Virtual Reality

(Other than our own, of course.)

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The Wall Street Journal’s Joanna Stern: Apple Vision Pro: I Tried the New Mixed-Reality Headset

Wired’s Lauren Goode: Hands on With Apple’s Vision Pro: The Opposite of Disappearing

TechCrunch’s Matthew Panzarino: First impressions: Yes, Apple Vision Pro works and yes, it’s good

Video:

MKBHD: Apple Vision Pro Impressions!

Good Morning America: Tim Cook says Apple Vision Pro will change how people engage with tech

Apple let Good Morning America film Robin Roberts using the new device. There’s nothing too surprising about her experience, especially if you’ve read other impressions. And it doesn’t appear that Apple’s EyeSight feature is active, meaning you can’t see Roberts’ eyes while she’s using the headset.

But if you wanted to see the Vision Pro in a setting that wasn’t Apple’s keynote video, you might want to watch this video.

Remember Heavy Rain? The Vision Pro’s dial-in-your-preferred-amount-of-reality feature legitimately sounds awesome to me, because it’s a 2010 gamer’s dream come true.

(Minor note: I had forgotten that the game strongly implies these glasses cause brain damage.)

We didn’t see the Vision Pro used for:

Fitness, VR gaming, AR gaming, really any gaming you can’t do on a normal television, in a car, on a bus or train, at a sports game or concert, at a social gathering, to access the metaverse, to interpret the world around you, while a human is moving more than a meter per second, while drinking a beverage, or literally anything outdoors.

I’ve been wondering for weeks what term Apple would land on: AR? VR? Mixed reality? Something else? Based on this teaser for a Good Morning America interview airing tomorrow, it sounds like Cook’s term of choice is “spatial computing.” We heard it a few times in the keynote today, and I suspect we’re going to hear it a lot more going forward. A lot more.

We’ll hopefully soon have reports from journalists who’ve actually tried it — but no headset has yet delivered a “you can see whatever you’d see with your eyes” panoramic experience.

Never keeps ‘em from producing these marketing renders to make it seem like they do. Microsoft’s first HoloLens was a particularly bad offender: with VR instead of AR tech, Apple’s FOV should be much better.

We may not know until after WWDC, but Apple's mixed reality headset probably won't address every AR issue right out of the gate. As pointed out by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman in his Power On newsletter today:

I expect that future versions will fix problems in the first model — such as nausea complaints, performance hiccups, overheating concerns and a lack of cellular connectivity — and bring down the price.

That’s not surprising, and doesn’t paint the “Reality Pro” as doomed, just a first attempt likely aimed at developers and very early adopters. As Casey Newton writes for The Verge, whether Apple’s new platform succeeds depends more on its evolution than on tomorrow’s device.

Apple’s recent focus on accessibility in its devices includes features like the upcoming Personal Voice and Assistive Access mode. Now, according to Mark Gurman, Apple’s considering including warnings that people with specific health conditions should not buy or use the headset that it’s expected to reveal next week.

That includes people with Meniere’s Disease, past traumatic brain injuries, post-concussion syndrome, migraines and vertigo. 

A similar notice (PDF) for Meta’s Quest notes the risk of seizures and possible interference with medical devices. In another tweet, Gurman said Apple could add additional warnings for ADHD, anxiety, pacemakers, pregnancy, and more.

You know Myst, but do you remember the CD-ROM’s other killer app? The 7th Guest is now 30 years old, and it’s getting remade in 3D for the first time to sell you on Meta’s Quest 2 (and just-announced Quest 3) headsets. It’ll still have something akin to full-motion video for its actors, too: volumetric video capture.

The pre-show kicks off at 12:45PM ET, with the main show starting at 1PM ET. You can watch it here on YouTube. Here’s hoping Meta sneaks in another look at the just-announced Quest 3 VR headset.

The game just came out on Mac, already supports VR, and he tweeted about a surprise in the “VERY near future” and what appears to be a picture of the game’s Steam page with the Windows logo, Apple logo, and the words “VR Supported.”

With Apple’s WWDC keynote in the very near future, it looks like we might see No Man’s Sky as a featured game during the show.

The original $80 Leap gesture controller debuted so long ago that we compared it to the Kinect. However, unlike Microsoft’s Xbox accessory, Leap is still kicking.

Now known as Ultraleap after a 2019 merger, it’s showing off the Leap Motion Control 2 (via RoadtoVR) and retiring the old device. The new $139 unit will begin shipping this summer, and new Gemini software for it is coming to macOS — and with its positioning as a VR accessory, you can probably guess why that’s suddenly a priority.

Ultraleap:

Key improvements over the original Leap Motion Controller include higher resolution cameras, an increased field of view, and 25% lower power consumption, all in a 30% smaller package for optimum placement and convenience.

It is the most flexible camera ever developed by Ultraleap and is compatible across platforms and complimentary hardware including VR/MR/AR headsets, PCs, and holographic displays.

The Zuck posted a teaser image to his Instagram story with a countdown to 11AM ET on Thursday obscuring... something (courtesy of Voices of VR podcast host Kent Bye and presented here with some light editing).

What’s he holding? It’s surely not a Meta Quest 3. Is it a philly cheesesteak? A tennis ball? Did he get his fingers stuck in one of those finger traps? If it’s the last one, don’t worry, Mark, that thing confounded Data once, too.

The Chinese phonemaker Oppo took the wraps off of its dev-focused Oppo MR Glass Developer Edition headset today, which comes with a Snapdragon XR2 Plus chip and allows for both mixed reality and augmented reality experiences.

This announcement comes at a busy time in the VR space: less than one day before Meta’s expected Quest 3 reveal and less than a week before we could see Apple’s long-rumored mixed reality headset.

Apple has a little AR teaser for WWDC (spotted by MacRumors). To see it, visit the Apple Events website using Safari on your iPhone or iPad and tap “AR Experience,” point your camera at a wall, and you’ll get a colorful animated logo with June 6th, 2023 — the WWDC keynote date — printed inside.

Apple’s mixed reality headset is expected to be the biggest announcement at this year’s WWDC.