Last Week in AVP #81: Hogwarts Great Hall Environment is Now Live on HBO Max, F1 Movie Now Available on AVP, Vivo Vision is Coming to China as AVP Competitor and more!
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Hogwarts Great Hall environment is now live on HBO Max (source)
The Hogwarts Great Hall environment is now live on HBO Max for AppleVisionPro. Big thanks to my team for bringing it to life — a ton of craft and care went into this one. Can’t wait for you to step inside.
Vivo Vision is Coming to China with Hopes of Undercutting Apple Vision Pro (source)
Chinese smartphone creator Vivo announced its ‘Vision’ XR headset back in March, and now the company has officially unveiled the device’s spec sheet in addition to beginning live demos in China. In short, it’s lighter and cheaper than Apple Vision Pro by a fair margin whilst taking more than few design cues in the process.
At the company’s product launch event in Dongguan, China, Vision revealed more about Vision, which is being offered first in a ‘Discovery Edition’.
While the headset isn’t currently available for purchase yet, it has begun demoing across China, including major cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou, the company says in a press statement.
Apple Vision Pro 2 may have a better chip than expected (source)
Apple Vision Pro will be two years old in February. For those holding out for a second-gen version, it sounds like the Apple Vision Pro 2 may have a better chip than expected.
The rumors have gone back and forth over which chip the refreshed Apple Vision Pro will use. The current hardware runs on an M2 chip, the newest chip when Apple announced Vision Pro, although the M3 arrived in products before Apple Vision Pro was released.
Early reports said the next Apple Vision Pro will run on the yet-to-be-announced M5. More recent reports have settled on the M4 chip. Having a chip that’s one version below the latest when AVP 2 arrives would certainly match what AVP 1 does.
Months after China and Japan, Apple Vision Pro set for release in Korea in November (source)
The Apple Vision Pro will make its official launch in Korea on Nov. 15. [APPLE KOREA]
The Apple Vision Pro will officially launch in Korea on Nov. 15, Apple said Thursday.
Customers can place preorders for the augmented and virtual reality headset starting at 10 a.m. on Nov. 4.
Marketed by Apple as a "spatial computer," the Apple Vision Pro is a wearable device that allows users to integrate digital media into the real world. Users can interact with the system through physical input, utilizing motion gestures such as eye tracking or speech recognition, as well as physical tools like keyboards and trackpads.
The Vision Pro’s ultrawide Mac display is very close to being a killer app (source)
Since its release, I’ve mostly used Apple’s Vision Pro like a movie theater. The VR headset is an amazing way to watch Dune — but beyond that, it hasn’t really lived up to its potentialas a general-purpose computing device.
Today, that’s finally starting to change. With the update to visionOS 2.2, Apple is seriously upgrading the headset’s ability to work with a Mac. It’s probably the closest thing the Vision Pro has to a killer app.
The Vision Pro has been able to mirror the screen of a Mac since day one, but I found the original Mac Virtual Display feature limiting. Text was sharp at low resolutions, but the screen was cramped. I could get more space at higher resolutions, but the text was too small and blurry to read. Yes, I can blow it up to the size of a bus to make things readable, except then, I’m craning my head around way too much to see everything. My normal three-monitor setup lets me see the most important stuff with slight movements, but that just hasn’t been possible before now.
Cozy store-management game for Vision Pro (source)
Hey everyone! I’ve been tinkering on a small project for Apple Vision Pro and wanted to share some screenshots. It’s a cozy little store-management sim where you:
Open your shop and see who stops by
Restock and prep for the next day
Upgrade and expand your store
Automate with staff to make things run smoothly
I’ve always loved management games on Steam, and I realized I haven’t really seen anything like that yet on the App Store for Vision Pro. So I thought — why not try building one myself?
It’s still early, but I’d love to hear what you think. Would you play something like this on Vision Pro?
Travel mode way more stable on visionOS 26 (source)
Seriously impressed with how far Travel Mode has come. Back in visionOS 1 it was basically useless in a car. visionOS 2 made it somewhat workable; you could use it if you stayed in an immersive environment, but the second you looked out the window or the car turned, tracking would break. Now with visionOS 26 it is a whole different story. Tracking is almost perfectly stable, even when you are looking out the window, which is kind of wild. It finally makes Travel Mode totally usable while riding in a car. And to be clear, I said riding. Somehow there are actually people dumb enough to drive with a Vision Pro strapped to their head. If that is you, please uninstall yourself from the gene pool. For everyone else, highly recommend giving it a try. Let me know your thoughts and experiences with Travel Mode in the comments!
I’ve always loved the promise of AR: to bring us closer to our data. But clunky interaction often gets in the way. My hypothesis is that voice may be the key to finally achieving that fluid connection. I built this prototype on the AppleVisionPro to test it. Here's a demo.
Run hypersonic reentry simulation on your Vision Pro (source)
Aegis Core for the Apple Vision Pro updated with new wrist menu & hand gesture (source)
I recently updated Aegis Core for the Apple Vision Pro with new wrist menu & hand gesture changes after collecting user feedback. There's more to come though.... Does it count as touching grass when wearing this thing?
Future Version of Apple’s Vision Pro may provide users with a Precision Fit through Dynamic Adjustment (source)
While Vision Pro is an amazing XR device, there have been a consistent complaint about it being too uncomfortable to wear over time as this Redditthread outlines. Of course this issue isn’t limited to Vision Pro, The Verge points out. Apple is all too aware of this issue. Over the last two years Patently Apple has covered a plethora of patents from Apple showing that solving this issue is a priority (01, 02, 03 I& more in our HMD archives). Last Thursday, one of the most elaborate patents on this subject matter was published by the U.S. Patent Office.
Apple is Exploring the use of Intuitive Interfaces for a future Vision Pro device with UI Controls embedded in a Touch-Sensitive side surface (source)
On March 2024, Patently Apple posted an IP report titled “Apple reveals that touch sensors could be embedded into a future version of Apple Vision Pro's Light Seal to add touch controls.” Today, we see that Apple is also considering new touch controls integrated into the side band and beyond.
Apple’s new patent filing is aimed at revolutionizing user interaction within virtual, augmented, and mixed reality environments. The patent addresses longstanding inefficiencies and cognitive burdens associated with current extended reality (XR) systems, proposing a more intuitive and energy-efficient interface design that could reshape how users engage with digital environments.
We Filmed a Wedding on URSA Cine Immersive | Free Now in the Latest Spatial Film (source)
One of the most powerful features of Apple Immersive Video is the idea of a Time Capsule - a way to lock a personal live moment into spatial memory.
Before the URSA Cine Immersive even shipped, we always joked about using the $30K camera to film a friend’s wedding as the ultimate wedding gift. Sure, Apple advertises that you can just grab your iPhone for Spatial Video - but why not go all out? Why not shoot it with the full immersive cinema camera?
Well… fast forward to now, and we actually did it. We filmed a wedding on the URSA Cine Immersive. (This is why you never invite a filmmaker to your wedding, lol.)
Spatial video is so underrated. Yeah, we all laughed at that cringey Apple Vision Pro demo.. the dad with a headset strapped on at his kid’s birthday. But this isn’t just video recording.. This is a life moment recording.
Watching a spatial video in Apple Vision Pro feels like almost being there. Words can’t do justice- you have to experience it. When we lost our cat Buttercup, it was devastating. But I have spatially recorded videos of him- me petting him and seeing in full 3D. Every hair on his body, the fluffy texture of his fur, even the details in his whiskers- it’s so vivid it feels like you could reach out and touch him.
It’s therapeutic. Healing. Almost like a window back into those moments. I used to think we’d have to wait until we were living in spaceships, staring at hologram of loved ones, to be experiencing something like this. But Apple made that a reality- now, in our lifetime. That’s the power of spatial video.
Fully immersive environments with real physics (source)
The future of Vision Pro is limitless. We’re talking fully immersive environments with real physics, hand tracking that feels like magic, dynamic collisions, interactive worlds you can walk inside, and experiences that blend reality with imagination. This is where computing is heading.
PhotoDome for Vision Pro is Now Available! (source)
Transform your photo viewing experience with PhotoDome - the immersive photo gallery app for visionOS 2.0+.
✨ Key Features:
View your photos in stunning 3D environments
Multiple viewing modes: Chaos, Grid, Rotating and more
Immersive skybox backgrounds
Natural hand gestures and eye tracking
Smart photo quality optimization
Perfect for reliving memories in a whole new way! Your photos have never looked this amazing.
