2024-02-06 Apple Vision Pro demo space-pano
2024-02-06 Apple Vision Pro demo space-pano

I got my fifteen minutes demoing the device and I want more… that’s usually a good sign. Then again I’m the guy who bought an Amazon Echo years ago and purchased two more so that I could do video calls with my mom and my now ex-girlfriend. I probably only did four video calls with mom and less with the ex. It’s now a smart screen on my table that tells me the time, the temperature and when an Amazon package has arrived. I do not call or get calls from anyone on it. Thus, I’d say that it wasn’t a great investment for $180 a pop. That’s just one example of making missteps when it comes to figuring out what tech is going to go somewhere. Oh yeah, I’m also the guy who bought a $2,000 Kaypro computer running the CP/M operating system in 1984 instead of getting the just introduced Macintosh… I’m not too sure that I’ve gotten any better at predicting tech in the past 40-years. But I’m still at it, so that must mean something.

I’ve used or experimented with virtually every consumer computing platform that’s been available over the past 40-years from sewing machine sized “transportables,” to click-keyboard handhelds like my Palm Treos and Zenith Wizards, to DIY desktop PC clones, to PC laptops, to Apple computers (towers, all-in-ones, laptops and tablets). My original need was word processing, but it’s grown to creating online content, photography and videography. Over the years I’ve bounced between various forms of portability (because I like writing while traveling, etc), to wanting as many screens as possible for web work, design and research. I’ve also found that because of the number of files I create and manage, I need something with a real files system (like Windows or Mac OS and NOT the portable OSes). My home desktop setups (I have more than one workstation), have been compared to your basic Mission Control with the array of monitors that I use. 

  • 2024-01-24 Mac Studio home setup - sit/stand desk area
    2024-01-24 Mac Studio home setup – sit/stand desk area
  • 2024-01-24 iMac home setup - high top table area
    2024-01-24 iMac home setup – high top table area

So, when I thought of checking the Apple Vision Pro I imagined the usefulness of having multiple virtual desktops that are not limited to “screen space,” that I could have a word processing document open in front of me and as many research screens open on the sides as needed AND I wouldn’t be tied to my desk or any location. Many screens and portable… alas, my demo let me open four different windows but the demo was focused mostly on media consumption and not content creation. So…

The headset is “heavy” as in its weight is noticeable, especially when compared to glasses, but not overly heavy. I used the single band that you see in all the commercials and not the dual band that has a strap that goes over the user’s head, theoretically for better distribution of the weight of the glass. I only had 15-minutes with the device on, so I can’t say how long I’d be able to wear the thing before needing to give my face a break. One YouTuber made fun of testers who were complaining that it was too heavy and thus too rough on their necks. He harkened to his training when he played football where you have to wear those damn heavy helmets and said that they need to strengthen their spindly pencil necks. Yeah, I don’t see that as an issue as much as having it sit on my face like a face-hugger. I need more time to see if that would become an issue. 

I had heard that one shortcoming with VR headsets from other vendors (like Microsoft’s HoloLens) was that they cut off peripheral vision and that instead of having this all-encompassing visual experience it felt too much like looking through four-inch rectangles. I had a slight sense of that as I was putting on the device, but it dropped away, giving me more of the surround visual feeling. Looking at panorama photography was incredible. It made me think about how this would change website creation if one was going to use panoramic photography, so that one might step into an environment, instead of just viewing it from one two-dimensional plane to another. Panorama photography or photography captured with 360 devices like my Theta camera would be interesting. Spacial video was interesting in that it did eliminate the gap between the “viewer plane” and the scene in front of you. But, unlike 360 photography, the video image seemed to fade or ghost off at the edges, with a definite square high definition frame in focus in front. And spacial video shot on iPhone 15s seem to have the more 16:9 aspect ratio than spacial video shot on the Vision Pro. This might be a version one thing. It would be more natural if the video image was wrap-around, but a bit out of focus the more into peripheral vision it goes. That is actually how the human eye works in that we only see “high definition” on the spot, generally in front of us that we’re focusing on and all of the rest is “memory” until we turn in that direction. That would be a cool trick to program into the headset, to flash view a bit over 190-degrees, but only keep the front portion in hi-def until one looks in that direction. It’s an amazing device for looking at visual media.

I’m not a gamer and never developed game controller skills, which is one reason why I never explored the current generation of VR devices that required controllers to manipulate their environments. Vision Pro’s ability to translate small hand gestures from wherever one’s hands happen to be is a game changer. Just like pinch to zoom on tablets and phones changed interfaces, this hand-gesture technology has taken it to another level. I didn’t test the voice-command interface, which I imagine will be a big part of working in this environment. And while no external device, like a controller, is needed to work in the environment, one can still connect to one if needed. And I’m pretty sure that if I were to invest in one of these devices,  I would pull my Bluetooth keyboard (I just got a new mechanical keyboard!) and maybe trackpad into the environment, in that I like having haptic feedback and am a touch typist. I’m still thinking about my old mantra: portable with many (virtual) screens…

But wouldn’t you feel weird wearing those giant white goggles in public?

Yeah, like I’m going to let fear of what “others might think” keep me from writing in a cafe… Someone, who later became a girlfriend, saw me before we met, in one of our favorite dive bars and I was working on my iPad. She thought that I wasn’t going to meet anyone that way. Yeah, as nerdy as I am, I know that I wouldn’t wear the high-tech-goggles at a social event, or drive my car with the damn thing on. So, wearing it in public or what others might think, that ship sailed a very long time ago. Not an issue.

But is it worth $3499?

In as much as I just retired with very little disposable income, I probably won’t be buying this version of the device in the near future (of course I said that about the first iPhone in 2007… my income tax return might change my mind). $3500 seems like a lot when you compare it to a Meta Quest which closer to $700, but I’m not a gamer so that comparison doesn’t work. It’s more in the Microsoft HoloLens level, which was introduced at $3500 in 2019, but is currently out of stock on the Microsoft website and selling on Amazon for $6300. So, emerging markets are rarely cheap, er, inexpensive. 

It’s funny to hear folks like Leo Laporte decry the $3499 price when he admits to having bought the very expensive original Macintosh in 1984 at more than $2400 and virtually every model ever since. I don’t think that the problem is the price, it’s that this is a relatively new category and we’re not sure that it does something that we can’t do otherwise that would be worth that much money. Getting desktop (and later laptop) computers was a no-brained because we understood them to be much more powerful typewriters with virtual storage. Then we added forms of telecommunications and no typing forms of media creation. There was a previous form that we understood that computer were a “better version of.” This “Spacial Computing” device is something different. And because it’s Apple they’re trying to do with as few barriers of entry for users as possible, thus no controllers, new technology to learn, just pinch and zoom in space. 

That’s the question, what does this thing do that cannot be easily done otherwise and justifies the $3499 price. For me it’s portable with many virtual screens. At the same time, I know with this version, if I were to connect it to one of my Macs that I can only generate one screen, it can be enormous, but just one distinctive screen. It treats the Mac as an input screen and as far as I’m aware won’t let one have multiple “on-screen” open apps. It’ll run multiple virtual windows that are generated from the device, but only one from a connected Mac. That’s something that I hope they address. My dream scenario would be to have a small 13” MacBook Air connected running everything that I would run on the Air if I had it attached to two (or more) additional large monitors. So, right now, it’s can’t really do that. 

If you are at all curious about this technology and experience go to Apple.com and make an appointment to do your Vision Pro tour. One thing I should note is that there was NO effort made by the Apple person to try to sell me anything after the demo. She just asked if I had any questions and left it at that. No hard sell whatsoever. I’m thinking that I’m going to take the demo again in a couple weeks, just ‘cause.

It’s a huge investment, but I do think that something similar is the direction that we’re going to take in how we interact with our technology. While you’re thinking about when you’re free to demo the device, here’s a walk-through video by Apple fangirl iJustine. Enjoy.

Another video that looks at the big picture of what VR headsets like the Apple Vision Pro might lead to by Tech Optimist, Cleo Abram.

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