[psmith2.0]

I saw on MacRumors.com the other day where pre-orders went live. Will be interesting to see how this one plays out. I’ve learned to not bet against Apple, but I don’t know…

Like everything else, there will be a more affordable version within 1-2 years and this initial model is for the diehards and pioneers (and braggarts).

There’s just so much other stuff I could spend $3,500 on. Even Apple stuff. A phone, a MacBook Air, an iPad mini, AirPods, etc. that would directly impact my life in a way I can’t imagine from this headset.

Gonna be interesting. It might all make a lot more sense after a year or so, if it fundamentally changes the way people use/think about computers/computing. Maybe in 4-5 years it’s just “how it is”? And we’re all walking around like Tony Stark/Iron Man!

[chucker]

Wouldn't be shocked if the amount of (active) users here who've preordered one is zero.

It's quite a price tag, and the software selection doesn't yet appear to be that big.

I can see a world where, ca. 2029, there's the Apple Vision for $1,499, and some people, instead of a higher-end iPad, go for Vision instead. Because what it basically is is an iPad with a very large screen, on your face.

[kscherer]

Originally Posted by chucker on your face.

I could just smack you with an iPad. That would be an "iPad on your face"!

Yeah, of all Apple's first-day products, this is the one to wait for. I suspect the gestures, alone, are only half-baked and will be buggy. I have every confidence in the hardware (of all the hardware companies, Apple is best positioned to get this at least 95% right), but I have zero confidence in the software implementation. For all the same reasons I don't use an iPad to write, I cannot see the use for the this thing other than as a very expensive media/gaming device, and for tech-professions like medicine, etc.

It's cool as hell and well thought out, but I suspect there are going to be usability issues, especially with productivity/editing apps.

Count me out (until it's $499 ).

[psmith2.0]

Originally Posted by chucker Wouldn't be shocked if the amount of (active) users here who've preordered one is zero. It's quite a price tag, and the software selection doesn't yet appear to be that big. I can see a world where, ca. 2029, there's the Apple Vision for $1,499, and some people, instead of a higher-end iPad, go for Vision instead. Because what it basically is is an iPad with a very large screen, on your face.

I asked because there are a few folks here always buying new iPhones every September and new Macs when they’re I traduced. Yeah, I wouldn’t think the whole joint is gonna go get one, but I imagine there are a few here who’d drop $3,500 to be in on the ground floor/day one of such a thing.

[chucker]

Originally Posted by kscherer I suspect the gestures, alone, are only half-baked and will be buggy.

So, on the one hand, one thing that's weird about this launch is that the hardware seems to have been finished by WWDC. Maybe the bands, battery pack, etc. weren't, but it seems the logic board is unchanged. It's odd to launch a production in 2024 with an M2. So, it seems that the hardware was ready, and the software was not. Either for quality / feature completeness reasons, or because they needed to drum up support among developers.

On the other hand, by all accounts that I've read/watched, people are surprised how well the gestures work. Low latency, and you can pretty much just have your fingers anywhere. Rest them on your lap, point somewhere, etc. Then just look somewhere and do a finger gestures. Sounds… fascinating.

It's a very intriguing thing, but not $3,500 intriguing for me, and what I haven't really seen is a killer app. Some cool demos, yes, but that's not the same.

[chucker]

Originally Posted by psmith2.0 I imagine there are a few here who’d drop $3,500 to be in on the ground floor/day one of such a thing.

I mean, I could, and it would be funny. The only TV I have in my apartment is still a CRT; I've never bothered getting a newer one. What if I skip that altogether and go with a VR headset instead?

I've played with a Vive years ago (2018-ish, maybe?), and with a Quest 2(?) last year. Those still seemed a little awkward. As I recall, the Quest 2's "passthrough" (what would be augmented reality on the Vision Pro) is monochrome and rather low-res. It's only good enough to get a rough sense of where you are (lest you bump against things in your living room); otherwise, you're supposed to purely use it as VR. It is my understanding that Quest 3 is vastly improved in that area, but it's still not a primary function. Whereas… Vision Pro flips that around: you start out in an AR environment where you see your surroundings, except it's a live, color, camera feed, and it's so good you barely notice. Then you turn the dial to gradually switch to VR, if you prefer.

[kscherer]

Originally Posted by chucker The only TV I have in my apartment is still a CRT

Keep that thing. There's enough mercury in there to poison an army, and that may be important some day soon.

[psmith2.0]

I, too, only got a newer, "modern" (HDMI-equipped) "flat" TV within the past few years, replacing an old Symphonic(?) Best Buy store brand CRT that sat here for years. The new one was a hand-me-down RCA 26" with a built-in slot-loading DVD player on the side. I put "flat" in quotes above because even though it's an LCD/non-CRT TV, being from about 2007 or so, it's still a bit bulky and has about a 2-3 bezel all around it (my Dad has a 65" Samsung with about a half-inch bezel and it's like you're sitting at a drive-in theater...it's HUGE on their wall!

Our local cable/utility company stopped doing their TV via coaxial and pretty much forced everyone to buy Amazon Fire Sticks and register/log into your account and watch TV that way. It's a bit more cumbersome and involved a few extra clicking steps upon turning the TV on. On the bright side, I got a shitload of new channels, including ones I've wanted forever: Magnolia Network and Game Show Network. And all the content fills the screen and it's much sharper/clearer than my analog(?) coaxial stuff was a few months ago. I'm still not a big TV watcher (no sports, no politics/cable news, no sitcoms or dramas, certainly no "reality" trash, etc. It mainly sits on Magnolia so I can admire Joanna Gaines' MILFy hotness and a couple of other specific "building" shows I like. And, like when I was a kid, on Saturday mornings, Magnolia plays about 2-3 hours of This Old House and Ask This Old House, which I LOVE!!!

I watch GSN when I feel a bit trivia-y and wanna answer some questions, and go up against the heavy-hitters in that realm (Mark Labbett, Ken Jennings, etc.). Keeps me sharp for any local pub trivia exploits. Two-time city-wide champs, so I'm doing something right.

[PB PM]

At some point I could see myself getting something like the Vision Pro. Would I buy the first version? Nope. I would be concerned about the impacts on vision to be honest. Medical science already says we should keep screens an arms length away, and now we want to slap the screen to our face?

[kscherer]

Originally Posted by psmith2.0 I'm still not a big TV watcher (no sports, no politics/cable news, no sitcoms or dramas, certainly no "reality" trash, etc.

Man, if I'm ever in the banjo-playin' backwoods, I'm gonna stop by and have a beer with you!

[turtle]

I did not pre-order one and don't intend to buy one at this point. I mean, it is "cool" and all, but practically useless to me. Could I force a use case that applies to me, sure but only because I'm GREAT at justifying spending money on something like this.

[Matsu]

I don't see how it's better for most existing tasks than a conventional screen.

Maybe it opens up new doors for modelling and visualization? I started thinking about how something like this could work with carpentry, sculpture, design, architecture, 3-d printing... I don't see it helping me with the drudgery of my office work, or my writing and photo editing.

[kscherer]

Originally Posted by Matsu I don't see it helping me with the drudgery of my office work, or my writing and photo editing.

I think everyone in an office cubicle should have one. The comical "Hey Siri, write me a report on X" chatter all over the floor would be hilarious!

[psmith2.0]

Originally Posted by kscherer Man, if I'm ever in the banjo-playin' backwoods, I'm gonna stop by and have a beer with you!

By all means! Everyone here, reading this, is invited/welcome (well, one notable exception ). If you ever find yourself passing through (or stuck in) Chattanooga, PM me through here or just post in an active thread and we'll try to meet up somewhere for a couple of "sodas", or lunch/dinner at one of our thousands of mom 'n' pop, meat & three "country cookin' cafes/diners (or Mexican/taco joints!). With a 24-hour notice, I can usually shift/tweak my day around to step out for a couple of hours of hours to meet an online acquaintance in real life, sure!

[psmith2.0]

Originally Posted by Matsu I don't see how it's better for most existing tasks than a conventional screen. Maybe it opens up new doors for modelling and visualization? I started thinking about how something like this could work with carpentry, sculpture, design, architecture, 3-d printing... I don't see it helping me with the drudgery of my office work, or my writing and photo editing.

Could you design a house in CAD or one of those high-end 3D render programs and then "walk through" it with this product? That would be kinda cool. I can imagine HGTV (some of their flipping/before-and-after-based shows) to employ such stuff to give clients a real-life, to-scale sense of what they're about to own? Oh, the buzzwords that will fly from that!

As with all things, some industry or discipline will find great value in it and write that story and set the standard for others to follow/emulate. I imaging gaming (the kind of games where you run around in an impossibly huge warehouse or space freighter, shooting aliens and whatnot). I also imagine a couple of deaths in the early days/years (someone wearing it while snowboarding and falling/flying off a mountain), but you always gotta break a few eggs for that next big iOmelet. Tim and others will get summoned to DC to appear in a hearing, answering questions from out-of-touch, ancient, dust-pooting senators who've never held an Etch-A-Sketch.

"Uhhh, Mr. Cook, sir...why is it your company apparently feels the need to kill young Americans who buy your products?" and so forth.

[kscherer]

That whole "walk-around" experience has pretty thoroughly been tackled at this point. My friend, Erik, with SilverDraft Studios designs computing systems around high-end VR goggles for Audi and other car companies who use them to "build your car" directly in the sales room. They also design top-secret systems for the NFL and ESPN revolving around real-time stadium graphics for live game coverage (including a system that modeled something like 60,000 independently controlled digital "fans" to fill empty stadiums during COVID.

I won't take anything from Apple on this. They've disrupted a lot of industries, and can do it again. Vision Pro is cheap compared to their high end competitors, but it's about more than just the hardware, and a lot of this high-end VR stuff is driven entirely on Windows. So, unless those guys see the value in rewriting the code, it may be a moot point.

Apple is late to this game, and appears more focused on reinventing the desktop. So, it's up to developers to determine if the system is powerful enough (and independent enough) to put to use in the kind of environment that requires top-dollar, Windows-based mini computers to make work, or if they're going to stick with social-media-dimwit-friendly emoji BS.

[Kraetos]

I preordered one. Ask me anything.

[chucker]

Originally Posted by Kraetos I preordered one. Ask me anything.

How is babby formed?

[maccidents]

I will try after a few month

[Kraetos]

Originally Posted by chucker How is babby formed?

Not by spending any amount of time with a VR headset on your face, that's for sure.

[Matsu]

Depends on what (who's? edit: who's what?) is on the other parts of the body.

[Matsu]

A tie in with Stålenhag's The Electric State would be brilliant.

[turtle]

Originally Posted by Kraetos I preordered one. Ask me anything.

What I'm curious of is the "practical" uses it has once you get it.

I remember when the iPad first came out. I thought it was neat but didn't see myself getting one. When SpecMode upgraded from the 1st gen to the 2nd gen I bought his 1st gen off of him for a good price. By this point there were more apps and better support for it. It grew on me and now I have an iPad I use all the time. I'm guessing the Vision Pro could become something like that.

[Kraetos]

Unless using it in app continuity mode with my Mac is totally seamless and effectively gives me an infinite canvas for Mac applications, I don't expect to find a practical use for it in 2024. In terms of distance from "compelling for regular people," I think this is more akin to Mac OS X than iPad: we're looking at years of lead time on the app ecosystem, not months.

The exception, of course, would be Steam Link. I have to believe Valve is working on it and wouldn't be surprised to see it this year. My burning question there is whether or not Apple is helping them with that, or keeping a safe distance, or actively blocking them. I could honestly see it going in any direction.

[turtle]

In my mind, right now it will be a personal theater or video media consumption device. The visible isolation and audio with AirPod Pros in should be able to create a nice personal pod.

[psmith2.0]

It's just a lot of clams for a casual consumption type of device. I don't have $3,500 laying around, unaccounted for, for such a thing. It would be neat, in theory, somewhere down the road, to sit and watch a movie on a "screen" the size of your living room wall, I suppose? This thing - just because how I am and what I do, and don't do, in the digital realm - falls under the lottery win purchase for me. If I've got $40M or whatever sitting around, sure..I'll snag one and see what's what. After I raid the Fender and Gretsch Custom Shops and go a little nuts on that front first. 🎸

[kieran]

This is just something I don't see myself using.

I can kind of see the appeal, but it's just not something that I see me using.

Maybe down the road, when it's more fleshed out, it'll be something I take a look at.

I also have some vision issues in my one eye that I think could be magnified when using a headset, so as long as my phone, iPad, and computer work, I think I'll be good.

[kscherer]

Originally Posted by kieran I also have some vision issues in my one eye that I think could be magnified when using a headset …

This is something I've been thinking about. I use prescription eyeglasses, so I would need so spring for the Zeiss lens upgrades ($149). I just did the fit thing and am told that my prism prescription is not supported, so GFY!

I suppose I could skip the prism bit, but then that affects my vision greatly, so I would likely be uncomfortable in this thing.

The long and short of it: Vision Pro is not compatible with Ken's birth defect, and I'm gonna play my discrimination card! Where do I sign up for the lawsuit?

[psmith2.0]

I'm sure any number of billboard lawyers will be eager to take such a thing. Going toe-to-toe with Apple is probably an ambulance chaser's wet dream. Just throw a dart at the yellow pages. You might land on Saul Goodman!

But seriously, someone, somewhere, is gonna do this. May as well be you.

[kscherer]

I should do the right thing. My lawyer needs the money.