[virgildotcodes]

I feel like I would have been the ideal customer for it. I travel a lot and I'm a developer deep in the Apple ecosystem who is constantly wishing he had more screen real estate while bouncing between hotels and Airbnbs every few weeks.

I bought it and tried it for two weeks and ended up returning it. It's really cool, but even aside from the issues with 1.0 like not being able to just pull up individual app windows from my mac or multiple desktops -- it's just too impractical, it takes too much effort to get into this thing.

A phone, a tablet, a laptop, you can pick up, immediately use, put down, interact with the world around you, pick up again, zero friction, it's not restrictive, it's not an item of clothing, it doesn't take over your whole world and sensory system and thus alienate you from everyone and everything around you.

Not only is it that whole extra thing, but it needs to be plugged into a special battery pack, so you have another usb cable dangling onto this bulky pack which is daisy chained to your laptop or another charging port unless you want it to die in 2 hours. So you pull out your laptop, plug it into a charger, pull out your headset, plug it into its battery pack, plug that battery pack into your laptop, put on the headset, untangle yourself from the wires and figure out where to set the battery pack to be out of the way...

It's just so much faffing around. Plus it's fucking huge and takes up the majority of my backpack and I like to travel with a single carry on backpack.

A pair of Raybans with a usb c cable sticking out, maybe I could see that being legitimately usable without having to make a giant effort just to use it. It seems like a few companies are getting close to that, but I have yet to try those alternatives.

[matco11]

This is the best review I have ever read on the Apple Vision Pro. Also, we should probably stop lying to ourselves, and finally admit what we have known in hour hearts for a little while now: Apple is not anymore what it used to be. Reading this makes it clear…

Apple Vision Pro is the modern equivalent of John Sculley’s Apple Newton

[devsda]

My take away from the GP was that it's not so much as an issue with Apple'version of VR but about the state of the technology itself. The hardware today is too bulky and difficult to use as a daily driver.

May be Google was on to something with their glasses and may be some version of electrochromic glass goggles that also works as a display is the answer.

I agree that Apple is not what it used to be. They normally don't go for still evolving tech and swoop in with a better product(and experience) only after the product's viability is established.

[ragazzina]

> not so much as an issue with Apple'version of VR [...] The hardware today is too bulky

Apple knew the hardware would be too bulky and went forward anyway.

[Gigachad]

Not sure this is really an Apple thing. Basically all the tech companies have released some VR or AR product that either flopped, or was downgraded to a niche industry product.

Remember just a few years ago when Meta was trying to convince us that the metaverse was the future.

[kyriakos]

Part of Apple's strength is getting into the market at the right time when technology is ready and offering a streamlined, just works experience. Apple Vision Pro is nothing like that and that's why the previous commenter said it's not the usual Apple...

[ffsm8]

Meta didn't stop with that though?

Just a few weeks ago they released new products that actually have a much bigger potential then the Vision Pro for the usecases virgildotcode imagined. I.e. Orion AR. As a person that only knows about it from the presentation/demos it kinda sounded like a crossover of VR headset and Google Glasses

https://about.fb.com/news/2024/09/introducing-orion-our-firs...

Though I sincerely doubt it will succeed at a wider audience either, even if it's mass market appeal is way higher.

The tech just isn't there yet - we'd need 4-8+k displays per eye with batteries that need to last at least 10 hours for this to become really viable (even if we could probably compromise batteries with a usb-c connection to the laptop for this particular usecase)

[homarp]

orion is not _released_ though. it is 'this is what we are working on'.

[ffsm8]

True, I really should've said announced.

Nonetheless, that should strengthen my point - as my comment was a rebuttal Gogachads nonchalant past tense wrt Metas ongoing investment into the metaverse. Metas main goal is still exactly that, ever since their pivot

[seanmcdirmid]

You can pry my oculus quest 2 from my cold dead hands. But yes, the meta verse isn’t happening. However, they just released a new Eminem beat saber song that is crazy addictive.

[conradev]

Very much agreed. Here is the pair of Raybans with a USB-C cable sticking out: https://www.viture.com/store?pid=9412104487193

It works with phones, too, which is cool!

[ChuckMcM]

I tried a pair of those and returned them because the whole screen flying around was really disorienting.

[zmmmmm]

The latest ones do have solutions for that (head locked vs space locked displays). This also was one of my requirements, but now I'm actively considering them. The main thing holding me back now is that the tech is improving so rapidly that picking a time to buy in is hard.

[virgildotcodes]

The product may be awesome but the website seems to be designed like a dropshipping site.

[Gigachad]

Why do the glasses look photoshopped on to the models? Surely it wouldn’t have been that hard to take a photo of someone actually wearing them.

[tippytippytango]

I tried these with much excitement. Unfortunately they give me immediate eye strain and headaches. The optics need a tremendous amount of work. 1080p is also not enough. But some people love them. It’s a product you just have to try and see if it works for you and return if they don’t.

[Gigachad]

I don’t understand why they didn’t make this a gaming device. All this hassle would be worth it to play immersive shooter games or VR chat with full hand and face tracking.

No one is going to go through all that to open up Apple notes and YouTube when your phone and MacBook does exactly the same thing.

[benoau]

The gaming industry wants to bring their existing marketplaces and platforms and even when that's not explicitly prohibited Apple wants 30% of their gross revenue and requires each game implement their in-app purchases to collect it, so they are at an impasse.

[zmmmmm]

> it doesn't take over your whole world and sensory system and thus alienate you from everyone and everything around you.

You sound like you are fundamentally unsuited to the device. You move around a lot and don't like being isolated. I work in my Quest 3 primarily because it isolates me and takes over my whole sensory system. I love going to work on beaches, mountain tops, or co-working with friends or colleagues virtually. You sound like you want literally the opposite of all that.

[al_borland]

>Plus it's fucking huge and takes up the majority of my backpack and I like to travel with a single carry on backpack.

I'm the same way. When I saw the reviews and the travel case, it seemed completely impractical for anyone who doesn't check luggage, on top of bringing a carry on and personal item.

I also prefer to look like a waste of time for any would-be thief of pickpocket. It seemed like a Vision Pro would put a target on my back that I didn't want.

[underlogic]

What's up with Raybans? They make the cheapest looking vanilla generic glasses I've ever seen, put a tacky logo on the lens and sell for a fortune. Why does anyone buy them?

[bear141]

Ray-ban along with almost every other glasses and sunglasses brand, and also almost all retailers of glasses are all owned by a megacorp called Luxxotica. The prices are all completely arbitrary and fixed.

Beyond this basically all prices for every consumer item are completely arbitrary. They almost never reflect real value and almost always are priced based on what people are willing to pay. Act accordingly.

[KerrAvon]

They’re vanilla now because everyone copied their designs decades ago. They’re the original.

Doesn’t mean they’re worth the cost, but now you know.

[underlogic]

I can't imagine anyone going to a whiteboard back in the day to make a pair of sunglasses and walk away with any lesser of a design than Raybans. Give human ingenuity at least some credit. you can tie your shoes you can out design Raybans

[solardev]

I think the same thing about business suits (not sure what the proper name for them is, the thing that normal CEOs and lawyers wear, with the necktie and everything). They look super hot and uncomfortable and I wore one to a wedding once and then swore them off for life. Ridiculous items. But people pay thousands for them, apparently.

Powerful apes signal status with fancy fibers, I guess.

[mikhael28]

Suits can be very comfortable to wear, even with neckties and dress shoes. The first monkeys probably though shirts were hot, stuffy and uncomfortable too. They are not ridiculous items.

[47282847]

Really? I want to be able to flexibly move my arms and legs into all kinds of directions, I want to sit down on grass or generally on the ground, stretch my legs out, sit cross-legged, crash on couches, snuggle into various types of chairs, cuddle with people, play with kids on random/unplanned occasions, etc. Suits restrict a lot of movement or would look like bags, compared to eg stretch jeans and a tshirt and hoodie. I often use hoodies as makeshift pillows or seat cushion (and offer that to others), not so sure how that would go for a suit jacket. And I can squeeze them into a backpack when warm, or throw into a random corner or on the floor. It’s also easy to lend them to other people when they are cold, where jackets really only fit people of the exact same stature. All that and more means „comfortable to wear (and use)“ for me.

[ENGNR]

You can do all of that with a properly tailored suit.

If it’s expensive you probably don’t want to roll around in the dust, but if you look at images of workers from hundreds of years ago they were essentially wearing suits (trousers, shirt, jacket, hat) most of the time, even for manual labor

Very formal these days though

[solardev]

Indeed, it seems like fighting in a suit is a common trope in Hollywood...

Blood and Bone: https://youtu.be/sFJ4R7rccn8?si=2hN9Lxz_pcXLlaJ-&t=121

Bond: https://youtu.be/KokmzxszDow?si=8TQko8lEpU6VQ48R&t=107

Though of course, some actors prefer to take them off before a fight :)

Transporter: https://youtu.be/farceMd4Zlg?si=n9p71hQbxiJvKP9Q&t=88

Guess it's different when you're a rich star who can afford tailored suits...

[solardev]

Guess this ape will have to disagree with ya. I'll never wear one of those again.

[virgildotcodes]

I want people to think that I fly my biplane while wearing a furry leather bomber jacket on the weekends.

[appendix-rock]

I’m genuinely not sure how to say this without a little bit of snark, but do you…know how fashion works?

[Gigachad]

Sunglasses do seem to be taking the piss more than other items. An expensive pair of leather shoes can easily be justified by the cost of the materials, manual labor, build quality, and extended lifespan over cheaper options.

While sunglasses seem to be a bit of injection moulded plastic with some lenses for a 20x markup.

[Tagbert]

It’s mainly because of the Luxxotica monopoly.

If course, there are a lot of sunglasses that are not name brands and those a much cheaper.

[Gigachad]

For most clothing items, there are the luxury name brands, but then there are also affordable options like Uniqlo which sell basically the same thing for a very reasonable price.

For sunglasses, at least in Australia, you get the sunglasses stores that have $200-$400 nice looking sunglasses, and then $30 speed dealer sunnies at the servo. There's nothing in between and no one cloning the name brand styles for cheap.

[SkyPuncher]

It can’t just be from the Luxxotica monopoly. These things are not hard or expensive to manufacture.

For some reason, people think Raybans are an amazing brand.

[solardev]

Lol, this is HN after all. Our fashion icons are Zucky with a hoodie (backend) or Jobs with a black turtleneck (frontend).

Raybans? How do you see the screen with those plastic goggles on?

[meiraleal]

I'm waiting for the Freeza Scouter model (Dragon ball Z). One full imersed eye and ear experience. That's the perfect ergonomics.

[brailsafe]

All we really need is the ability to check someone's power level anyway, what the hell else would convince me to put digital glasses on for!?

[jfoster]

The visual quality of the Apple Vision Pro is extremely far ahead of any other headset. I generally don't like Apple products and I think they made plenty of mistakes with Vision Pro, but the visual quality is exceptional for our time.

I wouldn't advise anyone to buy it, but I would strongly encourage everyone to try it out in an Apple Store.

[solardev]

Wish they'd just release a set of basic wired glasses with those displays, for tethered usage with a Mac. I don't need the AR/VR crap, a battery pack, etc., but I'd be very happy with a set of high-res glasses that act as external monitors.

[jfoster]

Nice idea. I would probably almost go for that.

I wonder how much they could cut from it to make the device you're imagining more appealing from a cost & weight perspective...

1. Front-facing display

2. Battery

3. LIDAR (might need some other tracking to replace it, unless the cameras are enough?)

4. Eye-tracking

5. Wireless module

6. Less processing power

7. No SSD

I think it would lose some "wow" factor in the process, but probably be a much more pragmatic device for everyday usage.

[solardev]

> I think it would lose some "wow" factor in the process, but probably be a much more pragmatic device for everyday usage.

Yeah, exactly. I'm really hoping Apple tries that instead after the failure of the Vision Pro. It's the opposite paradigm: Not "complete computing device in a headset", but rather "just an eye-worn display and nothing else". It doesn't even need any fancy tracking, just basic gyro stabilization so the windows don't shake, like the VR mode on phones already have (e.g. for Google Cardboard). They don't even need to be aligned to anything in the real world.

Other companies are making glasses like that, but the displays aren't very good – IMO that's the limiting factor.

I've tried many AR/VR devices over the past decades and it's just not a use case I can see most people ever wanting, myself included. But "portable private monitor with a giant canvas" is an itch that still hasn't been scratched :( It's less sexy in some ways, but it's also something I'd probably use every day.