This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Apple Vision Pro will be available starting at $3,499 (U.S.) with 256GB of storage. Pre-orders for Apple Vision Pro will begin on Friday, January 19, at 5 a.m. PST, with availability beginning Friday, February 2.
So 256GB for all those movies and games you'll want to play on that long plane ride they keep showing as a way you'll definitely use these.
I'm in the Apple ecosystem pretty hard, but we'll really just have to see what rich folks do with this thing.
How many movies do you actually need to store on the device itself? Apple has been all in on streaming stuff so you'd only ever need to actually download stuff when you're planning on going offline.
That said for it's price that's hilariously small storage, but simultaneously peak Apple.
How much bandwidth do planes have?
Does it matter? Download a few movies for an 8 hour flight. Not a big deal on any device.
Also I still think this product is horrendously overpriced but it'll be interesting to see how it plays out.
A full-Bitrate HDR 4k feature film is more than 50GB. These use up space real fast.
And, you'll want it full quality if you are gonna be watching in 3D. Since compression messes with the depth in 3D movies by not compressing the left eye and right eye view both the same as they should be to look right. It doesn't know or take into account what the other eye is currently supposed to see. It treats both sides as individual flat pictures, and only makes sure they make sense with the frame before and after.
Until someone makes a whole new compression algorithm with 3D in mind, it'll dramatically lower the quality of the depth compared to how much it lowers the quality of the video.
This is going to be an interesting launch. There's been rumours about low production volumes so availability may get pushed back much further than February. Which will make judging the initial impressions harder when there are so few devices in peoples hands (or on heads).
I'm also a bit surprised by the lack of build up from Apple. There's been no push on whatever third party apps are going to be ready for this. The Apple Watch had two dedicated events in the lead up to launch. Even the press release seems a bit basic, most of the imagery seems to be reused from the first events press materials.
This is the biggest product introduction since the iPhone but it's being handled rather quietly.
I feel like this is the version they'll put in the goodie bags for celebs at the Oscars to let them create a bunch of buzz. And then next year there will be a version that only costs $2000 or something - still expensive but less out of reach for mortal humans.
They’d have to drop it significantly for most people to buy. If I had a spare $2k I’d upgrade my Mac.
The anti-consumer apple BS aside. The lack of PC support or support for any real GPU that has a chance at running Games in full resolution, makes this dean on arrival for most people using VR.
Apple is pushing productivity as the main application for Vision Pro, to the point they don't even call it VR but spatial computing instead. I don't think gaming is really for a focus for them at the moment, instead they want to try and tap into other markets who aren't using VR currently.
they don’t even call it VR but spatial computing instead.
I was under the impression these were meant to be AR glasses, not VR glasses? Either way, I'm not really sure who their target demographic is supposed to be at that price point.
It can be both, the device isn't transparent at all and the user can control how much of the real world they are seeing at any time. It's all cameras that create the AR effect. Applications can be anything from a floating window in the real world or a full VR immersion.
I wouldn't consider it AR because it's still a fully virtual environment the user is interacting with, granted it's built convincingly from the camera feeds. If the lens were a clear passthrough into the real world+layering virtual elements over it then I think it falls under AR.
It's mostly semantics though. The line between AR and VR has been fuzzy since we started shoving camera passthrough on devices.
Wow, your comment is the first time it's been made clear to me that this thing isn't actually see-through and that's just a screen on the outside. I thought it was essentially a sleeker looking Hololens. I've had the wrong impression of this thing the entire time, and now I'm much less impressed by it.
they don't even call it VR but spatial computing instead.
Ugh. Apple marketing with their need to create words for existing tech is just so damned pretentious.
I mean this thing barely has Mac support, why would it have PC support? It’s basically its own computer you put on your head.
So glad Apple is inventing VR
It's a whole new never before seen industry.
It's a really interesting product but unless you're a trust fund kid you basically can't afford it.
The apple strategy usually is to make a stupidly expensive product that everyone laughs at (remember the wheels for the tower computer), and then the actual product they expect people to buy.
They seem to have forgotten the second bit, but I'm wondering if something's going to come out in 6 months called just the Apple Vision
I have the equivalent of a trust fund and I'm not stupid enough to buy this for $3.5K.
Go get yourself a BigScreen VR for $1K, and then a fuckin' full top of the line prebuilt with the remaining $2.5K.
Really curious what this year will hold for this device. Even more curious to see the price tag and features on Gen 2
I don't really get the point of all this. Sci-Fi movies are trying go convince us for a very long time that interacting with a computer by standing and waving your hands around is the future but for me it just looks tiring. I prefer my keyboard and mouse. We'll see how many people Apple can convince. Maybe they are right and you just have to use it to believe it...
I think exercise apps might be a prime application for something like this, things like Beat Saber (or even SuperHot VR of all games). As a package designer, I'm kind of salivating at the prospect of being able to use something like this to see things in 3D as I'm working on it (should an app like that even become available), but it would still never completely replace a flat screen for serious work (plus the Apple headset just uses hand gestures for everything).
Otherwise, yeah, I'm not too hopeful about this thing's prospects, unless developers knock it out of the park with some killer apps for it. $3500 for a 1st-gen, Apple-only headset is just a bit too much for me. I paid ~$1000 for a Valve VR Headset and even that seemed astronomical at the time, but it works with nearly everything else, so it doesn't even feel like I'm in a walled garden. With this Apple headset, you're limited to Apple's store and that's it, I'm not sure that I would trust trying to jailbreak a $3500 piece of equipment and possibly brick it.
This thing is gonna sell so many Quest 3s.
Because the price is always the main topic, I’m gonna drop a link to an AR/VR expert contextualizing the Vision Pro price within the current (well, 7 months ago) market:
Apple Just Beat the “BEST VR Headset In the WORLD”.. and did it cheaper.
With dwindling iPhone sales (it's not for a lack of market share, but smartphone purchases are down as people aren't refreshing their phones every year anymore), Apple needs to find the next accessory akin to Apple Watch that will further line their pockets. I mean, the stock price can't just remain stagnant, right?
They are lucky that no one decided to compete with them. They have some features that aren't otherwise to market yet. So their price is less obviously bloated. If other headsets had been positioned to directly compete, they would have been able to do so at the 2000$ price range.
Overall, any new company entering the market is good news. VR is finally ready for normal people. Quest 3 basically crossed the line to being worth recommending as a virtual monitor alone, not to mention all it's other capability.
So at this point, more exposure of what VR is now can only be a good thing. All it's missing now is being considered a normal thing to do. The more "normal" companies making VR headsets, the better. As long as their headsets don't suck. Cuz even if I wouldn't want to use it anyway, it getting bad press still affects the rest of VR.
I don't care if it's over priced, as long as it doesn't end up having any glaring issues. People lamenting that it's too expensive are at least still interested, and can be redirected to a more reasonable headset. And even if only influencers end up having the apple headset, as long as they like it, it's a net positive for the whole community.
So what are the controllers like?
I don’t think there are any, you just use your hands.
Oh.
So you can expect at least three revisions of this before they inevitably release one with optional controllers for when you need any amount of precision. And you'll need a Apple Vision Pro 4 to be able to use them.
I’m an early adopter and probably Apple’s target audience. I sure as hell don’t have the cash on hand to buy it and I’d consider financing it but - I have such a bad taste in my mouth from the AR/VR concepts over the years. The Quest was a flop for me. The XReal Air too.
They’re fun, for a bit, then they sit in a corner. I could see it being useful on my work from home days but outside of that, my phone is the most compelling partner to my Mac.
Given Apple's track record i wouldn't bet against it succeeding, but... I don't get it. My oculus that cost 350 does 95% of what the apple device does but costs literally 10 times more.
Its absolutely a ridiculous price tag, but its naive to say oculus is 95% the same
This thing isn’t for me, but the screens alone make it worlds superior to any Oculus ever made.
Does yours have _creepy stalking eyes _ on the front? I thought so. Clearly the killer feature that justifies the extra 2000 bucks
I don't see mass adoption at this price point. What's the point?
I really don't see the productivity sell. I do see it as functional entertainment to get more use out of an 800 square foot apartment in NYC. If my partner and I disagree on something entertainment wise I can throw them on. That's about it..
The point of this isn't mass adoption. It's to get developers to start developing for it. I'm sure within a couple of years they'll release a non pro version for like a 1500 and people will be all over it
I can't wait for this to be released all the fan boys to spend a fortune on it and make apple even more billions in profit for a product that isn't going to be worth it.
But at least it will help with vr and ar. I really think this could be the last bit of momentum needed to get it moving and I'm excited for that future.
