I tried the Apple Vision Pro as a Developer - VS Code in VR!
Summary
TLDRIn this video, the developer explores the Apple Vision Pro's usability for daily tasks such as coding in VS Code and designing in Figma. They discuss the intuitive user interface, the convenience of eye-tracking and finger gestures, and the flexibility of the virtual workspace. However, they also encounter minor technical difficulties and question the practicality of the device for intensive tasks like programming and design work. The video concludes with the developer appreciating the Vision Pro's potential but acknowledging its limitations and high cost for everyday use.
Takeaways
- 😀 The Apple Vision Pro offers a clear user interface with familiar Apple menu navigation and eye-tracking hover effects.
- 🔍 The device supports multi-tasking with the ability to resize and position windows for an immersive workspace.
- 🖥️ The Vision Pro can be used as a secondary monitor for a laptop, both at home and on the go, even without being on the same Wi-Fi network.
- 🛠️ The build quality is praised as futuristic, but there are concerns over the proprietary connector and the battery pack's design.
- 👀 The device features a magnetic grip that can be easily dislodged, which may cause issues with handling the expensive device.
- 🎥 The user can enjoy a virtual environment for focused work or entertainment, with the ability to dim or block out the real world.
- 💻 The Vision Pro can replicate the experience of using a large monitor or multiple monitors, but with some blurriness and focus issues.
- 👁️ The device's eye-tracking feature allows for hands-free navigation and selection, but may require adjustment for precise tasks.
- 🔄 The user can switch between different virtual environments and workspaces with ease, promoting flexibility in work setups.
- 👓 Despite the high price tag, the Vision Pro may not offer a significant advantage over traditional monitors for tasks like coding and design.
- 🤔 The script raises questions about the practicality of using the Vision Pro for everyday work, suggesting it might be more of a novelty or occasional-use device.
Q & A
What is the main purpose of the video?
-The video aims to demonstrate the day-to-day usability of the Apple Vision Pro for tasks such as programming in VS Code, designing in Figma, and general user interface navigation.
How does the user interface of the Vision Pro work?
-The user interface of the Vision Pro is clear and uses eye-tracking for hover effects, with selection possible through finger tapping. It has a familiar menu similar to Apple products.
What are the advantages of using the Vision Pro for browsing and window management?
-The Vision Pro allows users to bring screens closer, scroll with fingers or eye-tracking gestures, and resize windows by dragging corners or using eye tracking, creating a flexible and immersive browsing experience.
What issues did the reviewer encounter with the physical design of the Vision Pro?
-The reviewer found the proprietary connector difficult to use, the cable often got in the way, and the magnetic grip was prone to coming off, which could potentially lead to dropping the device.
How does the Vision Pro handle virtual environments and window positioning?
-The Vision Pro allows users to position windows in a 3D space around them, though it was noted that windows sometimes go out of focus and require careful positioning.
What was the reviewer's experience using the Vision Pro for coding?
-The reviewer found it difficult to focus on code within the VR environment, making it less practical than using a physical monitor, despite the ability to have additional screens and a flexible workspace.
How does the Vision Pro function as a second monitor with a laptop?
-The Vision Pro can connect to a laptop and display the desktop in a virtual space, providing a larger, customizable workspace that can be used in various environments.
What challenges did the reviewer face when using the Vision Pro for design work?
-The reviewer experienced blurriness and a 'halo' effect around the screen, making it less effective for detailed design work compared to using a traditional monitor.
What was the reviewer's opinion on the portability and social acceptance of using the Vision Pro in public?
-While the reviewer enjoyed the portability of the Vision Pro, they noted that it might be perceived as strange by others, although most people ignored it or pretended not to notice.
How does the Vision Pro compare to other VR devices in terms of resolution and usability for work?
-The reviewer found the Vision Pro to have a slightly higher resolution than the Meta Quest but found programming on it difficult due to focus issues and preferred using a monitor for work.
What was the reviewer's conclusion on the practicality of using the Vision Pro for daily work?
-The reviewer concluded that while the Vision Pro has potential for a flexible and customizable workspace, it was not as practical for daily work as a traditional monitor due to focus issues and the potential for headaches from prolonged use.
Outlines
😎 Apple Vision Pro: A Developer's Day-to-Day Experience
The script details a developer's exploration of the Apple Vision Pro, focusing on its usability for daily tasks such as programming in VS Code, designing in Figma, and general navigation. The user interface is praised for its clarity and familiarity, with eye-tracking and finger taps facilitating navigation. Despite some technical issues like the cumbersome cable and battery, the portability and flexibility of the device are highlighted, allowing for use in various environments. The script also touches on the immersive experience provided by the device, such as the ability to create a virtual workspace or escape to a tranquil scene.
🤖 Flexibility and Challenges of the Apple Vision Pro in a Work Environment
This paragraph delves into the practicality of using the Apple Vision Pro as a secondary monitor and its compatibility with both Apple and Windows devices. The user tests the Vision Pro's ability to connect to a laptop, resize and position screens in virtual space, and replicate the experience of working on a physical display. While the flexibility to craft personalized work environments is noted, the script also points out the challenges of using VR for coding and design tasks, such as the difficulty in maintaining focus and the blurriness of the screen when not perfectly aligned with the user's gaze.
🛠 A Developer's In-Depth Test of the Apple Vision Pro for Design and Programming
The developer conducts an in-depth test of the Apple Vision Pro for design and programming tasks, comparing the experience to using traditional monitors. The script discusses the use of the Vision Pro with a Windows machine via the Duet app and the replication of a desktop screen in VR. The developer finds the text on the Vision Pro difficult to focus on and the experience less practical than using a monitor, despite the novelty of the VR environment. The potential benefits of the Vision Pro, such as the ability to open multiple monitors and customize the workspace, are acknowledged, but the developer concludes that the device might not be suitable for daily use due to its complexity and the discomfort it can cause.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Vision Pro
💡User Interface
💡Eye Tracking
💡Safari
💡Virtual Space
💡Magnetic Grip
💡Figma
💡Virtual Reality (VR)
💡Resolution
💡Duet Display
💡Headset
Highlights
User interface is very clear with eye-tracking for hover effects and finger taps for selection.
Menu design is familiar, similar to Apple products, offering an intuitive user experience.
Ability to adjust window distance and close windows with simple gestures.
Safari browser allows for screen resizing and finger or eye-tracking gestures for scrolling.
Vision Pro's cable and battery can be cumbersome, causing potential handling issues.
Portable design enables use in various environments, enhancing flexibility.
Virtual keyboard appears for input, with options to tap, reposition, or select letters by looking.
Windows can be dragged into floating new windows, creating a dynamic environment.
Some windows may go out of focus or fade, requiring careful positioning.
Vision Pro can block out the environment and transport users to a selected virtual scene.
Windows stay in place when moving, allowing for flexible screen positioning.
Vision Pro can be used as a second monitor with a laptop, even on different Wi-Fi networks.
Resolution when using as a second monitor may not be as good as the actual screen.
Vision Pro's virtual space is highly flexible, allowing for personalized workspace setups.
Mouse and keyboard inputs from a laptop are recognized in the virtual space.
Vision Pro's strap design is visually appealing but functionally inadequate, prompting a swap to an alternative.
Magnetic grip is prone to coming off, posing a risk for the expensive device.
Vision Pro's cover functions like a sleeping mask, providing protection for travel.
Using Vision Pro for coding inside Visual Studio Code is not as practical as using a physical monitor.
Vision Pro's VR environment can be used with a web browser for coding, though typing remains a challenge.
Vision Pro allows for multitasking with additional screens and background apps.
Using Vision Pro for an extended period may cause discomfort, such as headaches.
Vision Pro's ability to create additional monitors and custom workspaces is a significant benefit.
Vision Pro can be used with Windows machines through apps like Duet, providing a desktop replica on the VR device.
Designing in Figma within Vision Pro is less effective than using a physical monitor due to text clarity issues.
Vision Pro's high price point may not justify its use for everyday tasks when compared to traditional monitors.
Transcripts
as a developer I wanted to see what the
Vision Pro is like for day-to-day work
so things I'll try in this video are
things like programming inside of vs
code creating designs inside of figma
and just testing the Vision Pro
generally the user interface is very
clear anything I look at uses eye
tracking to have a hover effect and then
I can select it tapping with my fingers
having used Apple products the menu is
very familiar and I felt right at home
selecting the bar at the bottom let me
bring Windows closer or further away and
selecting the circle closed the window
next I headed to Safari I had this
window here of YouTube which I was
browsing through what's cool is that I
can bring the screen closer together and
I can use my fingers to actually scroll
or I can use the eye tracking with my
fingers to gesture as well I can resize
the window by grabbing the bottom right
corner and pulling it out or using ey
tracking to do the same then I can place
it up against my wall so it looks like a
super massive screen unfortunately the
short cable and massive battery that
comes alongside the Apple Vision Pro
always got in my way and I almost
dropped it due to this magnetic grip
which is kind of easy to come off
however while these are minor technical
difficulties what I did enjoy is the
fact that I can use this anywhere I want
this means I can sit back relax and
learn some CSS from one of my favorite
people Kyle from webdev simplified
whenever I click on any inputs like the
search here at the very top of the
screen I also get this popup keyboard I
can use my fingers to tap reposition it
or just select the letters by looking at
them I can then search up videos and
drag the tabs into new windows that are
floating all around my environment now
this is pretty cool this is one of the
things that I thought was very
interesting but one of the things you'll
notice is that some of the windows
sometimes go out of focus as well as
they go a little bit faded so you do
need to position them carefully around
your environment as well here I was
looking up free code camp and I decided
that rather than having the windows very
far away from me I would bring them
closer almost like a laptop screen well
one with three screens which would be
amazing but doesn't exist in real life
and being able to just browse through it
in this fashion I can also block out my
environment there's a little swipe at
the top of the headset and when I turn
this everything goes a little bit darker
and Fades into a scene of my selection
in this case I've selected this nice
lake with a forest back set and this
allows me to almost escape the reality
I'm in and enter a brand new one that's
definitely something I would like to try
out on an airplane most of the windows
also stay in place here I've positioned
one close to where my TV normally is if
I was to stand out and exit this room
I'll see that it stays in this position
I can also resize the screens and take
them with me all I have to do is look at
this Bottom bar and tap to hold it as I
do the screen comes with me I can select
to place it next to my coffee machine
and create a coffee while continuing to
watch the program here on asynchronous
programming I also don't recommend
wearing the Vision Pro 24/7 while it's
not that easy to eat while wearing them
the main reason is the strap so let me
get into the actual build quality Apple
have done a fantastic job at making this
feel like a piece of technology out of
the future yet despite all that there
are a few problems that I was
encountering I already mentioned the
battery pack but what I didn't mention
is this proprietary connector here which
you connect on this side it's not that
easy to get in and then it's always got
this cable sticking out and then there's
this strap at the back of the Vision Pro
this strap visually looks so good the
material is soft to the touch and this
style lets me tighten or loosen it at
any point but functionally it doesn't do
the job it should so I actually swapped
to the alternative strap removing the
straps was very easy you just pull this
little orange tag and they come off
instantly then the alternative strap
comes with this band that goes above
your head as well as that back of the
head and this provided so much better
support for me when I was wearing it I
think I've already mentioned but this
magnetic grip kept coming off whenever I
went to grab it it also feels like it's
in a spot where it's easy to just simply
fall off which filled me with Terror
whenever I went to pick up this $6,000
device Apple also provides this cover
for the Vision Pro and this cover kind
of sits on top of the glass which I was
worried might break if I throw in my
backpack however this this fits in
snuggly and it's almost like a little
sleeping mask and works perfectly if I
do need to travel with it the next thing
I wanted to try was actually using it
with my laptop I heard that it can work
almost like a second monitor where you
see the monitor in Virtual space and I
thought this would be a very cool thing
to test out for day-to-day working as
soon as I open up my laptop I get this
little connect button above it which I
can select and it opens up a screen of
my desktop in Virtual space it also
darkens my current screen so no one else
can see what I'm working on I did this
at home where both my laptop and The
Vision Pro were on the same Wi-Fi
however later when I was at a cafe it
worked just the same even though both
devices weren't on the same Wi-Fi next I
tested resizing the actual screen
placing it on top of my laptop I thought
this was pretty cool because it meant
that I was almost working on my laptop
though the resolution wasn't as good as
looking at the actual screen itself so
in that case I probably wouldn't
recommend VR if this is how you're going
to use it just use your laptop normally
then I move the virtual space on top of
my Apple Studio display I know I'm a
little bit silly but this was just
something I had to try after playing
around with its position and its size I
was able to replicate it and for me it
looked almost exactly the same as if I
had the display on itself though I don't
think this was the intended use case for
The Vision Pro still it gives you an
idea of just how flexible this virtual
space is you can really craft your own
scenes however you wish and in this case
this is what I I was wishing to do but I
assume people would prefer larger
monitors I can actually resize this
screen placing it on top and making it a
lot bigger I heard there's an Apple OS
update that'll actually make it curved
and even wider if that's what people
prefer as someone working inside of
Visual Studio code though this is
probably just enough I wouldn't want a
larger screen otherwise I really
wouldn't be able to see everything
without constantly turning my head
another thing I could do is open up
additional apps side by side with my
desktop itself so this means I could
have a YouTube running on a screen on
the right hand side while I have my
coding environment at the very Forefront
for some all these additional screens
and things playing in the background
might be distracting but if for example
you're watching a coding tutorial and
you're trying to follow along it could
be useful I also discovered that the
mouse and keyboard from my laptop
actually carried across to the virtual
space it's another example of Apple
adding in some smarts which just work
another thing I liked was that I could
move these spaces to wherever I wanted
so for example if I simply wanted to
change desks I can move this screen
across to my other desk and start
working on there instead and while I
would have to also move my laptop so
that I can actually use the mouse and
keyboard it does allow me to do some
very interesting things meaning I'm
never locked into exactly where I'm
sitting and this incentivizes me to move
a little bit more because otherwise I
might be sitting in the same spot for
hours on end however if you're someone
looking to code Direct ly inside of the
Vision Pro I didn't find any VSS code
that is a native app you can download
and use however if that's something you
really want to do you can always use
GitHub and use it through the web
browser through code spaces where you
get a vs code instance running in the
browser though I'm not sure exactly how
you would type unless you've also
brought a keyboard along with you which
in that case I would say it's just
easier to bring your laptop but who
knows maybe if you're reviewing code you
want to do it with your own hands quite
literally for the Apple Vision Pro I
thought one of the advantages of having
a VR device is that you can wear it
anywhere so I tried a few different
settings I enjoyed being able to lie
down but another thing I tried was
heading over to a cafe and just
pretending I'm a completely normal
person who just happens to need some
additional visual aids for the most part
A lot of people didn't look at me as
funny as I thought they would and they
just pretended that I'm probably just
some weirdo and I don't know how to work
in society but that's okay because I am
a little bit like that so I opened up my
laptop and tried what it is like inside
of the Vision Pro just out and about
during a regular day I was able to
connect to my laptop immediately and I
didn't even set up my Personal Hotspot
yet but I did check to make sure that I
could run the personal hotspot as well
as this virtual screen at the same time
and I could I also think that it is kind
of smart that Apple made my eyes
actually appear at the front of the
screen so that people can see if I'm
looking at them this makes it so though
that if I am interacting with people it
doesn't look like I'm completely zoned
out and I can actually see what they're
doing however I still don't think this
will stop people from thinking inside
their head that you're kind of strange
there was another feature I really liked
about the Vision Pro there's a dial at
the very top of the device that lets you
swap into a virtual environment of your
own choosing it was brilliant I really
enjoyed being able to escape the mundane
surroundings I was in and being able to
focus 100% on the window and work I was
doing but it makes makes me think well
wouldn't it just be easier to head to an
office or work from home if that's my
goal either way it's a very neat trick
with the Vision Pro it also lets you Dim
your environment which is what I'm doing
here where you're not completely passing
it through to the virtual space but just
halfway more or less the Apple Vision
Pro is also meant to be the best VR
device better than the meta quest which
I've owned for the last year and I
haven't particularly used that much and
while the Apple Vision Pro might have a
slightly higher resolution I found them
very similar and in terms of work
actually programming on this device is
kind of difficult because when I'm
looking at actual code on a screen it's
kind of hard to see what I'm focused on
sometimes I like to view the whole
screen and everything isn't in Focus
usually only the thing I'm looking at in
terms of design when I'm trying to move
different elements around I can't use
the hand tracking in the end I need to
use a mouse and a keyboard and so I
might as well just be using a monitor
I've only really had a shallow test of
using it for Pro programming and design
so today I thought I would actually give
it a proper test by using it for most of
the day to do the kind of task that I
normally do when it comes to creating
websites and designing them firstly to
test out designing a website I decided
to continue using my laptop as I found
this the easiest way to interact with
the Vision Pro especially when I was
working I use it as a main large screen
that just hovers in front of my desk I'm
building out this 3D website for an
upcoming tutorial on my other channel
community and you can see here that I'm
using it just like you would normally a
screen which makes for the question is
it really worth having a Vision Pro for
$6,000 when it's just replicating what a
computer screen normally does personally
I find the ability to move my face
closer to a screen and see all the
pixels actually beneficial over using a
Vision Pro which makes everything a
little bit blurry if you're not focusing
it in just the perfect way all these
examples so far have been using Apple
but what if you have a Windows machine I
downloaded an app called Duet which
allows you to connect to your computer
through Wi-Fi and I was able to get it
up and running on the Vision Pro
natively which is great so instead of
opening up my laptop screen I now have a
replica of my desktop screen it's even
running the same resolution though I do
have a giant black bar here at the
bottom I resized the screen so it' be
super wide similar to the Asus monitor
I'm currently running it was so similar
in fact that when I overlaid it on top
it almost look like the exact same
monitor I think this is kind of
hilarious and similar to the Apple
display that I replicated earlier and I
really like doing this for some reason
though this means that I can now move
about this screen and position it
wherever I wish which I decided to do in
front of my desk kind of similar to how
I normally have my monitor anyway I
headed into figma to see what that was
like as well as editing a couple of the
designs and as I mentioned earlier it
was in fact easier to use a monitor than
this screen while here on camera it does
look like it's doing a pretty good job
for your eyes looking at the actual
pixels themselves they do kind of end up
a little bit blurry and there's a bit of
a Halo happening if the screen is too
bright as well as for programming
normally the way I code is to have
Visual Studio code on the left hand side
with a project I'm working on often in
reactjs but sometimes it's also plain
HTML CSS and JavaScript then I have my
figma reference file on the right hand
side I often try to replicate a lot of
The Styling and components from the
figma file in my code here in reactjs
components while doing so in VR on the
Vision Pro was very familiar to how I
would normally do it on my monitor I did
have a few issues firstly the text was
hard to focus on as I mentioned earlier
anything in focus is only what you're
looking at exactly I tried to bring the
monitor a little closer to myself in
order to see the text a little bit
clearer but that didn't work as well as
I wish it did though it looked looked
really cool it wasn't as practical as I
wanted it to be the other thing I tried
was increasing the font size of vs code
but if I'm going to do that I might as
well just have a monitor additionally
after working like this for about a
period of an hour I did also have a
headache which might be just because I'm
not used to VR but it's something I took
note of especially if I was considering
to use this every day for actual work I
think the potential is there being able
to open up additional monitors and set
up your workspace however you wish is
probably the most beneficial part of
having a Vision Pro but at the same time
it does get crowded personally I've
always liked the Moto less is more and
for me this was just a bit overwhelming
when I tried to get it to all work
together I can't really see what I would
use this for and yet it's still a lot of
fun I'll tell you that so it's a very
expensive Gadget that I love showing off
to other people giving a tech demo to
but realistically I don't think I'd be
using this every day or every week but
maybe once a month
5.0 / 5 (0 votes)