The Vision Pro is not an easy thing to review, or explain, or score. But Nilay had to do all those things. So about 24 hours before the whole thing went live, we sat Nilay down in the studio to hash this thing out once and for all. What is the Vision Pro good at? What’s it for? Why is it so expensive? What’s the deal with the eyes? And most importantly... is it good?
7
Verge Score
The Apple Vision Pro is the best headset anyone’s ever made — and that’s the problem.
With the Vision Pro set to ship starting on February 2nd, Apple uploaded a TV spot for the headset to its YouTube channel. Tim Cook presented this ad at the end of his WWDC 2023 keynote presentation, and it appears to be mostly the same, all these months later.
In June we dug through it to find out everywhere Apple imagines you’ll use its $3,499 headset, but you can watch it again right here,
In an interview with Stratechery, Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters says the company wants to “see where things go with the Vision Pro:”
We have to be careful about making sure that we’re not investing in places that are not really yielding a return... Certainly we’re always in discussions with Apple to try and figure that out but right now, the device is so subscale that it’s not really particularly relevant to most of our members.
Netflix’s iPad app won’t work with the Vision Pro, either, which means users will have to access it in a web browser.
[Stratechery by Ben Thompson]
Dice? Check. Character sheet? Check. VR headset....well. Details are slim surrounding this “future release” besides it being a collaboration between Hasbro and Resolution Games — the studio that released it’s own VR tabletop roleplaying title Demeo back in 2021.
I’d be suprised if Hasbro isn’t cooking up other D&D-related projects too given the love Baldur’s Gate 3 and Honor Among Thieves recieved last year.
9to5Mac reported this morning that despite Apple Vision Pro preorders still being set for March shipping, the Apple Store website showed a February 3rd pickup date.
When I checked, I saw a February 3rd in-store pickup and March 3rd ship date. On a second try, there were no pickups available, with estimated shipping between February 20th – 27th.
Part of the online ordering process involves a Face ID-like head scan using your iPhone to size the Vision Pro head strap, but as some complained in a MacRumors thread, multiple scans can produce multiple results.
Not to fear, though. Apple retail employees were told they can swap straps for online customers who get the wrong size, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman.
Or iPad, Mac, or any AirPlay-enabled device, including smart TVs. According to Apple’s website, the Vision Pro will support 720p AirPlay mirroring, however earlier on Friday, it said it would support 1080p AirPlay.
Correction, Friday, January 19th, 2023, 8:11PM ET: The description on Apple’s website changed after this post was originally published, and it has been updated to note the new resolution listed.
Apple’s uploaded a full guided tour of the Vision Pro onto YouTube. I had an in-person demo earlier this week, and this video is sort of like a speed-run of many of the things that I saw. (I also got to see the butterfly land on my finger.) Granted, this is an even more controlled setting but you get a sense of the interface and some of the things you can do.
That said, it doesn’t really convey what screens or spatial photos truly look like — nor does it address the physicality of the headset itself.
They’re eligible for 25 percent off the $3,499 headset, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, meaning the cost for Apple staffers is around $2,600 (though Gurman says that’s before “taxes and options.”)
In Super Fruit Ninja, you’ll use your hands to chop up fruit, according to a writeup on Apple’s website. I can see how it might be fun, but I don’t know if it will be $3,499 fun — especially when I can still just play Fruit Ninja on my phone.
In an interview with Venturebeat, Ross Rosenberg claims that Apple can’t match the level of precision that Magic Leap’s tech can provide:
“What Apple has shown, as I’m sure you’ve seen, is much more about watching a streaming movie or a Facetime call, where you don’t need nearly as much accuracy. That’s a very different space.”
The augmented reality company was recently granted $590 million in additional debt relief funding from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, as Apple readies its Vision Pro headset for launch on February 2nd.
I know what I saw, but I’m still trying to figure out where this headset fits in real life.
You can look through the FCC filings here. (It’s lots of tests and reports, so it may not be the most interesting reading.)
Pre-orders open on Friday ahead of the device’s launch on February 2nd.
[fccid.io]
Caddy is a free visualizer tool that utilizes hand-tracking to interact with 3D CAD models — allowing users to “grab” individual components, and measure both real and digital objects like you’re operating Tony Stark’s sci-fi workbench.
Every Meta Quest VR headset released to date is currently supported and it even has a collaborative mode for working on projects as a group.
A metaverse high school is opening in Japan, as reported by Automaton. Students will get the same qualifications they would at a real-world high school, but they’ll attend in VR and show up as an avatar. You can learn more about in a press release and on the official website.
If you’re spending $3,499 to be one of the first 70,000 or so people with Apple’s Vision Pro, we can probably assume you own a recent iPhone. But just in case, 9to5Mac points out details from an Apple email explaining the online ordering process.
Despite rumors of required in-store appointments for face scanning, it looks like Apple will let you use FaceID on another device to judge the fit requirements and provide a current prescription if you need the $149 vision-correcting lenses.
Supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo closely follows Apple’s production plans and is saying that for the February 2nd launch day, “Apple will produce 60,000 to 80,000 units of Vision Pro,” with around 500k shipping in 2024.
We had our first Vision Pro experiences last year at WWDC, and in just a couple of weeks, everyone can decide if they’re ready to spend $3,499 for an early entry to the world of spatial computing.
Glasses-free 3D, anyone? Samsung is previewing a 37-inch 4K gaming monitor at CES 2024 that can automatically switch between 2D and 3D. It includes eye and head tracking tech to analyze your position and gaze to create the 3D experience without destroying the colors and brightness.
You can use it to watch 3D movies or play VR games since it’s also compatible with SteamVR. Samsung says more details are to come later this year.
“Refer to your app as a spatial computing app,” Apple says in visionOS developer guidelines reported on by 9to5Mac. “Don’t describe your app experience as augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), extended reality (XR), or mixed reality (MR).”
Yes, visionOS may be used to power not-VR apps in the future, and I get why Apple may want to distance itself from terms like VR or MR. But the Vision Pro device that comes out on February 2nd is a VR headset, even if Apple won’t admit it.
You’ll be able to watch shorter movies, though; Apple has updated its Vision Pro website to say the headset will let you watch “up to 2.5 hours” of video. When Apple first announced the device, the company had only said that the Vision Pro’s battery would offer up to two hours of use.
In addition to running iPhone and iPad apps or mirroring your Mac, Apple says the Vision Pro can stream movies or TV shows from Disney Plus and Max on an HDR screen that feels 100 feet wide, while the Apple TV app will have “more than 150 3D titles” plus there are Apple Immersive Video experiences with “180-degree, three-dimensional 8K recordings captured with Spatial Audio.”
Game Room, What the Golf?, and Super Fruit Ninja will be some of the spatial games rolling out when the Vision Pro launches February 2nd.
