Last Week in AVP #73: Apple Markets F1 Movie with Immersive Hot Lap Experience on Apple Vision Pro, ex-Apple Vision Pro Engineer Created XR Keyboard, 1,000 Supercars in Your Living Room and more!
Apple is certainly going out of its way to push awareness of the film. We’ve already seen Apple release a special haptic trailer, kickoff WWDC with a F1 sketch, Tim Cook and Brad Pitt made a surprise appearance at the Fifth Avenue Apple Store at the weekend, among many other media interviews. And today, it has expanded the pool of Apple Immersive content with a new Hot Lap Immersive instalment, available now in the TV app on Apple Vision Pro.
The new “Zoom” feature on Vision Pro can upgrade your actual vision to Pro. It’s by far the best implementation of this familiar accessibility feature on any Apple platform. You can resize the magnifying glass, zoom with the Digital Crown, and drag it anywhere.
Fly around Vast’s Haven-1 space station using the Apple Vision Pro (source)
Vast is working on what might just be the first commercial space station in low Earth orbit. To get the public excited about the station’s launch as soon as one year from now, the company released a VR fly through, led by Vast’s Lead Astronaut, that is available on Meta, Steam, and yes, Apple’s platforms.
Called Haven-1, the small space station is capable of being launched on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, the most economical medium-lift rocket on the market. Vast has also partnered with SpaceX to launch its crew for two week-long missions with its Crew Dragon spacecraft and provide Starlinkconnection to the station for data relay and internet connection.
Spatial Photo (visionOS 2) vs. Spatial Scene (visionOS 26) explained (source)
Spatial Photo (visionOS 2) vs. Spatial Scene (visionOS 26) explained: A Spatial Photo is a regular photo enhanced with depth information, creating a 3D-like effect when viewed on Apple Vision Pro. It retains the original resolution and adds a sense of depth, but the effect works best when you keep your head relatively still.
An ex-Apple Vision Pro engineer turned a Steam Deck into an all-in-one keyboard for XR, and now you can too (source)
The land of proper DIY hardware is one that both fascinates and terrifies me in equal measure—such incredible projects, and such terrible abandon. You wouldn't, for instance, catch me tearing the guts out of one of the beloved Legion Go S handhelds sitting in front of me. But I'm not one of those DIY-ers, and perhaps my vision isn't grand enough. It's certainly not as grand as michaelthatsit's vision of a Steam Deck inside a keyboard, a project that he's now made open to all.
VisionOS 26 proves Apple isn’t treating the Vision Pro like a hobby (source)
In 2023, the flagship reveal at Apple’s WWDC keynote was unquestionably the debut of the Vision Pro. The headset wasn’t just Apple’s first all-new platform since the Apple Watch. It was also the company’s opportunity to define what, exactly, a computer you strap to your head should do.
Being Apple, it purposefully steered clear of existing concepts such as the metaverse and virtual reality. Instead, it embraced a term it stood a shot of owning: spatial computing. Rather than aiming to nail one or two experiences—movie-watching or gaming or even industrial-strength applications such as training—the Vision Pro would aspire to deliver general-purpose utility reminiscent of the Mac. Just in a radically new, immersive form.
Vision Pro’s New Personas Are a Big Improvement, But How Will They Scale to Smaller Headsets? (source)
How Will This Scale to Smaller Headsets?
This is an obvious leap in the visual quality of Personas, but a big question that’s now on my mind is: how will Apple be able to maintain this quality bar on smaller headsets in the future?
It’s not just that a more compact headset will need to be more power-efficient in order to do the same amount of computing in a smaller package. Nor is it simply that a smaller headset means less room to fit cameras.
Difference in tracking speed using hands vs PSVR2 controllers (source)
Difference in tracking speed using hands vs PSVR2 controllers on AppleVisionPro with Vision OS 26.
Apple’s New ASAF Spatial Audio Format Takes Aim at the Future of Immersive Sound (source)
At WWDC 2025, Apple quietly introduced a major leap forward in immersive audio: the Apple Spatial Audio Format (ASAF). Not spotlighted in the keynote but instead detailed in a developer session, this new spatial audio format expands on the company’s existing head-tracked Dolby Atmos experience and opens the door to richer, more dynamic audio in Apple’s growing spatial computing ecosystem.
But what exactly is ASAF, and how does it differ from Dolby Atmos or rival formats like Samsung and Google’s Eclipsa Audio? More importantly, what does it mean for creators, engineers, and listeners like you and me—especially those already enjoying Apple’s current spatial audio offering through AirPods Pro 2 (91% CE Critic Score)?
More than one year on since its release, the Onshape Vision app from PTC is opening up new modes of visualisation and collaboration for designers wearing the Apple Vision Pro headset. Stephen Holmes sat down with Greg Brown, VP of product management at Onshape, to talk about where extended reality might prove most useful for designers and how best to take advantage of its powers
Another visionOS 26 new persona demo
Spatial widgets by Moon Portal turns apartment hallway into a private gallery (source)
Apple’s unannounced Severance environment for AVP (source)
Google VEO 3 + Topaz Astra = Gen-AI 360 Video (source)
VEO 3 can make immersive video—but the quality?
Not great…Until now. @topazlabs Astra new Gen-AI upscaler takes it to the next level.
Watch the difference
AR Helicopters - fly your own miniature chopper in AVP (source)
In AR Helicopters, you can fly your own miniature chopper using any controller connected to the headset (I used my Switch Pro Controller). While I love the hand and eye controls, the strong haptic feedback of the controller really enhanced the illusion of actually flying the helicopter. The occlusion and sound effects made it feel like a real, physical toy.
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