Apple Vision Pro Review - Why does this EXIST?

Summary

The Apple Vision Pro is a high-end $3,500 virtual reality headset with impressive hardware like studio-quality audio and excellent hand tracking. It focuses more on refining current VR capabilities over adding flashy new features. While it provides an incredible media viewing experience, lacks key apps, ties users into the Apple ecosystem, and doesn't properly support productivity workloads. It aims to get developers excited about VR over serving mainstream consumers right now.

Takeaways

• 😊 The Vision Pro is very polished in small details, focusing more on refining basics over headline features
• 👀 The facially-scanned avatars are creepy now, but represent progress towards true realism
• 🎥 The media consumption experience is incredible - like having a home theater setup anywhere
• 😮‍💨 The Vision Pro isn't trying to sell itself to consumers yet, more aimed at impressing developers
• 🔒 There are some concerning signals of Apple's walled garden and control
• 😕 Critical entertainment apps are still missing at launch
• 👩‍💻 Using the Vision Pro for work tasks shows room for improvement
• 😞 The headset can feel isolating and antisocial for those around the user
• 😬 Prolonged use risks decreased attention span and constant dopamine-seeking
• 🤔 It's an exciting product with scary potential that no one really needs...yet

Q & A

Quel est le prix du Apple Vision Pro aux États-Unis ?

Le Apple Vision Pro est vendu 35 000$ aux États-Unis.

Pourquoi Apple n'essaie pas vraiment de vendre activement le Apple Vision Pro ?

Apple pense que ce produit n'est pas encore prêt pour le grand public. Il est destiné aux développeurs pour qu'ils commencent à créer des applications pour la réalité augmentée et la réalité virtuelle.

Quels sont les avantages du système de suivi oculaire du Apple Vision Pro?

Le suivi oculaire permet une interaction très naturelle avec l'interface. On peut sélectionner et manipuler des objets juste en regardant.

Quels sont les inconvénients du Apple Vision Pro pour le travail?

L'écran dupliqué de l'ordinateur n'est pas interactif. On ne peut pas avoir plusieurs fenêtres ou écrans. Le clavier n'est pas visible.

Pourquoi l'expérience multimédia est excellente avec le Apple Vision Pro?

On peut avoir un écran géant, changer l'environnement, avoir du vrai 3D stéréoscopique, un son surround, et être complètement immergé.

Quel est le problème de sociabilité avec le Apple Vision Pro?

Quand on le porte, on est isolé dans son propre monde. C'est difficile d'interagir avec les gens autour de soi.

Pourquoi Apple a créé le Apple Vision Pro?

Pour donner un aperçu de la réalité augmentée/virtuelle du futur et motiver les développeurs à créer des applications pour cette plateforme.

Quels sont les risques du Apple Vision Pro pour notre attention?

On risque de devenir accro à la stimulation persistante et aux dopamine hits. Cela peut créer du stress.

Quelle différence avec le Meta Quest?

Le Meta Quest est pour le gaming, moins cher mais aussi moins puissant. Le Apple Vision Pro vise à remplacer l'ordinateur.

Quelle est la conclusion générale sur le Apple Vision Pro?

C'est excitant mais pas indispensable actuellement. C'est un avant-goût prometteur de la réalité augmentée/virtuelle du futur.

Outlines

00:00

🍏 Présentation du Vision Pro d'Apple

Le Vision Pro d'Apple est présenté comme un produit révolutionnaire mais pas forcément destiné au grand public. Avec un prix de 35 000 $, il manque d'une application phare ou d'un jeu de réalité augmentée qui justifierait son achat. Apple semble plutôt cibler les développeurs, pariant sur l'avenir des casques comme futur de la technologie grand public. Malgré son potentiel monstrueux, le produit soulève des questions quant à ses implications. Certaines fonctionnalités comme les avatars de FaceTime et la qualité exceptionnelle de l'audio sont mises en avant, tout comme son approche minutieuse des petits détails plutôt que des caractéristiques principales.

05:01

🎮 Expérience utilisateur et conception matérielle

Le Vision Pro offre une expérience immersive avec un design confortable bien qu'il soit lourd. La réalité augmentée grâce à la transmission vidéo est impressionnante malgré quelques défauts comme le flou de mouvement et la gamme dynamique limitée. L'interface utilisateur est intuitive, utilisant la profondeur et les ombres pour une interaction naturelle. Les performances de suivi de la main sont avancées, permettant une immersion plus profonde dans la réalité virtuelle. Cependant, des limitations telles que l'absence de sangle rigide et la qualité inférieure de la caméra par rapport à l'iPhone sont notées.

10:03

🌍 Expériences médias et applications

Le Vision Pro transforme l'expérience médiatique en permettant aux utilisateurs de créer leur propre environnement de visionnage. Malgré la qualité inférieure de la caméra par rapport à l'iPhone, la facilité d'utilisation et la profondeur automatique des photos et vidéos sont appréciées. La disponibilité et la rapidité d'ajout des applications optimisées sont surprenantes, bien que certaines applications populaires manquent et que l'écosystème semble favoriser les produits Apple. La plateforme promet des possibilités futuristes, rappelant le lancement de l'iPhone, mais soulève des inquiétudes quant à l'écosystème fermé d'Apple.

15:04

🔒 Problèmes de contrôle et expérience de travail

L'expérience de travail avec le Vision Pro révèle des limitations, notamment dans la navigation et la saisie de texte dues à la dépendance à la vue pour l'interaction. Bien que la fonctionnalité de miroir d'écran soit pratique, elle n'offre pas d'avantages significatifs par rapport à un moniteur traditionnel. Des problèmes mineurs liés à l'utilisation quotidienne, comme boire ou vérifier les notifications sur son téléphone, sont également mentionnés. Ces inconvénients soulignent les défis de remplacer les interactions physiques traditionnelles par des alternatives virtuelles.

20:06

👥 Implications sociales et préoccupations

Le Vision Pro crée des expériences partagées uniques mais peut isoler les utilisateurs de leur entourage immédiat. Les difficultés de partage et d'adaptation du casque à différents utilisateurs limitent les interactions sociales. Cette isolation potentielle et la nécessité de résoudre ce problème pour intégrer les casques dans la vie quotidienne sont soulignées. De plus, l'impact du Vision Pro et des technologies similaires sur l'attention et la stimulation constante est discuté, mettant en lumière les défis de gérer l'overstimulation dans un monde de plus en plus numérique.

25:07

💡 Conclusion et réflexions sur le VPN

La conclusion met en perspective le Vision Pro comme un produit passionnant mais non essentiel, tout en soulignant les différences avec des produits comme le Meta Quest 3. Le potentiel du Vision Pro de remplacer éventuellement l'ordinateur est reconnu, mais les limitations actuelles et l'approche fermée d'Apple sont critiquées. La discussion se termine par la mise en valeur des avantages d'un abonnement VPN, en particulier Surf Shark, pour sécuriser et privatiser l'expérience en ligne, surtout lors de l'utilisation de technologies immersives comme le Vision Pro.

Keywords

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Highlights

Apple didn't really want you to buy the Vision Pro, focused instead on doing all the little things really well

The Vision Pro avatar scans your face and creates an animated version, ahead of last year's metaverse avatars

The Vision Pro hardware feels airy and doesn't get clammy or sweaty like other headsets

The user interface icons are beautiful, gaining depth when looked at

Shadows on interface windows and floor create an extra layer of immersion

Hand occlusion is phenomenal, cutting out parts of objects your hands would cover

For media, the Vision Pro lets you escape into any digital world imagined

Lack of major apps like Netflix and Spotify limit Vision Pro usefulness when traveling

Strong Apple ecosystem lock-in makes Vision Pro best for mainly Apple users

Companies deciding what you can record with your eyes feels intrusive

Working in Vision Pro adds little productivity value compared to monitors

Vision Pro hardware has kinks to work out, like missing your mouth when drinking

Sharing the experience with others in-person is cumbersome and lonely

The Vision Pro could exacerbate attention span and boredom issues

The Vision Pro is exciting and scary; no one really needs one yet

Transcripts

this is the Vision Pro and apple doesn't

really want you to buy it almost every

tech product that has ever come out you

know that the company has first thought

what's the selling point either a key

problem that it's fixing or just a clear

reason that you would want to buy one

and so almost consistently when you get

a first generation product in a new

category it's still going to have those

one or two key selling features cuz

they're necessary for it to be a success

but then it's also going to be

incredibly Rough Around the Edges

because the company has prioritized

those as opposed to making sure that all

the little granular things are right but

with the Vision Pro maybe the biggest

product in the company's entire history

I think it's kind of the opposite I mean

Apple are masters of marketing you know

how they carefully curate the sprinkle

of new features that each and every new

iPhone comes with to make sure that

you're always wanting to keep moving up

that ladder if this company wanted to

they could absolutely sell you on this

product but I don't think they're trying

to The Vision Pro released in the US

only with a

$35,000 price tag it has no real killer

app it has no Blockbuster augmented

reality game and instead of those one or

two key headline features it actually

focuses instead on doing all those

little things really well the things

that far fewer people are going to

notice and far fewer people are going to

buy it for why well I think the only

reason Apple has made this product is

for developers that they're placing a

bet that the future of consumer Tech is

veering towards headsets and so by

making one absolutely banging piece of

Hardware that sells devs on this vision

of the future and by banking on the high

confidence that people already have an

Apple product succeeding it's going to

make those devs start scurrying to build

apps for this platform potentially even

making it the default VR platform before

most of its competitors have even

properly taken a stab it that said we're

now a month into launch I've been using

this for work for play for travel and

this product scares me both in terms of

its monstrous and I mean monstrous

potential but also with its

consequences so let's start with the

good like I know that a lot of people

are saying the FaceTime is weird the way

this headset scans your face and creates

this avatar for you feels creepy and

uncanny valley and I don't completely

disagree with that but in my mind it's

not a bad thing see if you plotted a

graph of the realism of a character

against how acceptable they look you'll

get this people are completely okay with

something that's distinctly unrealistic

it actually becomes even better when

that character gets more detailed and

the animations improve but then as soon

as you hit a certain point of being

close to real but not quite we hate it

it's creepy it feels possessed and if I

had to pinpoint where the Apple Vision

Pro avatars currently sit it is around

here so as far as actually using this to

join a business meeting or FaceTime your

mom I don't think she'll be best pleased

I think she'll tell you to take that

bluming helmet off or once but as a

Showcase of progress I think this is a

big deal that on this graph we've pretty

much Leap Frog all away from here to

here this is so far ahead of even last

year's metaverse avatars that it

genuinely makes them look like a prank

and yes we are at an uncomfortable stage

right now but we had to get here at some

point on the way to True realism so why

not get it over with with a us only gen

one product and also it is really

freeing now that you can actually video

call someone without needing to get

dressed up without needing to hold

anything or find a surface to prop your

phone up with and knowing that they can

hear you with genuinely studio quality

audio it sounds better than this mic

here and see you front and center at all

times it's meant that I've been able to

talk to people while cooking while

packing bags while walking on the street

and I feel the same way about this whole

eyesight feature you know the way that

other people can see your eyes through

the headset right now it does not

achieve its objective of making it less

socially awkward to film in front of

people I'm wearing one of these around

London on planes in Ubers coffee shops I

have never had as much side eye in my

entire life you can tell that every

single person you walk past is trying

their absolute hardest to not turn and

stare at you but also that that's

exactly what they want to do I've had

people call me all sorts of things like

take off that headset you I'll let you

fill in the blanks but the point is

right now you look like a donut wearing

this in public and that's probably

partly because the eyes need to be

brighter and the outer plastic area gets

lots of Reflections but I do think that

the main thing is just the fact that

it's new the idea of this is not

currently considered acceptable but as

an actual concept I do think that

eyesight is a super intelligent solution

to the problem of others being

completely unaware of what you're

looking at like yeah it's kind of a

waste of battery and yeah you could just

stick some LEDs on the outside a green

one to let people know that you can see

them and a red one to let them know

you're recording but this does at least

make those interactions feel a little

bit more humanlike at least you know as

much as they can when you've got a 200

in screen between

you now at its core the Apple Vision Pro

is a virtual reality headset it's not

dissimilar to products like The Meta

Quest but for me at least it does do

more of the fundamentals right than

anyone else it's it's cushioned but Airy

it doesn't get clammmy or sweaty yes the

headset is heavy and I do think Apple

should have added in the option for some

sort of rigid strap like basically every

VR headset comes with just to take off

some of the clamping force from the

front of your face and yes if you pay

attention to it you of course can tell

that this whole pass through thing is a

video feed that you're watching as

opposed to your real eyes seeing the

real world with the motion blur and the

Grain and the occasional sign flickering

and the dynamic range and of course the

headset's camera stabilization not being

as good as the stabilization of your own

eyes but no one has done it better than

this the resolution the latency the

color signs so much workers have to go

into this and it's a lot harder than it

seems It's like shooting a video all the

time but with higher Stakes because all

of a sudden you can't have sudden

changes in exposure the perspective has

to match that of your eyes there needs

to be none of the Distortion that you

would normally get with wide camera

lenses like this and also there can't be

a delay between when things happen and

when you see them and Apple has done all

of those things in a proficient enough

way that in most lighting conditions

your brain can just tune it out and

genuinely convince yourself of the

illusion that you are placing digital

objects into your real world and that is

a massive achievement and that is

complimented by the fact that the user

interface is beautiful icons for example

are completely flat until you look at

them and then the various different

layers separate and you get depth

there's no dark or light mode it is all

about glass here which makes it even

more immersive because you're seeing

bits of your room or your sky or your

scene behind your apps oh and the

Shadows I love the Shadows how the

windows cast a little bit of Darkness on

the floor how letters cast Darkness on

your walls and the Hand occlusion is

absolutely phenomenal most headsets like

this they can place objects within the

room that you're sitting in but that

illusion breaks the second you lift your

hands up cuz your hands will appear

behind the window that the headset is

trying to make you think is sitting 3 m

from your face but this scans your hand

hands in real time at all times such

that anytime you Eclipse a window it

cuts out a little bit of that window

around your hands so that your hands

still appear like they're in front it

isn't perfect but it's good enough so

that as long as you're not staring at

your hands the illusion is maintained

using the Apple Vision Pro is kind of

like that pipe dream we've always had of

using transparent phones all the perks

of that how unbelievably cool it feels

but none of the cons like the fact that

you can't see your apps properly or

Reflections interfering with everything

oh and the interaction model the way

that your eyes are used to highlight

things in your hands to select them I

think this is going to get copied a lot

I think it's going to become the

industry standard so quickly that in a

few years time it will just be well of

course this is how headsets work and

while of course the idea of big tech

companies monitoring your eye movements

is particularly scary it feels like

apple has well addressed this issue

essentially the ey tracking happens on

one layer of software that exists

completely on device so let's say you're

on Tik Tok and you're looking around Tik

Tok does not see these hover effects

they do not see the room you're sitting

in and there's no way for them to access

your persona all that stuff runs offline

and your Vision Pro only tells the app

the minimum amount it needs to know how

to function and I got to say darting

around your headset with your eyes like

this and manipulating a room with a

pinch of your fingers when it works it's

pure Wizardry yes there's work to be

done on it and I still do personally

find it a bit less satisfying than a

phone screen partly because your phone's

inputs are detected more accurately and

partly because just hitting something

physical it gives you something back as

opposed to tapping and prodding and

poking stuff in midair but the skeleton

is in place in one go I think app has

already set the precedent for the future

now I've had some pretty major issues

trying to use the Vision Pro for work

I'm getting to that but one thing is

undeniable the media experience you can

get from this is oh my goodness part of

it is the screens on the inside they're

crisp the blacks are really black the

colors are vivid and the brightness is

super high all of that matters but it's

much more than that for those of you who

haven't managed to put one of these on

yet let me describe it to you imagine

you're in your living room you're

sipping a cup of tea and you're reading

a book and you decide you know I fancy

watching something right now so you put

your Vision Pro on you drag in a

high-end OLED TV screen to whichever

angle you find the most comfortable yes

even lying down looking directly up you

make that screen as big as you want like

literally 200 in if you're into that and

you hit play you want to darken your

surroundings you don't need to go find a

light switch your headset can do it you

want to change of scenery you turn this

dial and you phase in the surface of the

Moon or literally any seat of you're

choosing within a cinema and maybe the

most underrated aspect of the whole

thing is the 3D because each of your

eyes here has its own screen any 3D

movie this can create that effect and

the way this thing represents that 3D

content is it hands down the best

experience I've ever had if I could pick

between watching movies on this or going

to the cinema on my own and wearing

those cheap glasses that darken and

already not that bright projector even

if I was getting paid to go to the

cinema I would pick the Vision Pro if

you're on a flight in a cramped economy

cabin put some good earphones in your

ears put this on your face and you can

genuinely Escape it's probably actually

only a matter of time before someone

makes an app that allows you to

literally escape to a first class cabin

but whatever digital location you choose

whether it's a desert or a United States

national park you genuinely feel like

you are in your own world your own world

where there isn't a chance that anyone

around you can see anything you're

watching which is kind of weird at first

when you're typing in passwords and you

see that it's not censoring anything but

the power of this product is it's as if

you could pick up your high-end 80-in TV

your Apple TV box your surround sound

system and you could pack them into your

ruck sack and be able to take them out

at any time you want without worrying

about plugging them in or positioning

them that's how powerful and unique a

proposition this is I also thought the

cameras are pretty interesting like how

good is this versus an iPhone well not

quite as good which is a little sad

since the Vision Pro has both more space

and a higher price bracket but I guess

it just wasn't Apple's priority here

it's different its photos are

significantly worse than iPhone photos

and its videos are slightly worse but

there is something very easy about

taking a vision pro video the fact that

it's always ready to record the fact

that it's carried by your face so both

your hands are free and the spatial

aspect every photo and video you take on

this has automatic depth it's kind of

like portrait mode but instead of being

compressed into a flat 2D image you can

actually experience that depth not a

mind-blowing camera but a cool one and

finally the apps consider in how new of

a platform this is I've actually been

quite surprised by both how many apps

there are that are well optimized for it

and also how quickly they get added it

feels like every time I boot the thing

up there is something new to explore you

can DJ and mash up songs you can look at

and take apart fully to scale 3D models

you can play augmented reality games

there's no one killer Apple feature and

there are some very notable gaps too

like an augmented reality Maps app or

some kind of Blockbuster immersive game

but this is such a strong base to build

on that my mind is already spinning at

what something like this could be

capable of in just a few years it very

much reminds me of you know in the first

iPhone launched how Steve Jobs got on

stage and he talked about how they were

launching three groundbreaking things

and then that all of those three things

were actually just one thing this is

that all over again it's like a dozen

incredible new technologies all

happening in one product the key

difference being that now instead of

apps running in two Dimensions they're

running in three dimensions fully taking

into account the space that you're

operating them in like you know that

phone app that plants a tree every time

you stick to your work goals well what

if that tree gets planted and grows in

real time on your actual desk or like

Pokémon go all of a sudden that original

trailer for it you know the one that

looked like pure science fiction that is

actually possible now I don't know about

you but that well that would get me off

the sofa and if you're enjoying this

video then a sub to the channel would be

the

awesome but it's not without issue

issues so let's go from the smallest to

the biggest one of the first things

you'll notice is the app situation while

like I just said there are lots of great

ones there's no Netflix there's no

Spotify there's no YouTube we're talking

apps so ubiquitous that they're like the

first things you would think to install

on any new machine if they're not

already pre-installed but here it's not

just that you're not getting customade

Vision Pro apps these companies seem to

have specifically decided to not even

allow you to use the iPad versions of

their apps which is the default for

Vision Pro and yeah you can use the

websites but then you can't download

your movies or songs like you can on the

apps which pretty much renders Your

Vision Pro useless while traveling

unless you primarily use Apple TV that

is and that actually leads me on to my

second concern it's not a secret that

Apple are the masters of lockin they

don't just want you to use their phone

they want you to have their watch their

home speaker their Mac Pro wheels and

they are the best company in the world

at achieving that Apple ties each one of

their products together so seamlessly

and at the same time basically ignores

the ex existence of competing products

which when you combine those two things

together creates the Apple Universe a

universe in which you use your Apple

airdrop to send files and you watch your

Apple TV shows and you use apple

shareplay and FaceTime to connect with

your friends everything just works and

you feel like you're living in an apple

commercial until either you or someone

Close to You tries to use something

that's not apple and then it all breaks

down and there's been a couple of times

while using this Vision Pro where I have

felt like I'm not sure I want that on my

face because when you put this thing on

it's a lot more than just using another

Apple product your vision in the most

literal sense possible becomes Apple's

Vision you see what Apple has decided

you see I noticed this for the first

time when I was watching something on

Disney plus and I wanted to send what I

was looking at to drisha the Apple

Vision Pro blocked me from doing that

you try and record a quick clip of your

scene and it blacks out the show and I

understand why like the same reason you

can't screen record a TV show on your

phone for piracy reasons but this is my

vision there's something that feels

incredibly intrusive about companies

deciding what you can and can't do with

your eyes like if I was watching a movie

in my living room on my own TV and I

want to pull out my phone to record a

quick clip of that scene it might be

frowned upon by Netflix but I can still

do that but all of a sudden on this

being told that I can't that I have no

choice I just felt my first twinge of

that dystopian future that a lot of

people fear one where companies are the

ones in charge of your free will and you

notice this apple level of control in

lots of other areas too like this thing

refuses to let you both screen record or

take video when you're in low light why

not just try like I can see the view

from my headset and I think it looks

fine but Apple doesn't want you to and

the only reason I can think of is that

they don't think it would be a good

enough looking video and it may poorly

represent the Apple Vision Pro online

but that's on me if it's a poor looking

video I should be able to make that

decision the fact that the thing is

portless apart from the power connector

so if you want to send files to anything

Wireless oh and what's the easiest and

best way to wirelessly send those files

to anything Apple airdrop got it you

want to video call your Android buddies

there's no WhatsApp app I mean yeah you

could set up a zoom meeting but really

this is designed for FaceTime and you

know that absolutely awesome ability to

sit yourself in an actual Cinema and

pick your seat from everything I can see

that's for Apple TV content only and

there's absolutely no reason why that

needed to be the case why not enable

this feature for all content I'd love to

watch my YouTube videos that way too

instead of in Safari what I'm saying is

that there's no one thing that's

outwardly wrong here it's just there are

definitely the classic undertones of

things being built for the Apple users

as opposed to things being built to be

the best no matter what app you're using

and as someone who has just recently

switched over to a Samsung phone I

definitely feel like I am at the butt of

that joke but even more bothersome than

that is that the Vision Pro Pro is not

particularly great for work at least not

my work while it is very cool that you

can mirror your laptop's display and

make it bigger and place it anywhere and

it's extremely thoughtless in how you

start the feature you just stare at your

laptop screen and hit connect it doesn't

really add anything it's not like my Mac

suddenly enters the virtual realm and I

can start interacting with Final Cut Pro

through my headset it's just a screen

within a screen you can't suddenly add

in multiple monitors or turn your

existing monitor into an ultrawide so I

can't have my video editor open on one

screen here and then the preview window

over here which would be a value ad and

working in this is not higher resolution

either you still get a better resolution

out of a good quality Monitor and yeah

you could say good quality monitors are

expensive but if you can afford one of

these you can definitely afford one of

those when I'm scripting while your

MacBook screen does reappear within the

headset your keyboard does not so it's

very hard to read meaning that unless

you're an aade touch typer writing is

about to get significantly slower and

that's not even factoring in the

slightly more fundamental issue that in

most computers your input device is

independent of where you're looking like

most people don't look at the mouse for

example your hands just do it whereas

here because the entire system

navigation is your eyes while sometimes

it can be way less effort sometimes it

can be a lot more there are times where

it feels like your mind is being read

where like you're typing something and

you think of the letters you're trying

to type and as you do that your eyes

naturally move to those letters and the

vision just knows and it feels like

magic but at the same time I think we

naturally as humans we're always

thinking of the next thing so you will

notice that by default your eyes will

want to move on to something else as

you're entering the last digit of your

PIN for example that is not really going

to fly here because the Vision Pro

requires you to be looking exactly at

that input which leads to all sorts of

weird situations where let's say you're

deleting a bunch of text or trying to

click the undo button many times if you

try and look up at the text that's being

selected Your Vision Pro is no longer

selecting the delete key and so often

times you will just stop deleting

there's actually a whole load of small

Kinks like this that clearly do need to

be figured out in the second gen like

trying to drink The Vision Pro camera's

point of view is not quite the same as

that of your eyes so sometimes you miss

your mouth you get a notification on

your phone and you want to check it well

tough cameras don't Focus nearly as

close as your eyes can so I guarantee it

will be a strain the field of view is a

little smaller than you'd expect so you

don't get the full peripheral vision

that you're used to there's a fair bit

of sound leakage so while you do have

complete privacy with what you're seeing

everyone in the room will hear it which

is especially amusing for a headset like

this since it's the only thing they can

experience don't get me wrong the

hardware is incredible it's better than

anything I've used before but it's just

when you try and put something on your

face like this naturally it's competing

with your eyes and that it still isn't

quite up to scratch with and that leads

me onto I would say the biggest barrier

towards this hitting

mainstream it's kind of lonely in here

and that's not to say that shared

experiences don't exist like if I'm

FaceTiming a friend and I have them on

one side and then a movie that we're

both watching at the same time using

share play over here it is actually the

best experience I've ever had catching

up with people long distance but it's

the people who are right in front of you

who feel it every time I hand The Vision

Pro to someone to test it genuinely

feels like they've disappeared into

their own world they'll be standing and

prodding the air not really paying

attention to you or even able to hear

you properly and yeah the whole pass

through thing exists the person is

somewhat aware of the room and who's in

it but you know they may well have

literally planted a screen in front of

your face talking to someone wearing one

of these feels a lot like talking to

someone who's doing this and that's if

you can actually get it to work with

other people when you order a Vision Pro

there's a very Advanced fitting process

that makes it essentially custom made

for you this is why you almost

definitely should not try and import one

if you live outside the US because you

likely won't get it fitted properly but

anyway for me the one I have it fits

great and the light seal and the eye

tracking Works incredibly but I haven't

had a single smooth handoff every single

time I take this thing off to hand to

someone else to try there's always some

sort of issue that crops up whether it's

because their eyes are further apart on

their head or they normally wear glasses

or the strap won't tighten enough for

the size of their head it's so

cumbersome to actually show people

things that after a while you just don't

bother and that's a little sad now that

isn't specific to the Apple Vision Pro

it's the same with all headsets but I

would say that that is why even though

we've already had multiple VR

revolutions over the last few decades

none of them have stuck so far it's

always been an incredible party trick

it's always blown everyone away when

they first try it but then it gets

forgotten again when people realize that

they can't use it to connect with the

people who are close to them so if Apple

really does want it to stick this time

around that is the key problem they're

going to need to solve solve and you can

tell they're trying okay I do also worry

about what Apple Vision Pro and products

like it are going to do to our attention

bans I don't think it's really an issue

in the state that the thing is in now

since it's going to be a few people

using it for a few hours a day mostly

for quite specific specialized tasks but

bigger picture it could well be I mean I

see it in myself when I have periods of

spending lots of time with my tech like

all day scripting on the laptop or

gaming on the couch music while in the

gym filling every little Gap of time

with a quick video to watch I feel

incredibly on edge I feel antsy and I

think it's because my body is used to

persistent dopamine hits and it just

wants them to keep coming and that is

not good for you it's counterintuitive

but too much stimulation can quite

easily lead to a persistent feeling of

stress and I've actually a couple of

times started to get physical symptoms

from that and the only thing that has

ever helped me is to lock my phone away

in a box for a few days and completely

forget it exists I always think back to

a quote I read over 10 years a ago that

boredom is the precursor to creativity I

think it's actually really healthy to be

bored once in a while because it's what

grounds you but this I think this is the

opposite of that this is anything you

want in the entire world brought to you

and being able to experience that in the

biggest way possible this is effectively

an anti-boredom device so what's my

overall Take On The Vision Pro well I

think it's very exciting it's slightly

scary and no one really needs one I've

also seen a lot of comparison being

drawn to this meta Quest 3 which people

are rightfully saying does a lot of what

this does in fact honestly features wise

this is more and the price difference is

wild

3,499

499 but they are two very different

propositions like The Meta is great for

gaming it's got a more mature ecosystem

the hardware is basically subsidized

because meta wants it to be a mass

Market product apple does not I think

the Vision Pro is one day aiming to

directly replace your computer it's more

powerful than the meta the screens are

sharper and more contrasty this whole

Outer display thing it's trying to make

it a more socially acceptable lifestyle

product but it's also pretty clear that

Apple knows that that time isn't now and

they know that the best thing this can

possibly be in its current form is just

a high-end Tech demo that excites the

people that they need to excite but it

does that pretty well one more thing

about the Vision Pro is that it has made

me more so than ever glad that I have a

surf shark VPN subscription I've been

using this in all sorts of places around

the world connected to varying degrees

of Wi-Fi trustworthiness and so knowing

that I can have a consistent internet

experience that I can watch the TV shows

that I want to watch that I can browse

not just privately in this but also

securely anywhere is a big deal and surf

shark in particular is much more than

just a VPN it can mock your GPS location

as well as your internet traffic so

let's say you're playing Pokémon go and

you want to catch a Pokémon in Japan you

can now do that from your bedroom and

save yourself about $11,000 in flights

it has a kill switch which means if you

want to make sure that you're secure at

all times you can set it up so that

anytime your VPN connection drops it

automatically Cuts your internet

connection and honestly like a thousand

more features finished off by the fact

that with the code boss it's less than

$3 a month for an unlimited number of

accounts with three extra months for

free and a 30-day money back guarantee