Consuming content is great of course but the AVP has changed my content creation: I take way more panoramas and now spatial photos (Spatialify on iOS works well). I also bought an Insta X4 360 camera which, while a far cry from Apple's immersive content in resolution, can still be a really nice way to relive memories.
More content: Last year I started 3d scanning (using Scaniverse) sculptures and other art / items that catch my eye during my travels. The AVP makes it really easy to import and place them in my environment. When I'm working I'll often place a favorite sculpture next to me for company & as a reminder of a trip I took.
Finally, even after 4 months of use, it's still really fun and, from a tech perspective, astounding in terms of image quality, stability, 3D placement, integration in environment, etc. I love it and I can't wait for this tech to get better and better.
Edit: there was something really cool actually, that I think doesn’t get talked about enough. Pooping on Yosemite. Peak futurism.
Its also my preferred place to consume cinema. I have a short throw projector and sound system. I prefer the AVP. The image is so crisp and the 3D is so good, that its better than a decent home movie theater.
Its my preferred place to watch F1.
Environments genuinely soothe me.
Breathe works on this platform, it annoys me on the watch.
I would watch every sport and documentary in spatial if the was a thing. The tastes have me excited for the future.
I also use it as my hotel setup when I travel for work. It’s great having a full size monitor wherever I need. I’m excited for the coming improvements with vision os 2.0.
I’m still not comfortable using it in public, though. It feels ostentatious, but I will try it the next time I fly with the family. Having people I trust around me will make me more willing to go immersive while traveling.
I spend approximately 60-70% of my time working with the headset on, connected to my MacBook. It’s actually better for me than my physical display because of the Zeiss inserts - I usually don’t wear glasses, so due to inserts, the desktop is subjectively crisper than the monitor :) I really can’t wait for visionOS 2 improvements in the virtual display feature.
Most of the media content I consume alone, and Vision Pro is perfect for that, especially watching something before sleep - the headset does not light up the entire room (unlike a phone/tablet screen) and thus does not mess up my wife’s sleep.
One thing I surprisingly don’t use it for are “immersive” videos and other experiences like VR or MR games. I’m not quite sure why - I always plan to try something out, but never do it actually.
It also still hasn't found the "killer apps" just yet, but it's clear Apple is still heavily invested into this considering there's nearly 30 sessions on VisionOS at WWDC this week.
Some of the games were really fun, most notably Walkabout Minigolf and Super Hot VR.
Some of the exercise programs were pretty neat, most notably The Thrill of the Fight and Les Mills Body combat.
It did not work well as a replacement for either a TV or a computer monitor. The device was just too bulky and inconvenient and the software too clunky. So much easier to just use a laptop, if I want to work / watch on the go.
In the end, none of the experiences were compelling enough to keep using it regularly.
Excited about the updates to the OS, my goal was always to use it for work, as an alternative posture mode, but couldn't get used to it at first.
Are there any other killer apps other than movies these days?
One gripe I had was that I couldn't see the keyboard in an immersive environment, so I had to keep reorienting myself if I took my hands off of it. Now with visionOS 2 you can have the keyboard appear in an environment, so I'm excited to try that. The ability to have an ultra wide screen is a nice addition as well.
Mostly it's the best cinema screen I've ever viewed in my life. "Avatar 2", in 3D and at 48fps, is an absolutely stunning viewing experience. I wish high-framerate movies were more common. They look incredible.
Even in MVD I felt incredibly limited and just wanted to go back to using my actual displays. Within a week I had to force myself to put it on, I wasn’t drawn to it. Honestly I think I enjoyed writing blog posts about it more than I enjoyed actually using the device.
If/when MVD and passthrough get better I’ll probably buy it (new model) again but for now it’s just not good enough, especially for the price. If it was $1K or less I might have kept it.
But, that is to be expected, the form factor isn't convenient yet. When mobile phones weighed 2KG few people used them on a daily. When it's miniaturized into the form factor of glasses, we'll all be daily users. That seems to me more like a question of when, not if.
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Here's my take on it.
The Apple Vision Pro was built for being a computer that encompasses space. Not meant to be a “headset”, and not approaching the problem as a “headset”, but more-so an immersive head-mounted computer. So all the preconceptions people’ve had about “headset” in the past are kinda thrown out the window. Sure, the Quest 3 is similar in that it’s got a focus on AR instead of VR, but it’s still built for gaming first - we can see by the app library and what the Quest store pushes for its apps - it’s gaming.
Similar story with other headsets - primary focus is gaming. Be it immersive experiences in gaming (KayakVR, etc.), competitive gaming (Breachers, Pavlov, etc.), or social (VRChat, Resonite, Rec Room, Bigscreen, etc.), it’s still gaming.
The Apple Vision Pro is built on a completely different foundation and philosophy from other headsets. That’s why, and how, I use mine. Otherwise, it would just kinda be in the corner as a “really high resolution, really good eye and hand tracked, but otherwise very uncomfortable and heavy headset with too many compromises” sorta deal.
My Quest 2 for example, I bought that simply to tear it apart and have fun with it. I did just that, and now it’s non-functional (I have to fix it up at some point). My Pico 4 Enterprise, I bought with the express intent of getting eye and face tracking working without needing to get a Quest Pro (with worse compromises in my mind, for my use-case at least).
My Bigscreen Beyond is my main headset for all VR experiences as it compromises on things I’m okay with compromising on, and shines in places I really want it to. Ultimately, it’s a great all-around social and immersive headset while also being great with being competitive due to its small form factor. However, it’s still all gaming. The compromise that stops me from using the Beyond over the Vision Pro in certain use-cases is: - not wireless - not running its own OS - doesn’t have passthrough - doesn’t have eye and hand tracking - relies on SteamVR (which is great for gaming, but really janky for anything other than gaming)
My Apple Vision Pro is my main headset for being an extension of myself and becoming more connected with the tools I regularly use — my computers. I pretty regularly use it when connecting to my macbook and my desktop PC (via Moonlight) so I can bring the screens with me wherever I go in the house, or even have a significantly more convenient viewing experience for content being consumed. I.e. - when doing things around the house like - cooking food - folding laundry - cleaning around the house - etc. - when lying down in bed, it’s much easier to stare at the ceiling than crane my neck over to look at a laptop screen
Plus, the Vision Pro has significantly better (in my experience) hand-based interactions simply due to it having the selection laser based on eye tracking. While there are false negatives and false positives with eye tracking, or even hand tracking for finger taps, I’ve found it to be significantly less frustrating than the Quest 2 and Quest Pro hand tracking along with the Pico 4 Enterprise hand tracking too. This is mostly because, to select, you’d need to pinch your forefinger and thumb together (on quest) or move your thumb from a thumbs-up to a fist (on pico) to select. This inherently changes where the cursor is pointing, so I’d end up selecting the same button at least three times before it actually hits. Sometimes the cursor would show that I’m selecting it, but it doesn’t actuate the “click” because I — apparently — didn’t tap my finger hard enough.
So I basically find that the Vision Pro — while having so many faults in general — is the best that I’ve experienced in terms of system interaction by hand tracking, and also best in class for passthrough in terms of latency and camera distortion. It doesn’t make me regularly annoyed to use, and actually removes some distractions based on me needing to learn a whole different set of things because of inherent weaknesses in the hardware and software (in the case of Quest and Pico). VisionOS just makes a lot more sense to me, despite my understanding the technicalities behind the android-based operating systems a lot better than VisionOS (every day, I’m learning something new about VisionOS)
I think a lot of people rag on the Vision Pro just because a) It’s Apple. It’s easy to rag on them for anything b) It’s $3500 c) It’s not even got good software (they’re looking for something that Apple didn’t want to consider under their paradigms, but blaming Apple for being intentional and not pursuing those experiences) d) It’s heavy (entirely fair)
I think, while I’ve been praising the Vision Pro, I’ve also been critical about a lot of aspects on it. I don’t see many people actually being critical about the Vision Pro, but more-so just whiny and complain-y. There are actual discussions that can go on and take place with this hardware, software, and experience, but people (and this is a pet peeve of mine) ignore all that and just complain because it’s fun to complain and not fun to actually discuss, understand, and bring forth ideas based on said discussion, on how this could benefit everyone — both in the VR / AR / HMD industry as well as outside of it.
anyway, </rant>
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For context, I am a heavy user of VR, with nearly 400 hours in the Beyond since December 2023.
I don't recommend it for non developers until there is more content, but it's a really neat dev kit device that shows where the future is headed.
* The sizing options are really confusing, and my measured fit (as determined by the app over a dozen runs) felt somewhat loose. Apple Store staff could not tell me what the numbers meant and could only size me through the app.
* There's not a lot of VR content available right now — just a few short (admittedly impressive) clips.
* I feel isolated when watching media, and it's also much harder to snack and get cozy.
* Gesture controls are (intrinsically) imprecise and frequently fire incorrectly — a serious regression from physical buttons or even touch input. Also, selection via gaze does not feel natural to me. I am itching for a physical Quest-like controller for selection and input.
* A Quest-like controller is also essential for gaming. You really can't do much with gesture controls, and a gamepad does not allow you to interact directly with the virtual world. In fact, most apps that I'd be interested in (painting, sculpting, etc.) would really benefit from physical controls. Drawing with gesture controls feels pretty bad.
* On that note, no Beat Saber, which is my killer app. And even if it did exist, I'm not sure I'd feel comfortable getting sweaty in a $4000 device.
* Mac display mirroring has latency, looks a bit grainy, and does not support 120Hz. Categorically worse than my existing physical displays.
* I want to use my third party mechanical keyboard, mouse, and headphones, but only Bluetooth accessories are really supported.
* It's not very portable. I'm not sure how I'd be able to take this anywhere in my carryon. (I don't usually check luggage.)
* I get a headache after a fairly short time of using the device. It's also stuffy.
* I can't build or run anything without approval by the Apple police. This does not feel like a general purpose computer and is unlikely to be the "future" of anything until the platform opens up, or is made to open up.
Oh well. Maybe I'll try again in a few years. In the meantime, I'll keep gaming on my Quest.