Last Week in AVP #22: Apple Vision Pro International Launch Photos and Videos, Apple Intelligence for AVP, Taobao Immersive Retail Experience, and more!
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Apple Vision Pro Launches Internationally with Photos and Videos! (source)
Alibaba’s Taobao Drives Immersive Retail with Updated Apple Vision Pro App
This is honestly one of the most impressive glimpse of what spatial computing can be in the future.
Taobao Vision Pro users can virtually test drive cars, fly drones and redecorate their homes
Millions of products on Taobao can be viewed in 3D using its low-cost modelling technology
Vogue Singapore's Hands-On Experience with the Apple Vision Pro (source)
Vogue Singapore's digital editor Janice Sim spends 24 hours with the Apple Vision Pro
It’s been a swell 24 hours. I feel like I’ve somehow gained a superpower ability overnight and I’m fighting sleep to get lost in Apple Arcade. It’s only been a day and I’ve barely scratched the surface of what this revolutionary piece of tech can achieve. Yet, I know this overly-stimulated, astounding feeling will pass. Soon, perhaps a year from now, this will be the norm. A mind-boggling realisation, given that everything feels extraterrestrial right now. But in time, people will converse in Vision Pro speak. Movie dates in the midst of Joshua National Park will be a thing. Customisable straps and colours for your own device will be the next fashion statement.
Apple Intelligence is coming to the Vision Pro - Mark Gurman@Bloomberg (source)
When Apple Intelligence was unveiled earlier this month, it was only promised for the Mac, iPhone and iPad. But there’s another device primed to get it: the Vision Pro headset. I’m told that Apple is actively working on bringing the features to the device, but it won’t happen this year. From a technology standpoint, the headset has more than enough memory (16 gigabytes) to run the technology. And the features, including notification prioritization, writing tools, an OpenAI chatbot and the new Siri, make sense for the headset — especially if Apple continues to position the Vision Pro as a device for getting work done and handling computer tasks.
It also shouldn’t be a major engineering task, given that visionOS is a variant of the existing iPadOS software. The bigger challenge will be getting the user interface design team to make it all look right in the mixed-reality environment.
Apple revamps Vision Pro retail demos - Mark Gurman@Bloomberg (source)
The biggest change is a new feature that lets customers beam their own photos, videos and panoramas over to a Vision Pro during a demonstration. Then they can see their own media in mixed reality. If you’ve already done this on a Vision Pro, you know that it could help sway some shoppers. The new approach is rolling out now, but the official launch is scheduled for July 9.
Another change to the demo: Apple is adding a new “Go Deeper” option for people who want to spend more time trying out particular parts of the device, such as office-work features or watching videos. Lastly — and this went into effect Friday globally — Apple has changed the default headset band for the device during demos from the Solo Loop to the Dual Loop. It seems that the Solo Loop, which only wraps around the back of a person’s head, hasn’t been comfortable enough for potential customers.
How Apple Plans to Turn the Vision Pro Into a Multiproduct Business - Mark Gurman@Bloomberg (source)
None of this rumours makes sense to me from an Apple strategy point of view. iPhone tethering sounds good in theory that can cut cost down significantly, until you think a little deeper and realize the technical hurdle required to move the gpu from being attached to the display to something 6 feet away. Not to mention the potential bulk it adds to iPhone which affects power and weight. But hey, rumours are still fun!
A customer with an Apple Vision Pro at the company’s store in Palo Alto, California.Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
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A bigger challenge will be developing a cheaper version of the headset. Apple already has been working on such a device for years, aiming to sell something for $1,500 to $2,000. The plan was always to introduce the Vision Pro at the high end, and then roll out the cheaper model — let’s call it the Apple Vision — sometime afterward.
This cheaper device, codenamed N107, is now the focus of Apple’s Vision Products Group. The company hopes to bring that product to market as early as the end of 2025 — a plan that’s been in place since before the Vision Pro was first unveiled last year.
[…]
Prototypes of the N107 also have a narrower field of view than the Vision Pro. And the company is considering making the device reliant on a tethered Mac or iPhone. That would let Apple save money on the processing power and components needed to make the Vision Pro a fully standalone product.
It’s less of a priority, but Apple also is still working on a second-generation version of the Vision Pro. That model is called the N109 internally. It looks much like the current model but includes a faster processor and improvements to external cameras. Apple has also looked at ways to make the second version lighter and more comfortable.
The company has no plans to abandon the high end of the headset market, but this second-generation Vision Pro will take longer to arrive. Months ago, the company shifted a planned 2025 release to the end of 2026 at the earliest, as I reported in April.
Meanwhile, the company has renewed efforts to develop AR-only glasses. These would be lightweight spectacles that users could easily wear all day, and they’ve long been a holy grail for the tech industry. But it’s still early days. Though a launch date around 2027 has been bandied about, no one I’ve spoken to within Apple believes the glasses will be ready in a few years.
[…]
Apple Vision Pro app that allows you to hang works of art on your wall (source)
Apps can now be moved outside of the Compatible Apps folder in visionOS2 (source)
Apple Vision Pro Sets Its Fan Speed Based On How Much Noise The Microphones Hear (source)
According to Max Thomas (aka Shiny Quagsire), the main developer of the visionOS port of the SteamVR streaming tool ALVR, the headset also sets the maximum fan speed based on how loud the fans are, measured with the headset's microphone array.
The idea is presumably that in louder environments, those with more ambient noise, the fans will be harder to hear. So the overall goal of ensuring you rarely hear any fans can be maintained while maximizing performance.
This all leads to the bizarre conclusion that Apple Vision Pro should perform better in noisy environments than in quiet ones, because in quiet environments the fan speed will be limited, and thus the system will throttle performance at lower temperatures.
Siri lets you turn on Nightshift on visionOS 2 (source)
Apple Vision Pro In-Store Demos Now Use The More Comfortable Dual Loop Band (source)
Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reported the change in advance last week, and multiple people who say they had a Vision Pro demo in recent days have confirmed it to UploadVR. Further, in Apple's official photos of the China, Japan, and Singapore launch everyone is using the Dual Loop Band.
That’s all for now, feel free to leave me any feedback and discussions! 🙏
