There’s an insane amount of ingenuity on display here, from the razor-sharp microOLED displays and the super-realistic video pass-through to the remarkably intuitive and fun interface that tracks your eyes and hands. I’m also very impressed with the spatial computing experience, as it takes multitasking to the next level, especially when you add a Mac to the mix.In terms of entertainment, the 3D video experience on the Vision Pro is unmatched, and Immersive Video in particular has a ton of potential to change the way we view everything from concerts to sporting events. And the 3D goodness continues with moving spatial videos and photos that transform your memories into something hyper-real.
The Vision Pro is an astounding product. It’s the sort of first-generation device only Apple can really make, from the incredible display and passthrough engineering, to the use of the whole ecosystem to make it so seamlessly useful, to even getting everyone to pretty much ignore the whole external battery situation. There’s a part of me that says the Vision Pro only exists because Apple is so incredibly capable, stocked with talent, and loaded with resources that the company simply went out and engineered the hell out of the hardest problems it could think of in order to find a challenge.
Apple’s headset has all the characteristics of a first-generation product: It’s big and heavy, it’s battery life sucks, there are few great apps and it can be buggy. And come on, have you seen what this thing thinks I look like?Yet so much of what the Vision Pro can do feels sci-fi. I’m flicking apps all over my home office. I’ve got multiple virtual timers hovering over my stove. I’m watching holograms of my kid petting a llama. It’s the best mixed-reality headset I’ve ever tried, way more advanced than its only real competition, the far cheaper Meta Quest Pro and Quest 3.These companies know these aren’t really the devices we want. They’re all working toward building virtual experiences into something that looks more like a pair of regular eyeglasses. Until then, they’re just messing with our heads.For now, this face computer is best for seeing Apple’s vision of the future. And also scaring the bejeezus out of everyone you know on FaceTime. Sorry, dad.
Apple's blend of eye tracking and small-gesture hand tracking feels far more refined than headsets like the Meta Quest 2 and 3 use or the Hololens 2. The tiny gestures, combined with quick eye movements to focus on buttons or other things to click and drag, can feel like mind reading. Sometimes it's not perfect: I found I had to look at places several times occasionally or slightly turn my head. Maybe it's me getting used to the interface or eye-tracking adjustment. But after four times in Vision Pro now, I'm impressed that this is the most effortless and functional hand-tracking system I've ever seen in VR or AR. I forget there are no controllers. Will I miss not having them? Sure, sometimes. It's wild when I see my own hands via passthrough in Disney's immersive Tatooine environment, vignetted so they look like they're in the world with me. I almost thought they were virtual hands.There are some interaction tricks that surprised me. The Digital Crown on the Vision Pro headset, which dials virtual environments in and out of existence, also adjusts volume. All I had to do was glance at one of two icons while twisting the dial to pick its function. My eyes literally changed reality.
Spatial computing in VisionOS is the real deal. It’s a legit productivity computing platform right now, and it’s only going to get better. It sounds like hype, but I truly believe this is a landmark breakthrough like the 1984 Macintosh and the 2007 iPhone.But if you were to try just one thing using Vision Pro — just one thing — it has to be watching a movie in the TV app, in theater mode. Try that, and no matter how skeptical you were beforehand about the Vision Pro’s price tag, your hand will start inching toward your wallet.
As it is, the 2024 Vision Pro is a prize for early adopters and Apple superfans, and maybe a fun purchase for the well-heeled curious who want to take their first steps into headset computing. But with its current issues of price, weight, and comfort, the general public won’t beat a path to the door of Vision Pro 1.0.But that doesn’t mean that the Vision Pro is a flop. As an experiment to prove that goggle computing can work, it’s a home run. It establishes a simple, clear, precise system of manipulating virtual objects — that doesn’t require a plastic controller grip in each hand or location beacons on posts around your room. And the superiority of its eye screens proves that people don’t have to get seasick from using headsets.There will, of course, be another Vision Pro, another version after that, and another one after that. Each version will chip away at the price and weight problems, and each will endear itself to a larger audience.At half the price and half the weight, the advantages of the Vision Pro concept will be too hard to ignore: vast, bright, crisp screens — for your movies and your software — no matter how cramped, dim, or grubby your space in the real world.
Do you want a computer that's always looking at your hands?
Als de review van Marques Brownlee uitkomt dan komt die wat mij betreft in het nieuwsbericht terecht.
Ik zou ze allebei doen.
Gast
