A few random thoughts on the Apple Vision Pro

While I’m very impressed by this new product, I don’t have something especially smart or deep to say about this, at least not today: it’s all too fresh, and my brain muscles used for the critique of technology and Apple haven’t been exercising much lately so I’ll keep my thoughts on the Apple Vision Pro as straight-forward as possible, in the form of a list of short, unrelated paragraphs.

Expectedly from Apple, this new product and platform feels very refined and well thought out from day one, I want to say even more complete than the Apple Watch announcement which was already very convincing to me.

The ad Tim Cook showed at the end — and I can’t seem to find it now — is very well made and makes one understand the product and its capabilities in an instant: to me that was the most impressive thing of the whole keynote, incredibly good marketing and copywriting.

This is the most expensive TV set I’ve ever desired: the entertainment-related potential of this device is evident: movie theatres will feel that they belong even more in the twentieth century.

I say TV set because I’m not sure about the emphasis put on the work environment: they demoed it first in an office space and I found that part of the demo quite lame and forced, and it reminded me a little of the old Microsoft Hololens demos. The video conference thing feels also weird and unnecessary. Again, for me, the cinema/photos/TV experience is the one that stole the show. But hey, you will be able to do Excel in AR, if that’s your thing.

It feels like they were showcasing different areas of application for this device to let the developers, the users, and the market decide what it does best: work, entertainment, memories, etc. Just like what they did when unveiling the Apple Watch, insisting on its “intimate new ways of communication” capabilities when mostly the notifications and fitness aspects remain today.

I was expecting more video game demos, especially coming from Apple Arcade.

Curious about the “Pro” in the name: will we see a Vision Air in the near future? I wonder if they can one day drastically reduce the price without the audio system (only rely on AirPods) and a smaller resolution cameras, screens, and/or less sensors.

I wonder if AirPods Max work well with this: they demoed it with AirPods Pro, but spiritually I feel like AirPods Max belong in such a setup. Weird to not have seen them in action, unless I missed it.

I was somehow expecting the Apple Watch motion sensors to play a role in how one can use the device but it doesn’t look like the Vision Pro needs it to precisely track the hand movements: maybe something gaming related will be able to benefit from this?

I may be mistaken but it seems to me that no demos of the product where made outside, only inside: I wonder what sunny environments means for the usability of the device.

The spatial photography and 3D video thing looks very cool but it could become a fad if the next generation of iPhone can’t capture this format.

I like the term “spatial computing” they repeatedly used during the show: it sounds much better than AR or mixed reality.

Somehow interesting that the product page uses the same orange highlight colour than the Apple Watch Ultra page.

No information yet regarding support for multiple user accounts: the device itself is indeed very personal, both in terms of usage and physical adjustments, but at 3500 dollars, I don’t see many families buying more than one device: these have to be able to be shared, like an iMac or an Apple TV in the living room.

Understandably, the battery life is quite short, two hours or so: I wonder if it can charge faster than it consumes energy.

The whole “seeing the eyes” thing looks very important to Apple: they could have removed a few hundred dollars form the price without the external diplay, but they decided to let users’ eyes and expressions be seen while wearing the device. Seeing the demos and videos I can now understand why: a simple set of green/red light to indicate a busy / available status for instance would have forced users to remove the device for many external interactions around the house — an uncomfortable and painful process compared to simply hitting pause on a game controller and just looking away from the screen. This external display let the users keep wearing the device while interacting casually with others; arguably a more elegant solution than some sort of hinged mechanism (like a helmet visor) for the goggles/display part.

The “StandBy” mode of the iPhone makes much more sense if you own this device.

I was expecting more Apple Maps 3D views and flyover demos.

I wonder when will people start asking for FinalCut Pro to be available on visionOS.

Nice to see Dr. Sumbul Desai talk about the new Screen Distance feature a few minutes before unveiling the AR goggles that you wear 3 centimetres away for your eyes.

Mike Rockwell after explaining this is one of the most advanced display technology ever made: “…and fine text looks super sharp from any angle. This is critical for browsing the web, reading messages, and… … writing emails.” Where are the calculator and weather apps?