Posted on 06/06/2023 6:44:10 PM PDT by libh8er
I’d really hate to be Mark Zuckerberg right now. In October 2021 he pivoted to the metaverse, only to pivot to AI in November 2022… and in the brief amount of time he turned his back on the Metaverse, Apple completely stole whatever lead he had in the space by announcing a product so revolutionary, it’s probably going to crush his entire hardware ambitions.
Right at the end of their WWDC keynote, Apple announced the Vision Pro, an entirely new revolutionary product category helmed by a Mixed Reality headset that champions what they call “spatial computing” – an upgrade from the personal computing abilities of the laptop and smartphone. The brilliance of this is that it singlehandedly has the potential to redefine and reinvigorate the metaverse. The tragedy is that it also simultaneously kills all of Apple’s other businesses. The Vision Pro’s technical genius deserves an entire article on its own, but for now let’s just focus on exactly how magical this new product is, and what it means for Apple as a hardware company.
As the curtains drew to a close on WWDC, you could see a twinkle in Tim Cook’s eyes as he uttered the same words that Steve Jobs had famously spoken when he unveiled the iPhone – a product that revolutionized the tech industry. Sixteen years later, Cook’s repetition of those words hinted at a new innovation that promises to shake up the industry once again. The Vision Pro is an MR headset that brings an entirely new category to Apple’s product offering. In short, it has two Apple Silicon chipsets (including the new M2 chip), dozens of cameras and sensors, an iris recognition system that scans your eye for biometrics, directional audio units in the strap, two postage-stamp-sized 4K screens on the inside for immersive viewing, and a curved OLED display with a lenticular layer that lets other people see your eyes while you’re wearing the headset. That’s just the short version.
Apple’s Greatest Device Yet
The Vision Pro turns your world into a computing device. You can work, play, watch movies, view 3D content, facetime with friends/family, and access every app on the App Store through it. There’s quite literally nothing you cannot do on the Vision Pro, which makes it such an incredible device. In fact, just announcing it and its features took up nearly an hour of the WWDC live stream, highlighting exactly how important it is to Apple’s future. In Tim Cook’s version of the future, the Vision Pro replaces computing devices entirely. You don’t need laptops, phones, watches, or even VR controllers to interact with the digital world. The Vision Pro handles your laptop or desktop’s abilities, allowing you to make presentations, write emails, edit files, and do practically anything on a massive virtual canvas. Similarly, you don’t need a phone or tablet when all your phone/tablet apps are available on the Vision Pro. When you’re relaxing, the Vision Pro gives you a massive screen to watch movies and TV shows, or even view 3D content or panoramic images immersively.
How the Vision Pro Redefines Computing
The Vision Pro’s interface isn’t really an interface anymore… It’s your entire world (or as Apple calls it, VisionOS). Everything you see is a canvas for a rectangular window. You can simultaneously have your work screen, a Pinterest board, and Ted Lasso existing within your visual periphery. Each element occupies 3D real estate in your vision, and isn’t bound by a screen. You can select, layer, resize, or move elements of your world simply by using your hands, eliminating the need for a controller. You can choose to see the world around you, or immerse yourself in a digital realm with a simple turn of a knob (or a crown), while still being connected to the world around you.
How the Vision Pro Redefines Interaction
A screen on the front of the Vision Pro acts as your digital eyes (or what Apple calls EyeSight), so that when people are talking to you, they see your eyes. If you’re immersed in content, your eyes aren’t made visible on the screen, so they know not to disturb you – it’s a lot like how people know you’re not engaging with them if you’re not making eye contact. However, if they need to grab your attention while you’re in an immersive experience (like a movie), they can merely step close to you, and EyeSight kicks in. They suddenly become visible to you within your headset, and your eyes become visible to them. It’s an impressive handshake of multiple different technologies that resulted in Apple filing as many as 5000 patents for the Vision Pro device.
Meta is Royally Screwed
As impressive as Zuckerberg’s Meta Quest Pro is, it really doesn’t even hold a candle to Apple’s Vision Pro. The Apple Vision Pro is an incredibly meticulously designed product that runs on not one but TWO chipsets – an M2 chip and a new R1 chip that just handles how digital elements react with your physical world. It’s got two 4K screens on the inside with as many as 23 million pixels crammed into an area the size of a postage stamp – that’s the equivalent of 64 pixels in the space occupied by 1 pixel on the iPhone screen. The outside of the device has a screen too (a lenticular 3D one, no less), that projects your eyes so that people can make eye contact with you while you have the headset on. As far as sensors go, the Vision Pro has one LiDAR scanner, two TrueDepth cameras, two main cameras, four downward cameras, two side cameras, and two IR illuminators… just on the outside. The inside has four IR cameras and multiple invisible LED illuminators that track your eyes, letting you use them as a cursor. Your hands become the controls, allowing you to tap, pinch, and manipulate elements that your eyes look at. This entire interaction is just so complicated and nuanced, you don’t need a remote or VR controllers. Oh, did I mention, the Vision Pro uses OpticID, a new authentication system that scans your eyes, making it much more secure than TouchID and FaceID? Even Meta’s highest-end device (which is roughly 1/3rd the price of the Vision Pro) doesn’t have anywhere near as much impressive tech as the Vision Pro… and if I were Zuckerberg, I’d honestly be crying in a corner right now because in Meta’s own metaverse… they’re in second place.
Apple may have shot itself in the foot too
Aside from its whopping $3499 price, the Vision Pro does something absolutely unique, in that it replaces every single other Apple device. When you’re strapped into the headset, you’re pretty much never going to look at an iPhone, MacBook, Apple Watch, iMac, or TV. Heck, you’re not even going to wear AirPods… and needless to say, that’s bad for Apple. The Vision Pro is such a strangely isolating experience that it stops you from using Apple’s other hardware devices… and that’s absolutely new. You can use your iPhone simultaneously with a MacBook, AirPods, Apple Watch, etc… but when you’re wearing the Vision Pro, every single other Apple device becomes unnecessary. Spatial computing is great for the Vision Pro, but it’s terrible for all of Apple’s other devices… and this poses an incredibly interesting threat to Apple’s hardware endeavors. Sure, if the Vision Pro takes off, Meta is in deep, irredeemable trouble because there’s no reason someone who wants a Vision Pro would settle for a Quest 2 or 3. However, it’ll also be interesting to see if people who buy the Vision Pro ever buy a single other Apple computer like a MacBook, iPad, or Apple TV unit.
Just what this world needs is even more non-reality.
Also, this is the lead-up to transhuman crap. Later they want to implant miniaturized versions of this stuff in your head. If you want to be as divorced as possible from the five senses God gave you, and be subject to downloaded woke updates from Apple One-World Headquarters, be sure and go this route.
In my business life, 98% of communication with business associates, employees, bankers, lawyers, title companies, sub contractors, suppliers, clients and so on is done on the computer. So, doing without one is impossible.
But, compared to a computer EXPERT, I MAY know half of my computers capabilities and MAY use half but it took YEARS to get to even get to that point.
This Vision Pro thing, similarly, will force me to get one and learn it............YUK !!!
My daughter will learn it in 5 minutes but with two kids and being a controller of a large company she doesn’t have time for ole Dad.
Also long term use of AR/VR headsets - particularly in children - has been linked to serious eyestrain and even injuries like amblyopia.
You win the thread......
From the CNBC review:
But first we had to deal with my eyeglasses. The Vision Pro isn’t large enough to fit glasses if you wear them. The solution: a system of snap-in prescription lenses. An Apple representative took my glasses and placed them on a machine that could read my prescription. By the time I got to the demo room, a customized set of lenses were waiting for me inside the Vision Pro.
So you need to visit an eye doctor so s/he can send a prescription to Apple? They are eyecare providers now too? What if you have an astigmatic correction or high diopter scrip? Bizarre.
They have been working on this type of product for many years.
The main flaw has always been that the human brain does not function well in the artificial 3D environment—supposedly folks get nasty headaches using the product after an hour or so.
We will find out soon enough is that problem has been successfully addressed.
Impressive technology to be sure. But I have a motorcycle and great writing roads all over my state. Outside of watching some TV in the evening, my free time is spent on two wheels.
I wonder if you can smoke a joint in the digital world and get high?
After 2 years of the horrid face mask I don’t want to wear a heavy eye mask. I like to have ample breathing space between my face and my computer.
Just adds pseudo mask to hang off of it.
$3500 (Apple) vs. $300 (Meta)
$3,499 is too expensive for 99% of us.
It will be a big failure.
Will change the way we interact with personal computing devices.
Gen 1 devices are always problematic, but I bet Apple will sell loads of them, regardless.
To me it’s dorky and creepy at the same time. I work in tech and have my share of gadgets. I would never want anything like that or to even try it. I get a headache just thinking about it.
“ They have priced it such that it’s the sum of all other Apple devices you were going to potentially own and then some.”.
The history of technology is first generation products are extremely expensive. Over time features and capabilities increase dramatically as competition emerges and prices fall. Consider the cost and features of of the first flat panel televisions compared to televisions today. The same for personal computers. Or cell phones. We are seeing the same trend in home security cameras.
Apple is not obsoleting its existing business today. It is introducing new technology which will evolve as early adopters explore its potential and develop new uses for it. Over time the product will die from lack of adoption (remember Apple’s Newton) or it will evolve in ways we cannot imagine today and drop in price. If it evolves, ten years from now the just introduced headset will probably look like the “brick” bag carphones of the 1980’s compared to today’s latest iPhone. In ten years the large goggles may be gone and the product look like a pair of eyeglasses. Fifty years from today the technology may be driven by a chip implanted in ones head and wired directly into the brain. Would it then enable the blind to see and the deaf to hear?
I won’t be an early adopter. However in ten years if the product has evolved into AR super eyeglasses for $1000 I might be a customer. Meanwhile I will continue using my MacBook, iPhone, and Apple watch.
I think the military would go for a version that would act as an immersive drone controller.
It would also be useful for maintenance people.
Whatever happened to Microsoft’s HoloLense which was at least a decade ahead of this and Meta?
Wow!
“We have entered a new era.”
Of high-resolution, computer-generated, interactive porn.
The main drivers for this technology will be immersive gaming and immersive interactive porn, which will merge into pornographic immersive games.
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