Last Week in AVP #40: AVP Launching in Two More Countries, Belkin Releases New Head Strap for AVP, PrismXR Made An Elegant Charging Dock, visionOS 2.2 beta Just Around the Corner and more!
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Apple Announces Vision Pro Launching in Two More Countries Next Month (source)
Apple will soon be selling a top head strap for Apple Vision Pro’s Solo Knit band (source)
Initially spotted by Brad Lynch on X, Apple has recently listed a new Belkin Head Strap for Apple Vision Pro, one that looks very similar (though not quite identical) to the strap that they unveiled back at WWDC23. It works in addition to the Solo Knit band.
The new Belkin Head Strap for Apple Vision Pro will be available for $49.95, although it currently isn’t available for purchase. The new product is described as follows:
Enhance your Apple Vision Pro experience with an ergonomic and adjustable Head Strap that provides superior comfort and stability. Designed with aesthetics that make a great addition to the Solo Knit band, the Head Strap features a secure locking mechanism and additional stabilization points to keep Apple Vision Pro in place, even during vigorous movement.
Rumors of next iteration of AVP with M5 chip (source)
Steve Job’s philosophy applied to Apple Vision Pro (source)
See this, apply it to AVP - simple
PrismXR Made An Elegant Charging Dock For Apple Vision Pro (source)
The $90 PrismXR Carina D1 is made of silicone, and has slots for both the headset and its tethered battery, as well as a cable holder at the back.
visionOS 2.2 beta is just around the corner (source)
visionOS 2.2 beta is just around the corner! There are many references to the software version appearing on Apple's Developer website. watchOS 11.2 & tvOS 18.2 are also coming soon.
Backgammon Added To Game Room On Apple Vision Pro (source)
Developed by Resolution Games, we previously considered Game Room to be one of the best Apple Vision Pro games currently available, praising the "strong presentation with nice interactive effects." Currently exclusive to Apple Vision Pro on headsets - it's also on iPhone and iPad - the board game collection recently added Backgammon in its latest post-launch update. You can see that below.
Launch of Spatial Film—an immersive 180° and 360° film app (source)
I’m thrilled to announce the launch of Spatial Film—an immersive 180° and 360° film app we’ve built: https://bit.ly/3TCNyrE
After months of self-teaching Swift and app development, I finally turned my dream of having a platform dedicated to showcasing the highest-quality immersive films into reality. I’m not a developer by trade—I’m an immersive filmmaker—but I wanted a space where our original 3D 180 and 360 films could shine, free from the heavy compression of typical platforms. So, four months ago, I dove into coding, and here we are with version 1!
Wild bird perching right before your eyes with the Relax With Bird app for AVP (source)
Bird is the word! 🦜
Give your brain a break and enjoy the presence of a wild bird perching right before your eyes with the Relax With Bird app for #AppleVisionPro
Nintendo DS emulation on Apple Vision Pro (source)
Pulsargeist - Immersive Survival Horror Game (Release Trailer) (source)
Pulsargeist is an immersive survival horror game for mixed reality. Plunge yourself in a paranormal survival horror experience that takes place in your own surroundings. Explore, evade sinister spirits, and test your nerves across 5 terrifying chapters—or customize the scares in Custom Mode. Can you survive in your own home? First Chapter is free to play!
Is Apple Vision Pro a 'first year flop' or tomorrow, today? (AppleInsider)
By aiming high— and delivering high— Apple could pique the attention of people with disposable incomes that haven't been so enthralled with all the AR/VR that has come before. But there's more than just expensive hardware in the Vision Pro platform.
Another component of Spatial Computing that's really, inherently, stubbornly expensive is its software. Building apps for iOS and iPad and Apple Watch is already quite an undertaking financially for developers. Building a good app easily costs $100,000's. But the large installed base of iPhone, iPad, and Watches drives volume sales.
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This all happened before
Perhaps the best example of Apple approaching a catch-22 problem with rarified hardware at stupid prices is MacBook Air. Steve Jobs first introduced the envelope-sized machine in 2008 as the thinnest notebook ever, just 1.9 cm. However, it wasn't just light and thin.
MacBook Air was light, thin, and expensive.
It was expensive. A big part of why it was so pricey was that to help it achieve its thinness, it used a solid state drive, meaning that instead of a spinning mechanical hard disk, it read and wrote storage to memory chips. At its debut, people complained that it could have been more affordable if Apple had at least offered a spinning hard drive version, or given up on the absolute thinness and instead just made a basic PC notebook with an Apple logo on it.
Realtime 3D conversion in Spatial Media Toolkit + Gallery (100% free feature) (source)
Proton VPN Launches Native Apple TV App, Adds Vision Pro Support (source)
Proton today released its native Apple TV app, allowing users to access VPN services directly on their Apple TV following tvOS 17's introduction of built-in VPN support last year. The company has also announced compatibility with Apple Vision Pro.
Experience Halloween on Vision Pro with Story! (source)
Introducing Loma Home control your smart devices like magic (source)
Introducing Loma Home for Apple Vision Pro Control your smart devices like magic
Developer blogs current situation with the Vision Pro and the visionOS ecosystem (source)
Chicken or the egg
I think we can all agree that we’re at a weird moment with the Vision Pro. A common argument about where it falls short is the lack of things to do on the device, and I fully agree with this. Personally, I’ve been using my Vision Pro mainly to watch immersive content, and since I’ve pretty much watched everything available, I’m now only using it to develop my apps.
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I'm quite confident that visionOS will become a great ecosystem in the future. My main concern is how long it will take to get there. If the next device doesn't address core issues like comfort and pricing, we might have to wait for the 3rd or 4th generation. Early adopters like myself might look for other platforms where we have a better chance to be profitable or get funding. It would be unfortunate for Apple to lose the developers who started the ecosystem because they couldn't support them properly at the beginning.
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