Absolutely not. I’ve been completely shocked by the reception of this and feel like the positivity is 100% due to it having the Apple logo on it.
Who tf wants to wear a ski mask when working or watching videos? Not to mention it’s got 2 hours of battery life. That’s all without touching the $3500 price tag.
It’s the same excitement that nerds felt about the first oculus or the Index. These people are excited now, but they’ll most likely play with it for a few weeks then it’ll start collecting dust.
Until they can make the thing small, like sunglasses small, no one is going to adopt it widly.
From what I’ve read online of those who have tried it at WWDC, they mention that it’s actually very impressive. The resolution is like looking through a pair of glasses, the AR experiences demonstrated were unbelievable and overall the headset was a joy to use. Although every reviewer mentioned the price was way too high.
What interested me from the announcement was Disney showing off the stats when watching sports and the 3D court / field for instant replays. If they actually bring that fruition, then that would be something unique.
I’m an android user though and not a fan of apple, but if it spurs on competition and starts bringing AR further into the mainstream, we may see more of this tech becoming cheaper. I definitely prefer movie watching in a silo environment (currently use the nReal glasses for this) but watching sports too with stats etc and some incredible AR, as well as office working would definitely get me interested. If the price was right.
Yeah I can agree its impressive technologically and don’t mean to be a downer. Just feels less practical than it’s been sold as. I’d still be on the side of this not being adopted until the form factor is resolved.
@WorriedGnome @milkpiss @orbit Regarding the price, I wonder just *how* any business could effectively reduce costs without adding in bloatware or the like.
So far in the MR headset space the main ways have been to either just *eat* the cost (see: Meta/FB & Quest) or offer a lesser experience (see: Google’s foray into Cardboard, Samsung Gear VR, etc.). The Quest has been making some headway, but it’s still been an uphill struggle even at its lower cost.
(sorry for notifs, testing federation)
Another thing to note is how comfortable it is to wear. I have a quest 2 but I can’t watch a full movie on it as my face gets sweaty and the device gets heavy. With the vision pro being slimmer, it might offset some of the downward force at the front and be enjoyable to wear. Although that is yet to be seen and reviews will hopefully report truthfully on that. I like watching movies on my nReal Airs as they are very lightweight and this is where the true adoption of the tech will take off.
When they can fit the features of the vision pro into a glasses like model, then you’ll see it take off at warp speed. But we’ve a long way to go before reaching that form factor.
Current VR user here, in very niche situations its kinda cool to watch videos in VR in random places in your house because then you don’t have to hold up a screen, but outside of those situations its a huge gimmick in my opinion.
I recently started watching 3D movies in VR which has been pretty cool, but yeah it takes quite a while to get the VR set up and put on and start the movie and everything.
People are acting like this is the next “iPhone reveal”. That’s all. With pricing being restrictive and the tech itself not anything revolutionary, this will need a lot to take off.
If its wearable all day, with next to no strain, and the features advertised turn out to be real and work incredibly well, it might be worth it even at a slightly lower price point. I would pay for a premium model and move ecosystems if those points were met, but the cynic in me believes it could all be hype. I guess I’ll have to wait a year and find out!
Time will tell. It’s only the first gen and surly they will improve this over the next years. I’d skip this year’s device and wait until it matures.
Yeah agreed. I just can’t see actual full adoption at any scale until the form factor is similar to actual glasses.
It has nothing to do with a brand logo. Apple just makes quality computing hardware and has always tried to make really good software too. I’m going to buy it because I think it will be fun to play with and better quality than any existing VR/AR.
Yeah understood. I’d ultimately love for it to work out all things being said
strapping goggles to my head to send an email sounds like what my personal hell is going to be like
imo VR is fun for games but beyond that it’s too dystopic for my taste lol
Fully agree. I think there are some practical, workforce related, use cases for AR/VR, but the idea of strapping into one for 8+ hours a day… No thanks.
Just wait until the AR ads are integrated into the headset. The future is gonna get spammy.
Lol, that’s true, VR games are cool, but using a big headset like this to do anything else would be annoying, unconfortable, Google Glass was at least light and small.
Nop, but a pair of glasses would be fine.
Agreed - I never got a chance to try Google Glass but they at least looked lightweight. If there were an AR device like that then I wouldn’t have nearly as much of a problem.
They’re far from perfect, but I have the Nreal Air glasses and find them pretty dope. They have sony oled tech so they’re surprisingly bright even in a lit room, and the pixel density is great. No screen door effect like VR headsets.
They’re the 1st iteration, not very user-friendly for non-techies and absolutely need a lot of work, but the concept is very much there. I mostly use them to play Steam deck games on a “big screen” now, but the accompanying Android app attempts a phone + app-like design like the Vision.
Looks interesting! Though unfortunately I don’t have any devices that are compatible with it (Pixel phone is out, Intel Mac is a no, and no general desktop/windows/Linux support), but I’ll certainly keep my eye out to see if they expand, or if similar products launch!
Looks cool, yeah, we’ll see how it develops
I’m near sighted and wearing glasses all the time. If AR glases are light, good looking and about as powerful as the Apple XR googles, sure i’ll wear them if i can afford to buy them.
I feel like people are super fixated on how dumb it looks and less on it’s uncomfortable and often kinda gross to have something pressed against your skin for extended periods of time.
I know that Apple sets tends and whatever (like airpods) but i’m not sure they can pull off the “Apple VR-specific breakout pattern face.” I do enjoy the idea of the super rich peeps buying this to sit in their beige houses, headset clogging their pores.
People are also forgetting that you can record stereoscopic video from the headset. Which is cool for the wearer, but potentially creepy for people around them. That’s part of the reason Google Glass failed
The fashion aspect of AR gets played out a lot especially from tech enthusiasts who, lets face it arent known for their fashion in the first place. Fashion and what is and isnt cool can change rapidly and drastically. In the 80s it was normal for guys to wear colorful fashion featuring short shorts and croptops in the US and this continued through until the early 90s. Then very abruptly that became uncool and it was about baggy clothes, shorts that went down past your knees, and solid more plain colors.
From the mid 90s to 10s denim based shirts went into fashion, out of fashion, and back again. Leggings went from underwear to something you wear with a long shirt covering butt, to just an alternative to pants. Thick rim glasses came, went, and then came back. People drape giant headphones around their neck these days and those mid sized portable but over ear market is all but dead. Going back further guys used to powder their face and wear tights and heels.
The look can be a part of it but the issue with ar so far is comfort, and functionality. I dont know if I think apple is going to crack it, but today’s ridiculous can become tomorrows fashion trend and it can happen on a dime. We just need the right influence and the right push
I feel like this is solving an issue with a problem that Apple made up themselves. Normal virtual reality is too isolating, the way augmented reality has worked so far is insufficient, this is a good in-between.
…But I feel like it’s just a way for people to get trapped within their work even further. Want to get up and walk around for a few minutes? Well, you’re still getting Teams messages or whatever, because you’ve got these goggles stuck to your face. I don’t see how that’s a positive.Take your work with you! Take your work home! Work while you “play” with your kids! now that’s being productive! Your targets will be adjusted accordingly
Remember Google Glass? And Glassholes? People made fun of those who chose to use something which was way less intrusive than the Apple headset.
First time i saw this i was very surprised at how bulky this is. Compared to Glass this is like a space suit helmet. Was wondering maybe i missed something very obvious, so uncharacteristic of Apple?
Its full vr (or can do full vr) rather than just ar.
Hell no. Oculus seemed like a really cool product when I was 17 and in love with “Ready Player One”, but now that we’ve seen the way that Big Tech just treats its users as profit-cattle fed on a diet of ads and angry people, I have no fucking desire to strap one of those things to my head (outside of actually gaming…then it’s kinda cool).
No but i bet there are a lot of corporate execs and wannabe crypto landlords that WANT me to wear a headset all the time. You gotta imagine the CEOs are drooling at the idea of making yet another $1000+ device mandatory for modern life.
@king_dead @milkpiss have you read Ready Player One.
Stacks are first on the list and haven’t seen any yet
It’s a cool gadget which I’d love to try but no way would buy. It just doesn’t do anything practical that I can’t already do quicker, easier and more effectively with more traditional devices. it’s far too expensive to justify as a fun gadget.
The article is right, very few people would want to sit with this on their head in the company of other people. It’s a generally a solo experience.
I could see it being extremely useful for those with disabilities though and I suppose if anyone can bring mixed reality devices more to the main stream it’s going to be apple
For work, I cannot see myself wanting to use one, but for media consumption, it would probably blow everything else out of the water, assuming you’re cool with being fairly isolated in your experience. They sort of teased this, but being able to watch something like Avatar 3 with Pandora as my surrounding sounds so incredibly cool.
assuming you’re cool with being fairly isolated in your experience
I’m sure there are plenty of people who would be cool with that… but for me most of the times that I’m watching a movie it’s with my partner, it would be rare to sit down to watch a whole movie on my own except when i’m traveling
Although the part of the video where they showed it being used on a plane? I mean… yeah might look weird… but being able to tune out the rest of the enviroment and isolate yourself? That does sound pretty amazing.
I did find it a bit funny when they mentioned something along the lines of, “Look how many devices this one device can replace, such as your TV, and monitors, etc,” which is true to a point… If you are the only one who actually uses those things. I have a wife and two children, and a nephew who frequently comes over to watch TV. If we all wanted to sit down and watch a Movie together with this experience, I would have to shell out $18k. 🥴
On the other hand, for single folks like me it seems worthwhile. I game on a 4K projector that costs $3000, I also used to have a 49" ultrawide monitor which I sold off recently cause I was using my projector more, so at least for me, Apple’s headset could replace a bunch of my costly gadgets - assuming it has video inputs of course (not sure if it does, haven’t seen any mentions of it).
I used to use my Google Daydream for that. It let me watch Westworld on a plane without being inappropriate, and it cost me about fifty bucks.
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I may be in the minority here, but I do, and frequently have. There is a sizeable community like that, but we don’t seem to really fall into Apple’s target market, and it will be interesting to see how orthogonal that willingness is to being a techie shut-in.
For me, the big reason I don’t wear it 8-10 hours per day when I’m working like I do when I’m playing is the pixel density. Current VR headsets (except maybe Varjo’s) don’t do a good job of simulating even one 4k screen, let alone competing with a multi-monitor setup, so they fall short for productivity. Once that’s solved (and that’s the claim Apple seems to be making here), the case for use as a primary work machine is very compelling. It lets you set up something like this for the cost of a headset and a reclining office chair, and is also somehow portable.
It fails if you use it exactly like you use a laptop, just like a phone does. If you take advantage of the increased flexibility though, it has pretty transformative potential.
That said, that’s the perspective of a technologist with no kids who works from home. I wouldn’t buy this because its standout features are irrelevant to me, so I’m from a representative sample of the market they’re chasing.
I’m inclined to agree with you that it might be a potentially good way to interact with a computer. There’s a company called Sightful that makes a “Spacetop” computer, which is basically a laptop with a headset instead of a screen. Mike Elgan actually gave it some pretty positive press lately.
As someone who travels constantly and misses a big monitor on the road, I am inclined to agree that the use case could be compelling.
But… $3,500 is a lot of lettuce for something that could easily be obsolete as fast as my cell phone. And Apple mentioned that the total field of vision is something over 4k, but that’s still a lot less than multiple 4k monitors.
Still, I’m willing to be convinced. Especially if a stripped down “viewer only” model comes out without all the bells and whistles. I don’t need outward display, or the lidar, or any of that. I just want a big workspace.
But… $3,500 is a lot of lettuce for something that could easily be obsolete as fast as my cell phone. And Apple mentioned that the total field of vision is something over 4k, but that’s still a lot less than multiple 4k monitors.
I’m waiting to see what they drop 12 - 18 months later. I’d wager by the time the 2nd-gen Vision Pro comes out, they will release a more stripped down model that will be roughly equivalent to what they are releasing next year, and will likely start at around $1,200. By that point, the App ecosystem, will likely be mature enough that they will be able to have a version that serves as a loss leader or just breaks even, and they’ll make their revenue on the backend with their 40% App Store cut.
I think we can definitely expect a lighter version (Apple Vision Air?). I’m skeptical Apple would ever do a loss leader though; they tend to make money on all their products and with healthy margins.
I agree, I think it could be useful for specific uses, but otherwise is kinda niche.
I completely agree with this article. If watching movies in VR was going to be a popular thing, then it would have happened already. It’s been possible for a long time. The reason people don’t do it is because it’s far more convenient to just use a TV. It’s not a matter of visual fidelity, it’s a matter of comfort. (Also it’s a matter of people’s preference to be present in the real world, not isolated in a virtual world.)
It’s like when they kept pushing 3d televisions, except now the glasses are even heavier and less convenient.
Yeah, the only real benifit is being able to watch 3D movies, which does look really cool in VR, but then you can’t watch it with other people (unless they have a headset as well) and it takes a while to set up and put on the headset.
i think bigscreen vr has a chance for pcvr users.
i have an index and my only real issue is the resolution and sweet spot isn’t good enough for desktop usage or movies. a smaller sharper set that can sit on my desktop in arms reach is much more attractive
So you’ve tried using AR for productivity? How long do you feel comfortable doing it? Using AR as a PC monitor replacement seems like a promising use for the tech, but I can’t imagine wearing a headset for an entire eight hour work day.
I haven’t before. the index isn’t great for AR. I’ve tried using virtual desktop on index.
the resolution is the biggest thing holding it back. next would be heat and weight.
I’m hoping that smaller headsets like above are good enough to to work as a monitor replacement.
I did this with an original HTC Vive back in the day. Developed a full VR game in Unity on my PC, which I called “Nearly Headless Nick” because it didn’t have a monitor attached. The only real problem was the pixel density. I got used to the weight of the headset after a while, especially when reclined (the chair takes a lot of the weight off).
I can’t imagine most people will want to wear that headset for more than the 2 hours the battery lasts. I know I haven’t when wearing existing vr headsets. I seem to max out at about 30 minutes.
I think to get to a consumer version Apple will want to drop all of the glass and metal and go for lighter plastic instead. They need to drop the secondary outward facing screen as well for weight, battery and cost savings.
If things can get comparable to thicker framed normal glasses, that will be when VR/AR can really become mainstream.
Yeah, the fact that it’s made out of metal is a questionable decision. I can only imagine how heavy that headset is
Knowing apple, its probably a very light metal, but you’re right nonetheless.
It’s an expensive gadget for a niche audience.
I thought Apple’s announcement for AR would be something that is actually wearable like glasses as opposed to something so bulky.
For VR it is cool, but is actual AR glasses that are indistinguishable from normal glasses and don’t require a seal around your eyes making you all sweaty still years off?
