Comment by dansalvato | Hacker News Reader

Comment by dansalvato | Hacker News Reader

I've been wearing AVP extensively these past few days, experimenting with using it for all kinds of things. As of now, I don't find it more efficient or seamless at doing much of anything.

1. There is no window management whatsoever. It would be great if I could stick apps to each other, or tile them in a frame, but I can't do that. I also can't stack windows—if I put one window behind another, the only way to access it is to move the front window out of the way, or to close it. Kind of ridiculous, because I'm pretty sure that problem was already solved in the early 80s, if not ealier.

2. The field of view is really narrow. I have a 32:9 curved monitor, and I can easily look at the "side" apps by tilting my head just a few degrees, with my eyes doing the rest of the work. AVP demands tilting your head much more in either direction to see the window content, making it much harder to momentarily glance at.

3. I've had awful luck with the MacBook screen projection. Others may not have this issue. After a couple minutes of using it, it begins to heavily stutter to the point of being unusable. The keyboard handoff randomly disconnects. And AVP doesn't yet support bluetooth mice, only trackpads (either the MacBook's built-in trackpad, or a Magic Trackpad).

At least for normal desk work, AVP does not improve speed or efficiency in any way—it does the opposite. Hell, when I'm projecting my MacBook screen, I have to resist the temptation to just use desktop apps for everything, because they're so much faster and easier to use than the floating visionOS/iPadOS apps.

It's the iPad all over again. If you're a seasoned PC power user, using AVP will only hurt your efficiency in the same way that it would to try offloading some of your work to an iPad.

With that said, it does make certain things more enjoyable. Apple clearly didn't make this device as a solution to existing problems. The point is that it's a new relationship that we get to have with technology, which will possibly change the way we want to use technology.

But for real, Apple hasn't launched a first-gen product this limited in use since the original iPhone. It has a long way to go before it actually starts making digital life more efficient, except for some highly specialized use cases.

> There is no window management whatsoever.

FYI, Immersed is planning on releasing their app for visionOS. According to their employees on Discord, they're expecting that to happen around the end of February.

Immersed is by far the best "virtual desktop" app I've ever used, so I expect it will solve most or all of the issues with Apple's implementation at launch. I'm guessing Apple will catch up eventually, but for now, I'd watch Immersed.

> But for real, Apple hasn't launched a first-gen product this limited in use since the original iPhone.

That's... oddly encouraging to hear.

I'm 100% seeing this as a chance to get in on the early days of a new market, approximately of the same scope as the launch of the iPhone.

> I'm 100% seeing this as a chance to get in on the early days of a new market, approximately of the same scope as the launch of the iPhone.

This is how I felt putting it on as well. I've used a few other VR headsets, and definitely did not get that feeling previously.

>Immersed is by far the best "virtual desktop" app I've ever used

I'll second that. I have a Quest Pro and I really like Immersed a lot. I wish my headset were more comfortable so I could work in that environment more. It's really enjoyable from a software perspective. The hardware on the Quest Pro just isn't there yet.

Isn't Immersed actually going into hardware and also trying to launch their own VR headset now?

Yeah, they have the “Visor”.

Which has a comparable (in fact slightly higher) resolution to the vision pro for only $999 which is impressive. Of course it remains too be seen how it will perform in real life. Also it's really intended just for work, not movies etc.

> Apple hasn't launched a first-gen product this limited in use since the original iPhone

- Apple Watch Series 0 was so underpowered it was borderline unusable.

- OSX 1.0 was a buggy, slow, feature-less mess of an operating system.

It definitely doesn't seem like Apple minds launching way too early.

Also first gen iPad was basically slow as a crippled sloth. It was quickly abandoned by both consumers and Apple.

First gen iPhone wasn't too fast either. The next iterations of iPad and iPhone greatly improved features and performance.

It's a good idea to avoid first gen Apple products unless you're minted.

> Also first gen iPad was basically slow as a crippled sloth. It was quickly abandoned by both consumers and Apple

And it had this bulging back so it wouldn't lie still on a table. It was like a bobblehead. It was a really weird design.

The iPad 2 and all further iPads fixed that. And they were all supported for much longer too, yes. It was really a weird 1st gen product.

The same with the iPhone now that I think of it, with its horribly slow 2G and annoyingly recessed headphone jack. Again fixed on the second model.

Oh and the first gen MacBook that had only 1 (deeply recessed) usb port and this huge clamshell case that looked like a ladies handbag if you carried it by its handle. Cool yes but practical no. And the round mouse so you couldn't feel which way was up. Seriously, sometimes I wonder if someone actually tried to use this stuff before it was shipped out the door XD

I had both the iPad 1 and iPhone 1 though and it was cool to be an early adopter. But for the vision pro lol no, out of my price range.

OSX came out way before the iPhone

At least what they have is robust. Complete attention-to-detail and a complete foundation, upon which to build something great. At least, hopefully.

> I have a 32:9 curved monitor, and I can easily look at the "side" apps by tilting my head just a few degrees, with my eyes doing the rest of the work.

I have one of these at work, and I really, really hate it precisely because I can't keep the whole thing in my field of view at once. I can't even imagine trying to work if that effect is even worse.

I struggle to use multiple monitors for this reason. I see my colleagues on multiple monitors constantly swiveling their neck, isn't that uncomfortable? Instead, I use a 4k monitor and tiling window managers like i3 or swaywm that lets me have unlimited desktops that I can instantly switch between with a keystroke.

I had the same experience with mine. To make matters worse the vertical resolution was lower than a typical 4k display, so it felt like more work for less information density.

I went to a lg ultra wide "5k2k" and it was so much better. The newer curved version is fantastic as well, it feels like my endgame work display.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com