Test Driving Apple Vision Pro: A Concept Car For The Future
Tech
Speaker 1: Apple's Vision Pro has finally become available to buy, and I've tried this thing now for, this is my fourth time demoing the Vision Pro, and you probably want to know what is this thing and should I get it? I'm going to be doing a whole review of the Apple Vision Pro, but in the meantime, based on my demos, this is what I can tell you about what I know it to be and what I think it can be.
Speaker 1: In a way, it's pretty simple. Apple Vision Pro is a VR ar headset. Apple's calling it a spatial computer. [00:00:30] The reason they're calling it a spatial computer is that it has an M two chip inside and it can run a ton of iOS apps and it can multitask, it can show multiple apps side by side. That type of stuff is not available on other VR headsets that are standalone or even AR headsets, and that's what makes this really unique. The other thing that the Vision Pro has that's really cool is a tremendously good display and the Vision Pro has some really nice hand and eye tracking to interact. So in all the demos I've tried, I've seen a lot of ways [00:01:00] to utilize that experience in a bunch of little examples, apple has shown a lot of looking at photos and videos and spatial videos, which are 3D videos that you shoot on the iPhone 15 Pro or on the Vision Pro headset to look at 3D moments to remember your life or your loved ones or whatever.
Speaker 1: I don't know how much I'm going to shoot it in a Vision Pro, but on the iPhone 15 Pro, it's pretty easy to shoot if you happen to have that phone and the 3D videos look nice. The interface is [00:01:30] very refined, as I've said before, and again, the way you look around with eye and hand tracking, there are these little simple motions here, tapping and dragging, and then you use your eye movements to look around at different things to control and to indicate and tap. Generally it feels effortless. Occasionally it feels like I have a little hard time finding focus on the thing I need to tap on, and I'm curious whether that's the eye tracking calibration or if it's me or whatever. But it's a whole new interface for Apple and they're really relying on it. [00:02:00] Now, you need to make sure that it calibrates with your eyes using a little setup beforehand, and you also can't wear glasses with the Vision Pro, so FYI, you're going to need to get prescription lenses.
Speaker 1: Those cost about $150 via zes and they snap into the Vision Pro. It's annoying that you can't wear glasses in the Apple headset. Now, headsets like the MedQuest three, you can put your glasses in or you can also get prescription lenses. Apple is just going the prescription lens option based on the ones that they outfitted. For me [00:02:30] though, it looked really nice. So the other thing you need to know about this thing is that right now the interfaces look very simplified in terms of the way you tap and drag and move around. It's almost like using a mouse and how do you type reach out and grab things That'll depend on the app. Apple's built-in keyboard for typing is in air, and I did these little taps to do things, or you can look around to focus on things and click on them using your eye tracking.
Speaker 1: [00:03:00] Those are very hunt and ecky. You could also get a Bluetooth keyboard and use it that way with a track pad. Probably not an ideal solution for somebody who may want to do all sorts of virtual typing, but that hasn't been solved yet in VR or ar, and at some point it might. They're just know about that. The interactions on that are a little bit of a question mark. Apple did walk through a lot of entertainment options for this headset, meaning video stuff, not only spatial videos, but trailers for their immersive video format, which is this [00:03:30] type of a 180 degree, almost like a curved 3D IMAX type feel where you're watching a very high res videos, things like Alicia Keys or National Geographic type Exploratory or Bears walking in water, dinosaurs, all sorts of big eye-opening type stuff. The video quality look very good sports, that's another one, but what types of experiences are going to launch?
Speaker 1: Apple is probably going to make those available through Apple TV plus and through their existing platforms [00:04:00] to use on Vision Pro. We've seen that type of immersive video format before, but again, Apple's got a really high res version of this for the headset that looks very nice. There are a few video partners already, Disney plus they have a Vision Pro Ready app, and I looked at that for a little bit, so that's pretty cool. In fact, I'm planning a Disney trip with my family. This kind of felt like a little mini Disney trip in that when you watch videos, you can pick an immersive environment. So I got to sit in a speeder on tattooing or I was [00:04:30] on a Avengers tower. I was in the Tony Stark building and the resolution of the environment was very high. I could lean over and see the phone and all the Thanos scratched out on the phone keys, but it's like a 3D backdrop, and then you're watching movies.
Speaker 1: They're also going to be 3D movies, so a lot of 3D films that have been out in cinemas are going to be available on Apple TV and also in things like Disney Plus. I mean, does that matter to you? It's interesting in that if you wanted a full cinema experience, the Vision Pro [00:05:00] is really probably going to deliver that, I think if that's its strongest suit. Now, the other stuff is a question mark. I looked at an app called Jig Space that is this 3D app that was able to create virtual objects that already exist on iPads that you could look at this in ar. I got to see this on the headset where I took a F1 race car and suddenly boom, it was in the room and I got to walk around it and it looked super high res and that was cool.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure what we're going to use it for, but it points [00:05:30] out the potential that this headset could allow you to see really high detailed 3D objects that for education, for training, for design, for research, for all sorts of things, this headset might be really interesting and that's why it's called Pro in the Vision. I mean, if you're going to be buying this headset for $3,500, you should know that that is a ton of money to pay for a VR air device right now, you can get a Quest three for $500 and it does a lot of great things. Apple's headset could do more [00:06:00] pro E things, but it is very much a work in progress clearly in terms of where it's going to go with the apps that it creates. I haven't seen a lot of those apps that are going to come out on the headset and for sure, I'm sure they're going to come out with ways that this will work with the devices and Apple's ecosystem better, and we'll do all sorts of stuff like that.
Speaker 1: We will have to see you're going to be buying kind of a beta ticket to the future, and this felt like a test drive an Apple's concept car for my face. So that's how I would describe the early days [00:06:30] of Vision Pro, and that's what you're going to be if you end up buying one of these. You know what I'd even get into Eyesight. This thing projects your eyes onto the front of the headset, which there are no photos of yet, but I did finally get to see from somebody else at my recent demo, and it's supposed to create a sense of presence when somebody is looking at you working on the Vision Pro, and it is very gandy, this thing looks like somebody has kind of 3D projected [00:07:00] their eyes onto the headset where it kind of feels like their eyes, but they're not their eyes.
Speaker 1: It's actually a 3D recreation that can blink and animate along with their expressions. If that sounds as weird as I'm explaining, well, that's how it feels and it feels almost like you're seeing their eyes, but you're not seeing their eyes, and then when they're working on something, it begins to slowly get clouded up with this iridescent thing that then shows that they're in an app. How that feels and how awkward that feels. I will know further down the line. Lots [00:07:30] of questions here, but know that this is very much like a VR headset set type thing, but for a much more expanded audience. That's what makes it a spatial computer, and I'll talk to you more about Vision Pro once I've reviewed it. If you have any questions or comments, please let me know below. Thanks for watching and stay tuned for work.
