Live data from Hacker News

Meta cancels high-end mixed reality headset after Apple Vision Pro struggles

macrumors.com

441–450 of 543 posts

Re: Meta cancels high-end mixed reality headset after Apple Vision Pro struggles

#441
post #432

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The context matters a lot. Early PCs were released at a time when there wasn’t really anything else like these products. That early pricing reflected the creation of a brand new category. The Vision Pro is a remarkable piece of tech, but isn’t required to achieve many of the use cases it supports, and people are primarily paying for the immersive experience. Given that, spending $3K on immersion in a market where a f…

Around the time of the 386, weren’t there a bunch of lesser options that did a bunch of similar use cases well? I’m thinking Commodores, Amigas, even a NES.

There was a huge delta between what these systems could do.

e.g. the Commodore 64 was an 8-bit 1 MHz processor vs. the 386's 32-bit 12-40MHz, could not run a full operating system, had 64 KB RAM vs. 1MB or more on the 386, etc.

In terms of raw computing capability, the 386 was a significant advance over those cheaper systems and represented capabilities that just weren't yet on the market, and those capabilities unlocked entire worlds of possible use cases and unlocked general purpose computing.

The Amiga 1000 is closer to the 386 in terms of capability, but was ~$1,600 (with a monitor) and was still significantly slower, i.e. if your use case benefited from raw processing power, there was a clear value proposition for the 386.

I'd still put this in a very different category than what is effectively an iPad with + VR/AR interface.

Re: Meta cancels high-end mixed reality headset after Apple Vision Pro struggles

#442
post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd believe that better if Meta didn't also deliberately provide a sideloading mechanism and encourage homebrew. It's a believable end-goal, but it doesn't seem to be the direction they want to go in the immediate future.

it's likely dumber than that: bait and switch. Facebook had done this before: they gave third parties rich access to their data via Graph API, which in turn helped Facebook to grow. Once their social graph growth phase began to slow down, Facebook severely cut off data access.

I have an Oculus Quest 1. How are they going to update it to stop supporting sideloading when they've stopped supporting it officially altogether?

Re: Meta cancels high-end mixed reality headset after Apple Vision Pro struggles

#443

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd believe that better if Meta didn't also deliberately provide a sideloading mechanism and encourage homebrew. It's a believable end-goal, but it doesn't seem to be the direction they want to go in the immediate future.

Normal people don't know how to side load. The 5% that actually care are power users, these are the folks who buy every iteration, develop for the device, etc.

I'm not a power-user though. I use a 3-generation-old Oculus Quest 1 that doesn't get first-party official updates anymore. Am I really supposed to expect Meta to push an update to a depreciated platform to disable a feature?

Re: Meta cancels high-end mixed reality headset after Apple Vision Pro struggles

#444

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd believe that better if Meta didn't also deliberately provide a sideloading mechanism and encourage homebrew. It's a believable end-goal, but it doesn't seem to be the direction they want to go in the immediate future.

They can close that door any time they want, all they have to do is add a paywall for a developer account.

You don't need a developer account to sideload on the Quest.

Re: Meta cancels high-end mixed reality headset after Apple Vision Pro struggles

#445
post #53

A counter point on premium VR headsets. They are teleportation devices. I've used every popular VR device, but one Vision Pro experience stood out - 'The Haleakala environment'[1] It was literally like being transported there. I know because I had been in that exact spot a few years before. I have a rich visual memory which served as reference, and no exaggeration, it felt like was there. I was immediately in tears.…

Unknowingly you made the perfect argument against the Vision Pro. What you described is a VR experience which is precisely what apple set out not to do. They wanted an MR device and MR experiences. So if an immersive experience is what you want a cheap device will deliver it over time as the hardware catches up

Re: Meta cancels high-end mixed reality headset after Apple Vision Pro struggles

#446

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It doesn’t really solve enough of a “real” problem to justify the current cost Exactly this, for now the minimal use cases for these kinds of high-end VR headsets leave them firmly in the "gimmick" category. I'm pretty sure some mass-market use case will be found for them, maybe even outside of gaming, but the fact that some pretty smart people haven't found this one already is a teensey-tiny bit worrying too.

how didnt porn run this over? honestly porn did advances the internet because it, and gaming, was THE usecase for most people. youtube etc wasnt there at the time it was porn and games. And porn and games should be the reason why VR shall sell

Porn can't make the big ticket sales needed to prop up VR. It's hard enough to get a payment processor because of how often charges get disputed and fears about touching the money for illegal and abusive material.

You can't be discreet about VR porning because it leaves you oblivious to your surroundings. You gotta plan ahead and really commit to the time and place.

Aren't all of them propped up by being tethered to some FAANG? I highly doubt they are interested in hiring the best and brightest to build VR porn devices.

I also suspect that the "kick" from porn is a voyeuristic one; i.e. most consumers would rather watch it than be in it.

Re: Meta cancels high-end mixed reality headset after Apple Vision Pro struggles

#447
post #53

A counter point on premium VR headsets. They are teleportation devices. I've used every popular VR device, but one Vision Pro experience stood out - 'The Haleakala environment'[1] It was literally like being transported there. I know because I had been in that exact spot a few years before. I have a rich visual memory which served as reference, and no exaggeration, it felt like was there. I was immediately in tears.…

[deleted]

Re: Meta cancels high-end mixed reality headset after Apple Vision Pro struggles

#448
post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Makes sense: But do you need to BUY one? This is the thing I realized with VR sets, personally. They are a great day at the fair, but who goes to the fair EVERYDAY?

An addict, that's who. And this is exactly what this technology will eventually enable - seeing the world through an influencer's eyes while sitting on a ratty couch in a dilapidated apartment. William Gibson painted this picture beautifully in Count Zero.

CTRL-F Gibson, the tech and root parent comment eerily reminded me of Fragments of A Hologram Rose. We're closing the gap between fiction and reality. The short story was written in 1977! Gibson was prescient about so many things.

"He bought an ASP cassette that began with the subject asleep on a quiet beach. It had been recorded by a young blonde yogi with 20-20 vision and an abnormally acute color sense. The boy had been flown to Barbados for the sold purpose of taking a nap and his morning's exercise on a brilliant stretch of private beach. The microfiche laminate in the cassette's transparent case explained that the yogi could will himself through alpha to delta without an inducer. Parker, who hadn't been able to sleep without an inducer for two years, wondered if this was possible."

Re: Meta cancels high-end mixed reality headset after Apple Vision Pro struggles

#449

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I want to believe you but until the price range becomes below $1000 or so there’s virtually no market. It’s a toy. People don’t need a teleportation device. It’s fun to play with, like a toy. It doesn’t really solve enough of a “real” problem to justify the current cost. It’s also too expensive to be given as a holiday or birthday gift by most family members. I believe the “just give it a few years thing” but only if…

A 386 PC cost $3000+ after the 486 was released. Sometimes I think our expectations for dirt cheap supercomputers are out of whack.

This isn't a "supercomputer". It's not even a computer. It's a locked-down device, with very few tailored apps and content (for now anyway).

Re: Meta cancels high-end mixed reality headset after Apple Vision Pro struggles

#450
post #328

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you saying Japan has a more relaxed stance on porn? Don’t they have government mandated censorship of nude images? I would call that more strict, not less.

They’d censor genitals in porn, but erotic cartoons involving children seem to be socially accepted? I don’t know, it’s hard to understand them.

IMO, the way it is that hard distinction between child and adult is simply not understood. East Asians in general age in way more linear and continuous manner than Europeans for whatever reasons, and that makes it just harder to agree that some people aren't like others.
Post reply on HN