Ask HN: Is anyone working at least 4 hours daily on an Apple Vision Pro?

Hiya. Sorry, but you might not like what I have to say - I still hope that you read it all though.

I doubt that this is the future. Maybe it is for a small number of people on HN, but outside of this site there's no way it's the future.

You're amazed by this because it's the ultimate expression of the luxury of focus. Unfortunately whilst developers and artists get the luxury of focus, most other people don't. Most other people have either responsibilities or duties that require them to be interruptable.

Being interrupted sucks. But for most people it's a fundamental part of their job. IT, HR, Finance, Security/Compliance, Facilities, and so many more. As an example for folks in sales not being interrupted may mean a lost sale. That's typically not acceptable.

So what you value from AVP is a detrimental thing for others.

Worse than that, AVP is a very expensive way of getting that focus. We could buy you a bigger monitor and some quality headphones for less than a quarter of the price.

Right now for five hundred bucks I can buy a 34" curved widescreen monitor with built in webcam, microphone and USB power delivery of 100 watts. Someone can plug their laptop into that and charge it whilst getting a webcam and microphone over that same cable. It's very cool. Throw in some noise cancelling headphones and the total bill is maybe seven hundred bucks.

That's the price target that AVP has to compete with. And it's a moving target - the cost of monitors and noise cancelling headphones will go down as well.

Let's be honest, right now I could buy a headphones/monitor combination for you both at an office desk AND at home, pay for the courier to your house, and still have a sizable chunk of change from the cost of AVP. If you scale this up over the whole of society, the costs of AVP vs a monitor/headphones combination are HUGE and yet the gains are, for most situations, marginal at best.

And I'm only talking about cost here. If IT departments have to start issuing AVP devices, they're going to need to do the fitting - something only Apple currently does. They'll have to keep records of the pads used for you. They'll have to keep records of your optician's prescription, and spares of the lenses issued to you (if needed). An AVP is a very personal device - if yours breaks, we can't just pick one of the shelf and know it will work for you immediately, the padding and lenses ensure that.

Imagine an office with 100 desks. Which is easier - 100 monitors like the ones I described before, or 100 AVP headsets? The monitors allow hotdesking if necessary, they work with any laptop (even visitors). They're fungible. Headphones are a bit more personal, but still fungible in a pinch. An AVP headset is the exact opposite of that.

Oh, and I've just realised that IT teams are going to need to either keep a record of your prescription for the lenses, or have delays in issuing replacements. That prescription is PII. Now we have a whole new legal problem to deal with.

None of these issues are insurmountable, but all of the solutions are extra cost. For an already costly device.

The future isn't AVP. The future is big monitors and headphones. Because that future is already here, and its logistics and costs are simple and manageable.

I really am sorry to be the one to tell you this. I know you value the luxury of focus. I hope that, if anything, this comment allows you to enjoy and appreciate that luxury more in the future.

I’d probably do more development in the meta quest virtual desktop environment if my primary occupation these days wasn’t writing software for the meta quest. It makes it difficult to iterate when you constantly need to flip to a mode where your monitors disappear.

I am not saying I want that, I am saying it will come sooner or later, and will probably be ready before everyone use vision pro or its alternatives.

Why does the opinion of strangers especially anonymous strangers you'll probably never see again matter to you?