Tim Cook began his introduction of the Apple Vision Pro with the classic Steve Jobs “one more thing” line after having kept his audience in suspense for more than an h.
Tim Cook began his introduction of the Apple Vision Pro with the classic Steve Jobs “one more thing” line after having kept his audience in suspense for more than an hour of Mac, iPhone, and software updates. But the words he used to start talking about the device are indicative of where Apple is positioning Apple Vision Pro: augmented reality.
Not virtual reality.
In other words, Apple is intentionally welcoming reality into its headset in a way and to a level we haven’t seen before. One key feature of course is EyeSight, an OLED screen on the exterior of the device that allows family, friends and colleagues to see your face and eyes while you’re wearing the headset. The other key feature is the device’s staggering 12 cameras, five sensors, six microphones and its “more than 4K per eye” video resolution to enable users to seamlessly act in both digital and real worlds.
I was really prepared to hate the Apple Vision Pro.
I’ve bought most of the Oculus Quest (now Meta Quest) devices as Facebook has released them, and without fail they’ve all mostly gathered dust. Even worse was the $1,000 PlayStation VR, which was so complicated to set up I can probably count on one hand how many times it has actually been turned on.
But Apple has hit on all fronts with this device.
For entertainment, it’s a huge movie screen. For work, it seamlessly fits into your Apple devices and from the moment of birth has tens of thousands if not more applications, courtesy the Mac. (Including much of Microsoft Office.) For gaming, it has Apple Arcade out of the box and games made with Unity, the software that game developers use to make 70% of mobile games in the world, will automatically run.
