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

theverge.com

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

#341

Post by physicsguy »

teeray wrote: post #105

I feel like this will be a spectacular flop. It’s the first major new Apple product announcement that I completely forgot about (and I mean completely) in the time between announcement and ordering. Nobody I know is even talking about it, unlike when the Apple Watch came out, or the iPad. The experience needs to be as life-changing as the iPhone if you’re going to normalize people wearing ski goggles around the house…

I think that's at least partly due to most people who've tried a VR headset before saying "that's kinda cool but I don't think I'd buy one"

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

#342

Post by gvurrdon »

solarkraft wrote: post #172
pivo wrote: post #10

Oh boy: "Listen to me, do you want to use a computer that is always looking at your hands?" It took a second for that warning to sink in.

I think we're past that. Our phones have already seen so many things we could find embarrassing. One smart thing Apple usually does when using cameras for sensing (see Face ID) is never showing you the image, making it feel a lot less creepy.

A good point. Going into a supermarket I know I'll be filmed, but will avoid self-checkouts where I'm shown a live video of my exciting checkout experience as it does make it feel a lot creepier.

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

#343

Post by [deleted] »

_xnmw wrote: 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…

[deleted]

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

#344

Post by canuckintime »

dansalvato wrote: post #299
crakhamster01 wrote: post #208

If I'm an executive at Meta, I'm not sure whether I should be happy or sad reading this review. By all accounts, Apple is at least 5 years ahead of Meta in terms of hardware. With all of Apple's compute/display tech, and at 8-9x the price point of Quest, it still seems like the Vision Pro falls short of delivering the breakthrough experience needed to make AR/VR mass market. Not to mention that it still doesn't seem…

One thing I find with Apple devices is that they have an ecosystem of extremely passionate developers, and all their other "new paradigm" platforms also initially shipped with no software (Mac, iPhone, iPad). The mainstream usage of these devices is really based on what developers built for them in the first couple years after release, not the use cases Apple tried to sell us on. The shortcomings and skepticism surro…

> and all their other "new paradigm" platforms also initially shipped with no software (Mac, iPhone, iPad). The mainstream usage of these devices is really based on what developers built for them in the first couple years after release... Unless AVP is an exception to the rule...

what about Apple Watch, AppleTV and HomePod? Those don't have the app success story of the Mac, iPhone and iPad.

There's two paths that lead to a passionate developer base popularizing your platform via their apps: 1) build a platform that developers love to use i.e. Mac and iPhone to a certain extent 2) offer access to a product with a lot of users i.e. iPhone and iPad

The AVP is more like the first HomePod (quite expensive compared to its 'competition' and irrelevant long before the mini arrived) than the iPhone and iPad which launched at competitive/accessible prices so we're not expecting a product with lots of users.

Could the AVP be a platform that developers love to use? The mostly likely use case from a developer perspective appears to be as a portable big screen monitor for your Mac albeit with limitations*. Would that be compelling enough? Craig Hockenberry https://furbo.org/2024/01/29/the-next-40/ :

"Apple Vision Pro is a technical marvel, but ultimately falls short in ways that satisfy the natural curiosity of developers."

*p.s. there are other headsets with similar display specs to AVP rumored for later this year. It might be worth waiting if you primarily want virtual monitors for your Mac

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

#345

Post by monkeynotes »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #32
monkeynotes wrote: post #29

I think this is like a modern example of the Apple Newton in the sense it's impressive, has uses, but it too soon to be widely adopted. I think this device will flounder, early adopters will struggle to make full use of it because of all the compromises. Take it on the plane? Why? It will run out of power in 1-2 hrs (if you remembered the full charge before you board). Lugging all that bulk just for a movie on the pl…

When all plane seats seem to have power these days, is the battery in a plane really a limitation? Can’t it charge while being used?

Those outlets are usually low amp, slow charge. I mean a majority are still USB-A, and now you have to take an adapter with you. The whole thing is ludacris for a majority of people, they have other priorities for what they pack and how the hassle they are willing to accept for a movie. Parents are a non-starter, AVP is a selfish device for disappearing into your own world, parents have kids to keep an eye on. I personally would not want to be completely closed off from the cabin, first it's fucked up for the cabin crew to interact with, second I am now partially blind AND deaf to my surroundings. FOV is limited, and I doubt those cameras are very capable at low light.

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

#346

Post by monkeynotes »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #220
monkeynotes wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's basically a laptop on your head, so a meaty 60w charger could be needed to power and charge it.

Then I guess that is fine, since airlines are typically providing 75 watts per seat.

This is news to me, I've always had low amp USB-A slow chargers in economy. Those old cigarette outlets can deliver 75 watt, but no idea about the amperage.

I am sure USB-C with PD will be available at some point, but it's not a majority of economy today AFAIK

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

#347

Post by ROLELEE014 »

monkeynotes wrote: post #49
bombcar wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The whole thing feels very ... "original xbox" to me. Hear me out. It was argued that a big part of the original xbox for Microsoft was making sure they had a toehold in the gaming console market because that market had a change of disrupting the personal computer - and if that happened, they wanted to be there for it and have something ready to go. They did something similar with phones, and we can see how it specta…

No way will this tech destroy phones as you know them today. What is going to destroy phones is natural language. Maybe, maybe in the distant future this tech will be mature enough to provide the visual support to a natural language first device. xBox addressed a very well defined product sector with a couple of big players doing stuff that is well understood. xBox wasn't a toe in the water, they planned a whole stra…

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

#348

Post by dangus »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #269
smaccona wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I do is buy a smart TV, never connect it to the network (thus making it a dumb TV), and plug an Apple TV (or other devices) into it. So far, this has worked - I haven't seen any ads from the TV itself (the apps running on the Apple TV are another story), and it can't phone home about what I'm watching or otherwise doing with the TV.

> and it can't phone home about what I'm watching or otherwise doing with the TV Are you sure? The old idea of giving TVs built-in cellular backup connection is probably still too risky/expensive - dealing with people extracting and repurposing the SIM card with a free (for them) data plan is a hassle. But what about eSIM ?

Honestly the privacy stuff isn’t even the value proposition, it’s that Apple TVs have great processors that run fast.

Using a typical smart TV or Chromecast is astoundingly slow in comparison. I have no idea how people tolerate it.

Let’s not forget that Apple and apps on the App Store gather plenty of information about you, especially if you aren’t vigilant about settings.

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

#349

Post by H12 »

bombcar wrote: post #16
Topfi wrote: post #6

This is a very in-depth, informative and factual review. My hats off to the Verge; great job. I have racked up hours upon hours of actual, productive work in my Quest 2 and 3, so to say that I am a big proponent of the ideas that Apple is trying to advance would be an understatement. This makes me all the more disheartened to read that, for all their efforts, this release is mired by the same drawbacks that I have en…

The whole thing feels very ... "original xbox" to me. Hear me out. It was argued that a big part of the original xbox for Microsoft was making sure they had a toehold in the gaming console market because that market had a change of disrupting the personal computer - and if that happened, they wanted to be there for it and have something ready to go. They did something similar with phones, and we can see how it specta…

I also wonder whether it's an attempt to normalize certain aspects of the form factor to ease people into what Apple sees as the future of this technology.

Namely, I wonder if the tethered battery and lack of dedicated controller exists to prepare people for a future where their headset plugs into an iPhone (or iPad or Mac), which then serves as a battery, co-processor, and input device.

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

#350

Post by tim333 »

monkeynotes wrote: post #49
bombcar wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The whole thing feels very ... "original xbox" to me. Hear me out. It was argued that a big part of the original xbox for Microsoft was making sure they had a toehold in the gaming console market because that market had a change of disrupting the personal computer - and if that happened, they wanted to be there for it and have something ready to go. They did something similar with phones, and we can see how it specta…

No way will this tech destroy phones as you know them today. What is going to destroy phones is natural language. Maybe, maybe in the distant future this tech will be mature enough to provide the visual support to a natural language first device. xBox addressed a very well defined product sector with a couple of big players doing stuff that is well understood. xBox wasn't a toe in the water, they planned a whole stra…

You can talk today to your phone in natural language. They don't seem very destroyed.

There seems something fairly fundamental about smartphone like devices at the moment in that people want a screen where they can see pictures, text messages and so on. A smartphone is a fairly minimal implementation of that. I don't think people want goggles / glasses stuck on their heads especially, at least I don't, regardless of how advanced the tech is. I mean looking around the cafe I'm in it's roughly 100% of people have smartphones, zero have google glass like things. Although the tech has been with us longer than you might think. I first tried a wearable computer with a small eye level display in the 90s and thought hey cool but they never caught on. https://spectrum.ieee.org/the-pc-goes-readytowear

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