Excuse the extremely dark humor...it's what honestly came to mind when they were showing a guy sitting alone in an eerily empty room looking at photos and videos of his loved ones as if they were still here.
They do look dumb. But compared to most other VR headsets, I think they are the best we have seen so far.
The problem is, that you are still going to look weird walking around with these. I am also not sure if that is practical (ie the battery/power situation).
These look at least somewhat inspired by Daft Punk's helmets, which feels almost intentional, since the guys from Daft Punk have made about the most socially acceptable robot "look" that a layman knows about.
Not GP, but I don't care if a random person does it. I care when someone who is, ostensibly, intending to interact with me does it. You can't actually tell whether they're engaging with you fully or not, like if I were conversing with someone (in person) and started typing this comment at the same time.
You never know if the person you're interacting is actually listening to something and distracted or not.
Remember when I used to go to the office and I had to guess whether my colleagues were on a call, listening to music or "available" because there was no way to know from the outside since they never removed them.
This is very different though - it completely covers much of your face and there is no comparable device that is used in public, whereas AirPods are more or less the same design that we’ve seen in earphones for decades only without a cable.
So is this selectively dimming parts of the screen to achieve the darkness effect on UI elements, or is it taking a 3D map of your face and projecting it onto a screen on the end?
It seems Apple's primary selling point will be decent software, which the VR space desperately needs. E.g.
> Vision Pro also allows users to connect to their Mac and expand its display in a virtual space, including alongside apps running on Vision Pro itself.
has been possible for a while, just poorly. Hopefully this'll create some good competition.
I think it must be a semi-transparent screen. Because otherwise the interior cameras would need some sort of illumination inside the goggles, which would be very distracting and draining on your eyes.
Edit: Whelp, I was wrong. I wrote this before they had announced the method on the keynote. Turns out you are creating a digital scan of your face, that is dynamically rendered based on the perspective of the outside observers in realtime. Quite impressive. Possibly overengineered. But But arguably a necessary feature to make this feel more friendly to other non-headset users and family members or coworkers.
If they're only showing see-through when displaying a background image from the cameras, presumably the screen's light is enough. And if the surroundings are dark enough that that isn't the case, well, a bright face would be out of place anyway.
Neither of those will have 3D capabilities or be able to use any of their spatial APIs. Seeing regular 2D photos/videos on a VR headset is nothing special.
I didn't hear anything like cryptography being used to restrict 3D images to only ones from your device (or even only other Vision Pros), seems like an enterprising studio could just buy one to record with if there's really no way to get existing videos onto it (is there an eye-contact issue with existing content? seems like this could solve that if there is).
Where porn can be played, it will always be played. They teamed up with Unity3d to make app development easier so I guarantee someone can make VR porn with that and find some workarounds to get it working
I don't think this particular device will be, but I can't imagine it will take long for others to start working on alternative hardware and software combinations to do this, similarly to how much effort is being put into using LLMs to generate explicit content right now.
While I can see this as useful for work, every other application does honestly frighten me. We're human. We're embodied. Digital things can be fun, but we're meant to be in the real world.
I don't see the big difference from my dad running around with a camcorder when I was a kid (and it was considered normal for families to have really embarrassing home videos watched for laughs, I think AFV made me value privacy), or a modern father using a phone to film, other than with the headset he'd have to look in my direction instead of through an eyepiece or a screen.
I wouldn't be surprised if this year's iPhones include 3D photo / video capture hardware, now that they can talk publicly about the headset. I doubt many people will ever wear one of these to a birthday party, but I could see people flipping a toggle on their phone to capture in 3D. It would take up a bit more storage space, but you could go through and convert to 2D after the fact if you're low on space.
Someone on the design team saw a lensor from The Chronicles of Riddick and said "THIS - this is the future. Make sure it has the leash coming off the back too."
That happened already when people got iPhones. Going out to a bar changed from socializing with others into people sitting at the same table playing with their phone. I remember the first time it happened - one of the last time I actually went out to a bar.
Going to a show has turned into watching thousands of people record the show on their iPhones. It's great that I can now watch those videos with a VR headset I guess?
Does it? I mean if you are watching something with friends then you can watch it with them even if they are not physically present (assuming all you friends are rich teckies).
You're still apart. You're not gathered physically around the TV, able to make eye contact, jump around with joy, etc. It's just you and your friends in the walled garden.
The Apple keynotes in the last couple of years seem like some weird ads created by these evil corporations from Robocop or Black Mirror. I'm expecting them to present a new urban pacification robot or something similar, so you never have to leave your house and live magically in your loft meditating in the amazing virtual space created by the new Vision Pro.
This is obviously off-topic; so perhaps we should move it elsewhere... however;
It gets very slightly worse every year. I often get the feeling like the presenter has had a "cleanse" of all unclean thoughts, bitterness and humanity and all that's left is an excessively soft, fragile and beige demeanour. Almost inhuman.
I guess it's a risk aversion tactic by Apple, as it is a $1T company; it must have a lot of protectionism.
A little bit dystopian looking, but I think the potential is massive here. Just imagining the potential for the 3d photos/videos to basically put you back into places and times and truly experience either places or people who no longer exist feels absolutely monumental alone, ignoring all the other potential here.
On the dystopian front, I believe that the problem is that any AR/VR headset is going to require a similar form factor to include all computational pieces and sensors. I truly believe they would've made it look a lot more like regular glasses if it was feasible. I think over time the Vision Pro will start to approach something of the sort when that technology becomes available.
The demo for that looked pretty rough. The user's facial expressions looked unnatural, and the lip movements were poorly synced to the audio. I guess there's only so much an "encoder/decoder" model can make up with limited input data.
Like all headsets, a lot will depend on the image quality. If it’s smooth and high res, it could be a monitor replacement - and that would be a killer app. But if it’s janky, pixelated or blurry or still has the screen door effect, it may just be tiresome.
If it's really that good, it seems like there's a strong case to make for buying one of these instead of a display panel upgrade. 3 quality 4k monitors is pretty pricey - and take up a lot of physical space when not in use, can't follow you anywhere, etc.
You can't really compare visual fidelity between VR headsets and flat panel monitors that way. The resolution is spread across your entire field of view. 4k per eye still good, but no where near what you'd expect from a 4k monitor sitting a few feet away.
Never thought of that! I do cad design for fun (3d printing/lasercutting). Not sure how actually being in the design itself would help. Although it might feel natural to just move your head around when you are in the middle of a design.
Downside is that a lot of work still is 2d: browsing websites for information. And even casual distraction like reading news, browsing sneakers…
Measuring stuff to make the product fit, requires removal of the headset. Although that might actually be done with vr if it is accurate enough (0.1 mm). Interesting.
I'm extremely sceptical about so many aspects of this device: Are the displays going to be sharp enough to feel immersive? Are the controls going to be accurate enough to not be annoying? Will it be comfortable for extended use? Will the virtual screen system truly offer more than a normal screen? And there's so many more things...
However, I have to concede that Apple has a history of entering a market only when they think they got it right. And often enough, they do get it right, so I'm also hopeful that a lot of these concerns won't be big issues.
Mass adoption seems questionable but boy there is so much potential here, in bespoke work settings like health, media, manufacturing and simulation training. Might end up being revolutionary as a work device.
You don’t wear your own glasses with this device, you buy an optional set of Carl Zeiss correctional lenses that attach seamlessly inside the display and replace your glasses. It was shown in part of the livestream.
This is pretty much already a laptop without a display. It’s powered by an M1 chip and R1 visual processor (or whatever Apple is calling it), with an external laptop-size battery included. It’s laptop in new form factor.
Couldn't agree more- the technology just doesn't exist to deliver something of this sort in a way that doesn't come across as dystopian, which is unfortunate. They'll definitely iterate to bring it to a more seamless solution that seems less like going into a different world and ignoring reality.
I think also, this is not something that can be developed in a vacuum. I mean look at the Apple Watch. When it was first announced it was advertised as something very different from what it morphed into.
We have a lot of UI and software interaction that we need to figure out before we have the proper hardware.
This will remain very niche, but it is a starting point.
it was a very very short period of time. But there was a time where people were made fun of for talking to themselves with little white stubs sticking out of their ear. It's an interesting read through the initial airpod announcement thread on reddit.
Some of my favorite comments. Pretty crazy that people didn't really understand wireless earbuds while today they're taken for granted.
"Cigarettes in my ears"
"They forgot that people are less likely to adopt new technologies that make them look stupid."
"Yeah, they should at least be able to strap to each other."
"My feeling on these headphones is entirely contingent on sound quality. As it is, I could get a pair of bluetooth headphones from Audio Technica for under 100$."
"The only user interface is by tapping the AirPods to talk to Siri, even to adjust the volume. No thanks."
"I don't see any consumer base other than die hard apple fans that can use these pair of head phones, earphones or whatever they are called.
Runners would definitely not buy these as there is a high risk of them falling out of the ears.
Even for a regular person there a huge risk of running into one another making the earphones fall and stepping on them.
Interesting scenario would be when 2 airpods users run into one another and damage their devices and then sit over a coffee just to discuss how foolish decision they made buying this piece of shit."
And then Nostradamus showed up in the comments
"It looks like the kind of thing people will mock before they use it and then when they use it they'll realize that it's actually pretty good overall and everyone will just kind of simmer down about the whole thing."
yeah my immediate reaction was to laugh at how ridiculous it looks but the features are amazing. i didn't expect much but damn they hit it out of the park if all of it works as well as they are saying.
The 3D video recording/watching feature made me slightly uncomfortable by reminding me of the movie "Strange Days". I imagine the porn industry has their own use cases for it (which Apple itself will of course never mention).
164 comments
[ 5.6 ms ] story [ 220 ms ] thread(Note: I have suffered several terrible tragedies in my life...perhaps a reason why I feel free to speak flippantly about what should not be flippant)
The problem is, that you are still going to look weird walking around with these. I am also not sure if that is practical (ie the battery/power situation).
Remember when I used to go to the office and I had to guess whether my colleagues were on a call, listening to music or "available" because there was no way to know from the outside since they never removed them.
Airpods look idiotic - like the worst of the 90's/00's era "bluetooth headset bro" stereotype, only on BOTH ears now.
But they're considered fashion-forward. Humans and society vote with their feet.
It seems Apple's primary selling point will be decent software, which the VR space desperately needs. E.g.
> Vision Pro also allows users to connect to their Mac and expand its display in a virtual space, including alongside apps running on Vision Pro itself.
has been possible for a while, just poorly. Hopefully this'll create some good competition.
Edit: Whelp, I was wrong. I wrote this before they had announced the method on the keynote. Turns out you are creating a digital scan of your face, that is dynamically rendered based on the perspective of the outside observers in realtime. Quite impressive. Possibly overengineered. But But arguably a necessary feature to make this feel more friendly to other non-headset users and family members or coworkers.
Otherwise, a live image works too. Doesn't even need to be 3D.
"FaceTime on Vision Pro can display life-sized individuals over video calls. There is an optimized experience for viewing photos and videos."
How are they going to prevent going to a website and streaming video? Or having a (private?) session with a model on some messaging/streaming app?
It doesn't really send a great message to children, jm2c.
I'm also a bit scared we'll move from laying in bed with loved ones scrolling on our devices to even further isolation and distraction.
Even the ad shows the father just distracted 24/7 and then interacting with the kids briefly.
We’ll consume it during a leisure time with the same headset
Going to a show has turned into watching thousands of people record the show on their iPhones. It's great that I can now watch those videos with a VR headset I guess?
Which is my definition of a shared experience.
It gets very slightly worse every year. I often get the feeling like the presenter has had a "cleanse" of all unclean thoughts, bitterness and humanity and all that's left is an excessively soft, fragile and beige demeanour. Almost inhuman.
I guess it's a risk aversion tactic by Apple, as it is a $1T company; it must have a lot of protectionism.
On the dystopian front, I believe that the problem is that any AR/VR headset is going to require a similar form factor to include all computational pieces and sensors. I truly believe they would've made it look a lot more like regular glasses if it was feasible. I think over time the Vision Pro will start to approach something of the sort when that technology becomes available.
But what do they see? And what happens when you call your friend who also owns a Vision Pro?
What? Why?
Downside is that a lot of work still is 2d: browsing websites for information. And even casual distraction like reading news, browsing sneakers…
Measuring stuff to make the product fit, requires removal of the headset. Although that might actually be done with vr if it is accurate enough (0.1 mm). Interesting.
However, I have to concede that Apple has a history of entering a market only when they think they got it right. And often enough, they do get it right, so I'm also hopeful that a lot of these concerns won't be big issues.
I'm definitely excited to try it out.
Also - this paves the way to Mac Laptops (and desktops) without displays, which to me is the big win here.
It is clear that this is a a first product in a category that will change a lot over the next several years, especially as the hardware improves.
I don't see Apple discontinuing this quickly like Google Glasses and Microsoft HoloLens.
I would not wear this out, but in a few years maybe things can shrink down enough to make that more realistic.
We have a lot of UI and software interaction that we need to figure out before we have the proper hardware.
This will remain very niche, but it is a starting point.
https://old.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/51mxn5/the_new_airpo...
Some of my favorite comments. Pretty crazy that people didn't really understand wireless earbuds while today they're taken for granted.
"Cigarettes in my ears"
"They forgot that people are less likely to adopt new technologies that make them look stupid."
"Yeah, they should at least be able to strap to each other."
"My feeling on these headphones is entirely contingent on sound quality. As it is, I could get a pair of bluetooth headphones from Audio Technica for under 100$."
"The only user interface is by tapping the AirPods to talk to Siri, even to adjust the volume. No thanks."
"I don't see any consumer base other than die hard apple fans that can use these pair of head phones, earphones or whatever they are called.
Runners would definitely not buy these as there is a high risk of them falling out of the ears.
Even for a regular person there a huge risk of running into one another making the earphones fall and stepping on them.
Interesting scenario would be when 2 airpods users run into one another and damage their devices and then sit over a coffee just to discuss how foolish decision they made buying this piece of shit."
And then Nostradamus showed up in the comments
"It looks like the kind of thing people will mock before they use it and then when they use it they'll realize that it's actually pretty good overall and everyone will just kind of simmer down about the whole thing."
This is my favourite bit. Does this person just go around running into people all day every day? Maybe they need to look up from their phone more.