More from Everything we know about Apple’s Vision Pro
Apple’s upcoming mixed reality headset can play back stereoscopic 3D video shot on iPhone 15 Pro, and CNET’s Scott Stein got to load up some of his own spatial videos on a Vision Pro and watch them:
[My mom] sort of raised her eyebrows a bit, and the way she looked at me in 3D — at a scale close to normal size, with her seeming to make eye contact — made me feel like I was almost there. It made me want to climb through that fuzzy-bordered window and join my family again on the other side.
ByteDance reportedly scrapped it after sales of last year’s Pico 4 “fell far short of ByteDance’s expectations,” according to a report by The Information. The last headset still hasn’t launched in the US, as political heat has stayed on ByteDance and its other well-known project, TikTok.
However, the report also claims Pico engineers are working on a long-term “Swan” concept to develop a high-end headset inspired by Apple’s Vision Pro.
Check out the process in an onboarding video that 9to5Mac found in the latest visionOS beta.
Not your TV, though.
A beta version of the app shows support for 3D playback on the Vision Pro. Early titles including Jurassic World Dominion and The Boss Baby: Family Business.
[FlatpanelsHD]
The three companies announced an Android AR / VR headset in February but with few details. UploadVR and Korean business outlet The JoongAng report rumors of a late 2024 launch, after Apple introduces its Vision Pro.
Last month Samsung closed a $218 million deal to acquire eMagin, a US company developing Micro OLED tech that execs have said could surpass the panel in the Vision Pro, could be two to three years from being commercialized.
One of the questions about how Vision Pro users will be able to share content with people who don’t have their own $3,500 headset may be answered, as MacRumors points out code discovered in Apple’s visionOS 1.0 beta 4 release about mirroring content to other devices and sharing via AirPlay or FaceTime.
Another string in the code is a new alert for situations where “This video has excess motion, and could cause discomfort if expanded.”
In a new report, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says Apple will ship 400,000 to 600,000 of its mixed-reality headsets in 2024, an estimate that’s lower than the expected 1 million shipments.
That prediction tracks with a July report from The Financial Times, which similarly states that Apple is preparing to make less than 400,000 Vision Pro headsets next year.
In an interview with Brian Tong on the Apple Blitz XL podcast, Apple VP of sensing and connectivity Ron Huang explains that while the second-gen AirPods Pro earbuds also have the H2 chip just like its new USB-C model, the new ones are capable of communicating at 5GHz instead of just 2GHz.
He says that’s why the new USB-C AirPods Pro earbuds have enough bandwidth to do lossless audio wirelessly when combined with the upcoming Vision Pro.
Apple:
The H2 chip in the latest AirPods Pro and Apple Vision Pro, combined with a groundbreaking wireless audio protocol, unlocks powerful 20-bit, 48 kHz Lossless Audio with a massive reduction in audio latency
9to5Mac posted this clip with even more system sounds included in the visionOS beta 3 update released today.
Other Vision Pro software changes now match WWDC marketing images, suggesting previous builds were well out of date. The report also notes accessibility tweaks that adjust controls for people who can’t make a gesture with one of their hands, can’t use both eyes to navigate, and more.
And finally, there’s a notification included saying “Mouse input is currently not supported on visionOS.” How would Douglas Engelbart take that news?
Two companies, BOE Technology and SeeYa Technology, raised their hands in interest to, at scale, build specialty Micro-OLED screens, The Information reports.
Most companies haven’t invested in building the complex screens, so finding cheaper suppliers — or just more competition — is important for Apple to get the price down on successors to the $3,499 Vision Pro that uses displays made by Sony.
From the last issue of Command Line:
While most developers have to physically go into one of Apple’s labs to try the Vision Pro, a select group has been able to take headsets home to spend more time building for the device. After talking with one such developer, I’ve confirmed the suspicion I had after my own Vision Pro demo back at WWDC: key aspects of the device don’t work yet, namely the front-facing display that is supposed to show the wearer’s eyes as they move.
That explains why no Apple execs have been photographed wearing the Vision Pro yet, and why even the accompanying photo for the company’s post this week on early developer reactions only shows the headset being worn from the side. Siri also doesn’t work on the devices that have been loaned to developers, I’m told. Has Apple ever let people from the outside world use, much less take home, a device that is this unfinished?
Yes, the Vision Pro looks impressive, but I encourage you to take this Apple blog post featuring opinions from developers who have attended the company’s Vision Pro labs with a grain of salt.
Still, it’s interesting to see what developers have to say. The headset has the best chance of success if it has great apps, and Apple needs to get third-party developers on board to make them.
[developer.apple.com]
With developer kits apparently going out, it was inevitable that someone would get some time inside one of Apple’s Vision Pro headsets without official authorization, and Apple Insider says a “fan” allowed them about two hours with a unit.
They didn’t get to take pictures (or, more importantly, screenshots) but noted similar experiences to ours from WWDC, saying, “...it feels like there’s almost twice the vertical field of vision on Apple Vision Pro, versus HoloLens,” and that the gesture controls already felt familiar.
Remember when we thought the Vision Pro would be called the Reality Pro? That was because of some sneaky shell company trademark filings by (probably) Apple last year.
Turns out Apple went ahead and transferred those trademarks to itself, according to Mark Gurman’s Power On newsletter in Bloomberg today. It might not ever use them, but at least it won’t be surprising if it does.
Reported Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, saying sessions have been underfilled so far. Given how careful Apple is being with the prerelease headsets a slow rollout of test units isn’t surprising, but it may mean apps take longer than expected to adjust to a newly augmented reality.
