We hope & expect consumers to love the Apple headset(!), because it seems better/more focused on productivity use cases than the gaming headsets currently on the market. But in order for it to "actually replace a laptop", bringing iPad/iPhone apps into VR isn't quite enough, in our opinion.
why would you try to run a powerhouse app on a computer strapped to your face vs running it on the hardware it's designed to run on and share the screen of that system to the one strapped to your face? Just like they demonstrated being a key selling point. powerhouse apps tend to make the hardware run the fans from all of the heat being generated. no way would i want that near my face
Given that this is a full-blown M2 on-board, I think relegating it to "just like an iPad" is a little lacking in foresight, but I guess we'll all see how it pans out...
I did but all I saw was a virtual mirror of the Mac's screen. Not apps. The mirror is the app, more like running a remote desktop app on the 3D world.
I didn't see VS Code running on its own virtual window. I didn't see iTerm running on its own window, separate to VS Code's. I didn't see a Mac's Firefox running on its own window, separate to the other 2. Sure, you can run visionOS's Safari, and probably even visionOS's Firefox in the future, or their iPad counterparts, but they're not nearly as powerful as the desktop's.
You can already mirror your Mac to an iPad. In fact, you can use the iPad as an extra screen for your Mac. In that sense, AVP is in fact not much more than an iPad with a spatial interface.
Better yet, I just want to run those apps on the device and be free of the Mac. Add to that the ability to connect to an actual display, and this device could in fact finally replace a MacBook.
There is an App Store icon in the video when the "menu" comes into view. That's a pretty heavy implication that there's going to be native apps running on the thing.
This product is in the position to make that all super streamlined, but it seems that it won’t be.
To be fair, my experience is in games and non-gaming apps might not be as bad.
Also, I don’t personally own a Mac. I have a PC, and while I might be willing to plop down the money for the Vision Pro if it worked completely standalone but I absolutely won’t get it and a Mac.
You can already do that with something like XReal Air for 10x less (both the price and the weight).
> Given that this is a full-blown M2 on-board, I think relegating it to "just like an iPad" is a little lacking in foresight
The ability to have multiple virtual monitors with a mac? Thats a game changer (potentially). The ability to run multiple virtual monitors with an iPad? Pretty cool I guess, not sure what I'd use them for though. It'd be nice for watching movies, but again, see above, XReal (and probably a load of others by now) already has that covered.
Put it this way, theres a reason sidecar lets you use your ipad as a second display for your mac and not the other way around
This is what you should do. Copy Apple. Make your headset work with Android. Allow Linux and Windows to also be able to work through the headset with existing computers, by providing virtual screens. In the future you can offer a version of your headset with either Linux or Windows, but Android must definitely be in the first version of your headset. This is the only chance you have.
If you are developing novel AR experiences why wouldn't you want to be building them in a fully 3d environment, with new tools that can take advantage of all that brings? Instead we are forced back into the world of 2d, which shows an unfortunate lack of conviction on Apple's part.
If we are serious about this being the future of computing we need to build native tooling. This is a virtuous cycle, tools beget tools, but Apple needs to be willing to relinquish some control.
Would you not have said the same thing about iPhone 1? It was absolutely the “future of computing” (whatever the hell that means) in terms of mobile ubiquity, but you could develop anything on the device itself at the time (or really, even today).
The vision pro is a superset of a laptop but the reverse is not even close. If I'm building an AR or VR tool, I should be doing so in a 3d AR environment, anything else is obviously a substandard experience, removing options and fidelity for no gain.
Every professional I know who owns an iPad also owns a macOS/Linux/Windows computer. If an iPad is a computer replacement… then it should replace a computer.
Why else would they mention those things?
> While a premium VR headset built over iOS apps is a step in the right direction, we worry it could seriously hinder the device's ability to serve as a true laptop replacement. This is because the iPhone/iPad iOS is more driven towards the passive consumption of information than it is maximally productive work.
I was just agreeing with and rehashing the article