Last Week in AVP #12: Game Emulators Launch in Apple Vision Pro, Prehistoric Planet Immersive Video, BestBuy App Launches, PC VR Games Setup, New Demo Found in iOS 17.5 beta 2, and More!
“Best Buy Envision is another way we’re utilizing innovative technology to humanize consumer electronics like no one can,” said Brian Tilzer, chief digital, analytics and technology officer for Best Buy. “The app allows our customers to see, in a lifelike way, how technology will look and feel right in their own homes, delivering an immersive and personalized shopping experience.”
Regardless of the ability to control how immersed someone is within the Vision Pro (by rotating the knob on top of the headset), it's impossible to be grounded in reality and visionOS simultaneously. As I was writing this story, I couldn't help but think of two points made by both my colleagues when the Vision Pro first launched. As Lauren Goode put it, “the Vision Pro is also unlike almost every other modern Apple product in one crucial way: It doesn’t disappear. In fact, it does the opposite.” Kate Knibbs also said, “It drives home the reality that an Apple headset, no matter how nifty its specs, is still a big honking gizmo plonked between its wearer and the rest of the world, inherently a barrier more than a conduit.”
Apple to let customers watch their own Spatial Videos during Vision Pro demo sessions (9to5mac)
Discovered in the code for iOS 17.5 beta 2, which was released to developers on this week, Apple is working on a new system that will let customers transfer their own Spatial Videos to a Vision Pro demo unit in an Apple Store.
Internally known as the “VPG Photos Retail Experience,” this system will create an HTTP file transfer service with SPAKE2 encryption to transfer files between an iPhone and Apple Vision Pro. Customers will be able to select their own Spatial Videos and then transfer them to the Vision Pro by scanning an App Clip code.
Interesting Health Monitoring patents from Apple (source)
Apple’s latest approved patent “ Method and device for Health monitoring” provides an outline of some of the thinking when it comes to the use of Vision Pro and other Apple devices for health monitoring.
Tim Cook visits AVP developers in Vietnam (source)
Developers CollaNote & ELSA Speak walked me through how they use Apple products to help customers boost productivity and learn. Bootloader Studio shared the new app they’re working on for Vision Pro. All three are fantastic examples of Vietnam’s fast growing developer community!
How Does Playing PC VR Games on the Apple Vision Pro Work?
A great tutorial on how to use the Apple Vision Pro for PC VR gaming using the free streaming tool ALVR.
Apple Vision Pro FAQ: Price, features, hands-on insights, and everything you need to know (ZDNet)
Fairly basic information covered in this FAQ but it’s a good starting point for someone who is completely new to AVP.
Can you try the Vision Pro before buying it?
Yes, you can try the Vision Pro before purchasing by booking a one-on-one demo experience with a specialist at an Apple Store. You can find the booking link on Apple's website. You can also purchase the Vision Pro, try it for yourself, and return it after two weeks.
CNET advises against using the Vision Pro outdoors due to safety and practicality concerns
Sunlight can damage VR headsets
Here's a lesson I learned the hard way, years ago, while shooting a review video for the Oculus Go outside. After the shoot, I found a white spot on the display that wouldn't go away: lenses plus sunlight equals burn-in on VR headsets. If direct sun ever happens to hit those inner lenses, it's bad news. I haven't tested this on a $3,499 Vision Pro, and neither should you.
Josh Goldman/CNET
TechCrunch Minute: Where the Apple Vision Pro stands now that the launch day hype has dropped off
For now, we remain mostly in the dark regarding the device’s popularity. Sure, some folks returned theirs and TechCrunch’s own review was middling-to-positive in its view, but that doesn’t mean that most folks took their Apple Vision Pro back, or that some users are enjoying the gadget more than we did.
Apple’s Mysterious Fisheye Projection
Mike Swanson does a deeply technical breakdown of the Apple Immersive Video format. It reveals a lot of interesting techniques applied to video encoding that is not common with other platforms.
The remaining questions I have relate to why someone would choose this projection format over half-equirectangular. Clearly Apple believes there are worthwhile benefits, or they wouldn’t have bothered to build a toolchain to capture, process, and stream video in this format. I can imagine many possible advantages, and I’ve enumerated some of them in this post. With time, I’m sure we’ll learn more from Apple themselves and from experiments that all of us can run when their fisheye format is supported by existing tools.
Microsoft OneNote now available on Apple Vision Pro
Today, we are introducing the newest member of the OneNote family, on the Apple Vision Pro. We have worked closely with Apple for many years to bring these experiences to iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Now, with Apple Vision Pro, OneNote will make use of the infinite canvas of spatial computing and can appear side-by-side with other great Microsoft apps like Word, Excel, and Teams at any scale for incredible multitasking.
Variety shares insights from a survey on the public's interest in consuming video content through VR
Mixed reality headsets such as Vision Pro offer some compelling reasons to use them to consume video content. Among those who said they would be interested in watching video via headset, consumers cited the benefits of having a more immersive (61%), personalized (45%), portable and high-quality (33%) or private (33%) viewing experience.
Still, hurdles remain. Among the 53% of respondents who said they weren’t interested in watching video content on Vision Pro, the biggest deterrents were discomfort (33%), redundancy with other screened devices (32%) and the cost of the hardware (31%).
Completely impractical but futuristic AVP case (source)
