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Since Apple launched On Vision Pro last Friday, I hammered home the importance of immersive content. This is by no means a radical suggestion. By now, we’re all well aware that hardware platforms live and die by content offerings.
Think back for a moment to late 2014. When Tim Cook unveiled the first Apple Watch alongside the iPhone 6, the product was met with blank stares. Many people wonder what the point of such a device was? This wasn’t the Dick Tracy wristwatch we’d been promised since the mid-1940s, but rather a small-screen extension of the iPhone.
It took Apple a few years to really focus on fitness as a primary device driver. Nowadays, when you wear a smartwatch, you have far fewer questions about why you would want to own such a gadget. There’s no guarantee that the Vision Pro will follow a similar trajectory, but if it does, it will be on the backs (faces) of app and game developers.
The Vision Pro is an undeniably impressive piece of hardware. It does several key things, including relaying, spatial matching, and high-resolution displays better than anyone else in the consumer space. But it’s understandable that many people still ask, “Why?” » Why would anyone spend $3,500 on this? The price and long, patchy history of extended reality have cast further doubt on Apple’s first headset.
But ultimately, the “why” can be attributed to the content. Just under a week after the device’s launch, what should we consider to be Vision Pro’s flagship app? For the moment, it’s IT. This is where Apple has leaned heavily, partly in an effort to attract deep-pocketed enterprise customers. If these organizations purchase headsets in bulk, scaling will help reduce the cost of later models.
The beauty of platform gaming is that it is a method of crowdsourcing features. Apple may have more money than any deity you can name, but its development resources are still limited. By leveraging 3D parties, you leverage a wealth of outside perspectives that bring the kind of outside-the-box thinking that is often considered counterproductive to a large company’s bottom line.
In the period leading up to the release of Vision Pro, whether Apple still possessed the ability to attract key developers remained an open question. Six hundred “optimized” applications at launch represented a good performance for a first generation device in a category with a difficult track record. This figure is bolstered by many more iPadOS apps that can run on the device. As for what constitutes “optimization,” the answer is not as simple as you might think.
This can be as simple as adjustments to the UX based on the shift from touch to hand gestures or as complex as full immersion and advanced hand tracking. For the sake of this article, I’m more interested in optimized apps with immersive properties. Using an iPad app on the headset isn’t generally a bad experience (nor do you want total immersion all the time), but we’re here to talk about cutting-edge $3,500 hardware – let’s see what what this bad boy can do. .
Fitness and mindfulness
I’m a big believer in screen cuts. Take a walk, read a book, talk with a human, touch the proverbial grass. On the contrary, it is more important when this screen is attached to your head. After spending a little over a week with Vision Pro at home, I found that my usage tended to be divided into clusters. For example, I’m writing this to you on my desk – the real one, not the virtual one. My interaction with the Infinite Desktop Experience is still limited.
I find the device is best used with intentionality. Rather than simply trying to convert a large part of my life to spatial computing, using Vision Pro is an ongoing process of determining when it is the best tool for the job at hand (I fully admit that my philosophy might be different if I had paid the upfront costs, rather than looking at a loaner unit). Your mileage varies, but I tend to get motion sickness relatively easily, so I’ve been limited to sessions of around 30 minutes.
A few apps slipped into my morning routine during this time. I have been suffering from degenerative disc disease, spinal stenosis and sciatica for several months. Things like this really hurt your ability to get to the gym. However, as I have engaged in a little self-rehabilitation, I am more able to do moderate exercise. My mornings now include 20 minutes of Apple Fitness+ Pilates, followed by a round of Synth jumpers on the Vision Pro.
The latter was ported from Meta Quest. This is a Rock Band/Guitar Hero rhythm game, in which your hands become instruments that collide with orbs heading towards you at high speed. It’s a fun, fast-paced game reminiscent of Beat Saber. Here, all levels revolve around synth tracks and the broader aesthetic can be described as “80s Trapper Keeper”. It offers total or partial immersion, depending on the degree of awareness you need to have of your environment.
Synth Riders is about the biggest exercise you can do on the Vision Pro, considering the price, weight, and battery. I don’t sweat playing this game; rather, it’s about getting the blood pumping. It’s also suitable for a 15-16 hour break when your energy starts to wane. If you get a little sweaty, you can always hand wash the light seal insert.
In the future, I’d like more apps that bring some light exercise to the platform – and the Quest ports are a solid place to start. I’d be curious to see how the system handles boxing and shape correction, similar to products like Tonal and Mirror.
I wrote a little about Apple’s Mindfulness app. It’s pretty simple feature-wise, but it’s not a terrible thing in the world of meditation. I also tried Kingdoms of Endel after a brief morning workout. I wrote about Endel’s mobile app and how its algorithmically produced music helped me get back into the groove of meditation. Realms is a much simpler app at the moment, creating calming or energizing environments. You basically sit there for five to 10 minutes and let the bath of light wash over you. So far I’ve found it to be centered.
Science and entertainment
There are three things I want to see more of on the Vision Pro: dinosaurs, ocean exploration, and space. I mentioned Dinosaur experience several times here, as this is an excellent example of what can be done with immersive and interactive technology. Getting closer to dinosaur bodies based on the latest scientific research is one of those experiments that shows what a system like this is capable of.
But more than anything, it’s a proof of concept. It’s short, it plays and loops and all its interactivity is limited to a butterfly that lands on your finger and a trio of dinosaurs that stare at you as you walk around. There’s not a ton of meat on that proverbial bone, but it’s beautiful, compelling, and will hopefully pave the way to bigger things.
Image credits: SkyGuide
While waiting for a guided tour of the solar system, I’m happy to spend time with SkyGuide. The app works similarly to NightSky on iPhone, offering an immersive look at stars, constellations and planets. SkyGuide is a little less location-related than NightSky (which is honestly one of its best features) and is more about simulating locations (a cityscape without light pollution, the top of a mountain range, and the open ocean ).
Lego absolutely killed it with the Nintendo AR demos. The builder’s journey is a hugely enjoyable experience that takes full advantage of the system’s object recognition, placing a box of bricks directly on the table in front of you while you follow the storyline and build virtual structures.
Loona occupies a similar space, although even colder. This is what our Danish friends call hygge. Here you assemble a few basic items like a scooter or a fireplace. It’s good for turning off your brain, although unfortunately you have to pay to unlock all the puzzles except the first one.
Business
Microsoft Word doesn’t add much in the way of immersion, but if you plan to work in Vision Pro, the 40-year-old application remains a gold standard in word processing. As with all apps that require a lot of typing, I highly recommend breaking out a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse. Voice dictation still has its limitations, and while I’ve gotten pretty quick with gesture typing, the idea of using it to type much more than a username and password makes me want to jump roof.
The most interesting UI element here is the addition of a small predictive text field located directly above the keyboard – more or less the same as you’ll find in iOS. So far I’ve mostly limited filling out longer forms to sending certain emails.
I’ve written a bit about Vision Pro enterprise applications over the past few weeks (as has Ron). My current view on this category is that it’s where Apple sees the highest and most immediate ROI. Companies have deep pockets and will buy products in bulk if they think it will save them money in the long run. Attract enough customers and you start to approach a point where scale has a tangible impact on manufacturing prices.
Training is obvious. This can be particularly useful for more complex tasks that require a three-dimensional understanding of objects in space. This last element is also a fundamental aspect of JigSpace, which is designed for creating AR demonstrations. Right off the bat, you can explore objects like a jet turbine, an F1 car, and a human heart. The application offers a glimpse of how this technology could be used in the future.
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