These days there's open earbuds that look a lot like
               | hearing aids
        
         | jayd16 wrote:
         | It actually is a real pain to put the headset on and off
         | frequently. Much, much more so than earbuds. It's a major UX
         | issue.
         | 
         | I don't even really see people take off headphones in this
         | scenario, just uncovering an ear. It would be fairly hilarious
         | to see someone lift up one side of an AR headset to make
         | (singular) eye contact, tho.
        
         | dailykoder wrote:
         | >Could be just me but I think a lot of older generations share
         | this experience.
         | 
         | I am only 32 and wouldn't consider myself old.
         | 
         | I used to get very uncomfortable, maybe even angry, when people
         | at the cashier in the supermarket just did not get off their
         | headphones and just leave a simple hello to the person at the
         | counter. Nowadays I am just mildly irritated sometimes, but I
         | still think it's stupid. Especially if the cashier is a really
         | nice and polite person. Leaving on your headphones and not
         | saying a word, sometimes not even giving them a look, feels
         | like a f- you in their face. Just be nice to other people and
         | it even works if you are a very socially awkward person like
         | me. The world can be nice and even give you a smile every once
         | in a while.
         | 
         | This obviously got worse since corona. Germany used to be a
         | cash-heavy country, but now since "everyone" is just paying by
         | card, they just pull it out, wave around with it to signal that
         | they want to pay with it, so that they don't even have to say
         | one single word. So weird.
        
       | DrillShopper wrote:
       | I guess the flip side of this is that you look like a fucking
       | dork.
        
         | Mistletoe wrote:
         | The main impediment I would experience to wearing this on a
         | plane.
        
         | atestu wrote:
         | I think that will fade. I don't know if you remember how mocked
         | the airpods were when they first came out ("They look like
         | q-tips"). All it'll take is a few celebrities spotted using one
         | and they'll turn cool in no time.
        
           | mft_ wrote:
           | You're not wrong, but I think there's at least a couple of
           | orders of magnitude of awkwardness between the Airpods and
           | the the Vision Pro that will have to be overcome, before the
           | VP becomes mainstream.
        
             | Terretta wrote:
             | Imagine the first person wearing bell bottom jeans. Some
             | folks just DGAF, and next thing you know ...
        
             | nine_k wrote:
             | There were times when going to an office wearing a T-shirt
             | felt crazy, like going to an office while wearing a bikini,
             | or wearing a clown attire, would be now. It changed maybe
             | in late 1990s.
             | 
             | Things like these change very slowly, then suddenly, once
             | the views of the _perceived_ majority around most people
             | change enough that the people start to see the new state as
             | proper and confirmant, a new norm.
        
           | asdff wrote:
           | airpods at least had the equivocal wired headphones
           | normalizing that look for a decade before they appeared.
        
           | ks2048 wrote:
           | I don't think it will pass, but I think subsequent versions
           | will be slimmer and less mock-prone. In 10 years people will
           | look back at the first version the way people look back at
           | the first bulky cell phones.
        
           | righthand wrote:
           | Airpods aren't cool though, the majority don't wear them nor
           | can they afford them.
        
             | samatman wrote:
             | You appear to be a bit unclear on what cool means.
        
               | righthand wrote:
               | Are you sure you're not conflating cool with elitism?
        
               | TillE wrote:
               | Zillions of people are out there wearing cheap AirPod
               | knockoffs too.
               | 
               | I don't think any ear buds are "cool", but certainly
               | nobody cares, it's perfectly normal.
        
               | kibwen wrote:
               | Air pods are about as cool-looking as a hearing aid. At
               | best, they're utilitarian.
        
         | pmarreck wrote:
         | I was a high school computer nerd in the 80's. They all said
         | that about me then too, and I didn't care.
         | 
         | But to your point, it will probably get slicker over time. For
         | this one, they erred on the side of high fidelity, and they
         | nailed it pretty well.
        
           | DrillShopper wrote:
           | Oh, I have no doubt that it will get better over time, but I
           | think people forget that part of the early adopter tax is
           | often that you look like a fucking dork. Which in my mind
           | isn't a bad thing - it shows that you're committed to making
           | it work. There's something noble about that, wouldn't you
           | say?
        
             | usui wrote:
             | Upvote for doubling down on the "look like a fucking dork"
             | phrase. I wasn't sure at first if this was self-deprecating
             | humor, but now I am. Neeeeeerd!
        
             | pmarreck wrote:
             | "early adopter tax"- love that, may have to borrow it
             | 
             | And you're right! And some of us will happily pay that! It
             | is the _bleeding_ edge, after all.
        
         | tesch1 wrote:
         | Also be sure not to let anyone see you browsing HN.
        
           | sterlind wrote:
           | HN isn't well-known outside deep tech circles. anyone who
           | clocks you reading it probably reads it too.
        
         | isodev wrote:
         | Yup, the person wearing one literally gets the "drives a
         | cybertruck" spotlight.
        
           | accrual wrote:
           | At least the AVP seems like a reasonably engineered piece of
           | equipment. The cybertruck has a seemingly unending list of
           | flaws documented in /r/cyberstuck.
        
           | elevatedastalt wrote:
           | And yet the Cybertruck was the 3rd highest selling Electric
           | vehicle in the US this year.
        
         | accrual wrote:
         | It's possible for those concerned with this to overcome it!
         | Most people are way more focused on themselves than whatever a
         | random person is wearing in public, and will likely forget the
         | encounter the second they set foot off the plane.
        
         | righthand wrote:
         | Apple fans don't care about that, look at the way their screens
         | aren't even designed correctly causing the software to have to
         | compensate. Look at the way they all walk around with PVC pipe
         | growing out of their ears. It's all about getting Apple users
         | to dig deeper and deeper into the psychosis of it all. You'll
         | look like an idiot but it's okay, you over payed for all of
         | this stuff so you could look that way and tell people you're an
         | Apple fan.
         | 
         | It's all about compensating for whichever "cool design" they
         | throw your way. It's not about utility.
        
           | hbn wrote:
           | To their credit, Apple users save a lot of money by living
           | rent-free in your head.
           | 
           | 99% of Apple users are not thinking about how much better
           | they are than other people for buying the phone or computer
           | they did. They just bought it because it's the obvious choice
           | and they've had good experiences with it in the past.
           | 
           | Every time an anti-Apple zealout busts out the spec sheets to
           | prove why alternatives are so much better, there's about 8000
           | gotchas and usability issues that aren't worth the tradeoff
           | for most people. You're free to not think the tradeoffs of
           | Apple devices are worth it for you, but for everyone else
           | (most people) they make the best option that puts up the
           | minimal amount of fighting and a handful of workflows that
           | you simply can't recreate in other ecosystems without dozens
           | of asterisks.
        
             | righthand wrote:
             | Every time an Apple zealot busts out counter points to
             | prove their purchasing choice is better there's about 8000
             | gotchas of what Apple won't let you do on their device that
             | aren't worth the trade off for most people. You're free to
             | think the tradeoffs of non-Apple devices aren't worth it
             | for you, but for everyone else (most people since most
             | people don't own an Apple device) they make the best option
             | that puts up minimal amount of fighting to customize your
             | device and use it how you like without restriction. A
             | handful of workflows that you simply can't get in the Apple
             | ecosystems without dozens of Apple zealots telling you're
             | wrong for choosing something else and bragging that their
             | choice is somehow superior.
        
               | ryandrake wrote:
               | Many people simply like one product, and many other
               | people like another product. Almost nobody is a "fan" or
               | a "zealot."
        
             | gamblor956 wrote:
             | _99% of Apple users are not thinking about how much better
             | they are than other people for buying the phone or computer
             | they did._
             | 
             | You must not spend any time around teenagers. Teenagers
             | absolutely judge people for not having iPhones.
             | 
             |  _best option that puts up the minimal amount of fighting
             | and a handful of workflows that you simply can 't recreate
             | in other ecosystems without dozens of asterisks._
             | 
             | This is backwards.
             | 
             | My mentees (and on the other end of the age scale, my in-
             | laws) are always shocked that I can do something on my
             | Android in seconds that takes them minutes on an
             | iPhone...assuming they can even do it on their iPhones at
             | all.
        
           | valval wrote:
           | It's funny because I was you for 25 years. I then got an
           | iPhone and an M1 MacBook and never looked back. The Apple
           | ecosystem doesn't have competition, and products are very
           | high quality.
           | 
           | Then again, Apple is one of the most valuable companies in
           | the world. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to conclude
           | that they're offering something valuable.
        
             | righthand wrote:
             | Oh I see you joined the cult, and you like the koolaid,
             | what a great point.
             | 
             | I don't know what drugs you take to believe they have no
             | competition. That must be part of the cult requirements.
             | Are you admitting that you think they're a monopoly?
             | 
             | Apple is one of the most valuable companies in the world
             | because the incessant fandom that actively chooses to never
             | consider anything else, any company can make a good
             | product. No sticks up butts required.
             | 
             | Edit: Also a VR headset, wireless headphones, etc is not
             | something valuable to humanity. It's valuable to 1st world
             | peoples that need a pedestal to validate the amount of
             | money they throw away.
        
               | DrillShopper wrote:
               | https://youtu.be/0la5DBtOVNI
               | 
               | Relatedly, if other companies make better, less expensive
               | products then why don't consumers buy them?
               | 
               | The customer is always right in matters of taste. Just
               | because you don't like the taste doesn't mean they're
               | wrong about their own situation.
        
               | righthand wrote:
               | They do...is that belief that people don't buy other
               | products that aren't overpriced a part of the cult
               | beliefs? Do you have a passive aggressive youtube video
               | for that idea that allows you to passively be a dick
               | about the products you don't buy?
               | 
               | No it doesn't mean they are wrong, just closed minded.
        
               | albumen wrote:
               | You're carrying a lot of anger, making reductionist and
               | polarizing arguments that sound like Mac vs PC platform
               | wars from the 90s. I hope you find a more balanced
               | approach to dealing with the world around you.
        
             | gamblor956 wrote:
             | _Apple is one of the most valuable companies in the world.
             | It doesn't take a rocket scientist to conclude that they're
             | offering something valuable._
             | 
             | So is Louis Vitton...and a whole host of companies that
             | don't offer anything valuable beyond status-based luxury
             | goods.
        
       | Oreb wrote:
       | I'm not a working while travelling kind of person (I often have
       | the ambition to work while flying, but for some reason I always
       | feel too tired); my Vision Pro stays in my bag for the duration
       | of the flight. For work when away from home more generally,
       | however, I find it a fantastic device. It's basically a portable
       | Apple Studio Display that I can use wherever I go. As someone in
       | a long distance relationship who is often away from home for long
       | periods of time, this is extremely useful.
        
         | sleepybrett wrote:
         | Paying three grand for a monitor you can buy for your 'second
         | place' for a few hundred dollars seems like a choice.
         | 
         | I'm in the same position. I considered the vision pro, but
         | couldn't justify it, even if I used it on the flights etc. I
         | depend on my switch/steamdeck for the plane, laptop if i have
         | to work (I try not to, it's terrible)... and then I just went
         | on amazon and bought a pair of 27" lg widescreens for a few
         | hundred a piece. When I'm not in her apt we stow one of them in
         | a closet (she dislikes two monitors on a purely aesthetic
         | level). I fly in with my laptop and my keyboard and I'm ready
         | to go.
        
       | sylens wrote:
       | Just reading this blog makes me feel like it is actually not a
       | great device to travel with. For me, a good travel device is one
       | that takes up minimal room when packing to the point where it
       | becomes easy to forget I even have it in my bag. The Vision Pro
       | typically requires its own dedicated spot on top of your carry on
       | as you go through the airport - kind of the opposite. The author
       | talks about just packing it with a single cover for the goggles
       | but that also makes me nervous given its MSRP
        
         | tesch1 wrote:
         | I travel regularly with a vr headset and it takes a minority of
         | my carry on space packed in a protective case. Non issue.
        
           | prmoustache wrote:
           | It is not necessarily the space used but the inconvenience of
           | packing/unpacking stuff from a carry on bag in a cramped
           | environment.
           | 
           | I guess that would be different if I was flying first or
           | business class.
        
         | anal_reactor wrote:
         | Yes exactly.
        
         | dfxm12 wrote:
         | A kindle/book/tablet seems superior in this regard. You get
         | your entertainment for the plane and you don't have to worry
         | about unpacking it on the plane, being precious with a very
         | expensive piece of equipment and they are negligible in terms
         | of lugging around/storing in your hotel. You can even
         | reasonably use these if you have a little down time waiting in
         | a line, during quick trips, will be without power for a while,
         | etc.
        
           | cryptoz wrote:
           | The last time I remember flying with a tablet, it was so
           | suspicious that airport security hauled me into a private
           | room and interrogated me about it. They questioned why I
           | didn't take it out of my bag for the scanner (since it was a
           | 'laptop'). They asked what it was. They made me turn it on
           | and use it. They were extremely rude and kept me holed up for
           | a long time while investigating it.
           | 
           | So I don't fly with a tablet any more haha! Although, I get
           | that time has passed and I would no longer be accosted so
           | much, I assume. Must be pretty common now. My story takes
           | place in ~2011 with the Motorola Xoom tablet. I guess they
           | had never seen a tablet before.
           | 
           | I was also working hard on a plane one time, writing code to
           | access barometer data on mobile devices to build a
           | distributed weather sensor network that could be activated in
           | software. The flight attendant came by and told me, "okay,
           | time to put your toys away sweetie" referring to my tablet
           | and phone. Oooooooooh my god.
        
             | AceJohnny2 wrote:
             | In the 13 years since your experience, airport security
             | around the world has had time to be extremely blase about
             | most electronic devices.
             | 
             | That said, security rules vary from airport to airport. SFO
             | with TSA Pre is practically a no-op, but CDG security
             | requires that you remove from carry-on any device with a
             | >20cm dimension!
        
             | cubefox wrote:
             | > The flight attendant came by and told me, "okay, time to
             | put your toys away sweetie" referring to my tablet and
             | phone.
             | 
             | The audacity! I hope you called them sweetie too.
        
             | ValentineC wrote:
             | I believe the main reason laptops have to be separated is
             | because they appear as just a large chunk of metal on the
             | X-ray. A tablet would look similar.
             | 
             | Pre-iPad, most airport staff (who aren't hardcore techies,
             | or might not have the privilege of higher education) might
             | think of a tablet as a laptop anyway.
        
         | wizardofaz wrote:
         | The author (me) specifically recommends to not buy the bulky
         | travel case from Apple and instead, just use the default front
         | cover + a lens protector.
         | 
         | This is specifically to not to take up any extra room than is
         | necessary. The only room it takes up is essentially the width
         | of the HMD itself (even negating the strap)!
        
           | Terretta wrote:
           | For those that might find themselves nervous with a naked
           | AVP, consider this popular option, a Syntech Hard Carrying
           | Case compatible with various goggles:
           | 
           | Small: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0C4YFV9F9/
           | 
           | Medium: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09QPN321B
           | 
           | Syntech recommend medium. Folks likely would prefer small,
           | but caution about cracking glass front.
        
           | agar wrote:
           | FYI, you may want to revisit a couple of your "only me"
           | points on the AVP with the release of the Quest 3S.
           | 
           | The 3S has an IR blaster that allows it to work in total
           | darkness. Meta also enabled a travel mode[1] a couple of OS
           | revisions ago (back in June or so).
           | 
           | [1] https://www.meta.com/help/quest/articles/in-vr-
           | experiences/o...
        
         | pradn wrote:
         | I've stopped carrying my over-ear noise-cancelling headphones
         | for this reason. They take up like a quarter/half of a normal
         | item-sized backpack. I can sleep with plane noise. But I always
         | bring a sleep mask, because I can't sleep with bright lights
         | turning on and off all the time. I did recently get some in-ear
         | headphones w/ noise cancelling, perhaps they're enough.
         | 
         | There's always the fear of losing stuff when you're moving
         | objects around so much, too. One less thing to worry about.
        
           | calf wrote:
           | I lost my favorite hair comb on my last trip, so I'm
           | literally building a detailed packing checklist spreadsheet
           | for next time I go anywhere.
        
           | ghaff wrote:
           | There are both wired and wireless noise canceling earbuds
           | that work well. Never had an interest in the bulky over the
           | ear ones. I pack pretty light even for 2-3 week trips.
        
           | skydhash wrote:
           | > _They take up like a quarter /half of a normal item-sized
           | backpack_
           | 
           | I love the Sony XM3/XM4 for this reason. They fold up to a
           | very compact volume
        
           | 76SlashDolphin wrote:
           | In my experience my Airpod Pros and Huawei Freebud Pros
           | achieve 95% of the audio and noise cancellation quality of my
           | Sony XM3s that I just barely use the big headset anymore. I
           | understand that they are technically different categories of
           | products but for me and a lot of other non-audiophiles I know
           | switched to TWS earbuds once they got half decent ANC.
        
       | sspiff wrote:
       | While this seems like a good use case for mixed reality headsets
       | like the AVP, I still find it kind of creepy that someone is
       | hiding most of their face while also potentially filming
       | everything that's going on.
        
       | knorker wrote:
       | I've used Google's Daydream on flights. I agree, it's great.
        
       | petesergeant wrote:
       | These are an order of magnitude cheaper and will display whatever
       | you can stick USB-C into:
       | 
       | https://www.xreal.com/
       | 
       | One area in which they're significantly worse is tracking -- they
       | only really work well with the screen in a fixed position
       | relative to your eyes, but this has been great for a movie.
       | 
       | I can't get them setup to program on well tho
        
         | nerdjon wrote:
         | I bought an xreal pro hoping for a cheaper vision pro while
         | technology catches up.
         | 
         | Honestly xreal's marketing is generous at best. They seem to
         | really try to push it as being an AR device when its really
         | nothing more than a monitor stuck to your face that you can't
         | change the size of.
         | 
         | Using the beam or the software on your computer adds some AR
         | ability, but due to the way it works on your Mac it really is
         | not a pleasant experience and uses a ton of resources. The
         | tracking is not great.
         | 
         | The lack of any sort of pass through (all you can do is dim it)
         | makes it fairly useless in many situations, like the one
         | mentioned in this article.
         | 
         | Options are great, and it is great that is significantly
         | cheaper. But I bought the xreal pro, I keep trying to use it
         | for watching something, games, programming or other work. But
         | every time I use it for maybe 20 minutes and just get
         | frustrated and put it away for a few more weeks.
         | 
         | It is one of the reasons I think that the price (and size) of
         | the vision pro is justified. The tech to make something smaller
         | and cost less just isnt here yet. All of those headsets like
         | the xreal have serious compromises while trying to push an "AR"
         | narrative for features they just don't really have.
        
       | youoy wrote:
       | > A big bonus for watching movies in VR on a plane is the fact
       | that you don't need to conscious about movies that contain
       | graphic scenes. You don't need to turn down the brightness and
       | rotate the screen away from children!
       | 
       | Ah! I was not understanding why would anyone prefer this over
       | other less invasive or smaller options, but now I get to the real
       | advantage! /s
        
       | Takennickname wrote:
       | I burst out laughing when I saw the size of VR screen is the same
       | size as the screen on the chair in front of him.
        
         | prmoustache wrote:
         | Yes and for some reason I would probably find it weird watching
         | a moving with a weird landscape being shown around the "virtual
         | screen" instead of...reality.
        
         | wizardofaz wrote:
         | It can be any size that you'd like.
         | 
         | In fact, the virtual display is higher resolution/high scaled
         | than 13 inch MacBook (source:
         | https://azadux.blog/2024/10/08/traveling-with-apple-
         | vision-p...)
        
           | Manuel_D wrote:
           | Sort of. Headsets have limited FOV per eye. You can blow up
           | the screen to be huge, but you'd only be able to see part of
           | it at a time. But yeah, 110 degrees FOV can accommodate a
           | very big screen.
        
         | Terretta wrote:
         | I used to wonder how people watch movies on their iPhone then
         | realized many people sit so far from their living room TV
         | screen that if they held up their iPhone it would be the same
         | apparent size.
         | 
         | By contrast, you can readily set the apparent screen size in
         | the AVP to 40+ degree angle:
         | 
         |  _x 1.2 (corresponding to 40-degree viewing angle)_
         | 
         |  _THX recommends that the "best seat-to-screen distance" is one
         | where the view angle approximates 40 degrees,[26] (the actual
         | angle is 40.04 degrees). Their recommendation was originally
         | presented at the 2006 CES show, and was stated as being the
         | theoretical maximum horizontal view angle, based on average
         | human vision. In the opinion of THX, the location where the
         | display is viewed at a 40-degree view angle provides the most
         | "immersive cinematic experience", all else being equal. For
         | consumer application of their recommendations, THX recommends
         | ... multiplying the diagonal measurement by about 1.2._
         | 
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optimum_HDTV_viewing_distance
        
         | Manuel_D wrote:
         | The field of view is deceptive in 2d photos. With the VR
         | headset your focal point is at infinity, and in practice it
         | feels more like sitting in front of a big 60" TV on your couch.
        
         | Someone1234 wrote:
         | If you kept reading to understand the context of that image,
         | you'd realize that it could be any size, but that you need to
         | enable "partial virtual environment." That was the entire point
         | of that chapter/image, to showcase the three different modes
         | (full virtual, partial, and full pass-through with collision).
         | 
         | I'm no fan of the AVP, but it is inane to post a comment on a
         | picture from the article without taking the time to read the
         | text surrounding it to understand the context. The blog went to
         | great pains to set out the pros/cons, limits/advantages, just
         | to have people half-read it or just look at the pictures...
        
       | hectdev wrote:
       | Another bonus, which I've found traveling with my Vision Pro, is
       | when I get to my AirBnb/Hotel, I don't have to log into my
       | streaming services when I want to relax. I've brought my whole
       | home theater experience with me.
        
         | salzig wrote:
         | kinda true, but I'm surprised how some apps expect you to watch
         | movies upright (TV+, Disney), which makes watching movies
         | laying down quite "non ergonomic". ;)
        
           | crazygringo wrote:
           | The Meta Quest 2/3 finally fixed that a few months ago [1],
           | where you "tilt" the horizon of the entire OS [2]. So it
           | doesn't matter if an app doesn't support it -- you can lie on
           | your bed and watch a screen directly above you even if it was
           | only designed for horizontal use. It's a game-changer if you
           | have back/neck problems.
           | 
           | Does the AVP not have something equivalent? To be honest, I
           | was surprised it took Meta so long to get around to
           | implementing it.
           | 
           | [1] https://www.engadget.com/you-can-now-lie-down-while-
           | using-a-...
           | 
           | [2] https://www.meta.com/en-gb/help/quest/articles/headsets-
           | and-...
        
         | kuba-orlik wrote:
         | Why would you need to re log-in into streaming services in a
         | hotel? How does AVP alleviate that need?
         | 
         | Do you mean you watch it on a smart TV in a hotel? Then I guess
         | you could connect a laptop to that TV with an HDMI cable and
         | not have to re-log in, right?
        
           | hectdev wrote:
           | Correct, I don't have to log into the streaming service on
           | the TV. HDMI + Laptop would do this too if I traveled with a
           | laptop and HDMI cable.
        
       | bobmcnamara wrote:
       | 12kmAh -> 12Ah
        
         | kridsdale3 wrote:
         | False.
         | 
         | 12 kilometer * amp * hours is simply a very long lightsaber.
        
       | pmarreck wrote:
       | Just putting in my take for the vision-pro-curious, coming from a
       | tall/big tech guy with excellent vision who owns one:
       | 
       | I kept mine this whole time and I still actually use it regularly
       | and it still amazes me. There's a steady trickle of interesting
       | things that appear for it, and it's VERY useful as a giant
       | virtual extended laptop screen if you have a Macbook. Especially
       | if you are in a recliner and can tilt the virtual screen above
       | your head a bit- vastly more comfortable. Very much looking
       | forward to the extra large virtual curved monitor they're working
       | on, hopefully this fall.
       | 
       | The thing is still kind of magical.
       | 
       | When I first got it, I would get some eye fatigue and/or
       | dizziness after about an hour of using it, but that seemed to
       | improve after a couple weeks (adaptation?) and I can now use it
       | for 2-3 hours at a time uninterrupted without any discomfort.
       | Chewing ginger apparently helps (same as with VR headsets).
       | 
       | Drinking coffee from a mug with it on is difficult. Get a straw.
       | 
       | I'm a big guy (6'3", 260lbs) and the headset is still a bit
       | heavy.
       | 
       | The gestural and eye-focus UI is extremely good, my only
       | complaint is that I still find it hard sometimes not to make
       | erroneous inputs which can get frustrating, but that is more the
       | fault of web UI's with closely-clustered controls that were not
       | designed with this interface in mind- but sometimes with text
       | input as well, it's sometimes frustrating.
       | 
       | The quality of the passthrough video (AR) can be improved, it's a
       | bit shimmery (although still clear enough to comfortably read
       | things on your phone or watch). It's stitched together from a
       | bunch of cameras so it is surely already a technical feat.
       | 
       | The FOV is OK, but more is always better.
       | 
       | The immersive environments (and being able to dial them in and
       | out) are FANTASTIC. Shout-out to the Bora Bora one in vOS 2.0
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKueDGv4OVQ and the Marvel and
       | Star Wars ones provided by the Disney app
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lisof6XWtII&t=491s I also love
       | the moon one. Each one has both a "daytime" and "nighttime" view
       | as well.
       | 
       | It's fantastic on a plane, if dorky.
        
         | pazimzadeh wrote:
         | Haven't used mine in a while, can you recommend some apps for
         | it as I try out the 2.0 OS?
        
       | rckt wrote:
       | This is not traveling. This is sitting in a plane with Vision
       | Pro, instead of sitting at home/office.
        
       | figers wrote:
       | I love the tech, but don't want the isolation from reality, I
       | like to look around, away from a screen while thinking when I
       | work.
       | 
       | I don't mind using my laptop or iPad for movies and work on
       | planes...
       | 
       | To each their own...
        
       | Ukv wrote:
       | > (the video itself was blacked out when capturing the
       | screenshot).
       | 
       | I already disliked DRM like this, where the user's device acts
       | against them, but something about the form factor makes me extra
       | uneasy about it. Maybe the fact that it's directly on your face,
       | integrating tightly with your vision.
       | 
       | Hopefully by the time we move onto AR contact lenses or implants
       | there'll be some good user-respecting alternatives, though I'm
       | not too hopeful.
        
       | farceSpherule wrote:
       | The problem with flying today is deregulation. It made flying
       | cheap and for the masses. Completely killed the experience.
        
       | atorodius wrote:
       | Recently discovered that on long flights, ear plugs (that just
       | block noise, no music!) and a kindle is way more enjoyable for
       | me. Less headache. Can't imagine having a vision pro on a 10h
       | flight
        
         | asdff wrote:
         | I just sleep and teleport
        
       | outcoldman wrote:
       | Have AVP since day one. I have traveled probably 5-6 times on
       | planes since then. One for the first one I took it with me. Sure,
       | it was a nice experience to watch a movie. But I would rather to
       | watch the same movie or tv show with SO, than to watch it in a
       | questionable better environment. The main issue, it is heavy and
       | bulky for traveling.
        
       | isodev wrote:
       | > unparalleled opportunity to...
       | 
       | Well, the Vision Pro has no substantial unique features which
       | aren't available via the older Quest even.
       | 
       | Sure, Apple over-engineered the lenses to the point of excluding
       | people who don't conform to the prescribed possibilities... and
       | the App Store is limited to pedestrian experiences of 2D apps
       | rebuilt to work on visionOS and a handful of cool VR/MR apps.
       | 
       | All that aside, I wouldn't travel with something so expensive and
       | fragile. Putting on and off, looking for where to place it while
       | talking with staff / other people... sounds very uncomfortable.
        
       | scudsworth wrote:
       | >The fact that you just look at the buttons that you'd like to
       | interact with and pinch your fingers while your hand is resting
       | on your lap is a massive plus for not looking like a dweeb.
       | 
       | i dunno. repeatedly making little pinchies in your lap with your
       | $3500 goggles on still seems very dweeb-coded to me. i almost did
       | a spit take when i looked up how much the vision pro costs, lol
        
       | xnx wrote:
       | > But damn, based on how well it all works now, you can just tell
       | by the 4th or 5th generation, Apple Vision Pro will be on the
       | face of every frequent flyer.
       | 
       | A 4th or 5th generation Apple Vision Pro (and other corresponding
       | advancements) may obviate the need for a lot of travel.
        
         | 01HNNWZ0MV43FF wrote:
         | I don't know. Memory is not like reality, even computer-
         | assisted memory
        
         | dmattia wrote:
         | Will it let me feel the breeze at the top of Half Dome?
         | 
         | Or have me chase a squirrel around after it stole my snacks?
         | 
         | Or have me feel the pride of accomplishing a long hike that I
         | trained for?
         | 
         | Or let me talk with interesting people along the route and hear
         | about their travels?
         | 
         | Or help me find an incredible pizza restaurant with concepts
         | that aren't in my local suburban area?
         | 
         | Or give me the health benefits of hiking outdoors?
         | 
         | I'm not sure how a headset could ever obviate the desire for
         | travel
        
           | selykg wrote:
           | Certain types of travel will always exist. But traveling for
           | work? That's an entire idea I can get behind avoiding.
        
             | agos wrote:
             | Me too, but if you're not avoiding it now the Apple Vision
             | will not make a big difference
        
             | asdff wrote:
             | Why can't you avoid it now? Just open zoom. No need for gen
             | 5 avp.
        
               | RandomThoughts3 wrote:
               | And yet everyone who has ever worked with an offshore
               | team knows that nothing beats time spent in the same
               | room. I don't expect VR to change that.
        
               | asdff wrote:
               | Well when you account for the time spent travelling, the
               | time spent socializing and shmoozing, the boxed lunch
               | hour, etc, that adds up to a whole lot of wasted time on
               | top of what could have easily been a 45 min zoom meeting,
               | or an email. Its fun I guess if you get all your social
               | outlet from your coworkers, but if you get it from
               | anywhere else it probably feels like you just got drafted
               | when you get sent to meet the distributed team in person.
        
               | RandomThoughts3 wrote:
               | You are missing the point here. Plenty of things can't be
               | a 45 minutes meeting. Sometime what you incorrectly call
               | schmoozing and I call building a bond is the point and is
               | extremely necessary. People are not machine.
        
           | GuB-42 wrote:
           | A need for _a lot_ of travel, not _all_ travel.
           | 
           | You mention hiking several times, I assume it is something
           | you enjoy. Now, imagine, instead of regularly having to
           | travel to Yosemite from your local suburban area, you instead
           | go live in Yosemite and use your headset to do the things you
           | did in your suburban area. More hiking, less time spent in
           | transport.
        
       | rbanffy wrote:
       | One feature I'd love to see in see-through VR sets is
       | hyperspectral vision. Would be useful to see IR and UV around
       | you.
        
         | piyuv wrote:
         | Useful how?
        
           | rbanffy wrote:
           | Identify hot surfaces could be an obvious thing for IR. For
           | UV, you could at least delight yourself with seeing flowers
           | the way bees do.
        
             | ane wrote:
             | And birds!
             | 
             | https://www.uvbirds.com/
        
           | calf wrote:
           | You know how
        
             | urbandw311er wrote:
             | That's very funny
        
               | rbanffy wrote:
               | That as well.
        
           | AnarchismIsCool wrote:
           | In my experience working with multi/hyperspectral systems,
           | usually for turning brown kids into various forms of air
           | pollution, or at least that's all anyone seems to want to buy
           | them for.
           | 
           | Also, as another user is probably allewding to, certain thin
           | synthetic fabrics are semi-transparent to particular
           | wavelengths in the IR band.
        
             | sterlind wrote:
             | how long did you work in the space before your conscience
             | caught up with you?
        
         | AnarchismIsCool wrote:
         | You're confusing multispectral and hyperspectral. If it was
         | hyper you'd have the ability to slide through at image "cube"
         | where the z axis is wavelength. Would be cool, but current
         | hyperspectral cameras are extremely low resolution because
         | they're just a prism array on top of an off the shelf
         | panchromatic sensor using blocks of pixels to form that z axis.
        
       | selimnairb wrote:
       | If you wear this on a public plane, air marshals should be able
       | to automatically render you to a black site.
        
         | dlmatter wrote:
         | It's called a deny site.
        
         | edmundsauto wrote:
         | Why do you think wearing some tech is a crime? Genuinely
         | curious what made you form such an extreme opinion.
        
       | unusualmonkey wrote:
       | "The movies that play in virtual screens are native to the films'
       | aspect ratios, which can vary movie to movie, eliminating the
       | black bars of "letterboxing" and "pillarboxing" you typically
       | have on iPads, iPhones, or MacBooks."
       | 
       | Then proceeds to show screenshots where more than 50% of the
       | screen is background. Just because you decided to show cloud
       | instead of black doesn't mean it's not letterboxing.
        
         | Terretta wrote:
         | The screenshots are misleading. "Inside" an AVP watching a
         | movie the corner to corner angle can exceed THX recommendation
         | of 40 degrees.
         | 
         | Doesn't seem like a lot until you hold a protractor up to your
         | eyeball. And then you realize how much area falls outside that
         | angle, surroundings you don't think about at the theater.
         | 
         | The AVP has to render that unwatchable area for you as well,
         | and it ends up in screenshots.
        
           | unusualmonkey wrote:
           | You can do the same thing with any screen by holding it the
           | appropriate distance.
           | 
           | Keep in mind that all that unwatchable area is pixels that
           | aren't being used to improve the movie image.
        
       | wayeq wrote:
       | Airlines should rent these, already set up for movies or
       | whatever. I'd pay to give it a try. I wouldn't want these taking
       | up my carry on space going to and from the airport or to deal
       | with security, so that's another advantage.
        
         | trzy wrote:
         | I don't want your pink eye infected skin flakes in my eyes.
         | Have you seen how airlines "clean" plane seats?
        
           | LeafItAlone wrote:
           | So don't rent it?
           | 
           | There are already tons of places you can go and rent time
           | with VR. Or even just 3D movies and experiences where you
           | need special glasses.
           | 
           | Airlines already have reusable noise cancelling headphones
           | and drink glasses in first class.
        
         | filmgirlcw wrote:
         | Absolutely not. First, the light seal would be different for
         | each person, making for a subpar experience (an experience
         | you're paying for). Second, given the germs and potential
         | disease spread via the face/eyes, this seems like a terrible
         | idea unless you were able to sterilize each AVP after each
         | flight, a task that might work for the Bose headphones they put
         | in business class, but that would def be a thing I wouldn't
         | trust most airlines to do well. Third, you know these things
         | would break all the time, again, leading to a subpar rental
         | experience.
         | 
         | That said, I am a little surprised the Middle Eastern and Asian
         | airlines haven't adopted these for their international first
         | class cabins (your Singapore Suites, Ethiad Apartments and the
         | private rooms on Emirates).
        
       | dailykoder wrote:
       | Can I read a book with it, too? Or just enjoy the boredom without
       | much digital interaction?
        
         | phodo wrote:
         | you can use the iPad kindle app and it works great.
        
       | posterman wrote:
       | weird to film someone doing their job just to prove you could ask
       | for tea without taking off your big vr headset. hope they asked
       | for permission to post this.
        
         | masterj wrote:
         | I am surprised I had to scroll down this far to find this. This
         | was deeply upsetting to me
        
         | mlok wrote:
         | I was wondering exactly the same : did the flight attendant
         | consent to being in a video on the internet while doing her job
         | ?
        
       | drewg123 wrote:
       | For air travel, I _really_ like my Xreal Air glasses now that I
       | have a newer iPhone 16pro. Just plug in the USB-C cable, and you
       | have a virtual 60 " screen in front of you which works perfectly
       | for Netflix, etc. And they cost less than 10% of the cost of an
       | AVP, and are not limited to 2-3 hours of battery life (they get
       | power from the phone).
       | 
       | Note that if you have an older (lightning) iPhone, don't bother
       | with these. They require a pair of dongles. Not only does that
       | make things really awkward, but one of the dongles ends up
       | apparently blocking HDCP, and prevents you from using anything
       | but ... your own... downloaded content.
        
         | astrostl wrote:
         | Still works with a USB-C computer, or tablet, or Xreal's own
         | Beam Pro. I'm sticking with my 13 Mini as a phone but still
         | happy to travel with Xreal Air glasses.
        
           | cchi_co wrote:
           | Keeping things simple and still enjoying all the tech perks
        
         | the_arun wrote:
         | I wear prescription glasses. Does Xreal Air help folks like me
         | or forces me to use Contacts?
         | 
         | update: nvmd. I found this -
         | https://vroptician.com/prescription-lens-inserts/nreal-air
        
           | arbot360 wrote:
           | I use the Viture which supports negative prescriptions by an
           | adjustment dial on the optics.
        
             | cuvinny wrote:
             | Interesting, always wanted to try AR for office work
             | because I travel a lot but the glasses part has always been
             | a killer. Do they work with Linux at all?
        
               | okasaki wrote:
               | I think they're just a usb-c monitor, so no reason it
               | wouldn't.
        
           | frakkingcylons wrote:
           | I got the prescription inserts for the xreal air 2 pro. They
           | were a little more expensive than I would've liked ($150 plus
           | $40 because I need -8 SPH) but I have somewhat severe myopia.
        
         | balls187 wrote:
         | How well does it work with ios screen mirroring? I assume it's
         | not like when I plug my iphone into my monitor and I have a
         | portrait display.
        
           | frakkingcylons wrote:
           | It's exactly like that. You get a mirrored display in
           | portrait mode. It'll rotate if you disable orientation lock
           | and hold it in landscape.
        
         | davidzweig wrote:
         | I have Nreal Air glasses (they changed name?), they aren't
         | useable for programming really, image is too soft, but neat for
         | watching Netflix on the train etc.
        
         | dgellow wrote:
         | Can you use them with a steam deck? That would be a pretty cool
         | use case!
        
           | longitudinal93 wrote:
           | Absolutely. Been travelling with a SD and Xreal Airs for the
           | past 2 years. Fantastic for gaming and video consumption.
        
           | jeeva wrote:
           | There's also a fantastic plugin specifically for the Steam
           | Deck that adds a bunch of excellent functionality.
        
         | parhamn wrote:
         | Does such a thing exist that works for coding? Don't need the
         | AR. My posture/back could use this for when I'm not working at
         | my desk.
        
           | worldsayshi wrote:
           | I've been looking for this as well but have never heard
           | anyone that found glasses good enough for coding.
        
         | JKCalhoun wrote:
         | As I get older, a gin and tonic (or two) is what makes air
         | travel more relaxing.
        
           | EasyMark wrote:
           | Cranberry and vodka but basically yeah
        
           | yapyap wrote:
           | a good pair of earbuds is what does it for me
        
           | Scoundreller wrote:
           | That and ear plugs _with_ noise cancelling headphones and an
           | eye mask and I can sleep through it all.
        
           | derefr wrote:
           | Taking a flight as an opportunity to indulge in a moment of
           | blissful idleness is great... on a three-hour flight.
           | 
           | But on a 14-hour trans-continental flight, you've gotta have
           | _something_ to do. If nothing else, to distract you from how
           | uncomfortable it is to be effectively confined to your seat +
           | a few feet of narrow walkway for that long. That 's more
           | confined than a prison cell!
        
         | ChuckMcM wrote:
         | Does the screen stay in one place or does it move when you move
         | your head? That turned out to be the thing that made viture
         | glasses unusable for me. I get that slam can be hard but I
         | would be okay with sticking a target sticker up somewhere in my
         | field of view and having the glasses force the screen there.
        
       | alpb wrote:
       | I just did a two-way total 12 hour Hawaii flight and watched 12
       | hours of Apple TV series in a fully immersive environment
       | completely isolated using Vision Pro. As long as the airplane
       | seats have AC charger, you're good to go. I also use the Dual
       | Solo Knit Band mod to increase head comfort.
        
       | AceJohnny2 wrote:
       | One gotcha to add:
       | 
       | Remember to _turn off_ the AVP between charging it at home and
       | using it on the flight. You do this by  "choking" it, i.e.
       | pressing both buttons physical for ~10s, to bring up the "Power
       | Off" dialog, so it's really not obvious.
       | 
       | I once had my AVP completely discharge between charging it one
       | night, and wanting to use it on the flight <24h later. I'm
       | guessing that the motion from the packing and trip to the airport
       | was constantly waking it up, draining power.
        
         | kridsdale3 wrote:
         | I think it's just constantly on Wifi, checking for updates,
         | like any iOS device.
        
       | cchi_co wrote:
       | A forward-thinking perspective, balancing enthusiasm with
       | pragmatism. Yet is Apple really onto something that could
       | transform how frequent travelers engage with tech on the go?
        
         | marinhero wrote:
         | If the truly cared about that they would let us run a desktop
         | OS on their iPhones so we don't carry laptops all around.
        
       | steelframe wrote:
       | My concerns are around the normalization of pointing high-
       | resolution cameras at people around you all the time. Perhaps
       | this specific device may have a company behind it that, at least
       | at the moment, will resist handing the video feed with you in it
       | to the data brokers.
       | 
       | Make no mistake though, the data brokers are foaming at the mouth
       | to get access to high-resolution constantly-streaming video
       | content that includes your face, your location, and your
       | activities. Imagine the sorts of things that are going to be sold
       | to whoever is buying.
       | 
       | "Jake Jacobs, who is married, is striking up a lengthy
       | conversation with the young woman seated next to him. His wife
       | might be interested in ads for divorce lawyers."
       | 
       | "Jeff Jones is taking a middle-of-the-week flight to San Jose,
       | and he just finished writing an email to a recruiter from another
       | company who is based out of that city. His company is paying the
       | data broker for intel on employees who may be shopping around, so
       | let's get this info to them stat."
       | 
       | "Jennifer Smith looks to be 3 months pregnant and is flying from
       | Texas to Colorado. She's reading a Planned Parenthood pamphlet.
       | The State of Texas passed a law in 2026 requiring data brokers to
       | report on such activities, so of course we'll let them know."
       | 
       | As competing products come along that are cheaper than the Apple
       | doohickies in part because of the subsidies they get from the
       | data brokers, portable VR headsets are going to bring along a
       | significant deterioration of our already-dismal privacy
       | protections.
        
         | hammock wrote:
         | >My concerns are around the normalization of pointing high-
         | resolution cameras at people around you all the time.
         | 
         | This already exists with CCTVs on every major city streetcorner
         | and Ring cameras on every doorstep. Not to mention Tesla cloud-
         | connected cameras pointed inward and outward.
        
           | massysett wrote:
           | Most of the CCTV and Ring cameras are pretty lousy and
           | they're in fixed locations. All the time I'll be out walking
           | and hear an obnoxious "You are currently being recorded"
           | announcement, but I'm far enough away from that cheap camera
           | that I'm probably a shadowy figure in a grainy video.
           | 
           | These VR headsets on the other hand are high-quality, very
           | close to other people, and mobile.
        
             | hammock wrote:
             | >Most of the CCTV and Ring cameras are pretty lousy and
             | they're in fixed locations.
             | 
             | The CCTVs in Chicago are 360 degree panning plus up/down,
             | and can zoom-in four blocks away with enough resolution to
             | make out a face and license plate.
             | https://www.chicagotribune.com/2024/09/29/chicago-police-
             | cam....
             | 
             | Here is an example of the cameras in action:
             | https://x.com/CWBChicago/status/1445124776742227980
        
               | oefnak wrote:
               | Did you have to pick a video where somebody is killed?
        
             | mixmastamyk wrote:
             | Don't confuse temporary with forever. I remember folks
             | dismissing digital cameras out of hand, and now you can
             | barely buy an alternative.
        
           | heeton wrote:
           | I feel it's harder for a tesla to capture footage of a
           | teenager reading a pamphlet on a plane, but who knows what
           | Elon's plans are.
        
             | hammock wrote:
             | The airlines can do that themselves:
             | 
             | "Newer seat-back entertainment systems on some airplanes
             | operated by American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United
             | Airlines and Singapore Airlines have cameras, and it's
             | likely they are also on planes used by other carriers."
             | https://apnews.com/article/4c3ca3b46c704c6080ba026729fc8d21
        
         | renewiltord wrote:
         | Oh yeah, no, you're definitely streaming high-definition video
         | from the airplane. You'd better put your phone in airplane
         | mode. The front camera is silently recording and selling your
         | complaints about the airplane food to a competing airline in
         | full HD. Some say they can tell from your pores. Airlines
         | specifically upgraded in-flight wifi to 100 Gbps upload so that
         | we could get seamless data brokering on-demand. A data broker I
         | know sometimes hits a button to get instant live-streaming
         | access to the inside of the seatback pocket. He really likes
         | it. "He's watching Modern Family S4 E3" he laughed the other
         | day. "He doesn't know the airline doesn't have S4 E4! He's
         | going to be so disappointed"
        
         | alexashka wrote:
         | Yes, the chairs on the Titanic aren't perfectly aligned with
         | one another.
        
         | tqi wrote:
         | This is complete science fiction / FUD. Amazon can't even stop
         | showing you ads for vacuum cleaners after you buy a vacuum
         | cleaner, you think they have the compute for something that
         | sophisticated?
        
           | Aeolun wrote:
           | It'd probably be mostly happening on-device. Why waste their
           | own compute on it when they can just drain your battery and
           | send themselves only the pertinent details.
        
       | gizajob wrote:
       | If I saw someone wearing one of these on a flight, I'd think they
       | were a complete dickhead.
        
       | zmmmmm wrote:
       | Really interesting point about the utility of the look-and-pinch
       | interaction rather than waving your hands around in the tight
       | space confines of the plane. This was definitely my main issue
       | using the Quest which was otherwise a fantastic experience.
        
       | bsimpson wrote:
       | I've never tried traveling wearing a VR headset, but I did get a
       | Legion Go that I like to use in that scenario. It's basically a
       | Steam Deck with a nicer screen, more powerful GPU, and shit
       | battery that needs to be constantly charged.
       | 
       | As I learned when I tried to charge it with a 140W Apple charger,
       | planes have current limitations. If you plug in too high of a
       | wattage charger, it can totally disable the power socket.
       | 
       | One of the dances to figure out if you're going to use a VR
       | headset on a plane is how high a wattage can the plane constantly
       | support. Then again, you probably don't want your face physically
       | tethered to the middle seat anyway.
        
       | yapyap wrote:
       | yeugh
        
       | seydor wrote:
       | Maybe the devices found their target audience: airlines
        
         | PaulRobinson wrote:
         | Airlines spend a fortune moving screen and other kit needed for
         | in-flight entertainment around: the fuel costs alone can be low
         | seven figures a year for that added weight. And then are the
         | content licenses.
         | 
         | Meanwhile customers are turning up with devices with their own
         | licensed content (they've already paid the streaming services
         | or paid for the download), but can't use it on the plane.
         | 
         | It's pretty obvious what should happen, and what eventually
         | will, but it'll take a while.
        
         | sterlind wrote:
         | too expensive and fragile for airlines themselves, at least
         | outside of first class, but I think air travel is a killer app.
         | 
         | I do find the idea of a plane full of goggled humans packed in
         | like sardines to be a touch dystopian, but I feel that way
         | about the infotainment screens already.
        
       | tqi wrote:
       | > In fact, of all the screens and displays in my house, my Vision
       | Pro is hands down the highest quality display that I own, so I
       | very much look forward to watching visually compelling movies in
       | it.
       | 
       | How does a vision pro compare to a say 60 inch 4K tv, in terms of
       | perceived sharpness (I get that it has more pixels, but they are
       | closer to your eye and cover your whole field of view)? I owned
       | an OG quest, and for me watching movies just didn't quite match
       | up to the experience of an actual tv.
        
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