After a reported seven years of development, Apple’s AR headset is finally here. It’s been a minute since we’ve had a “one more thing” moment. The wisdom, efficacy and ultimate fate of the product have yet to be determined, but one thing we can finally say for certain: unlike the long-rumored Apple television and car, it’s real and it’s finally here.
“With Vision Pro, you’re no longer limited by a display,” Tim Cook said, introducing the new headset. Unlike earlier mixed reality reports, the system is far more focused on augmented reality than virtual. The company refresh to this new paradigm as “spatial computing.”
It’s a way of interacting with the computing UI – something the company is referring to as kind of input device, akin to a mouse or trackpad. The headset is surprisingly similar to earlier renders – it does, indeed, look ski googles. Clearly this thing isn’t meant to be worn outside the home or office.
The hardware utilizes a new feature called “EyeSight,” which uses a front facing display to reveal your eyes to other people in the room (compensating for the opaque visor). While the product is, indeed, mixed reality (owing to the need for on-board passthrough), the company seems disinterested in engaging with the virtual reality conversation.
Interestingly, it does appear to be a work first device. It’s telling that the company is focused on things like email, rather than, say, gaming. In fact, users can actually bring a version of their Mac desktop over, projected out in front of them. Apple really went to great lengths to avoid a touchscreen Mac, it seems.
The opaque display lets the room darken around images. In fact, the company is really pushing 2D photos taken from the iPhone here. There’s a 3D camera built in, as well, allowing users to capture “Spatial” photos and videos. There’s a movie theater option as well, taking advantage of illusion of a full, large screen.There is gaming here, but rather than an actual VR experience, it’s a large screen projection, with standard games.
Disney (who else?) is the first content partner here, which does bode well for future experience. Bob Iger took to the stage today to announce that Disney+ will be available at launch on the device. The entertainment mogul understandably had a lot of faith in Apple here.
What’s clear is this is all extremely early stages. For one thing, the product was announced today, in order to bring more developers on board. For another, the experience as depicted in the presentation are all renders. Of course, that also owes to the difficulty of presenting a 3D experience on a 2D video – this is something the company will keep running into with the product.
Apple’s Vision Pro AR headset is finally here by Brian Heater originally published on TechCrunch
Héctor Obregón 