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Vision Pro Review: Apple's First Headset Lacks Polish and Purpose

nytimes.com

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Re: Vision Pro Review: Apple's First Headset Lacks Polish and Purpose

#41
post #6

Just take a look at this teardown video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVJPAYwY8Us There are like 50 captive screws and a gajillion ribbon cables in that thing There's vast room for improvement and slimming down, and I'm not just referring to the silicon and battery! Maybe an alternative using passthrough lightfield displays will come along eventually, but that's not going to happen for a while. Shrinking this tech…

> Shrinking this technology is all it will take for similar devices to make workstation monitors and gaming consoles completely obsolete.

Do people want that? I love playing games in my Quest 2 for an hour or two, or the PSVR2 at my friend's house, but I dread the thought of spending 8+ hours a day in it while I work. No, not just because of the weight, but because I like the feeling of fresh air on my face and sunlight reaching my eyes.

For that reason, despite being able to play non-VR games in cinematic mode on those headsets, I never do that. Sure, it's closer to my face, and it is larger, but if I'm putting a VR headset on, there better be a compelling reason to block out air and light to my eyes. And a bigger screen isn't a compelling enough reason for me.

Technically I can also use my Quest to have dozens of virtual displays, but why? There's almost never a situation where I need more than two things visible at once. I can look back and forth between two things pretty quickly and easily (my code and the library's documentation; the PhotoShop/Illustrator mockup vs. how it actually currently looks in browser; etc.) but I can't easily look at 3 or more things at once, so I feel it'd be more of a distraction that a productivity booster. I mean I could buy a 3rd monitor if I really wanted to but I haven't found a reason to do so. I don't need to see Spotify or Slack 24/7, I can just alt-tab to them as needed.

I love video games, I often enjoying coding, but I really think having a screen right up in my face for most of my waking hours is a bit much, even if they were more like regular glasses instead of goggles. When I'm outside or walk someplace I almost never look at my phone unless I need directions or am responding to plans, because I like a break from staring at screens. Even when I'm working, I try to stand up and look away from the screen when I have no reason to be looking at it, whether it's code compiling, waiting for something to upload to a server, or any other time when there's no point to be looking at my screen.

Re: Vision Pro Review: Apple's First Headset Lacks Polish and Purpose

#42
post #11

This is the first vision pro review I've seen that has mentioned nausea. I know it is a possibility with any kind of VR headset, but in my usage of it I was surprised how good it was at avoiding nausea. Are there any other major outlet reviews that also mention nausea?

No because the review is a dishonest hit piece. I’m super sensitive to nausea in VR to the point that I’ve had to drop out of an interview process to work in the space in the past.

Not one other reviewer has mentioned nausea, and I’ve been using AVP since Friday and not experienced it once. I was very concerned I’d have to return it and might never be able to use such a device.

I don’t know what’s going on with this piece but them reviewer has gone out of his way to exaggerate or even manufacture negatives and fill the piece with them.

Re: Vision Pro Review: Apple's First Headset Lacks Polish and Purpose

#43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. AR is dead in the water until we invent magic displays that may be decades away. VR has some nice gaming and fitness applications and I think like handheld gaming as a niche, VR gaming will never take over completely but will always be its own little corner of gaming.

There is an entire generation of kids growing up with VR now, much like the NES a long time ago. Many of them spend more of their free time in VR than real life.

My kid has a VR headset, along with a few of his friends. He certainly uses it but it's a huge exagerration to say that he spends more of his free time in VR than real life. Minecraft / Roblox / Fortnite you could make an argument for maybe (depending on age).

Re: Vision Pro Review: Apple's First Headset Lacks Polish and Purpose

#44
post #25
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does the version in 2040 look like? We’re 17 years on from the first iPhone, and it’s still the same basic device. Incrementally better every year hasn’t meant any radical changes.

it’s insane to argue that the iPhone 15 isn’t radically different from the iPhone 1. since 2007 smartphones have become capable of replacing so many of the separate gadgets people used to have. cameras and mp3 players (and phones!!) are basically a thing of the past thanks to the iPhone. i’m bearish on Apple Vision but if Apple can improve it at the same rate as the iPhone it will be here to stay imo

Smartphones can do more, but are they radically different? Same look and feel, modestly better battery life. From v1 the camera is the biggest addition to what Jobs said - iPod, phone, browser. If AVP has the same incremental improvements, it will still be a bulky media device at best and I’ll still want to take it off for phone calls, work, and even taking photographs. Still cool, but not spatial computing.

Re: Vision Pro Review: Apple's First Headset Lacks Polish and Purpose

#45
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In 20 years it will still be a bulky headset with battery life limitations preventing the all-purpose computing device. The nreal glasses show that a more compact sunglasses form factor is possible, though it's not doing anything cutting-edge, lens or compute-wise.

Yes. Nreal seems more like an Apple product than the Apple product.

Apple doesn't need it to be in a sunglasses form factor for it to be successful. Xbox never leaves the house and is a major product. They just need sufficent use cases that people will actually use and stuff like rethinking UIs from static monitors/TVs/ipad screens -> flexibly overlayed around you, how people watch movies or how data is delivered visually/contextually while you're at home or in the office is a pretty big deal on its own.

Everyone is so caught up in it not being an outdoor device which IMO is missing the point for the stage the tech is at right now.

Nailing down simple indoor use, for an entirely new computing plaform/interface, seems like a legitimate first step before people are walking around outside with it. All the 3rd party devs need to nail it down too.

Like stage 1 self driving cars, you use it on a closed track before you put it on the street.

Re: Vision Pro Review: Apple's First Headset Lacks Polish and Purpose

#47
post #37

What a hit piece. He’s absurdly negative right from the beginning. I guess we can see why Apple declined to provide them an early review unit. The device is not perfect, but this ‘review’ borders on absolute bullshit. Harping on about ‘vision bros’ and ‘scaring children’ and the ‘games aren’t fun’. They clearly have an agenda.

> I guess we can see why Apple declined to provide them an early review unit.

If Apple is so vengeful as to only provide review units to people who will give them glowing reviews, then that immediately invalidates every review from anyone who received an advance unit from Apple, because all of those reviews must have been made under the duress of knowing that anything other than a glowing review will put them on Apple's shit list.

In other words, by your own logic, the only reviews that can be trusted to have any degree of truth are those from people who didn't receive review units, such as the OP.

> They clearly have an agenda.

If it's so clear, perhaps you could enlighten us?

Re: Vision Pro Review: Apple's First Headset Lacks Polish and Purpose

#48
post #25
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does the version in 2040 look like? We’re 17 years on from the first iPhone, and it’s still the same basic device. Incrementally better every year hasn’t meant any radical changes.

it’s insane to argue that the iPhone 15 isn’t radically different from the iPhone 1. since 2007 smartphones have become capable of replacing so many of the separate gadgets people used to have. cameras and mp3 players (and phones!!) are basically a thing of the past thanks to the iPhone. i’m bearish on Apple Vision but if Apple can improve it at the same rate as the iPhone it will be here to stay imo

> cameras and mp3 players (and phones!!) are basically a thing of the past thanks to the iPhone

This was all true with the first iPhone though. That's the point. I'm sure that the Vision pro will be refined, but what will be necessary to make this a mass market device seems more fundamental than just a lot of refinements.

When the iPhone came out, I remember thinking it was too expensive and not for me, but I definitely wanted one and was jealous of the few people I knew who had one. I just don't have that feeling with the Vision Pro - to the point where I feel if I was given one for free I still couldn't see myself using it much.

That's sort of rare for Apple devices - even if I think some things are ridiculously overpriced I would always be happy with a free one and make good use of it.

Re: Vision Pro Review: Apple's First Headset Lacks Polish and Purpose

#49

I’ve used Vision Pro, as an experimentation to the future. It’s going to get there. Be patient. But I do appreciate the criticism, that creates the market. Hopefully, talented people start building things other than AI and SaaS.

> Hopefully, talented people start building things other than AI and SaaS.

Only if apple open up API and at least make it in parity with iOS/iPadOS (we can probably dream about MacOS). Hopefully they will show something this summer in WWDC.

Re: Vision Pro Review: Apple's First Headset Lacks Polish and Purpose

#50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can I get one of those for my iPhone as well? It has more than enough power for general purpose computing.

If you're not bound to iOS: yes. Samsung DeX is just that. I can plug it into the Lenovo dock at work and have a personal pc on the go. Id imagine this kind of thing is way too geeky for Apple to make though.

Have you actually used it for general computing tasks? If so, how was it?
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