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Apple Vision Pro review: magic, until it’s not
(www.theverge.com)
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this post was submitted on 31 Jan 2024
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I don't think this is gong to be a success. I feel like the tech is a solution without a problem. I think the only sensible application is niche, enthusiast gaming, and valve is already pretty established there.
We'll see though. Apple will probably have thought about this and identified usecases and developed software for their vr platform
The lack of proper VR controllers excludes AppleVR from any meaningful gaming anyway.
I’m a huge tech nerd, but even I’m struggling to see the genuine use-case for VR.
Don’t get me wrong, I’d be overjoyed to be proven wrong, for someone to come out with a killer app and for VR to suddenly become essential, but right now it just feels like a way to get people to spend significant amounts of money paying for tech firms to do r&d. At most, I love the idea of having an enormous personal screen for movie watching, but I watch movies with my wife, so we’d have to spend a ridiculous amount of money to sit next to each other in our personal bubbles.
My partner is a big VR fan and he's excited to get his Apple Vision Pro, but he's already planning on returning it once he gets bored of it. This seems like something that only hardcore Apple fans would want to buy and keep. Nobody wants to watch movies or use their computer while isolated from the world while having a heavy thing strapped to their face. I don't doubt that this is the best way to watch movies in VR, but if watching movies in VR was a non-niche thing that people actually wanted, it would have already caught on by now.
I quite like the "virtual workspace" idea (that Apple didn't have first, but they are having a go at it).
But it's not really there yet, is it? The apps are mostly iPad apps, some obviously updated to take advantage of "spatial computing" (how Apple calls it) in very cool ways, but it's not like I can run a full-blown development environment on that thing. Even with a Mac you can only protect a flat screen into your "space".
Let's give it a few years and see where Apple takes this on a software level. I think the hardware is okay for a "gen 1" device, but it'll likely get lighter, faster, longer battery etc.
I have a Valve Index and the Vision Pro seems like a downgrade in many ways, at least for gaming. It doesn't even have controllers, so almost all games won't even be possible to play.
Plus you're locked into Mac only ecosystem. Even if controllers get made later, you can only play what works on iPads or screen sharing with your Mac.
Hand tracking sounds cool, but how he explained it in the review it's not as useful as the Index's hand controller because you have to always have your hands in sight. And random movements make things happen you don't mean to happen.
This definitely isn't like the iPhone launch.
You don't need to have your hands in sight, they need to be in sight of the hand sensing cameras. He specifically said you don't need to raise your hands up to use them and that it's a quite wide field of view.
And porn
I think the main appeal is basically a projected screen. You can face absolutely massive screens if I understand correctly vs having to buy those screens and position yourself in front of them.
I mean, that's not revolutionary. That's just basic VR headset functionality. Plus, it's not nearly as useful as it's cracked up to be.
It's got an apple logo on though!