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Vision Pro: What we got wrong at Oculus that Apple got right

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Re: Vision Pro: What we got wrong at Oculus that Apple got right

#61

Post by klenwell »

protoman3000 wrote: post #17

No matter how much I contemplate about it, there was still no “killer” app that affords me to buy a VR set. I’ve tried them, it’s nice. But it really has no place in my life. And how could this change? Even with better displays etc. the whole idea of disconnecting my main sense - the eyes - from my surroundings is so strange to me that it seems irreconcilable. Can anybody relate?

I think the killer app will be online meetings. Online socializing really.

I work fully remote and Zoom/Meet works fine for meetings. But I kinda dread things like team happy hour and find you have to keep them structured like a meeting to work with group video calls.

Visuals aren't even the key factor here. It's audio. I find the obstacle to casual socializing is not being able to directionally focus audio so overlapping conversations are possible.

Re: Vision Pro: What we got wrong at Oculus that Apple got right

#62

Post by ARandumGuy »

rswail wrote: post #29

There's no consideration of the other "killer app" for VR/AR, porn. Porn is what got VHS to succeed over Beta. Porn is what got CC payments working online. Porn drives a lot of Twitch and other platforms. Apple won't allow porn on its platform, but someone will.

I'm not really disputing your broader point, but this:

> Porn is what got VHS to succeed over Beta.

Is just not true. For one, porn absolutely existed on Beta. But more broadly, by the time the content available on each format mattered, VHS had already won the format war.

That's because both Beta and VHS were primarily developed and marketed as a way to record TV to watch later. Tapes were way too expensive to make selling pre-recorded tapes viable when both systems launched. Pre-recorded tapes eventually did become popular, especially in the rental market. But that only happened well after VHS clearly won the format war, mostly due to VHS's longer recording time.

For more details, Technology Connections has a long rant about this misconception in this video: https://youtu.be/hGVVAQVdEOs?si=X-FYCRAzowXOdqBb&t=931

Re: Vision Pro: What we got wrong at Oculus that Apple got right

#63

Post by chongli »

diab0lic wrote: post #7
pavlov wrote: post #4

Great article. It's so long, the four-part title is deserved and necessary to understand what's here. I found this part somewhat funny or perhaps disingenuous: > "I admit Vision Pro is the ultimate tech toy, but since I’m not an active developer I can’t justify the $4,049.78 price tag (512GB model + California sales tax) simply for keeping up with the VR market, so I returned my Vision Pro for a full refund inside th…

Being a multi millionaire isn’t really relevant here. If you’re not the type of person who spends $4k on a tech toy then you’ll have a hard time justifying it.

I think even at $100 the AVP is hard to justify for most people. It’s a solution in search of a problem (which I feel is generally the case for all VR tech).

Overall though I think the issue is common across consumer tech. The space is extremely saturated. People have so little time left it’s crazy. Devices monopolize people’s attention. I wonder if we’ll figure out a way to move past this, as a species, and get back to more meaningful interactions.

Re: Vision Pro: What we got wrong at Oculus that Apple got right

#64

Post by thfuran »

vel0city wrote: post #50
KingOfCoders wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No I don't think so. They just miss the Apple attitude of UI. It's like the Windows setting system. I'm using Win11/WSL, and while it works, the Windows settings are a mixture of Win95/Aero/3rd Party Plugins (Nvidia)/Win11 and some things that just look like Win3.1. Googling to change DNS settings: Step 1: Open the Control Panel. ... Step 2: Open Network and Sharing Center. ... Step 3: Choose the connection. ... Step…

This is old Windows. On Win11: Settings Network and Internet Choose either your wifi or Ethernet Click Edit next to DNS Server Assignment

Have they finally unfucked the settings and brought them all into a consistent ui, or have they just moved that particular one to yet another new layer?

Re: Vision Pro: What we got wrong at Oculus that Apple got right

#65

Post by eggbrain »

His point on the significant motion-blur / image quality issues that exists with pass-through is my biggest complaint with the device hardware-wise.

I got the prescription lens inserts that Apple had suggested, and when I first put on the device I thought that either my eye doctor had gotten my prescription wrong, or something was defective with my device.

The blur is distracting -- and looking further away makes it more obvious, as the objects in the background move around a lot more when turning your head vs items really close to your eyes.

He also says you can read your screens through passthrough, but I've found that not really to be the case, at least for devices like the iPhone or Apple watch. I've had to take my Vision Pro off many times not only to read a phone notification, but also for anything that requires Face-ID (which doesn't work well when the Vision Pro is covering your face, which feels like an Apple ecosystem fail).

I'm still enjoying it, and I bought it knowing it was a V1 product, but it also shows how far have to go, even with a ton of engineering put into a product.

Re: Vision Pro: What we got wrong at Oculus that Apple got right

#66

Post by jorvi »

vel0city wrote: post #50
KingOfCoders wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No I don't think so. They just miss the Apple attitude of UI. It's like the Windows setting system. I'm using Win11/WSL, and while it works, the Windows settings are a mixture of Win95/Aero/3rd Party Plugins (Nvidia)/Win11 and some things that just look like Win3.1. Googling to change DNS settings: Step 1: Open the Control Panel. ... Step 2: Open Network and Sharing Center. ... Step 3: Choose the connection. ... Step…

This is old Windows. On Win11: Settings Network and Internet Choose either your wifi or Ethernet Click Edit next to DNS Server Assignment

Yep. Microsoft has taken a lot of effort in the last two years to empty out Control Panel and get everything into Settings, along with unifying everything into the Win11 Fluent (or whatever it is called these days) style.

To be honest, in a lot of cases when you need “Advanced $ Settings” it still kicks you into the old Control Panel-style pop-up windows, but at least it’s almost all in one place now.

Re: Vision Pro: What we got wrong at Oculus that Apple got right

#67

Post by fouronnes3 »

noneeeed wrote: post #30

I think the description of the VisionPro as a dev kit is spot on. It's also a beta product in many way. Apple know full well that this is not a mass market product, they have made no attempt to make it even remotely affordable to most people. But they also know that every aspect of the hardware will improve over the next decade, and as it does they will have ironed out many of the problems with how we use AR/VR and w…

Hopefully you're right, but the cynic in me thinks we've been saying the same thing about every VR headset that has come out in the last ten years.

Re: Vision Pro: What we got wrong at Oculus that Apple got right

#68

Post by MarkSweep »

rswail wrote: post #29

There's no consideration of the other "killer app" for VR/AR, porn. Porn is what got VHS to succeed over Beta. Porn is what got CC payments working online. Porn drives a lot of Twitch and other platforms. Apple won't allow porn on its platform, but someone will.

The Meta Quest already has porn, at least in Japan:

https://www.meta.com/experiences/1990852827683397/

Re: Vision Pro: What we got wrong at Oculus that Apple got right

#70

Post by jwells89 »

divan wrote: post #44
protoman3000 wrote: post #17

No matter how much I contemplate about it, there was still no “killer” app that affords me to buy a VR set. I’ve tried them, it’s nice. But it really has no place in my life. And how could this change? Even with better displays etc. the whole idea of disconnecting my main sense - the eyes - from my surroundings is so strange to me that it seems irreconcilable. Can anybody relate?

I'm not a gamer, but I found shooter games in VR to be extremely cool for procrastination. I can play Contractors for hours. Last winter I had limited opportunities to excercise, so I tried FitXR and it turned out to be insanely engaging. Reality can't give that level of engagement and multisensory feedback. I did boxing and HIIT daily, and while I don't like to sweat like crazy in my living room, that was extremely…

This is a bit of how I feel about Beat Saber modded with community maps.

It’s engaging and challenging in a way little else I can do at home is, and it’s pretty good for getting some movement and cardio in to boot. The days I play it’s almost always for an hour and if it weren’t for physical exhaustion I could go longer (once when live-streaming my play to and audio chatting with a family member, I played for closer to two hours straight thanks to having something to distract me from my tiredness).

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