Marques Brownlee (MKBHD) unboxes Apple Vision Pro

[creat0r]

Summary

Marques Brownlee (MKBHD) is the first big YouTuber to unbox the Apple Vision Pro, Apple's first "spatial computing" product. Brownlee published a video on his channel this Tuesday unboxing the Vision Pro, and giving some spontaneous reactions to it.

 

 

Quotes

Quote

 "Do I look great or ridiculous?" -  Marques Brownlee

 

My thoughts

Very luxurious unboxing experience, just as you would expect from Apple. The product seems to scream quality and technical innovation in some areas. Arguably, this will be the best AR headset on the market. However, I think there are significantly better VR headsets out there. The weight and the short battery life will probably result in you not being able to spend too much time in this headset. However, one question still remains: who is this product for?

 

Sources

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaneSRqePVY

 

[Skiiwee29]

Moved to general discussion. 

[Levent]

What an HORRENDOUS setup to be shooting videos. White desk, black background.

[Shimejii]

Do not buy a product with the promise of future features, especially not from apple for 3500$ with skimped parts. Honestly nothing from what ive seen makes this seem anything other then a failure.

[filpo]

52 minutes ago, creat0r said:

first big YouTuber

well... 

53 minutes ago, creat0r said:

who is this product for?

people with a lot of money or those with the will to spend that money on this 

[Obioban]

Summary

Reviewers have started posting up their thoughts on the Apple Vision Pro.

 

Quotes

Quote

The fundamental interaction model in VisionOS feels like it will be copied by all future VR/AR headsets, in the same way that all desktop computers work like the Mac, and all phones and tablets now work like the iPhone. And when that happens, some will argue that of course they all work that way, because how else could they work? But personal computers didn’t have point-and-click GUIs before the Mac, and phones didn’t have “it’s all just a big touchscreen” interfaces before the iPhone. No other headset today has a “just look at a target, and tap your finger and thumb” interface today. I suspect in a few years they all will.

 

...

 

Spatial computing in VisionOS is the real deal. It’s a legit productivity computing platform right now, and it’s only going to get better. It sounds like hype, but I truly believe this is a landmark breakthrough like the 1984 Macintosh and the 2007 iPhone.

 

But if you were to try just one thing using Vision Pro — just one thing — it has to be watching a movie in the TV app, in theater mode. Try that, and no matter how skeptical you were beforehand about the Vision Pro’s price tag, your hand will start inching toward your wallet

 

My thoughts

Feels like the beginning of a new era. The daring fireball one is particularly in depth.

 

Sources

https://daringfireball.net/2024/01/the_vision_pro

https://www.theverge.com/24054862/apple-vision-pro-review-vr-ar-headset-features-price

https://www.wsj.com/tech/apple-vision-pro-review-39f2d82e

https://www.tomsguide.com/computing/smart-glasses/apple-vision-pro-review

[Sanedish]

Well, i don't love it, YET!

In my eyes: it has a lot of potential, but simply not at the time. you pay 3.5k min. for a (tbf very nice) vr headset that can't run anything except office apps.

Once people make VR ports for Vision OS or somebody Jail Breaks it/Apple gets some experience with VR, i think they will be the next big player in VR Space, especially if they make it mac compatible (maybe even only mac).

[Lunar River]

43 minutes ago, Obioban said:

Feels like the beginning of a new era

people said the same thing about

• Segway
• crypto/NFTs
• 3d
• VR
• AR (google glass)

[thevictor390]

The hand tracking/eye tracking is the innovation I see. That seems really cool. The rest has been done before, even a few years ago. And it is a really cool experience when you try it for the first time, but you get used to it like anything else. The things I really love to do with VR, it cannot do and likely never will because "Apple." I hope other companies take notes on the tracking tech.

[filpo]

1 hour ago, Obioban said:

new era

it is quite expensive though. And the persona thing (while facetiming) still seems to be a very 'beta' project. Honestly the vision pro is cool.

 

1 hour ago, Obioban said:

Summary

Reviewers have started posting up their thoughts on the Apple Vision Pro.

 

Quotes

 

My thoughts

Feels like the beginning of a new era. The daring fireball one is particularly in depth.

 

Sources

https://daringfireball.net/2024/01/the_vision_pro

https://www.theverge.com/24054862/apple-vision-pro-review-vr-ar-headset-features-price

https://www.wsj.com/tech/apple-vision-pro-review-39f2d82e

https://www.tomsguide.com/computing/smart-glasses/apple-vision-pro-review

There's a lot more reviews, videos or not

Apple Vision Pro review: magic, until it’s not - The Verge

Apple Vision Pro Review: The Best Headset Yet Is Just a Glimpse of the Future - WSJ

Apple Vision Pro review: This is the future of computing and entertainment (aol.com)

 

Sources

Roundup: Apple Vision Pro Review and Unboxing Videos Are Out Ahead of Official Launch (wccftech.com)

Apple Vision Pro Review Roundup - GameSpot

Apple Vision Pro review roundup: here's what everyone thinks of the Apple headset | TechRadar

[Senzelian]

15 minutes ago, thevictor390 said:

The hand tracking/eye tracking is the innovation I see.

Even that has been done before multiple times. Quest 3 has hand and eye tracking. Not sure if the implementation is as good of course, but it's there.

 

I'd say for most consumers the Quest 3 is the better choice anyway. And for the few people who want the best of the best, wait for the Index 2. I assume Valve will probably show off a much more compelling product than Apple. Just not sure when...

 

I also don't see the Vision Pro catching on in its current form. Widespread adoption of VR and AR glasses has already begun 2 years ago with the Quest and Google Glass (Yes that still exists) and I don't think large companies are going to switch to Apple.

[Kisai]

1 hour ago, Lunar River said:

people said the same thing about

• Segway
• crypto/NFTs
• 3d
• VR
• AR (google glass)

Well Segway was kind of unfortunate, since the creator dying on his creation likely killed any desire to buy the thing.

 

Cryptocoins/NFT's were always a disaster, and anyone who thought otherwise was scammed or caught in FOMO and got rug-pulled.

 

3D - Depends on what 3D you're talking about. "3D Television", "3D Film" were ways to charge people more to watch the same content, but a lot of this content was flat, 2D in the first place, so that undermined adoption. 3D televisions and monitors are coming back, but this time without glasses, and that might spell the end of watching films in theatres if it succeeds. Otherwise the only successful deployment of 3D was the 3DS, and that was... well limited to a few games that did it well and didn't hurt your eyes.

 

VR - I literately have a book from 1993

See the pattern? VR in 1993 was coming out at the same time OpenGL 1.0 did. OpenGL's API's literately talk about left and right buffers as well as front and back buffers. That was the plan all along, was for OpenGL to create VR stuff. The reality is that this stuff was so poorly developed at the time, not even 3D accelerators were out yet. Ultimately people getting motion sickness from the various forms that did survive the initial hype, killed it.

 

The second round of VR came in 2012 with the Occulus. Poor Mark Zuckerberg (of Facebook), failed to learn the lessons from 20 years before, and got scammed. Every company jumped on this bandwagon again, and while the HMD's have improved over the last 10 years, they're still in a "gimmick" phase where there is no use case for VR that wasn't better done on a conventional 2D screen except:

 

a) Virtual performances (eg Vtubers) which didn't take off until the Covid Pandemic.

b) Training (think flight/train/truck sims) that would otherwise require dozens of computer screens to operate.

 

Even then, these can often be done in 2D on a single/dual screen setup, they're just harder to pay attention to all the things without a HMD

 

 

AR - AR I'd say has been far more successful for Virtual performances thus far. I could see the Vision Pro being the "best" device for a vtuber to do 2D and 3D on, assuming that ARKit tracks everything better than a separate iphone+leapmotion+mocopi/slimeVR setup (since this is basically $3000 worth of kit too) and is competative against mocap suits (which still require an iphone for face tracking.) 

 

IMU-based trackers(which is what mocopi and slimeVR are) are how the cheaper mocap suits operate, and aren't terribly different from having a 6 HTC trackers. It's the hand/glove systems that are significantly different.

 

What might be the "killer app" moment for the Vision pro is solving a problem that presently exists for virtual performances, where you, the performer can't put their iphone in the middle of the screen to track your face and still have your face tracked as you turn your head. Many vtubers have their phone below or above their monitor, and thus they have a perpetually looking up or down stare.

 

 

 

[creat0r]

Interesting

[creat0r]

5 hours ago, Levent said:

What an HORRENDOUS setup to be shooting videos. White desk, black background.

Reminds me of Unbox Therapy who had a period where his background was very dark and the table was so white it was almost overexposed.

[creat0r]

2 hours ago, Senzelian said:

I also don't see the Vision Pro catching on in its current form

I suspect that it will be the most user-friendly AR headset for non-techies, the only headset that your grandma won’t freak out in if she wears.

 

Personally, I don’t understand the purpose of the Vision Pro besides using it for entertainment purposes (watching movies and playing games). If I want to do more advanced tasks I still have to bring a MacBook apparently…

[TheGreatestGazoo]

My disclaimer is that I am mostly an Apple fan. But I don't see myself being a fan of this product, at least in this 1.0 configuration. In order to catch on it will need "a killer app" that either provides loads of entertainment or loads of productivity. It's got a novelty factor for sure, but I sincerely doubt that it will have widespread adoption at the price point that it is at. Having said, that I would like to try it for the experience of it. For watching movies by myself, I can imagine it would be a very immersive experience. However, I like to watch TV/movies with others - that really isn't possible with this unless we all have it, and then how do we all sync to see the same thing at the same time?

[Middcore]

10 minutes ago, TheGreatestGazoo said:

However, I like to watch TV/movies with others - that really isn't possible with this unless we all have it, and then how do we all sync to see the same thing at the same time?

 

I recall another thread a few weeks ago where a certain poster was predicting that the whole family sitting around with their own Vision Pro headsets would completely replace communal watching of TV/movies... 

[Erioch]

2 minutes ago, Middcore said:

 

I recall another thread a few weeks ago where a certain poster was predicting that the whole family sitting around with their own Vision Pro headsets would completely replace communal watching of TV/movies... 

They said the same thing about 3D TV's back in the day, with everyone wearing the special glasses.

[Monkey Dust]

I'm struggling to see a use case for these. They will have to get a lot smaller and lighter to be wearable all day, so not a monitor replacement. And even if you could wear it all day, you probably shouldn't. Not varying your focus for hours doesn't strike me as being good for your eyes.

 

My prediction is that this won't go anywhere, outside a few niches. It's definitely not the new iPhone.   

[Obioban]

11 hours ago, creat0r said:

I suspect that it will be the most user-friendly AR headset for non-techies, the only headset that your grandma won’t freak out in if she wears.

 

Personally, I don’t understand the purpose of the Vision Pro besides using it for entertainment purposes (watching movies and playing games). If I want to do more advanced tasks I still have to bring a MacBook apparently…

The Mac window functionality allows you to run Mac apps within the Vision Pro. It's a bridging tech to allow the hardware till software is ported, much like Rosetta allowed Apple Silicon Macs to run x86 software until it was ported. Pretty clearly this is not their long term plan.

 

Super useful, too. We know Apple can't sell more than 1,000,000 Vision Pros this year (upper limit on how many displays Sony can make for it), so it's a niche enough platform that there's not a ton of software development incentive yet... and especially at day 0 of vision 1.0.

[Obioban]

To me, sitting at my desk with 3 screens, this is the exciting part (from daring fireball's review):

 

Quote

The conceptual design of VisionOS lays the foundation for an entirely new direction of interaction design. Just like how the basic concepts of the original Mac interface were exactly right, and remain true to this day. Just like how the original iPhone defined the way every phone in the world now works.

 

There is no practical way to surround yourself with multiple external displays with a Mac or PC to give yourself a workspace canvas the size of the workspace in VisionOS. The VisionOS workspace isn’t infinite, but it feels as close to infinitely large as it could be. It’s the world around you.

 

And it is very spatial. Windows remain anchored in place in the world around you. Set up a few windows, then stand up and walk away, and when you come back, those windows are exactly where you left them. It is uncanny to walk right through them. (From behind, they look white.) You can do seemingly crazy things like put a VisionOS application window outside a real-world window.

 

Windows also retain their positions relative to each other. A single press of the digital crown button brings up the VisionOS home view. A long-press of the digital crown button recenters your view according to your current gaze. So, for example, if everything seems a little too low in your view, look up, then press-and-hold the digital crown. All open windows will re-center in your current field of view. But this also works when you stand up and move.

 

You can start working in, say, your kitchen. Open up Messages, Safari, and Notes. Arrange the three windows around you from left to right. Stand up and walk to your living room. Those windows remain in your kitchen. Sit down on your sofa, and press-and-hold the digital crown. Now those windows move to your living room, re-centered in your current gaze — but exactly in the same positions and sizes relative to each other. It’s like having a multiple display setup that you can easily move to wherever you want to be.

 

[thevictor390]

3 hours ago, Monkey Dust said:

I'm struggling to see a use case for these. They will have to get a lot smaller and lighter to be wearable all day, so not a monitor replacement. And even if you could wear it all day, you probably shouldn't. Not varying your focus for hours doesn't strike me as being good for your eyes.

 

My prediction is that this won't go anywhere, outside a few niches. It's definitely not the new iPhone.   

You do actually vary your focus in a VR headset. The whole point of stereoscopic 3D is to "see" distance the same way you do in real life. I am near-sighted in real life and I am just as near-sighted in VR, despite the screen being inches from my eyeball. That said it is still a screen inches from your eyeball.

[Obioban]

Part 2

[HenrySalayne]

This is exciting and underwhelming at the same time. It's cool tech, but it has so many issues.

The artefacts - while having objects (like your hands) between the headset and the virtual screen - are incredibly obnoxious. The foveated rendering adds a lot of blur to the screen recordings, making the picture generally unpleasing to watch (this is not an issue with the device itself, but the impression people might get).

The spatial tracking seems to be awesome.

The virtual character models are something from Zuckerberg's metaverse. It's a solution to a problem you wouldn't have without the headset. Not to mention iPhones and newer Macbooks should be able to do the very same thing with their built-in depth-sensing cameras (which are used to create the character model in the first place).

 

Overall nothing has changed since the announcement and that's probably not a good sign. Well, I'm looking forward how it turns out, but I think this version 0 of Apple's AR headset will quickly be put in the drawer.

[Mark Kaine]

On 1/30/2024 at 11:35 PM, Lunar River said:

people said the same thing about

• Segway
• crypto/NFTs
• 3d
• VR
• AR (google glass)

 

On 1/30/2024 at 11:38 PM, thevictor390 said:

The hand tracking/eye tracking is the innovation I see. That seems really cool. The rest has been done before, even a few years ago. And it is a really cool experience when you try it for the first time, but you get used to it like anything else. The things I really love to do with VR, it cannot do and likely never will because "Apple." I hope other companies take notes on the tracking tech.

ive been saying for a decade or so now you need to combine AR VR EYE TRACKING AND SEE-THROUGH in one device, everything else makes no sense whatsoever especially if you need some kind of input device like a controller or a wand - don't get me wrong that can be useful as an addition but the base function must not require any kind of input device other than hands, eyes...

 

oh and if by eyetracking you mean how it renders the outside environment and thus creates this AR/VR experience then yes, but otherwise no, they didn't invent the wheel here, they just did a smart combination of all these aforementioned things...

 

actually i think this is great, and as stated, what ive always envisioned,  however,  also not unsurprisingly, the graphics... sure on one hand impressive, on other hand absolutely ridiculous how bad they are, absolute nightmare fuel...

 

 

this needs drastic improvements,  funny enough they could probably achieve that with a few simple software updates!

 

basically i think this thing is great, but without applications ("killer apps") and better graphics it will have the same fate as all preceding devices of this kind, absolute niche, useless for most people... but i somehow believe they could make it work, and i have to give credit to apple being the first ones who actually create such a device,  and even not having focus on something specific ("gaming") could be beneficial in the long term. 

 

 

But oh boy, are the graphics bad omg