Live data from Hacker News

Apple Vision Pro review: magic, until it's not

theverge.com

241–250 of 386 posts

Re: Apple Vision Pro review: magic, until it's not

#241
post #52

Wonderfully written review. Happy to have read it and disappointed with some of the takeaways. I wish that there were more of a "mac-centric" approach taken for powerusers, rather than barreling forward with visionOS. Once their OS is truly consolidated I may have more use for this device.

Decent review, but it is Nilay Patel, who sees himself as a kingmaker. I’m interested to read reviews from people just focusing on how it is to use the device.

Absolutely, he kept trying to coin a phrase, and telling us how it's not an ideal version he imagines.

Re: Apple Vision Pro review: magic, until it's not

#242
post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's interesting to see a common theme of "It's great, but not there yet."

That’s also a good summary of the 1st iPhone’s reviews.

Its not comparable. At that time, phone was already a necessity for most folks and most had one. VR (they are not AR from outside)? Still 90% of folks around me (doctors, IT, rest of reality) think whole concept of VR/AR is for kids and... big old kids lets say.

Also it costs 10x as much with huge drawback above. Inflation makes this a smaller number but the difference is still massive, for a plastic toy soon to be obsolete looking like kids ski googles.

But if they persist, which all reviews seem to hang their overall positive rating on, magic we all hope for might eventually happen

Re: Apple Vision Pro review: magic, until it's not

#243
post #153

This review confirmed this is exactly what I need. I don’t care about my hair messing up, I work from home. I don’t care if the display doesn’t look as good as reality, that was never my expectation anyway. The display just needs to look good enough to work with fine text and hi-res images. I don’t care if it’s too heavy to wear for hours at a time, I always work in 25 minute blocks anyway. Breaks are good. I don’t c…

There is always an idea what one needs, the idea itself is perfect, flawless. Then there is reality. Those never meet, good luck with getting them at least close

Re: Apple Vision Pro review: magic, until it's not

#244
post #153

This review confirmed this is exactly what I need. I don’t care about my hair messing up, I work from home. I don’t care if the display doesn’t look as good as reality, that was never my expectation anyway. The display just needs to look good enough to work with fine text and hi-res images. I don’t care if it’s too heavy to wear for hours at a time, I always work in 25 minute blocks anyway. Breaks are good. I don’t c…

The hand tracking system is among the faults in the review. I'm not sure whether this will be addressed by having a real keyboard and mouse. The reviewer never tried the device with a real mouse. Do you know how the experience will be when using a mouse rather than the hand-tracking system?

Anyways this sounds infuriating:

> you have to be looking at something in order to click on it, and that means you are constantly taking your attention away from whatever you’re working on to specifically look at the button you need to press next. I spent some time playing a lovely little game called Stitch that quickly became maddening because I kept looking away from the piece I wanted to move to the place I wanted to move it, which meant I wasn’t picking it up when I tapped my fingers.

And also:

> I talk through writing video scripts to make sure things flow, and I talk with my hands. So as I was writing the video script for this review in the Vision Pro, the system kept catching my hands moving and started scrolling and clicking on things by accident. I cracked up the first time I realized what was happening. But eventually, it meant that I took the Vision Pro off and wrote the rest of the script on my Mac, which only does things when I actually want it to.

Re: Apple Vision Pro review: magic, until it's not

#245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

well we're in 2024 now and people still try to suggest Beat Saber (2018) is proof that VR gaming is good.

Why does the age matter? It's a popular game for a reason, but VR gaming is still obviously niche. I think that HL:A is easily the best VR game that exists, but it doesn't have a lot of replay value and can only be played on desktop.

Platforms with so few noteworthy games in the past 6 years are a red flag of the health of it. Nothing wrong with that, but plenty of folks argue that VR gaming is great.

HL:A, as I said in another comment, is just a case study on why VR won't work. With no disrespect to the devs because I think they really did do a good job with what they had, but it still sucks if you dare to peek under the hood. It coddles you (because it needs to).

Re: Apple Vision Pro review: magic, until it's not

#246
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think AirPods were post-Steve? And they were both widely mocked at launch and wildly successful.

Like so many Apple things, I thought AirPods were dumb until I got some (as a gift). I'd tried some Logitech wireless earbuds just a couple months before first trying AirPods. Those were dumb. God they sucked. I've avoided the Watch for that reason. The little conveniences of various Apple-thingies are the sort of stuff you can't un-experience, and then you're stuck buying the damn things forever.

I got an Apple Watch in 2019, and I don't wear it anymore. It was just another thing that needed to get charged every day, and none of the apps are very useful, and most of them are buggy and poorly supported.

Re: Apple Vision Pro review: magic, until it's not

#247
post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if an iTV would sell. All mondern smart tvs are covered in ads and spying. monitors of similar sizes cost 3x to 4x. so to me there might be a market for a non spying iTV with bultin Apple TV for say 1.5x. Or not, not sure enough people care about those issues.

Apple TV already exists as a set-top box. And even something similar embedded in some TVs. What I could see Apple doing is some kind of "Made for Apple TV" feature that combines eArc, HDMI, etc, and makes the TV turn into a "dumb TV" for the Apple TV when it is connected and detected.

> And even something similar embedded in some TVs.

I don't believe there is an "tvOS Embedded". "Apple TV+" is just an app within the OS; there isn't really any similarity between the embedded app and tvOS.

Re: Apple Vision Pro review: magic, until it's not

#248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

well maybe not millions but "a lot"

Supposedly they’ve already sold ~200k. Before release. Before reviews of it. That’s still a far cry from “millions” (plural), but I wouldn’t be surprised.

Odds are word of mouth is not going to be kind to this though. I can see pre-order statistics being overly optimistic.

Re: Apple Vision Pro review: magic, until it's not

#249
post #69

Many HN'ers are probably like me, in that hearing about its imperfections is kind of a relief. If it really DID mean a new era of tech, well then frick I need to learn some new skills to keep up, have to buy one for myself, etc. etc. That being said, it feels like a few small things would make a consumer version of this really take off: - Cut the weight in half (i.e., use plastic). - Drop the gimmicky eye TV (save we…

I just don't know if it'll ever happen, at least not until there are truly massive advances in miniaturization and display tech.

I have much lower spec'd VR goggles and they mostly gather dust. There's just something about having a screen pressed up against your eyes that's weird and uncomfortable in a way that is hard to articulate.

No screen door? Cool! Great motion tracking? Awesome! Premium materials? Eh, OK! But as long as I still need to strap a little box around my eyes with screens in it, I'm going to be limiting my exposure time. My eyes like air, and "better than the competition at all the things" doesn't actually make it solve any real problems I have.

For me, such a thing just can't be more than a toy.

Re: Apple Vision Pro review: magic, until it's not

#250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The part of the demo where the dad played with his kids while wearing the Vision Pro and then watched the playback alone later was disturbing. I'm glad I'm not alone who feels the same. To me, that scene is so out of place, so dystopian that it's outright ridiculous that it's presented in a demo like this.

Every parent I've talked to has found that pretty appealing. We're already looking at pictures and videos of our kids on the phone a lot of the time anyway. Which required us to be holding our phones in hand while playing with our kids. It only seems weird because it's unfamiliar. But it's not more dystopian than trying to capture special moments with a camcorder.

> We're already looking at pictures and videos of our kids on the phone a lot of the time anyway. Which required us to be holding our phones in hand while playing with our kids.

A phone in the hand is objectively far less intrusive than a full on mask on your eyes that prevents half of your face being seen by your kids.

Post reply on HN