A number of reviews for Apple’s new VR headset have been published, but the only one I think is worth reading is, surprisingly, the one published by The Verge. Both the written and video review are excellent, and go into every possible little detail of the new device. Nilay Patel concludes:
But one of the oldest rules we have here at The Verge is that you have to review what’s in the box — the product that’s shipping today, not the promise of improvements yet to come. And so I keep coming back to all the questions I’ve been asking myself ever since I first strapped the Vision Pro onto my head. Starting, of course, with the most important:
- Do you want a computer that messes up your hair every time you use it?
- Do you want a computer that smears your makeup every time you use it, if you wear makeup?
- Do you want a computer that allows the Walt Disney Company to prevent you from taking pictures of what you see?
- Do you want to use a computer where you easily can’t show anyone else what you’re looking at?
- Do you think the fanciest TV you own should have HDMI inputs?
- Do you want to use a computer that doesn’t work as well in a dark room?
- Do you want to use a computer that is always looking at your hands?
That is a lot of tradeoffs — big tradeoffs, not little ones. And the biggest tradeoff of all is that using the Vision Pro is such a lonely experience, regardless of the weird ghost eyes on the front. You’re in there, having experiences all by yourself that no one else can take part in. After using the Vision Pro for a while, I’ve come to agree with what Tim Cook has been saying for so long: headsets are inherently isolating. That’s fine for traditional VR headsets, which have basically turned into single-use game consoles over the past decade, but it’s a lot weirder for a primary computing device.
I don’t want to get work done in the Vision Pro. I get my work done with other people, and I’d rather be out here with them.
Nilay Patel at The Verge
The basic gist is that the Vision Pro is simply cumbersome and unpleasant to use, exactly what many people have been suspecting since the day it was unveiled. I’ve been asking a very simple question on Mastodon nobody has been able to answer yet: is there anything you do on your phone, laptop, or desktop, that the Vision Pro can do better, easier, quicker? Now that the reviews are here, not even the people using it can provide an answer.
And think about that last point in the list above. It’s a private computer that’s always looking at your hands.
I’m probably a prime target for it, minus the cost. I’m fine with all the trade offs if, except:
Price
First Gen Apple issues
Battery life?
Maybe long term usage fatigue? Unsure how that would feel wearing it for 8 + hours.
I work alone, no one needs to see what I’m working on, unless I want them to. In fact, we have special devices to prevent anyone from looking at our screens. If it allows for basically unlimited number of windows everywhere, that would be sweet. Monitor stand setups are a pain. If I can pair a keyboard/mouse to it and have as many windows visible regardless of the physical space? That would be ideal. For various reasons I have to move between rooms in my work day, and I just can’t physically move everything with me all the time. But a headset, keyboard and mouse would be feasible. I’d like to be able to tie into the same computing resources without a headset if that’s possible. So like a Mac book pro, I guess that used the headset as a monitor?
What is “Mastodon”?
Mastodon (formerly known as “people who became self-hosting admins because they got banned everywhere else”) is one of the many newer alternatives to “formerly known as twitter “.
Eh, kinda. Mastodon is used heavily by those people using Mastedon software, but thats not the core Mastedon instances that were set up. There are many servers that are not abusive and do not tolerate the instances that allow abhorrent behavior. Think of it as a modern day PHPBB, don’t define it by the worst people that use it.
Sorry for shitposting everyone. I basically just wanted to make fun of Thom trying to make Mastodon a thing, while everyone is still basically on Twitter.
Speak for yourself.
The X marks stupid Nazi bull shit everywhere for me.
I am totally happy with the Fediverse. Everything else (I am looking at you Bluesky) can go fuck themselves.
Its obviously a mickey mouse OS that can finally do multi tasking right, but why in vr? I feel the same way using oculus, its just an android device but why Android? I am old enough to have played long sessions with the Nintendo VR headset (virtual boy) and the first wave of 3d, had the Optimus 3d the evo 3d and yeah (2nd wave for me). You can’t get around the 3d thing, They were expecting the reality distortion field in 3d, but they are holding it wrong.
Nintendo at 0.76 kg had the sense include feet. Vision pro 600-650kg ..
It`s just a useless expensive toy.
I agree, like 3d tv its a fad. Has been since cinema was invented and yet every now and then we are supposed to be excited to live in the immaterial future and away instead of the now and here. Humans like now and here. Billionaires are not messiahs, they’re just successful snake oil vendors.
This is the kind of stuff that sounds nice at first, but feels really stupid when you think about it.
Who is going to be really happy with putting some mask that will take over critical senses.
Too much isolation from the environment. I may be wrong, but the more I think about it, the less I like the idea.
And as someone that has tortured his eyes with screens for many years, the least I want is having two of them in front of my eyes without being able to just look elsewhere easily.
Well done Thom on acknowledging that your claims that the demo presentation of Vision Pro in June wasn’t real was false. And well done too on dredging through all the online reviews of the released reviews of the Vision to find the one with the strongest criticism. The community salutes you.
Your reaction to the Vision Pro reminds me of the reaction to the launch of the original Mac almost exactly 40 years ago. Most techies and tech commentators said it was way too expensive, that you could do everything it did on existing PCs, and that it was just a toy, a piece of tech whimsy. But what was obvious to most people who tried it, most people that is who were not deeply invested in the pre-Mac computing world, was that the Mac was the future. I managed to very briefly play around with a Mac in a showroom for a few minutes not long after its release and it was immediately obvious that one day all computers were going to work like this. It wasn’t just that it was so much easier to get stuff done but also that using it (unlike the torturous command line DoS PCs) was just such a sheer delight. Like many others I too just fell in love with the thing, even though it was clearly a comically hobbled generation one device. It took several years before I could afford a Mac for my business and it was nearly a decade before I could afford one at home. And yes all computers came to work just like a Mac (much like the way all phones work like the Gen1 iPhone).
Read though all the release day reviews of Vision Pro, watch the videos, and there is that same feeling, something of the future has been revealed.
BTW there is a delightful video of a discussion panel just held of the original team that built the first Mac here:
https://www.youtube.com/live/Vl__10euTRo?si=okyl43SE-UH31mPU&t=849
Watching it was struck by how many of those involved in the Mac project had died and how distressingly old the surviving members looked. I had to do a double take to recognise Andy Hertzfeld. As I tumble into my eight decade I realise that one of the deeply disorientating things about growing old is that all the faces you grew up with, friends, movie stars, artists and singers, all are getting so very old. Everyday I seem to bump into a face of someone I was familiar with in my youth and I think ‘Jesus they got old!”. And then I look into a mirror.
Stay crazy.
Strossen,
Everybody’s got an opinion, but meh…I’m just not very interested about this product. It’s fine for what it is but not worth all the hype as though it’s something revolutionary. I think some people wish it were, but I’m pretty sure it’ll be a passing fad until next time, like it usually is.
It’s a pretty average piece of kit as is the VR headset concept, hard to see this as a trend sticking around as part of mainstream, and without mainstream I can’t see it surviving no matter how well suit to niche applications the concept may be. If items like Google Glass couldn’t get mainstream traction, I doubt any VR will.
cpcf,
I can think of several good niche applications for VR/augmented reality…but apple was intending these giant face goggles to supposedly fit into everyday social situations…and at $3.5k…it seems insane. I’d find it amusing to see a beetlejuice-esque comedy with a weirdo family sitting around a thanksgiving table all wearing these except for little baby Martin who’s looking up at his mother’s face wearing these ridiculous things. Heck someone could make a neat creepy VR game out of it!