Apple Vision Pro: for me, epic failure

[DiTBho]

Teardown, see here

[Bud]

Whatever it is, there will be porn for it and porn about it
Other than that, no idea.

Apple should have gone into it straight (no pun intended) and start milking the Big Cow.

[Bud]

Real-life-use challenge: somehow passed - guess Ania is still lauthing - but...
ummm, after 2 hours I had severe pain in the back of my neck, shoulders, and dry eyes.

In the end she deposited ~ $4,000 into the account of a friend who lives in the US, as nice trick to get around Apple's purchasing restrictions (She is Estonian) , spent two nights in a cheap hotel, and returned home with the "precious cargo" in her travel bag.

Enthusiast, while I shrug 

Tell her you met two nice girls in the Metaverse and spent the two hours with them. Watch that thing disappear by next morning.

[DiTBho]

Real-life-use challenge: somehow passed - guess Ania is still lauthing - but...
ummm, after 2 hours I had severe pain in the back of my neck, shoulders, and dry eyes.

I think I understand one of the reason why I found it so uncomfortable 

Reality comes through the front cameras, which, in my opinion, are too small and do not have enough aperture to work when there are not optimal light conditions, this explains why I continued to stimulate the muscles of my neck, to find, from time to time, the optimal angle, and consequently why I continually blinked, feeling annoyed by the focus.

Using the VR Pro in a much brighter environment, without exaggerating to avoid to saturate the cameras, is much much less annoying.
Using it outdoors... in certain conditions it is even impossible or very annoying.

[DiTBho]

And it oddly (well perhaps not for Apple) uses a proprietary connector

I guess, it is done deliberately to lock the product into the Apple commercial ecosystem.
And up to this point nothing different from Steve Jobs' line, who introduced this concept starting with the AppleII.
From an industrial design point of view, however, I find that even with that connector we are moving a lot away from the guidelines of J.Ive and Jobs.

[DiTBho]

Tell her you met two nice girls in the Metaverse

I tried such an app. A kind of Skype that reconstructs the user's face and displays it in 3D, and at a certain point, during the chat, I felt I was in a cartoon.
But it looks even worse than what they showed in one of the Futurama episodes

[DiTBho]

Umm, this video catches my vibes about the "vision".

[MT]

https://twitter.com/i/status/1754095794536538224

https://twitter.com/insidershut/status/1754117487854035410

https://twitter.com/TobiMuelhauser/status/1754372257663856886

 

[BradC]

https://twitter.com/TobiMuelhauser/status/1754372257663856886

Looks a bit like an orchestral conductor with epilepsy.

[Berni]

Real-life-use challenge: somehow passed - guess Ania is still lauthing - but...
ummm, after 2 hours I had severe pain in the back of my neck, shoulders, and dry eyes.

I think I understand one of the reason why I found it so uncomfortable 

Reality comes through the front cameras, which, in my opinion, are too small and do not have enough aperture to work when there are not optimal light conditions, this explains why I continued to stimulate the muscles of my neck, to find, from time to time, the optimal angle, and consequently why I continually blinked, feeling annoyed by the focus.

Using the VR Pro in a much brighter environment, without exaggerating to avoid to saturate the cameras, is much much less annoying.
Using it outdoors... in certain conditions it is even impossible or very annoying.

Yeah the problem is that it is very difficult to make a camera that has the same performance as the human eye. Not only does it have to have a lot of dynamic range but it also needs a lot of resolution. Sure humans only see in a lot of resolution in the middle of our field of view, however since you can move your eyes around it means the camera has to try reproducing that high resolution everywhere. The Quest 3  also has serious problems with AR passtrough in low light, there it cranks up the ISO in low light, making the image grainy (since extending the shutter time is not an option as reducing the framerate would make you feel sick).

Image being out of focus is usually a problem with the positioning the headset. The pancake technology lenses while providing a much sharper image still have a issue with having a really small sweat spot of where the users eye must be in order for them to work well. The more you go out of that sweet spot the blurrier it gets. Left right alignment is taken care of by the IPD adjustment, but the up and down alignment depends on how you fit it to your face.

As for neck strain that is likely from the weight of the headset hanging on the front of your face, making the neck have to work against that to keep your head up. (This is one benefit of putting the battery on the back of the headstrap, providing counter balance)

[SiliconWizard]

https://twitter.com/i/status/1754095794536538224

https://twitter.com/insidershut/status/1754117487854035410

https://twitter.com/TobiMuelhauser/status/1754372257663856886

 

 

[tom66]

Look away, anyone who covets this product...

[Jeroen3]

An interesting thing that Ania discovered this morning:
the battery cable can be disconnected from the battery pack.
It is not glued, there is a small screw to unscrew 

And it oddly (well perhaps not for Apple) uses a proprietary connector.  If they used USB-C, it'd work with -any- external battery pack, but NOOOO... Apple have to be special snowflakes about it.

How else will they sell the XL battery pack for 200$ more?

[John B]

https://twitter.com/i/status/1754095794536538224

https://twitter.com/insidershut/status/1754117487854035410

https://twitter.com/TobiMuelhauser/status/1754372257663856886

 

The last one looks fake, but as for the other 2, the idea of augmented reality seems like the next evolution of a HUD.

Imagine if you could interface with the car's RADAR and navigation?

I mean, I get those guys are probably checking emails, but can't blame the tech for that.

[tom66]

Why does someone using Vision in a Cybertruck just not surprise me at all.  If you're going to drive around a dangerous, 3.1 tonne vehicle around, why not add the additional danger of a bloody consumer VR goggle to it.  You know, because that won't ever crash or stop working mid use leaving you blind...

Though if this technology does become commonplace, I wonder how long it'll take before cops consider it texting and driving.

[ebastler]

If you're going to drive around a dangerous, 3.1 tonne vehicle around, why not add the additional danger of a bloody consumer VR goggle to it.

Ah, but it's not a "consumer VR goggle". It's a "Pro" goggle! What could possibly go wrong? 

[Jeroen3]

Did someone hook it up to a Boston Dynamics Spot yet?

[SiliconWizard]

The good thing with wearing AR goggles when driving a vehicle is that they could sense an accident when it's happening, and then display all kinds of nice rosy stuff during the crash, so you don't have any bad memory of it (if you get out of it alive). They could also stimulate your inner ear so that you don't feel the sudden deceleration.

[tom66]

Yeah the problem is that it is very difficult to make a camera that has the same performance as the human eye. Not only does it have to have a lot of dynamic range but it also needs a lot of resolution. Sure humans only see in a lot of resolution in the middle of our field of view, however since you can move your eyes around it means the camera has to try reproducing that high resolution everywhere. The Quest 3  also has serious problems with AR passtrough in low light, there it cranks up the ISO in low light, making the image grainy (since extending the shutter time is not an option as reducing the framerate would make you feel sick).

The same issue is seen with self-driving and ADAS systems on cars.  Many lane assist systems struggle with seeing lane lines in bright sun.  A human can often manage just by squinting, and definitely with sunglasses.  The dynamic range of the human eye is really incredible if you think about it.

[Stray Electron]

You underestimate the stupidity of people.

  People will always surprise you with their level of stupidity! Several people have already posted online videos of themselves using an Apple VP and playing with then and watching movies while driving. Today the Feds came out in the US and warned people that that was illegal and they would be ticketed if they're caught.

[EEVblog]

Did someone hook it up to a Boston Dynamics Spot yet?

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/7er0BmWs4hg

[tooki]

Indeed. I’d certainly consider myself to be within tech circles, but I also don’t see any reason why I’d want one. The most compelling use case for me so far is being able to simulate a cinema-size screen for watching movies while laying in bed in any orientation.

Don't existing goggles already do this?

To be honest I’ve never looked into it, because even that is not that compelling to me. Maybe I should have called it the “least-uncompelling use case for me”! 

[tooki]

umm, think about the mechanism between Apple and Youtubers: Apple sends products to Youtubers/Journalists if and only if they respect a contract, which implies, among other things (don't damage the product, don't resell it on eBay/Wallapop/Aliexpress, carefully open the box | don't break it, ...) also NSA-like confidentiality agreement.

My point was that you may be confusing Non-Disclosure Agreements (which are a common industry practice when providing evaluation units prior to public launch) which the National Security Agency (who are probably not involved).

They’re not, but having worked for Apple in the past (in retail), the comparison is not much of a stretch!  Apple takes secrecy extraordinarily seriously, using similar methods as the government. (For example, I worked the launch of the original iPhone. Only the store manager and inventory specialist knew when they would come — they were stored at secure FedEx facilities prior to distribution only a day or two before the launch event — and we didn’t get to see one in person until 2 hours before we had to sell them. Those 2 hours being halfway through the 4 hours we were closed to redress the entire store before reopening at 6pm for the launch event. Or how 7 months prior, for the iPhone announcement itself, the demo units were locked in a large safe at the expo center, which was brought over and then had a room constructed around it, with only one door made too small for the safe to fit through, and of course armed guards outside.) Suffice it to say, as an employee you did NOT want to have Apple security investigating you, since by that point you’re likely facing dismissal or a lawsuit. Lucky for us in retail, because of the “need to know”-only approach of distributing new product information, we never really knew anything before the public did. New products would often arrive at the store unannounced, with us hearing about the new products via the same tech news sites the public used.

[Berni]

Indeed. I’d certainly consider myself to be within tech circles, but I also don’t see any reason why I’d want one. The most compelling use case for me so far is being able to simulate a cinema-size screen for watching movies while laying in bed in any orientation.

Don't existing goggles already do this?

To be honest I’ve never looked into it, because even that is not that compelling to me. Maybe I should have called it the “least-uncompelling use case for me”! 

Well when has Apple actually invented something new anyway? They are just really good at marketing inventions that the general public haven't heard of yet.

So far the only good use i personally found for VR headsets is gaming/simulators.

[ebastler]

Well when has Apple actually invented something new anyway? They are just really good at marketing inventions that the general public haven't heard of yet.

That's not doing them justice, I think. They are also very good at polishing a pre-existing concept and embedding it in a powerful ecosystem, massively improving its usability and appeal. (And its revenue potential...) They have done that time and again, starting with the Apple II, Mac, iPod, iPhone...

And they have sometimes failed, at least commercially, by wanting to do too much too early, going overboard with technical complexity and cost -- the Lisa and the Newton come to mind. Let's see what category the Vision goggles end up in.