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By Tyler Chin
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In early June, Apple announced the Apple Vision Pro, its first virtual reality headset (or “space computer,” as the logo prefers to call it), which necessarily functions as a portable MacBook. Unlike peers like the Meta Quest 3 that took off among gamers, Apple’s vision of virtual truth focuses less on entertainment and more on productivity and communication. It’s a rugged wearable device that allows you to access entire worlds and systems by simply searching for them and pinching your fingers. We were able to test the Apple Vision Pro, which is available for pre-order starting today, and imagine it at a very smart time, with some important caveats.
Apple
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Apple
Apple’s main point of promotion for Vision Pro is its potential to revolutionize the way we work. As the logo likes to point out, it’s necessarily a laptop. The most exciting new features of the device are the intuitive controls that scan your eyes and hands. so you can use them as sliders. If you need to click on an app, look directly at it and the button will light up so you know it’s selected. To click on it, press your index finger and thumb simultaneously, as if it were the Double-tap function on newer Apple Watches and one of the earbuds’ cameras will record what your hands are doing. Other gestures include pinching and swiping your hand to scroll down a web page. I would have sounded a lot like Leonard Bernstein performing an orchestra.
In the same way you have various screens and monitors on your work setup, Vision Pro lets you open up tabs all throughout your workspace, which for the headset means your 360-degree space is essentially one super-charged window. You can have Slack open to the right of you, a spreadsheet splayed out directly in front of you, Spotify to the left, your fantasy football league stats behind you, iMessage at your feet, and the crossword puzzle over your head.
Moving apps using only your eyes and hands is pretty nifty and if it doesn’t increase your productivity by two hundred times, then you’re probably not using Apple Vision Pro properly. An Apple spokesperson told us that it anticipates staff will use the device in shared offices to improve multitasking (similar to a typical multi-monitor setup). There’s even a collaboration mode that allows you to work on projects together with other Vision Pro users, I haven’t had a chance to check it out.
However, as with learning how to use a touchscreen, there is a learning curve. There have been a few occasions where my hands were crossed over my lap and the clicking motion didn’t register with the device. But by the end of the demo, I had learned to consciously keep my hands apart so that the device responds to my movements, and it would be pretty straightforward to adapt to that if you’re not a Luddite in general.
If Apple didn’t offer a crystal-clear display on the Vision Pro, there would have been no point in ever releasing the damn thing. Thankfully, this one delivers. The polished glass visor is equipped with a micro-OLED display that creates some stunningly beautiful and accurate projections of photos and videos. One part of the demo had us blowing up iPhone photos and videos to truly take in the display’s crisp quality. For anyone who’s ever taken a panoramic picture on their phone and questioned the point of even doing so, the Vision Pro is where you get to fully appreciate the wrap-around imaging. It lets you toggle your way around the entire view, almost as if you’ve time-warped back to the moment you captured the shot.
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Everything you see on the screen is also projected into your real surroundings. It’s almost as if Vision Pro is a private cinema projector that only you can see. Virtual truth is pretty impressive, especially when you’re presented with life-size elements. . At one point in the demo, I ran the JigSpace app, in which a life-size three-dimensional representation of an Alfa Romeo F1 crash landed right next to me. There were times when I forgot that the car wasn’t genuine and I didn’t have to worry about pushing my shin against the tire. Hell, even an interactive experience with a dinosaur made me walk away as if an extinct monster was actually charging at me.
Even more impressive is Apple Vision Pro’s ability to visually reconfigure the environment around you. Press a crown into the side of the helmet to tweak your immediate landscape and update your 360-degree view with a completely different spot. That means you can get to Haleakala on Maui in an instant, and in an instant to imaginary settings like Avengers Tower or the desert planet of Tatooine from Star Wars.
Like any smart immersive technology (ANC, for example) feature, there also deserves to be controls that allow you to continue interacting as a human in the world. Like adaptive audio, Apple has also taken the time to incorporate built-in images that make other people on your stage appear as IRLs in your view, so you can see them even when you interact with the device.
Another cool feature of Vision Pro is its EyeSight demo, which essentially captures the look and feel of its observers (real-time eye movements and all) and projects them onto the front of the device to make it a little less impactful for someone to have a vision in. conversation with you when you wear the helmet. It wasn’t part of my demo, but I was able to interact with an Apple spokesperson whose EyeSight demo made me feel like I knew what his entire face looked like, despite being 50% covered by futuristic glasses. I swear. It’s not as scary as the promotional photographs make it out to be, I hope you don’t get into the habit of having full conversations with other people while you’re immersed in another world (just take your helmet off, please).
One of the notable drawbacks of employing Apple Vision Pro is its bulky design. Compared to my own old glasses, which weigh less than an ounce, this device weighs a pound (the equivalent of carrying a soccer ball on your face). It comes with two optional straps to help you attach it to your head. The Solo Knit wraps around the back of its dome and adjusts via a nifty dial, but the lack of overhead really feels cumbersome, like you’re wearing a pair of heavy shoes. Ski goggles.
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However, we imagine most people will opt for the Dual Loop strap, which attaches over the head like an N95 for a more comfortable and balanced fit. The only problem is that it’s a little less secure, as it only has a Velcro strap. to adjust the size. It’s comfortable for the first 10 minutes or so, but just like my regular glasses, I found that I constantly needed to adjust the headset to my face. After about 25 minutes, I felt like I had done a full neck workout. Since a big part of the VR experience will be projecting 3D videos, I still can’t help but wonder how most users will bear the weight of the headset for a full hour (let alone a three-hour Avatar projection).
The Vision Pro’s battery life also drains after just two hours before you want to plug it back into an outlet. This can be expected, as its competitor Meta Quest 3 has a similar runtime of two hours, but restricted if you’re doing anything that requires going beyond your plug or laptop. Still, if you’re using it for work (more on that below) and its state is still, it can stay plugged in without much interruption as it charges via USB. -C and can be connected directly to your laptop.
The battery hangs from the headphone cable, which isn’t a big deal, but it’s still a bit bulky for an Apple product. To keep it out of the way, I put it in my pocket, and only a few times did the cord get tangled around my arm and interrupt my movements.
Even in the short time I spent with the Apple Vision Pro, a quick dip into the world of VR was a real delight. For the work-from-home audience in particular, there are many benefits to look to in the future, but how this will feasibly work in a real workplace setting remains to be noted. Hopefully the logo can also make the helmet more comfortable to wear on the inevitable next-gen Vision Pros.
If you’re wondering whether to spring for two monitors or just a fully loaded VR one for a whopping $3,499 (i.e. the price of two MacBooks), the answer is probably just to buy the damn monitors. The novelty of using a spatial computer like this will probably wear off quickly but that’s not to discredit how much fun it is to use, at least if you can tolerate the weight of the headset. And in an era of stupid tech, the Vision Pro at least makes it feel like we’re heading in the right direction with our VR technology.
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Apple
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