Apple Vision Pro AR Headset

[Mantush]

I really never expected it to work well enough to replace a physical keyboard. Maybe for some web URL's or quick searches but not for real work. I type pretty fast and I have no idea how they'd get it to an accuracy level that's required and also I don't know how they'd create an interface that wouldn't result in me significantly reducing my typing speed. Glad to see it works well with the Magic Keyboard, which is what I would expect.

Yeah, I'm not fully convinced that a virtual keyboard will ever be able to replace a physical keyboard. The virtual keyboard is fine for short URLs but everything is very hunt and peckish. It's not efficient. Typing more than a few short words is a chore. Using the Magic Keyboard, it just works. My speed is reduced somewhat since this is my first time using one, but I expect to get over that with about a day or two of heavy use. If you are on the fence about purchasing one, definitely make sure you pick up a Magic Keyboard or its equivalent.

Something I haven't seen people mention in any of the videos or articles I've watched is that I can walk into a different room in my house while wearing the headset, like a quick run to the kitchen, and all the windows I've had open will stay where they are. When I walk back into the room, I'm able to just resume from where I was without having to reorganize things. Very cool feature. I also recommend investing in straws... it's hard to drink and wear the headset at the same time.

 

[NortheasternPJ]

Yeah, I'm not fully convinced that a virtual keyboard will ever be able to replace a physical keyboard. The virtual keyboard is fine for short URLs but everything is very hunt and peckish. It's not efficient. Typing more than a few short words is a chore. Using the Magic Keyboard, it just works. My speed is reduced somewhat since this is my first time using one, but I expect to get over that with about a day or two of heavy use. If you are on the fence about purchasing one, definitely make sure you pick up a Magic Keyboard or its equivalent.

Something I haven't seen people mention in any of the videos or articles I've watched is that I can walk into a different room in my house while wearing the headset, like a quick run to the kitchen, and all the windows I've had open will stay where they are. When I walk back into the room, I'm able to just resume from where I was without having to reorganize things. Very cool feature. I also recommend investing in straws... it's hard to drink and wear the headset at the same time.

That second part is actually pretty awesome. I would have never thought of that. Can you have multiple sessions as once like one in your office and one in the living room?

 

[VORP Speed]

Has anyone tried a Zoom call on this yet?

 

[Jim Ed Rice in HOF]

Something I haven't seen people mention in any of the videos or articles I've watched is that I can walk into a different room in my house while wearing the headset, like a quick run to the kitchen, and all the windows I've had open will stay where they are. When I walk back into the room, I'm able to just resume from where I was without having to reorganize things. Very cool feature. I also recommend investing in straws... it's hard to drink and wear the headset at the same time.

Watch the first video that @soxhop411 posted above. The guy gets up and walks around his apartment showing that feature and how he's putting it to use. Looks very cool.

 

[Mantush]

Has anyone tried a Zoom call on this yet?

I actually just did a Teams call with it using Teams through the Safari browser rather than the dedicated app. My coworker said the audio was fine. The persona's face was apparently all they could see. I was teased a little bit because the persona took up the entire screen as it was extremely zoomed in on my face. FWIW, this is not an issue on FaceTime. I've had friends send me screenshots of what they see on FaceTime and they see the head from the shoulders up. It could just be how my coworker had his display setup.

Watch the first video that @soxhop411 posted above. The guy gets up and walks around his apartment showing that feature and how he's putting it to use. Looks very cool.

I didn't catch that one, so I'll go back and watch. Definitely one of my favorite features.

If anyone has any specific questions or wants me to try out specific things they'd try and use it for, I'm game. I love this thing. I can't stop smiling when using it.

 

[AlNipper49]

That is awesome! That is about the only way that I could rationalize this for myself. (Physical keyboard)

I’ve also been more open to using text to speech recently, so on a device like this it may be mitigated even further.

 

[Scott Cooper's Grand Slam]

There's a lot I don't like about the Vision Pro. I'll have detailed thoughts at some point, but for those of you considering using this device as a portable workstation: that's the real deal. Using the Vision Pro and a keyboard/trackpad with this thing (or the built-in keyboard/trackpad on your Mac) is so smooth. The Apple Vision Pro is the best monitor I've ever had, and it'll be as good in an airplane seat, hotel room, or cramped apartment.

 

[Brand Name]

This is honestly pretty tempting. I hope that I could get various webpages with the rum guys across the bay and basic video games to work but given that's virtually all online, no reason to think that's not possible. Sports has been covered here, very little to add to this except I think it's going to be as an add-on option to existing options. Like if you have AppleTV, yeah, you get the Friday Night Baseball package. But you'll eventually have to pay more for the VR tier.

I have a few issues that would make this a concern immediately: Glasses. God do I hate wearing my frames and my eyes react poorly in constant twitching to contacts and eyeliner alike. That's more incentive to go LASIK for this as I've wanted to do for some time. Between that and probably getting some face work done sooner than later, maybe wait until then, both for ease of security but also for technology to improve?

 

[Scott Cooper's Grand Slam]

I have a few issues that would make this a concern immediately: Glasses. God do I hate wearing my frames and my eyes react poorly in constant twitching to contacts and eyeliner alike. That's more incentive to go LASIK for this as I've wanted to do for some time. Between that and probably getting some face work done sooner than later, maybe wait until then, both for ease of security but also for technology to improve?

Prescription inserts for Apple Vision Pro are $200. They're fantastic. They magnetically attach to the device. You don't notice them when you wear it, except your vision is clear. Get LASIK if you want it, but don't get LASIK to wear Apple Vision Pro.

Face work shouldn't be too much of a concern either. When you buy Apple Vision Pro, step 1 is to scan your face with an iPhone. This results in two pieces: the soft, stretchy, but minimally adjustable "solo loop band" for your head, and the "light seal" (face cushion). There are 28 sizes in W or N, so 56 total. Both the light seal and the solo loop band are replaceable after market. Also included in the box is a fully adjustable "dual loop band" that's meant as an alterative for the default band. So if you change your face, you can swap these parts with minimal effort.

If your concern is more "I don't want anything resting against my face for a few weeks/months while I recover from surgery" then yeah, wait.

 

[CallYaz]

I knew I should have come to you guys when I first got mine. I too was skeptical but its kind of my job to investigate this stuff (hell I had many Newtons) and it kind of blows me away each day I use it. The MLB app with the 9th inning demo from Game 1 of WS is amazing but even more so is the quick clip of a Red Sox game from last year sitting on the first base side. Watching the Alicia Keys immersive studio thing you can see the devices they are using and they look small enough to put around a baseball park and allow us to switch seats. Take all my money now and let's go.

In addition to those two the woman who does high wire walking in Norway and the PGA App have been the most "this is the future" moments for me

 

[NortheasternPJ]

Holy shit, they had 180k preorders

https://www.macobserver.com/news/report-apple-vision-pro-are-selling-like-hotcakes-check-sales-numbers/

 

[Scott Cooper's Grand Slam]

I returned my Apple Vision Pro.

The device has the most accessibility features that Apple has ever put in a 1st-gen product, but I couldn't make the device accessible for me. I'm admittedly an edge case.

• I have disconjugate vision. My eyes rarely look at the same thing simultaneously. My brain has been coping with this my whole life, so my depth perception is decent and I don't experience double vision. But for eye tracking, I couldn't get the AVP to reliably interact with the things I wanted it to. As an example: AVP has a similar passcode entry UI as the one that exists on iPhone. I really struggled to look at 7 and 9.
• There is an option for the AVP to track one eye instead of both. Enabling this option did not solve the problem for me. My problem isn't that "my left eye" wasn't reliably looking at something or "my right eye" wasn't reliably looking at something, it's that I can't predict exactly which eye will be focused on the thing that I'm intending to look at.
• AVP has options to track things other than your eyes -- including your wrist or your index finger. Both of these were stunningly accurate, but I have a hand tremor. I don't notice my hand shaking in everyday life, but super obvious on AVP -- the same way it is on Oculus Quest. I found the constant, visual reminder of my hand tremor annoying.
• If you can't use your eyes or hands for tracking, it has head tracking. This was also accurate, but it took so much effort compared to eye tracking or hand tracking that it made me sad.
• If you can't use your eyes, hands, or head for tracking it has Voice Control. This is as useful and accurate as it is on other Apple devices (meaning -- over 99% accuracy for interacting with the OS, and much less accuracy for dictation). But I really did see myself using AVP to work privately in cramped spaces-- on a plane or in a coworking space. I'm not doing that with Voice Control.

Overall:

• The displays are very good. When watching TV or movies by myself, I'd just as soon do it in AVP as I would on my 77" LG OLED TV. Obviously, when watching stuff with family or friends, TV beats AVP every day and twice on Sunday.
• Watching spatial video is better than advertised. It's the best feature on this thing by a mile.
• If your primary workstation is a Mac, you might benefit from using AVP. It's really freakin' cool to have essentially a canvas of infinite monitors that you can easily arrange. Pairing AVP with an Apple Magic Keyboard and Magic Trackpad makes this an honest-to-goodness productivity tool/workstation. I can't accurately judge typing on AVP, but I trust other reviewers who say it is clunky. Typing on a Magic Keyboard is not clunky at all.
• AVP is the best audio kit Apple has ever released. The spatial audio is incredible. For private listening, AirPods work as good as you'd expect. Comfortable fit, instant connectivity, good sound. Only the "AirPods Pro 2nd generation with USB C" have lossless audio for Vision Pro. I don't have those, but I didn't notice lossy audio or audio latency with AirPods Pro first generation or 2nd generation. I did not try listening to AVP with AirPods Max.
• As mentioned by @CallYaz: the Alicia Keys experience is incredible. It's AVP at its best: truly immersive. Alicia plays to the camera because she's a pro, but being able to look around and see her friends and bandmates -- you feel like you're there in the room with her. It's wild.

But I couldn't justify keeping a device that was so difficult for me, personally, to use. I look forward to seeing eye tracking improve as VisionOS improves. As soon as they solve eye tracking for folks with disconjugate vision, I'll buy one.

 

[Traut]

Full disclosure: I like gadgets and especially apple ones.

I just did a demo and holy shit. This is easily the coolest tech that I’ve come across. The entire experience and gestures were so smooth. Yes, I know it’s a demo.

But this will in all certainty be my next workstation.