Last Week in AVP #75: Apple releases visionOS 26 beta 3, Apple Buys Two Firms to Improve Apple Vision Pro, Spatial Buddy Lets You See Who’s Online in Apple Vision Pro and more!
Before this week’s update, a quick plea to readers!
If you enjoy the content, please consider supporting me with a paid subscription 🙏
It helps sustain my work and keeps this going 💪
So I can continue bringing you fresh content every week!
Apple releases visionOS 26 beta 3 with these new features (source)
However, visionOS 26 beta 3 is not just about the new Personas. There are improved spatial experiences. These are the top three:
Spatial Widgets: With them, you can place widgets in the real world. Every time you turn your Apple Vision Pro on, they’ll remain where you placed them,. More interestingly, you can customize the widgets with different frames, width, color, and depth.
Spatial Scenes: Combining a generative AI algorithm and computation depth, Spatial Scenes makes photos 3D, making even more immersive how you see your favorite pictures.
Spatial Browsing: With Safari, visionOS 26 beta 3 lets users read articles by hiding distractions while even revealing spatial scenes from the photos of newspapers, in addition to native playback of 180 and 360-degree recordings.
Shared Spatial Experiences: When two people are together with their own Vision Pro, they can watch a movie in 3D in the same digital space, play games, join a FaceTime call, and collaborate at work.
Ready for Apple Glasses? Apple Is Expected to Launch More Tech for Your Eyes (CNET)
Apple accuses former Vision Pro engineer of stealing trade secrets (source)
Apple is suing a former employee for allegedly stealing confidential Vision Pro headset research before leaving to join Snap’s product design team. In the complaint filed in Santa Clara County Superior Court on June 24th, Apple accuses Di Liu of downloading thousands of documents containing proprietary information from Apple’s internal systems and saving them to his personal cloud storage account in his final days as a senior design engineer for the Vision Pro.
Apple buys two firms to improve Apple Intelligence, Apple Vision Pro (source)
While Apple has always bought firms, typically making at least several Acquisitions every year, most recently it appears to have been buying AI firms in particular. Now, as first spotted by MacGeneration, it's been revealed that Apple has bought at least two more such companies.
One of them is TrueMeeting, which lets users scan their faces with their iPhones and produce an AI avatar image. The company's official site has been removed, but TrueMeeting claimed to make a "hyper-realistic digital twin" of the user.
Things I noticed in visionOS 26 beta 3: Icons now seem to have a hint of Liquid Glass, with more noticeable translucent outlines — especially visible on darker icons like MAX, Apple TV, and others. Apple TV covers are now properly aligned — previously, some appeared tilted, now there’s a consistent layout. All system windows now have corners that look more like real glass. Still frosted, but there’s a noticeably more refined appearance. The new Jupiter environment is still not available. The system asked to create a new Persona — this might suggest improvements in the creation process, but I still need to test the capture flow to confirm.
Digital interior design will be the next big thing (source)
Digital interior design will be the next big thing — because it’s awesome. With visionOS 26, Apple finally gave us a digital layer that stays on top of reality permanently. Next to placing widgets and windows on walls, I also used it to redecorate my apartment with 3D models that now live in my living room.
The Best Apple Vision Pro Apps to Download in 2025 (source)
Quick Glance: What To Install First
For movie buffs: Apple TV+ Spatial, Disney+ Immersive, Tubular Pro
For getting work done: Workspace Pro, Microsoft 365 Suite, Zoom
For creative pros: Final Cut Pro 11, Sketch3D, Adobe Lightroom Vision Edition
For gamers: Gears & Goo, WHAT THE CAR? Vision Edition, Spatial Commander
For lifelong learners: Universe Explorer, Human Body, Time Travel
For wellness seekers: MindfulVR, Fitness Space, Sleep Environment
With visionOS 26 looming and Apple Intelligence already woven into everyday tasks, the Vision Pro’s app library finally feels like more than a tech demo. Whether you want a private cinema, a portable multi-monitor office, or a Star Trek holodeck in your living room, these apps show the headset at its best—right now, and for whatever spatial surprises Apple delivers next.
Using some tricks to deck out an empty apartment with Vision OS 26. Made some multi-window “portals”. The whole place is decked out like this… but other sections have personal photos and info, so I’ll just share this part. This is the future! #AppleVisionPro #XR
Exciting news! Our new app Epic Earth is now on Apple Vision Pro!
Experience 8 of our award-winning IMAX films like never before—in stunning, immersive detail right from your living room.
Download now: https://apple.co/4kVBduh
🌍🎬 #EpicEarth #AppleVisionPro
Let's make a sparkler on Apple Vision Pro (source)
Having some fun with the new MainpulationComponent in visionOS 26. It's super easy to add these kinds of interactions to your app. If you're interested in making-of content for Apple Vision Pro
I’ve been testing an app via TestFlight that places you inside an Airbus A350 — and it’s absolutely amazing! The company LPX Digital created an innovative way to train and upskill pilots and flight attendants using SharePlay and Personas for group activities on AppleVisionPro. A truly immersive and well-executed experience!
Mixed reality training for Airline pilots done by LPX Digital (source)
We at LPX Digital are building applications for VisionOS for aviation training and onboarding. Building natively and using full advantage of spatial persona - shareplay and group activities #applevisionpro
Spatial release Analogue 2 for viz and collaboration on Apple Vision Pro (source)
Spatial has released Analogue 2, an end-to-end platform that enables creative teams to work together in full 3D context – reviewing, iterating, and finalising high-fidelity projects in real time, built natively for Apple Vision Pro.
Analogue 2 features native support for the OpenUSD standard, enabling integration into established 3D pipelines and eliminating compatibility issues that have long plagued immersive content production. Spatial is an early member of the Alliance for OpenUSD since its founding in 2023.
Testing virtual Badminton on Apple Vision Pro purely with hand tracking 🙌
The tracking accuracy and stability is getting very impressive! 👀
Future Apple Vision Pro headsets may use software trick to protect users from motion sickness (source)
Probably all Apple Vision Pro users say that wearing your headset during a flight is more embarrassing — or at least prone to getting knocked in the overhead storage compartment. But some say that depending on what you're watching, they can get motion sickness because of how the headset's sensors are sometimes thrown by the movement of the aircraft.
It's like an exaggerated version of the motion sickness that some users feel when, say, reading their iPhone in a moving bus. Apple addressed that specific issue with its Vehicle Motion Cues in iOS 18.
That’s all for now, know someone who might enjoy this newsletter? Please share with them! 🙏
