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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 very much do not want AR. There will be ads everywhere. What happened to the anger people had toward Google Glass and the feeling that people wearing them would be recording everything around them basically all the time?
The biggest problem I see from these kind of devices is: you're isolating yourself. For example, it looks very cool that you can see a movie with a similar experience to a theatre, but you're completely isolated using it. I don't see a family, each with one of these devices on, watching a movie on the couch at the same time. It's complicated enough when people have their smartphones out while eating with others...
That doesn't mean that it hasn't its uses, but it's more limited than what the try to sell to you. You're by yourself when you're using this device, even if you can see others.
Yeah that’s crazy isolating yourself. Now excuse me while I go sit at my desktop ignoring everyone else with my headphones in.
Fun fact, over a hundred years ago people used to complain about others reading the newspaper at breakfast because it was destroying family’s time together. I don’t know how family social dynamics will survive this newspaper craze.
I’m not claiming that this is the end of western civilization or anything like that. What I mean is: the ads sell it like “you will be able to interact with those around you without problems”, and I think that’s not entirely true.
I’m not judging people wanting to isolate themselves, but in my opinion taking this thing off or putting it on is not as easy as putting your smartphone aside, or a newspaper aside.
My thinking is that this will be way more an individual experience than Apple sells. So people should take that into consideration.
Other people can see what you’re doing, and you can see them just by turning your head.
If newspapers glued themselves to your face you might have a point.
And you can take off a visor.
Have you never been so engrossed in an activity that you've tuned out the world around you, only to be shocked when someone taps you on the shoulder to get your attention? These complaints are as worn out as Aristotle moaning about the youths.
Which is a lot more complicated than turning your head. And it covers your entire field of vision. And people still can’t see what you’re doing.
More complicated please, it's a lifting motion, hardly anything special and no different to removing headphones from ones ears.
And why do people need to see what I'm doing? If I'm on my phone, do they need to be able to read my screen as well? Is it not enough to see that I'm on my phone.
God VR fanboys are annoying. “There is absolutely nothing isolating about putting on goggles that completely blind you to the world.”
They had to put creepy eyes on the outside and invent super low latency video pass through for fun I guess.
I don’t own or have any inclinations towards getting a VR headset.
Im an isolation fanboy thank you very much.
I see nothing wrong with people being able to tune out and enjoy whatever they want without others demands for their attention.
Reasonable. Sometimes I want to use a computer that way, too.
It isn’t any more isolating than reading a newspaper. You can take both off in a second.
Or do you mean putting it away?
I wouldn't know, I'm not old enough to have ever read a newspaper. I do know that compared to every other display I've used, putting goggles over my face is much more isolating.
But that pales to the other isolating problem, which is that there's no way to easily watch something with someone. With my phone we just... both look at the phone. With VR we need to get them another VR headset, and an account, then install an app and then, finally, I can show my mom a three second cat video.
I guess you could possibly AirPlay it to a TV?
Yes and no. I’ve used a Quest to watch movies in a theater with different people from around the world and it was a very social experience. I’ve also attended a few support group meetings for dealing with loss in VR and that was honestly a really positive experience.
That’s interesting. It’s a bit funny that new technology can take us closer to those far, and at the same time take us far from those close. :P
Agreed on that, it's a weird dichotomy. I think in a way the internet as a whole has had that effect on people.
Connections in real life don't feel a deep as I remember them being in the past and its so often you see a group of people out to dinner or drinks together staring at their phones. Meanwhile I have a lot of pretty decent connections online with people I've never met in person or maybe only once or twice.
That’s an interesting perspective because I often feel the opposite. Especially post pandemic, I’ve gotten really into going out to bars and just talking to people. I barely even use my phone and sometimes will put it on do not disturb (unless wife calls) even while talking to people I barely know. They’re interesting folks.
But also I do have friends I made on the internet and have been greatly changed by internet interactions. Hell even my ideology was as I grew up on XKCD. But I’ve isolated myself to nothing but the internet before. Once with depression and fear as a queer teenager, and once with depression and fear as a person living through a global pandemic (thank fuck I had my wife for that), and I need quite a bit of face to face communication too or my brain loses its shit. And I need real irl community.
Based on the amount of screen time zoomers are reporting (saw some article about it recently and it was insane), I think there's a boatload of people who are glued to devices and not being present.
I'm a good bit older than that and I've definitely been making an effort to get off my phone. I took all the social apps off about 3-4 months ago and it's been a big improvement. Gonna keep finding ways to unplug. I need to stop posting here during the day so much honestly. I'd probably get a lot more work done.
Yeah I definitely do spend a lot of time on the phone it’s just I also need irl people time.
One thing I give Apple credit for is keeping ads out of the primary operating system. I've got an Apple TV and a Google TV (I refuse to use it's full name). Apple TV is just a grid of Apps whereas the Google homescreen immediately hits you with an ad for a show on a streaming service you might not even have. Even the Google remote has dedicated buttons for Netflix and YouTube and I'm not a Netflix subscriber.
I guess it's the difference between Apple being a hardware/software company and Google being an advertising company.
Apple TV+, the streaming service, does show ads for content. It's one of the worst, in my opinion, at pre-roll ads for other shows you didn't click on.
Then, in the interface, you'll get banner-like ads for other stuff, mostly Apple TV+ exclusives. Also, the interface also does push casual browsing (or search) into the paid buy/rent options also.
Apple's days of focusing on user experience above all else has shifted towards getting you to pay for stuff. Just because it mainly steers towards stores they own (app store, music/movies/TV, services subscriptions) doesn't make it any less intrusive of advertising.
Apple TV+ is an app though (which I never use). I'm talking about the operating system and the extended area above the apps is only applicable to the apps you put there (all of which for me just show the stuff you're currently watching).
Apple TV+ and Apple Music do have first party status, subtly favored by the operating system itself. The Siri/search integration is tighter with those services than competing services, which is especially important on a TV interface (where there isn't a keyboard or mouse or touchscreen). I think search for music still only looks at the Apple Music catalog and won't search Spotify/YouTube/Tidal.
It's not a glaringly obvious promotion of their own products, but that's what I mean when I say that Apple pushes users towards their own stores. On desktop and mobile, they're pushing Apple's own paid cloud storage (and won't let competing services fulfill the same functionality), at the OS level.
There are ads on the app store, which I'd consider to be part of the "primary operating system", especially since it's the only way to install apps.
Not to mention constant ads for icloud. In the photos app, and even notifications from the settings app. (It's possible to turn these off, but not easy or intuitive).
After switching to Android, I haven't seen a single ad in the operating system, (I think Play Store does have ads, I just haven't got any for some reason). The closest thing is Google photos sometimes asking me to turn on backup.
Edit: Ignore my complaint. You learn something new every day.
Original: Except for the fact that the remote has no home button anymore. It always opens the Apple TV+ app. Otherwise I agree though, ad-free experience, best TV-box I ever owned.
You can change that in the settings. It’s been that way since the remote with the touch pad. It can either go to ATV+ or Home. One of the first things I do with a new ATV is change it.
You can also double click the TV button to switch between open apps.
I’m fairly certain you can remap that Netflix button
Regardless of the function, Netflix paid to get their name advertised right on the remote.
I'm always reminded of this video when I think about just how bad AR could be. But then again, it could be pretty cool if we can only keep control over our tech.
https://youtu.be/YJg02ivYzSs
Quick! Hide it before some LinkedIn lunatic use it as some inspirational post about how AR tech will revolutionize our lives.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://piped.video/YJg02ivYzSs
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.
People feel that way all the time now, so AR glasses no longer seem as intrusive to most people.
Yeah they realized that if we’re constantly tracked we burn out on it.
Too late.
I don't think these glasses are intended for general public use right now. I know big businesses that want them for manufacturing quality control but outside that what is the point of AR?
As an industrial engineer I can think of plenty of uses of it has a halfway decent pathway overlay. Part picking with highlighted parts can be amazing and it could revolutionize assembly.
Outside factories, I’d love a gps hud on my car, and on walks. Not enough to sacrifice the little privacy I have in my own eyes though.
Edit: sorry was thinking AR glasses in general not these specifically. I wouldn’t even let my QC team use these. If the battery connection breaks you’re blind in a manufacturing environment and that’s dangerous
I don't want something that's an electrical failure from me being unable to see strapped over my head while driving.
At least Google Glass was transparent.
Oh full agreement there. I think a google glass like tool has a handful of potential applications. This specifically, I’d never put it on someone in a manufacturing environment for the exact same reason you won’t drive with one.
Hololense glasses already provides the uses you are referencing for part picking with their dynamic 365 program suite. I have personally implemented some uses at a few locations.
Outside of sku management or manufacturing, it is a stretch. I don't imagine people using these for every day use. There is little functionality that currently supports any use outside of a workplace.
Spoken like someone who lacks vision.
How about going to a foreign country and being able to navigate the streets like a local thanks to the overly guiding you to your destination like Waze? How about being able to read signs and communicate with locals thanks to the instant translation services built in? How about a virtual assistant that can walk you through an oil change specifically for your car? How about a cooking assistant that can warn you if your pot is about to boil over or if you forgot to add the butter? How about taking my shitty dystopian studio apartment and giving me a balcony view of a tropical beach?
There are countless applications for AR ranging from the mundane to the extremely helpful. The tech needs to be developed more before it will be adopted by the masses, but it's far from useless.
By 2030 we'll have AR in a sunglasses form factor with integrated AI that will be able to digitally remove the clothing of everyone you see with a good degree of accuracy for what's underneath.
Ok my bad, I wasn't talking about what the technology is 10 years from now. I was just saying in 2024, what technology exists for a general consumer that makes AR worth even talking about.
Those use cases already exist to an extent with current products. I use google translate every day on the jobsite, google maps already provides step by step navigation, youtube videos guide me on car repair, smart sensors with phone and smartwatch alerts for almost anything you can imagine, rollable and thin film transparent displays for walls and windows. Its hard to see AR/VR overtaking existing technologies except for niche use cases. The tech is gonna have to advance well past 2030 projections to be both cheap and feasible for practical use. Batteries will need an order of magnitude higher energy density and microchips will need to pass the teraFLOP barrier while consuming less than a watt of power, all while fitting into a comfortable and unobtrusive form factor suited for long term daily use. I don't see that happening anytime in the next decade honestly.
Glass arrived on the scene in 2013. Since then recording in public has become much more normalised... smartphone camera use, cars with dashcams and CCTV/face recognition have all increased in popularity. YouTubers, live streamers, creators etc. If it were released again today, I'm not sure it would achieve the same hatred it did back then, at least on the "creepy camera in public" point.