Apple Vision Pro review: magic, until it’s not
Apple Vision Pro review: magic, until it’s not
The Apple Vision Pro is supposed to be the start of a new spatial computing revolution. After several days of testing, it’s clear that it’s the best headset ever made — which is the problem.
The Apple Vision Pro is supposed to be the start of a new spatial computing revolution. After several days of testing, it’s clear that it’s the best headset ever made — which is the problem.
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I very much do not want AR. There will be ads everywhere. What happened to the anger people had toward Google Glass and the feeling that people wearing them would be recording everything around them basically all the time?
One thing I give Apple credit for is keeping ads out of the primary operating system. I've got an Apple TV and a Google TV (I refuse to use it's full name). Apple TV is just a grid of Apps whereas the Google homescreen immediately hits you with an ad for a show on a streaming service you might not even have. Even the Google remote has dedicated buttons for Netflix and YouTube and I'm not a Netflix subscriber.
I guess it's the difference between Apple being a hardware/software company and Google being an advertising company.
Apple TV is just a grid of Apps whereas the Google homescreen immediately hits you with an ad for a show on a streaming service you might not even have.
Apple TV+, the streaming service, does show ads for content. It's one of the worst, in my opinion, at pre-roll ads for other shows you didn't click on.
Then, in the interface, you'll get banner-like ads for other stuff, mostly Apple TV+ exclusives. Also, the interface also does push casual browsing (or search) into the paid buy/rent options also.
Apple's days of focusing on user experience above all else has shifted towards getting you to pay for stuff. Just because it mainly steers towards stores they own (app store, music/movies/TV, services subscriptions) doesn't make it any less intrusive of advertising.
Apple TV+ is an app though (which I never use). I'm talking about the operating system and the extended area above the apps is only applicable to the apps you put there (all of which for me just show the stuff you're currently watching).
Apple TV+ and Apple Music do have first party status, subtly favored by the operating system itself. The Siri/search integration is tighter with those services than competing services, which is especially important on a TV interface (where there isn't a keyboard or mouse or touchscreen). I think search for music still only looks at the Apple Music catalog and won't search Spotify/YouTube/Tidal.
It's not a glaringly obvious promotion of their own products, but that's what I mean when I say that Apple pushes users towards their own stores. On desktop and mobile, they're pushing Apple's own paid cloud storage (and won't let competing services fulfill the same functionality), at the OS level.
There are ads on the app store, which I'd consider to be part of the "primary operating system", especially since it's the only way to install apps.
Not to mention constant ads for icloud. In the photos app, and even notifications from the settings app. (It's possible to turn these off, but not easy or intuitive).
After switching to Android, I haven't seen a single ad in the operating system, (I think Play Store does have ads, I just haven't got any for some reason). The closest thing is Google photos sometimes asking me to turn on backup.
I’m fairly certain you can remap that Netflix button
Regardless of the function, Netflix paid to get their name advertised right on the remote.
Edit: Ignore my complaint. You learn something new every day.
- Open the Settings app from the Apple TV home screen.
- Select Remotes and Devices.
- Click on TV Button to switch the setting to Home.
Original: Except for the fact that the remote has no home button anymore. It always opens the Apple TV+ app. Otherwise I agree though, ad-free experience, best TV-box I ever owned.
You can change that in the settings. It’s been that way since the remote with the touch pad. It can either go to ATV+ or Home. One of the first things I do with a new ATV is change it.
You can also double click the TV button to switch between open apps.
I'm always reminded of this video when I think about just how bad AR could be. But then again, it could be pretty cool if we can only keep control over our tech.
Quick! Hide it before some LinkedIn lunatic use it as some inspirational post about how AR tech will revolutionize our lives.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://piped.video/YJg02ivYzSs
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.
There will be ads everywhere.
Too late.
What happened to the anger people had toward Google Glass and the feeling that people wearing them would be recording everything around them basically all the time?
People feel that way all the time now, so AR glasses no longer seem as intrusive to most people.
Yeah they realized that if we’re constantly tracked we burn out on it.
I don't think these glasses are intended for general public use right now. I know big businesses that want them for manufacturing quality control but outside that what is the point of AR?
As an industrial engineer I can think of plenty of uses of it has a halfway decent pathway overlay. Part picking with highlighted parts can be amazing and it could revolutionize assembly.
Outside factories, I’d love a gps hud on my car, and on walks. Not enough to sacrifice the little privacy I have in my own eyes though.
Edit: sorry was thinking AR glasses in general not these specifically. I wouldn’t even let my QC team use these. If the battery connection breaks you’re blind in a manufacturing environment and that’s dangerous
I don't want something that's an electrical failure from me being unable to see strapped over my head while driving.
At least Google Glass was transparent.
Oh full agreement there. I think a google glass like tool has a handful of potential applications. This specifically, I’d never put it on someone in a manufacturing environment for the exact same reason you won’t drive with one.
Hololense glasses already provides the uses you are referencing for part picking with their dynamic 365 program suite. I have personally implemented some uses at a few locations.
Outside of sku management or manufacturing, it is a stretch. I don't imagine people using these for every day use. There is little functionality that currently supports any use outside of a workplace.
Spoken like someone who lacks vision.
How about going to a foreign country and being able to navigate the streets like a local thanks to the overly guiding you to your destination like Waze? How about being able to read signs and communicate with locals thanks to the instant translation services built in? How about a virtual assistant that can walk you through an oil change specifically for your car? How about a cooking assistant that can warn you if your pot is about to boil over or if you forgot to add the butter? How about taking my shitty dystopian studio apartment and giving me a balcony view of a tropical beach?
There are countless applications for AR ranging from the mundane to the extremely helpful. The tech needs to be developed more before it will be adopted by the masses, but it's far from useless.
By 2030 we'll have AR in a sunglasses form factor with integrated AI that will be able to digitally remove the clothing of everyone you see with a good degree of accuracy for what's underneath.
Ok my bad, I wasn't talking about what the technology is 10 years from now. I was just saying in 2024, what technology exists for a general consumer that makes AR worth even talking about.
Those use cases already exist to an extent with current products. I use google translate every day on the jobsite, google maps already provides step by step navigation, youtube videos guide me on car repair, smart sensors with phone and smartwatch alerts for almost anything you can imagine, rollable and thin film transparent displays for walls and windows. Its hard to see AR/VR overtaking existing technologies except for niche use cases. The tech is gonna have to advance well past 2030 projections to be both cheap and feasible for practical use. Batteries will need an order of magnitude higher energy density and microchips will need to pass the teraFLOP barrier while consuming less than a watt of power, all while fitting into a comfortable and unobtrusive form factor suited for long term daily use. I don't see that happening anytime in the next decade honestly.
Glass arrived on the scene in 2013. Since then recording in public has become much more normalised... smartphone camera use, cars with dashcams and CCTV/face recognition have all increased in popularity. YouTubers, live streamers, creators etc. If it were released again today, I'm not sure it would achieve the same hatred it did back then, at least on the "creepy camera in public" point.