Mark Lyndersay
On Wednesday, Apple introduced the Vision Pro, its first product in the VR space. Except Apple doesn't want you to call it that. The company describes the headset as a "spatial computer," and to be fair, the way it seems to work has more in common with augmented reality (AR) than the kind of VR spaces that have traditionally been the sales pitch for this kind of headgear.
Vision Pro is not available for sale. It won't be on the market for at least nine months, so announcing it early gives competitors a chance to respond, but it also gives Apple developers an opportunity to figure out how to bring their apps to the product.
Unlike most headsets, which are usually connected to a computing device, the Vision Pro is a computer, one with dual 4K displays and an array of cameras both outside and inside it.
The computer runs VisionOS, a version of iOS that's optimised for eye tracing input, movement tracking, voice recognition and virtual input.
The internal cameras track where your eyes are looking to give emphasis to objects on the screen, while the external cameras capture a feed of your environment to project on its screens and to track the movement of your hands.
You do not hold physical controllers to use the Vision Pro.
Swipe gestures register as scrolling, touching a thumb and index finger together registers as a click. Where you look becomes the point of focus on the screen.
In Apple's videos, the user experience is a mix of computer windows of varying sizes layered on top of live video of the physical environment.
In a curious touch, the device also sports a screen on its face, which is normally determinedly "blind" on a headset. The screen either shows a swirly, smoky image or a feature called EyeSight projects a rendering of the user's eyes as they would be seen if the face of the headset was actually transparent (it's glass, but opaque).
Why a moon shot? Well, for one thing, the Vision Pro is nose-bleed expensive at US$3,499. Meta's Quest Pro retails for US$999 by comparison (down from an introductory price of $1,499).
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There are more expensive VR headsets for specific use cases, but the Quest Pro is the device that most users will compare to Apple's headset.
It's arguable that they aren't being developed to do the same things, despite operating on similar principles. That nine-month lead is probably strategic, giving Apple's developer a community a chance to build software that will really distinguish the Vision Pro in the market.
In other bad news, the device is connected via cable to a rechargeable brick the size of chunky iPhone that runs the headset for just two hours. There is the option of an AC outlet, but who wants to be connected to a wall socket?
One benefit of being on the planet for a while is seeing what happened to the first Macintosh (underpowered, overpriced), the first PowerBook (underpowered, underwhelming), the first iPod (pretended that Macs were the o
