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A developer's view of Vision Pro

david-smith.org

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Re: A developer's view of Vision Pro

#281

Post by sharikous »

bamfly wrote: post #145
goosedragons wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because with the exception of very few tasks like digital art the limitations placed on iOS make it worse. Some tasks are just straight up impossible (e.g compiling code), others are just hampered by things like file management and sandboxing or lack of support for hardware/accessories. Sometimes they can be worked around but often it's an exercise in frustration to do something that would be brain-dead on a desktop…

All I can figure is difference in perspective is because such a large part of the potential of i-devices (or phones and tablets more broadly) for creation involves using them as a tool to get something done in the real world, and/or for the kinds of creative tasks that get overlooked by the hackerspace crowd (running an Instagram, say, involves lots of creation ; tradespeople and home DIYers routinely use phones and…

Desktop computer have some advantages that the so-called i-devices lack even for tasks that are not computer-centric.

The main one for me is the longevity of your data. It is connected to the control over your data you have in a desktop OS. Good luck finding what you did five years ago in an app in some device and reproducing it now. You are at the mercy of some proprietary format the app creator chose, the availability of the app at a later stage, whether you saved your work in a cloud service, whether you kept your old device running, the operating system updates you installed, .....

With a desktop you can archive your work, whatever it might be, in sequences of bits that reside in your disk. Open source software and virtual machines go a long way for helping reproducibility.

Not all tasks benefit from reproducibility and longevity but I'd argue they include a lot more than computer programming

Re: A developer's view of Vision Pro

#282

Post by LoganDark »

animatethrow wrote: post #112
ladberg wrote: post #20

> In short, my brain has crossed a Rubicon and now feels like experiences constrained to small, rectangular screens are lesser experiences. I left Apple 1.5 years ago but was working on the Vision Pro while I was there. I have spend many hours working in the headset and I know exactly the feeling he's describing! Leaving felt like going back in time to using clunky technology and I've been waiting for outside world t…

> I've been trying to explain to people how certain I am that doing work in headsets will become mainstream but am (understandably) met with doubt Tech enthusiasts underestimate how much the general public hates having gear strapped to their faces and over their hair, especially more than half of women who put considerable effort into their face makeup and hair.

I'm definitely not the general public, but the biggest factor for me has always been screen resolution, not size or weight. Until HMDs can achieve 8K+ per eye and match the fidelity of a sub-$100 4K monitor, I'm not going to be interested.

Re: A developer's view of Vision Pro

#283

Post by ftxbro »

codemusings wrote: post #275
ftxbro wrote: post #200

> "Starting on Day One" > "I have been a “day one” developer for three of Apple’s platforms" > "I’m going to be a “day one” developer for the Vision Pro." > "The Economics of “Day One”" > "Look for Widgetsmith for visionOS from “day one”." it looks like a guy who is flexing his "day one" access and using it to advertise some vaporware, and the rest of the words in the blogpost are some fluff maybe gpt could make it

Salty much FTX Bro? This is David „underscore“ Smith, developer of Widgetsmith and a ton of other successful iOS apps. Genuinely one of the nicest human beings. If anyone has earned the rights to flex its him.

> "Salty much FTX Bro?"

FTX can still be profitable today if they allow SBF to raise funds. They just didn't understand his vision.

Re: A developer's view of Vision Pro

#284

Post by boppo1 »

archagon wrote: post #258
ladberg wrote: post #20

> In short, my brain has crossed a Rubicon and now feels like experiences constrained to small, rectangular screens are lesser experiences. I left Apple 1.5 years ago but was working on the Vision Pro while I was there. I have spend many hours working in the headset and I know exactly the feeling he's describing! Leaving felt like going back in time to using clunky technology and I've been waiting for outside world t…

I fear Apple’s effort will be limited to an iPad-like content consumption experience without the platform opening up to a Mac-like degree. And that no other company has the chops to “cross the Rubicon” in such a comprehensive way, dooming AR/VR to a niche of limited usefulness.

Yep. Browser-excel isn't good enough, I need the full version.

Re: A developer's view of Vision Pro

#285

Post by cvwright »

ethbr0 wrote: post #242
bamfly wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All I can figure is difference in perspective is because such a large part of the potential of i-devices (or phones and tablets more broadly) for creation involves using them as a tool to get something done in the real world, and/or for the kinds of creative tasks that get overlooked by the hackerspace crowd (running an Instagram, say, involves lots of creation ; tradespeople and home DIYers routinely use phones and…

iOS shines when you create something, for while someone has already created software to create. Desktop shines when you create something novel. It's as simple as that -- there are tons of things people have created really polished iOS "happy path" software to create on, but they're not general purpose creators. Specifically because anything general purpose threatens Apple's App Store toll gate, and thus cannot be all…

What are the creative apps on Android that Apple is not allowing to exist on iOS?

Re: A developer's view of Vision Pro

#286

Post by MBCook »

spywaregorilla wrote: post #140
sleepybrett wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you think meta is offering oculus devices at cost or as a loss leader? Fact is there is a laptop chip stuffed into this headset, there is a mobile soc in the oculus line.

I'm mostly just amused that someone would say Apple selling a product for a high price means anything. Although I do think that facebook has sold a lot of their devices at a loss?

Look at what they announced. Do you think Meta could match it at the price point of the Quest 2? Double the Quest 2?

Apple loves their profit margins. But it’s not $3500 for fun. It’s clearly expensive to make, even if their profit margin in still baked in.

Re: A developer's view of Vision Pro

#287

Post by throwaway675309 »

hummingly wrote: post #209
animatethrow wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I've been trying to explain to people how certain I am that doing work in headsets will become mainstream but am (understandably) met with doubt Tech enthusiasts underestimate how much the general public hates having gear strapped to their faces and over their hair, especially more than half of women who put considerable effort into their face makeup and hair.

Every headset I have seen looks really unfashionable. Even the Vision Pro looks kind of bad. It is too bulky for the relaxing atmosphere Apple was going for in its adverts. And too rounded to appear more edgy. It is not commiting to anything, kind of like the new Macbook Pro design. This stands in contrast to Airpods (small but bold shape) and the Apple Watch (practical and elegant).

I must be one of the only people in existence who absolutely hates the aesthetic look of AirPods, for lack of a better word, they're abnormally "long" looking when they're hanging from one's ears.

Re: A developer's view of Vision Pro

#288

Post by XajniN »

rcpt wrote: post #193
pilsetnieks wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gruber claims that it has the exact same FOV as actual human vision, and no discernible pixels. https://daringfireball.net/2023/06/first_impressions_of_visi...

> Vision Pro and VisionOS feel like they’ve been pulled forward in time from the future. I haven’t had that feeling about a new product since the original iPhone in 2007. tf? Did he miss everything about LLMs?

LLMs are not so impressive when you understand how they work approximately. This new Apple thingy is very impressive even though it’s much easier to understand. Apparently even if yoou worked on it from the beginning.

Re: A developer's view of Vision Pro

#289

Post by alwillis »

goosedragons wrote: post #128
bamfly wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Because it seems to be another Apple device separating producers and consumers just like iPad and iPhone. The persistent framing of i-devices this way on HN, after all these years, is baffling to me. Tons of creation happens on them, or using them as a tool in service of creation, much of which would be harder or impossible with traditional computer. Just not a lot of software creation.

Because with the exception of very few tasks like digital art the limitations placed on iOS make it worse. Some tasks are just straight up impossible (e.g compiling code), others are just hampered by things like file management and sandboxing or lack of support for hardware/accessories. Sometimes they can be worked around but often it's an exercise in frustration to do something that would be brain-dead on a desktop…

> Because with the exception of very few tasks like digital art the limitations placed on iOS make it worse. Some tasks are just straight up impossible (e.g compiling code)…

Compiling code isn't impossible; every webpage that contains JavaScript uses the Just In Time compiler to execute JavaScript. The ability for 3rd party apps to compile code is limited due to security reasons—Apple's Lockdown Mode [1] specifically disables the JIT.

iPad users have been able to write code using Swift and submit apps to the App Store since late 2021. [2]

I have no doubt you'll be able to create apps using the Vision Pro in the future… there's probably a version of Swift Playgrounds [3] running on a prototype Apple Vision Pro right now.

[1]: https://www.wired.com/story/how-to-use-lockdown-mode-ios-16/

[2]: https://www.cnet.com/tech/computing/apples-swift-playgrounds...

[3]: https://www.apple.com/swift/playgrounds/

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