Speaker 1: Are you getting your head around it all yet? The era of Apple Vision Pro is here. The new mixed reality headset that Apple refers to as S spatial computing, and we’re all spacing out over the price tag and questions about how this is gonna change things for us years down the road. There are plenty of first impressions out there. People are wowed about the tech that Apple has finally presented, and yet there are some issues and reasons to have doubts,
Speaker 2: But we do have [00:00:30] one more thing.
Speaker 1: Thanks Tim. Yes, there is one more thing to talk about this week. Despite the company creating what is clearly an impressive piece of technology, taking the best parts of the headset industry and putting the apple spin on it, we need to address the cringe. I’m talking about the icky feelings you may have felt when watching Apple make it seem cool to put a computer on your face when playing with your children or using this to surround yourself with floating spreadsheets and text [00:01:00] files, or have fake eyes appear on a screen that you wear so you’ll look more human to others in front of you. Some of these troubles are the same across the whole industry. There’s something about a $3,500 computer strapped to your eyeballs that can feel unsettling as a concept, and then you have what is arguably the most powerful company in the world telling you that this is the future we all want.
Speaker 1: So if we’re gonna talk about the future of this thing in our lives, we need to talk about what Apple and developers [00:01:30] have to address. Now, I’m Bridget Carey, and this is one more thing. Apple’s WW d c only gave us a taste of what is possible with the Vision Pro Headset because this product is not coming out until next year. And the event at Apple’s headquarters was designed to entice developers to come up with the killer app to make people say, yes, I will give you $3,500 for this thing. Apple did not have a killer app, at least from what we saw at the keynote. It started off the presentation talking about how you can [00:02:00] do work in the headset, tiny spreadsheets and words all around you. Yeah, no, that is not compelling. We saw that there would be ways to really immerse yourself in a movie.
Speaker 1: I’m sure it will look great when there are better than 4K TV displays beamed into each eye. Our reviewer, Scott Stein got a demo. Apple’s rules were that he could not take video of himself in that demo experience, but he said watching the movie Avatar in 3D while wearing it was amazing. All right, so forget the rumors long ago of [00:02:30] an Apple TV because this is clearly Apple’s best tv, but a TV for one. And would you pay this much money for a good movie screen? Keep in mind, CNET ranks the L G O lid, C2 as the best high-end tv, and you can buy two of these 4K televisions for less than the Apple Vision Pro. You can DIY your own immersive spatial audio theater for less, if that’s your thing, right? Disney, c e o. Bob Iger was part of this Vision Pro reveal presentation, and he said Disney Potential in [00:03:00] bringing immersive experiences to its audience. With this headset, no concrete examples, but we saw concepts of maybe that you could see something cool from ESPN or a Mickey cartoon in your living room. Oh
Speaker 3: Boy. What if you could bring Disney World into your world?
Speaker 1: Well, yes, but the reason I love Disney World is that I don’t need to put on a headset to see the wonderful art and special effects of the theme park, but okay, I get the point. There is [00:03:30] a way to have different content for different spaces, and if anyone could make cool media, it would be Disney. So far, all we know is that Disney Plus will be available to stream on day one with the headset. More to be announced later, but streaming the Mandalorian to watch alone in a living room chair is not the way Apple needs to make sure other large media companies give us something special to watch that we can’t already do with our big screen L G O lids. The price is always going to be cringe [00:04:00] until it comes down in a few years. Yes, it is immersive. The best ever head computer.
Speaker 1: And Bridget didn’t, you know the first cell phone was also expensive. Yeah, but the cell phone helped us communicate when you weren’t near a landline and it gave us freedom. It was new. Is there freedom? Here is something being solved. The price has to be justified by content and apps to come because it is right now the first version of a play thing for the rich. So it’s easy to point and laugh at how [00:04:30] this feels stupid. Price is a real cringe factor. We just have to see if Apple will keep at this product for years. So maybe in time the tech can become less intrusive and less expensive like a pair of normal glasses for light augmented, enhanced work. That takes time. Let’s talk about isolationism. It’s a concern, obviously with all vr, this idea that we are all being more closed off in our own little worlds focused on ourselves instead of the greater communities around us.
Speaker 1: We [00:05:00] live in a time where the major criticism is that we’re all staring at our phone screens and not looking up at our kids and living in the moment. So, hey dad, go strap on this headset to record videos of your kids, and they’ll look back at you with a photo of your eyes. All right, let me back up a bit. I’m referencing how the Vision Pro makes 3D video. The cameras on the device can record 3D movies that you can play back the next time you’re wearing the headset. Many of you already know I am a parent [00:05:30] of young kids. I talk about this. So the concept is getting to me at a core level as a parent today, there is already enough guilt that I’m dealing with about scrolling on my phone when I should be cherishing the kids plane in front of me, the kids that will someday grow up to stare at their own phone screens.
Speaker 1: So no, a headset like this is not something I would wear when playing with them. Are you kidding me? Apple dystopian much, but there is a time it can make sense. Maybe we should think about this 3D video capture as something similar to the tech that my [00:06:00] parents had when I was a little kid. The big bulky VHS camcorder that you had to rest on your shoulder. There are only a few videos of me in the late eighties and early nineties, but when there was a video of Little Bridget, it was a special occasion, like a birthday party or Christmas or a piano recital because you didn’t lug this thing everywhere and you only capture little bits of life. I can see people taking the headset out for documenting some of those same types of big moments at home. But honestly, when you wanna capture these special moments [00:06:30] with kids, they are over so fast.
Speaker 1: You won’t have time to boot up a headset. Taking video on a phone is still more practical and it’s the best way to share with others. So no, we will not be wearing it all day to capture our children, nor would anyone want to. Apple is showing us the first possibilities, so the demo may not have gotten the right tone. No one wants sad Minority Report dad, that is replaying memories of kids alone in the living room. But the truth is, you may just put it on for a moment when the candles are being blown out at a birthday [00:07:00] party and then send that video, that 3D file to the grandparents who can’t be there. That is if the grandparents even have a headset in that Apple keynote example, I wanted that dad to be just there in the moment. I don’t want that as my future.
Speaker 1: So let’s see what other apps can turn the idea around as a tool beyond capturing kids. I bet a wedding photographer could wear it during an event for some cool 3D shots. It really is just a tool, but not a replacement yet for the phone camera. Apple [00:07:30] got creative with avatars in FaceTime when you’re using the Vision Pro headset. If you point the headset at your head, it’ll scan your face to create a realistic animated stand-in for you. When you’re FaceTiming someone while wearing the headset, it moves when you talk, it’s just a tad bit on Candy Valley. The demo made it look like the guy was kind of moving his mouth weird. I’m not going to call this as the most cringe because frankly it’s a whole lot better than whatever mess Meta was trying to do. Developers [00:08:00] have been told Apple is also working on including hands in this FaceTime rendering.
Speaker 1: Taking meetings like this with people floating around you has a bit of a Star Wars council effect, and this effect may be Apple’s first step to a killer app, but let’s see how this avatar gets incorporated in other apps with practical examples. Otherwise, people may just roll their eyes that you are not in a normal video feed like everyone else in the meeting. The isolation problem is also why Apple created [00:08:30] features like eyesight where an image of your eyes is displayed in front of the headset when someone is in the room with you. So they know that they are being seen by you right now. But there’s something to keep in mind about those eyes. All the images we have are from Apple produced video. When my colleague Scott Stein got his demo, apple did not show him how eyesight would look. Also worth noting, we don’t see any executive wearing the headset, not Tim Cook or anyone. In a way that’s probably the most cringe thing to me in all of this marketing. Apple [00:09:00] had a moment that they just let slip by. There was no executive on a stage holding up a product when there was a brand new thing to show to the world. No iPhone moment,
Speaker 4: Let me take it out here.
Speaker 1: No pulling a MacBook out of an envelope. Just roll the edited commercial of fake models using a device that makes fake screens. Maybe they don’t want a bunch of memes of executives looking dorky with it on their face. We have been there before and certainly other headsets had their cringe [00:09:30] moments at keynotes when even the execs didn’t put it on and everyone else did. So does that mean Apple thinks it looks cringe to use it? How do you solve for that? Let’s see how long it takes before we see Tim Cook using it. Or maybe Apple just wants to first focus on other people using it. There are many months still before it launches. There’s time to iron out the cringe. I think Apple is counting on developers for solving for these factors. Apple showed us they have mastered the tech now they need to get [00:10:00] the reason why we should use it.
Speaker 1: The dystopian imagery, the high price, the lack of content. The Vision Pro is an easy target for haters. But I’m curious what happens when the headset gets into Apple stores? Will people be lining up to try it out? Does the cringe melt away if it becomes something everyone wants to look at and experience when they visit the mall? It’s a long game. Apple will have to play, so it doesn’t actually seem dystopian. Let me know in the comments what elements of the Vision Pro felt cringe to you, or if you disagree, tell me to [00:10:30] in the comments. Maybe we are already in the dystopia and I just need to get over it. <laugh>, there’s lots to go over from W D C that we’re still hearing about from the developer panels. So we’ll talk about some non headset stuff next week. Catch you next Friday.
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