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Apple Vision Pro review

wsj.com

541–550 of 1001 posts

Re: Apple Vision Pro review

#541
post #219

I really like Joanna Stern, and how she approaches reviews like this. I’ve watched her review, The Verge’s, and MKBHD’s unboxing video. However, the best review I’ve found that actually transmits what is possible and what it is like to use is Brian Tong’s 55 minute review video: https://youtu.be/GkPw6ScHyb4 I’m not familiar with him, but unlike other reviews I’ve seen, he spends less time evaluating or summarizing, a…

Good review. Most interesting part was at 43:00 discussing the ergonomics and weight, which is the real question for everyone hoping to make this a daily driver. He said he could wear it 45 mins before needing to take it off, that it was overstimulating so you need to slow down how quickly you use apps and move things on screen, and that gestures also were fatiguing. You could tell he was trying to be fair but positi…

I think the "overstimulation" thing is a bit of a sleeper issue.

At first people think "wow it's so awesome I can be sitting on the moon while I browse the web". But after a bit of time you just get tired, and I think it's precisely because your whole brain is working in overdrive to understand the unnatural environment you are in. None of this manifests explicitly but at the end of it, when people are faced with the choice of putting the headset on or not, they just "feel" like it's a lot of effort.

I say all this as someone who does regularly spend 1-2 hours working in Immersed with multiple giant screens up. And I love it as a break, a way to focus or just relieve the boredom of working in the same space day in day out. But even I feel this effect of it being tiring and not keen to do it for 8 hours a day. And the minute you say that, you lost the use case of this being your "only" computer / replacing your laptop, so it's actually kind of crucial to its central justification as a replacement for a computer or a 'new kind' of computer.

Re: Apple Vision Pro review

#542
post #424
post #276

Lots of surprises on the downside from all the reviews. Pass through much more limited in quality with motion blur, pixelation, distortions, limited color and dynamic range. The eye tracking driven input method which was seen as holy grail turns out to be annoying after a while because people don't naturally always look at what they want to click on. Personas straight up aren't ready. The lack of AR features is the b…

Reminds me of iPhone 1. Everything you've said is reminiscent of the reviews of the first iPhone.

[deleted]

Re: Apple Vision Pro review

#543
post #505
post #424

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reminds me of iPhone 1. Everything you've said is reminiscent of the reviews of the first iPhone.

This iPhone trope has gotta die. I worked at Motorola when the iPhone came out. Every single engineer knew this thing would blow everything else out of the water. It was one of the largest leaps in consumer tech devices ever. I assure you the Vision Pro is nowhere close to that.

Vision Pro is not earth shaking or category defining.

It's entering a crowded market that isn't even that big. As the premium option.

Climbing that hill is going to be a very tall order.

Apple's brand will not be a moat, either.

Zuck's initial response to Vision Pro [1] was the correct one:

> From what I’ve seen initially, I’d say the good news is that there’s no kind of magical solutions that they have to any of the constraints on laws of physics that our teams haven’t already explored and thought of. They went with a higher resolution display, and between that and all the technology they put in there to power it, it costs seven times more and now requires so much energy that now you need a battery and a wire attached to it to use it. They made that design trade-off and it might make sense for the cases that they’re going for.

> But look, I think that their announcement really showcases the difference in the values and the vision that our companies bring to this in a way that I think is really important. We innovate to make sure that our products are as accessible and affordable to everyone as possible, and that is a core part of what we do. And we have sold tens of millions of Quests.

[1] https://www.roadtovr.com/apple-vision-pro-zuckerberg-reactio...

Re: Apple Vision Pro review

#544
post #424

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reminds me of iPhone 1. Everything you've said is reminiscent of the reviews of the first iPhone.

And the touch bar, and the magic mouse, and ping, and mobile me, and hi-fi. They're just a consumer goods company. Sometimes they make good things people don't appreciate at first. Sometimes they make bad things that people don't appreciate ever. Their track record is better than the mean, but comparing every criticism of a first-gen Apple product to the iPod/iPhone launches is unserious. Of course some people panned…

Does "AVP" mean Affordable Viable Product?

Re: Apple Vision Pro review

#545
post #465
post #424

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reminds me of iPhone 1. Everything you've said is reminiscent of the reviews of the first iPhone.

And before that the iPod. CmdrTaco wrote: "No wireless. Less space than a Nomad. Lame." Couple of years later the Nomad was gone.

If anyone does not understand the reference, "CmdrTaco" was the editor of Slashdot many years ago. Ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rob_Malda

Re: Apple Vision Pro review

#546
post #424

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reminds me of iPhone 1. Everything you've said is reminiscent of the reviews of the first iPhone.

Most of the issues listed by @zmmmmm are the same issues plaguing other VR headsets for a decade now: motion blur, pixelation, distortions, fake looking colors. Apple didn’t fix any of them.

> fake looking colors

I never heard this complain before. Can you explain more?

Re: Apple Vision Pro review

#547

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Underlying a lot of these discussions is the assumption that there is a future where this is an actually useful, mass-market device. I'm still not convinced this is true. For example, "killer apps/content" never arrived for 3D TVs and they have largely disappeared from the market. Same with various "waggling" input technologies like the Wiimote and Kinect. There were some compelling uses, like Wii Sports, but these w…

The "killer app" here is to have an infinity-sized 'screen' for anything the average user was already going to do with an iPad or Apple TV. The hardware's just not good enough yet, in terms of lightness and comfort, for the average user to put up with as more than a novelty.

The extreme majority of users is perfectly happy with two 24" monitors (actually, the extreme majority is happy with a single 13" monitor). "Infinite monitor space" isn't something that will sell a large enough numbers of headsets to prevent the cancellation of the next iteration.

Re: Apple Vision Pro review

#548

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The first iPhone was pretty terrible. I couldn't get my Marketing peers to take it seriously (which they came to regret). The first Watch was awful. I love my Series 8. Don't get me started on the first Mac...

The first iPhone was terribly limited compared to what came after it was not in any way terrible for the time. The demo Steve Jobs did was so good that a lot of people just refused to believe it was possible, only to be proven wrong when the thing went on sale. You have to put it in context with what passed for a smart phone back then. No web browser (they sort of existed but were extremely cut down and not really us…

> The first iPhone was terribly limited compared to what came after it was not in any way terrible for the time.

At the time my feature phone had much better MMS, video calling, and J2ME apps. The first iPhone was a joke by comparison looked at through that lens, and detractors generally were looking at the fact it was this hobbled 2G device missing features that were common in other, cheaper phones. Oh, and the camera was absolute garbage, too.

Re: Apple Vision Pro review

#549
post #276

Lots of surprises on the downside from all the reviews. Pass through much more limited in quality with motion blur, pixelation, distortions, limited color and dynamic range. The eye tracking driven input method which was seen as holy grail turns out to be annoying after a while because people don't naturally always look at what they want to click on. Personas straight up aren't ready. The lack of AR features is the b…

We just got the 'larger iPod' version of Spatial Computing. If your primary interface is a screen, it's still screen computing, not spatial computing. They literally had everything teed up to do some wild proximity things (AirTags, Homepods, etc) - and they gave us a strap on iPad.

Whatever, it at least gives a startup an opportunity to build something unique - it's just sad to see your old friend start going senile.

Re: Apple Vision Pro review

#550

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Underlying a lot of these discussions is the assumption that there is a future where this is an actually useful, mass-market device. I'm still not convinced this is true. For example, "killer apps/content" never arrived for 3D TVs and they have largely disappeared from the market. Same with various "waggling" input technologies like the Wiimote and Kinect. There were some compelling uses, like Wii Sports, but these w…

I see headsets like this as a way to have multiple, large, monitors that go away as soon as you aren't using them. After having a big dual-monitor setup for years, about a year and a half ago I got rid of them and work with just my laptop's display. I do this so that my desk doesn't have to have monitors on it, and is more conducive to artistic work and mechanical tinkering. I don't miss multiple monitors so much, bu…

Have you considered monitor arms to just kinda chuck your monitors out of the way after you are done using them ?

I'm on the same boat as you, but ended up just getting a long table so I can move to the empty side when I need it.

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