Last Week in AVP #53: Apple Vision Pro First Year Anniversary, visionOS for Future Smart Glasses, Man vs. Beast Apple Immersion Video is Now Available, PlayStation VR Controller On Track and more!
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Apple launched the Vision Pro one year ago! (source)
Happy first year anniversary🎉 #AppleVisionPro
Apple Vision Pro: 1 Year Later reflection (source)
Today marks the first anniversary of the Apple Vision Pro launch in the United States. Originally announced at WWDC23 and hotly anticipated before launch, the first year of the Apple Vision Pro being on the market has been a mixed bag, to say the least. You can look online and find as many confident posts lauding the Vision Pro as a success as you can find people denouncing it as a failed product. So what are we to make of this product? Success? Failure? Somewhere in-between? Here are my ramblings on a year with the Apple Vision Pro.
Work inside the Vision Pro can be a very calming and unhurried experience, a strength but also an occasional constraint of the product.
…
MY USE CASE
Regrettably, I'm in the pool of people who were head over heels for the Vision Pro but have since struggled to establish a regular and consistent habit of using the device. It's a product I use 5-7 times per month in a limited capacity. With a hectic life, finding a meaningful period to escape privately into Vision Pro is rare. When I catch a pocket of time, many of the things I prefer to do (i.e., design work, reading) are not things the Vision Pro is best suited for, and the apps I want to use are often not natively available on the platform. If I had a more solitary lifestyle, I believe I would become a far more regular user of the Vision Pro because its use would increase for things like watching Sports, TV shows, etc. However, a year later, I'm still reticent about immersing myself in a headset rather than feel present with family in the evenings.
Apple Vision Pro review one year later: time to exit the preview (Appleinsider)
It's been a wild year for Apple Vision Pro, if slow, and it's time for Apple to step up and prove it's the future and drive customers, developers, and creators to the platform.
Apple Vision Pro continues to be one of Apple's most frustrating yet amazing products it has ever released. It is simultaneously a preview of the future and a stark reminder of Apple's struggle to juggle multiple platforms in the modern era.
As it stands today, Apple Vision Pro is enough for me to get most of my work done. It sits in a similar space to where iPad Pro was a few years ago — almost there.
Man vs. Beast is available now on Vision Pro (source)
Man vs. Beast is available now on Vision Pro, and it’s wild. The bull riding feels so real, like you’re right there. The night scenes are super sharp, and the carnival and fireworks at the end just hit different. Definitely worth checking out.
Apple Developing Version of visionOS for Future Smart Glasses (source)
According to Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman, the Vision Pro has so far been a flop. Many users find the $3,500 headset too heavy for extended use, expensive, and prone to overheating, relegating it to niche status. Interest in the device has reportedly waned since its launch, with sales falling short of Apple's expectations.
In his latest "Power On" newsletter, Gurman reports that Apple's Vision Products Group is looking beyond the Vision Pro and considering launching smart glasses comparable to Meta's Ray-Ban collaboration. Executives involved in the effort reportedly don't think a product will be ready for three years or more, with plenty of research still to be done.
Apple is working on a Custom Version of visionOS for their Future Smartglasses that are still in development (source)
Apple continues development of a pair of smartglasses that's still years away. According to a new rumor report, the device continues to face its fair share of hurdles, though Apple continues to file patents to strengthen their inventions realated to smartglasses. The latest news is that Apple is working on new version of visionOS that is tailor-made for their glasses.
As reported by Mark Gurman on Sunday, Apple'swork on the smartglasses continues at a secret facility located in Santa Clara. These offices are working to bring various technologies together, including displays, so when combined together, they can create a pair of smart glasses that can be considered a worthy spiritual successor to the Apple Vision Pro. However, work is progressing slower than usual because the aforementioned location has fewer staff present due to the layoffs that happened last year.
Wicked: For Good more editing to be done on AVP (source)
GeForce NOW enables Vision Pro users to stream games in 4K at 120 FPS, with ultrawide resolutions available at ultra-low latency. Gamepads are supported too.
The game library available for subscribers now exceeds 2,000 titles, and you can even play over 100 for free with no paid subscription required.
All of this happens through Safari’s native visionOS app.
Apple today released visionOS 2.3, the third update to the visionOS 2 operating system that came out in September. visionOS 2.3 comes over a month after the launch of visionOS 2.2, and almost a year after the release of the Vision Pro headset.
How to explore legacy VR and 3D content using Apple Vision Pro (source)
After being easily defeated by Donkey Kong at tennis and failing to play Golf, I got my fill of nostalgia. It's really amazing that this piece of video game history is now so easy to access.
There are controls to change the eye separation, which affects depth, so ensure this is set to a comfortable position. Users can also change the colors used for the foreground and background.
The VirtualFriend app is free to download, but you'll have to provide your own ROMs.
Craftrium a Vision Pro app that lets you design your own aquarium (source)
Introducing “Craftrium,” a Vision Pro app that lets you design your own aquarium and use it as a cool digital decoration or clock widget on your desk—or anywhere you like. It even allows you to add custom lighting effects rendered in real-time, which is super cool. I love that this app lets you learn about fish, be creative, and relax—all in one fun experience. It was shared with me today by @ok_totti, the CEO of "Graffity AR Studio" an AR entertainment startup based in Japan.
Future of shopping shown in Alibaba’s Taobao on Vision Pro (source)
Just experienced the future of shopping with Alibaba’s Taobao on Vision Pro. High-res 3D models and spatial videos make it incredibly immersive. E-commerce is about to change forever.
Apple on track to debut PlayStation VR controllers on Vision Pro later this year (source)
When the news broke last month, it was reported that Apple had been working with Sony for multiple months, and that Apple had been trying to collaborate with some third-party developers to have support for the controllers within their games on Vision Pro:
Apple approached Sony earlier this year, and the duo agreed to work together on launching support for the PlayStation VR2’s hand controllers on the Vision Pro. Inside Sony, the work has been a monthslong undertaking, I’m told. And Apple has discussed the plan with third-party developers, asking them if they’d integrate support into their games.
Now, Mark Gurman reports that “all signs point to this project still being in development”, and that it should debut in a software update later this year, likely as part of visionOS 3. The controllers will be useful both for gaming, as well as “controlling the operating system with more precision.”
Using Vision Pro to make your job easier—especially in trades—is pure genius. Simple ideas like using "Magic Room" or 3D models of iPhones to set markers make this low-voltage contractor already work way more efficiently. Let’s remember that with new technologies, we shouldn’t just stick to the use cases we’re given—we should also think outside the box and get creative to discover new ones. This is especially true for a platform like spatial computing, which has access to your full field of view and can seamlessly recognize your surroundings, unlocking endless possibilities.
I got to check out the BestBuy app for Vision Pro, which shows what shopping in the future could look like. It lets you bring the products they’re selling into your actual space, giving you a closer look at what you’re interested in and seeing where it fits best. Pretty neat!
Wild how my Apple Vision Pro can do all these setups.
Apple won a Patent for Extended Depth Of Focus Optics into Apple Pencil, smartglasses (source)
Today the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officially granted Apple a patent that relates to integrating Interferometric Sensors and Extended Depth Of Focus Optics into Apple Pencil, Vision Pro and smartglasses.
Optical Sensor Module Including An Interferometric Sensor And Extended Depth Of Focus Optics
Embodiments of the systems, devices, methods, and apparatus are directed to the configuration and operation of an optical sensor module that includes an interferometric sensor and extended depth of focus optics.
The interferometric sensor may include an SMI sensor or a Mach-Zender interferometer. The extended depth of focus optics may include a set of one or more optical elements that focus the light emitted by a coherent light source of an interferometric sensor toward different focus areas within different depths of focus. The different depths of focus may be overlapping or non-overlapping depths of focus. As defined herein, a depth of focus (DoF) is a distance range, from a set of one or more optical elements, within which the statistical signal strength distribution of an interferometric signal produced by an interferometric sensor meets sensing signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and detection failure rate requirements.
Spatial Computing Health Care Summit kicked off at Sharp HealthCare (source)
Today, the inaugural Spatial Computing Health Care Summit kicked off at Sharp HealthCare, at our Spatial Computing Center of Excellence. Global industry leaders and developers shared how they’re using Apple Vision Pro to transform health care.
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