Last Week in AVP #63: Apple Vision Pro 2 Reportedly Cheaper & Lighter, Mac-Tethered Headset, Apple Immersive Video Utility Released, James Cameron is Excited by XR Headsets and more!
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Apple is planning a lighter and cheaper Vision Pro, plus a new tethered version with zero latency for enterprise apps (source)
Tim Cook really wants Apple to make true AR glasses. He “cares about nothing else”, according to an Apple engineer. That said, building true AR glasses will take a lot of time.
According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman though, Apple is developing “its own glasses with cameras and microphones” in the meanwhile, similar to Meta Ray-Bans. Despite this interim product, AR glasses are Tim Cook’s “top priority.”
These glasses would tap heavily into Siri and Visual Intelligence, as part of Apple’s AI push. However, Apple has some privacy concerns with allowing the glasses to capture media, something that would differentiate it quite heavily from Meta’s offering.
Apple Vision Pro 2 Reportedly Cheaper & Lighter, Mac-Tethered Headset Coming Too (source)
Apple Vision Pro 2 will be cheaper and lighter, not just a chip upgrade, and the company is working on a Mac-tethered headset too, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports.
Gurman has a relatively strong track record of reliably reporting on Apple's product plans years in advance, and successfully described many details of Apple Vision Pro's hardware and software long before it was officially revealed.
In the latest edition of his weekly newsletter, Gurman claims that Apple is "readying" two new headsets, a Vision Pro successor and an entirely new Mac-tethered headset.
James Cameron is excited by how XR headsets solve the problems of traditional 3D glasses (source)
James Cameron is excited by how XR headsets solve the problems of traditional 3D glasses.
In December, Cameron's new company Lightstorm Vision, which has the goal of "making stereoscopic technology ubiquitous for all visual media by enabling stereoscopic 3D content creation in as seamless a manner as traditional 2D", announced an exclusive multi-year partnership with Meta to help bring significantly more 3D video content to Quest headsets.
Meta said this partnership will bring "world-class 3D entertainment experiences spanning live sports and concerts, feature films, and TV series featuring big-name IP" to its Horizon OS platform.
The inside story on Apple’s ‘Ice Dive’ immersive video for Vision Pro (source)
As Apple continues to grow the catalog of immersive video content for Apple Vision Pro users, we’re now learning more about the production process of this content. In a new interview on the Voices of VR podcast, Kent Bye was joined by Ant Williams, a freediving athlete featured in the “Ice Dive” episode of “The Adventure Series” immersive video show.
In the interview, Williams describes the process of shooting the episode, which was a collaboration between Apple Studios and Atlantic Productions:
I got contacted by Atlantic Productions, who were looking to make something really unique for the Vision Pro with their adventure series. But they couldn’t tell me back then.
They were just like, ‘we can’t tell you who this is for or what it’s for, but we want to go and shoot something under the ice. Are you up for that?’ And I remember thinking at the time, ah, not really. Yeah. Like I got my record, I’m retired. And there are these freedivers that are based up in these Nordic countries who are full-time freedivers who specialize in ice diving. Go and talk to them. So I was really convinced that they wouldn’t choose me, but somehow they liked my story.
How much would you be willing to spend on a cheaper Apple Vision headset? (source)
Apple Immersive Video Utility released on the App Store (source)
Apple Immersive Video Utility quietly dropped on the App Store and inside visionOS — right in the middle of the madness that was NAB 2025. And somehow, we were lucky enough to be among one the very first creators to get hands-on review. We tested it using the new @Blackmagic_News URSA Cine Immersive camera and the DaVinci Resolve Immersive Build, and… wow.
Apple has released a new companion app called Apple Immersive Video Utility for Vision Pro owners that allows them to organize and manage immersive content with the help of a Mac. The utility, which is available for the Mac and Vision Pro, allows users to view, stream, and organize Apple Immersive Video into playlists. The app supports more than one Vision Pro, too, synchronizing playback of content streamed from a Mac to multiple Vision Pros. Videos can also be transferred from the Mac app to a Vision Pro for watching them there.
Using my Vision Pro to test out a photo framing before I order a print (source)
Taking a look at Museas 2.0 on the Apple Vision Pro.
This app was recently updated to a new 2.0 version with some added features.
An awesome app for viewing famous paintings and more in stunning quality.
Enjoy!
Hands-On with Guest User Mode in visionOS 2.4 (source)
The Apple Vision Pro is a device that begs to be shared with others. Sure, mirroring your view to a TV or iPhone via AirPlay is a decent way to give people a glimpse into the experience, but so much about visionOS – the windows floating in real-world spaces, immersive videos, 3D environments, spatial photos, and more – can only be truly understood by seeing them with your own eyes. That’s why Guest User mode is so vital to the platform.
