I echo the awe at the hardware and the disappointment at the paradigm. I wish the keynote had three extra demos:
- Something whimsical to inspire developers. Give me files represented as physical blocks that I can pile, or a task manager that shows processes as plants around me. Close apps by scrunching their screen like paper. A globe with my geotagged pictures.
- A game, any game. Beat Saber was the killer app for me to get my Vive, and Valve already spent tens of millions of dollars to create a triple-A VR game. Neither seem compatible with the Vision Pro input methods. Apple could at least play their strengths, like an AR hide-and-seek, or a horror game with eye tracking.
- Content creation or professional work. The last thing we need is another passive device to watch 3D TikTok. Show someone customizing their "home screen" environment to look like a fantasy potion shop; or a mechanic looking at a 20x magnified broken part; or an SRE watching their kubernetes cluster as a floating 3D graph; or a VFX artist in the scene scrubbing forward and backward to adjust an effect.
It feels like inventing the first smartphone, camera apps and all, but it doesn't make calls and the only input is tapping on icons.
>- Something whimsical to inspire developers. Give me files represented as physical blocks that I can pile, or a task manager that shows processes as plants around me. Close apps by scrunching their screen like paper. A globe with my geotagged pictures.
I respect Apple for not doing this. These are demos that are kind of fun for 20 minutes but you would never want to actually use a device like this: https://youtu.be/z4FGzE4endQ?t=59
By far the most disappointing part of the keynote was when they finally do show someone playing a game, and it's a basketball game played with a regular controller on a flat, virtual TV. The TV is even smaller than an average real-world TV.
It's typical of Apple to so completely ignore gaming, but it's disappointing that they're continuing that trend even with VR.
Realistically, that's probably the best we are getting for a while. VR gaming has had a difficult time. The physical space requirements are immense and the gameplay types have been limited.
A lot of value could be had playing flat screen games this way. Imagine sitting on a plane with a controller in your lap, but it feels like you are sitting in a private loungeroom or some zen environment playing a game on a large TV.
I didn't expect them to show a first-person shooter, but there are so many possibilities for casual games that actual utilize VR/AR in some meaningful way.
The fact that what they came up with was "game in a rectangle, but this time floating in the air" makes me think that either there are major limitations to what the AR platform is capable of or that they're intentionally trying to tell people "gaming isn't a priority here".
Because gamers, or even consumers, is not the target demographic for a $3500 device. They want to brand as a device for enthusiasts (but Apple everything!) or professional (work video chat, artists, graphic designers).
you mean the demographic that regularly buys enthusiast tier 2000 dollar pcs and 1500 dollar VR headsets is not a demo that apple wants to buy their enthusiast tier 3500 dollar device?
apple's anti-gamer slant has always stunk to me of some exec being salty about what went down with nvidia and hating the idea of ppl playing games.
their slapfight with epic games is another example of them not giving 2 shits about the gaming market and alienating a highly growing userbase.hell they didn't mention live streaming at all and that seems like a usecase this thing is tailor built to be good at considering how many cameras and screens it has!
meanwhile they want people to buy into apple arcade...
I used Eagle Mode[1][2] for a number of years, and it was non-ironically the best file manager I've ever used. I only stopped because it required dozens of very out-of-date packages for its preview features.
But the point of whimsical demos is inspiration, like a concept car, not complete realism.
VisionOS uses old school UI like blocks and doesn't do anything new in terms of just reusing design paradigms from ipadOS/macOS. It makes sense why people would think of it just as a computer they strap to their face.
Half of their marketing was about how it's a essentially a macbook that you strap to your face...
It takes time for developers to get the device and begin writing software for it. As time marches on, those things that we all find value in get bought by Apple or Google and become the default apps for things. If someone then decides to try something crazy, cool. If not, someone else later will make a competing device that tries. If it wins, cool. If it doesn’t, someone will make it way later still (like Apple recreated what General Magic was working on way later).
- Something whimsical to inspire developers. Give me files represented as physical blocks that I can pile, or a task manager that shows processes as plants around me. Close apps by scrunching their screen like paper. A globe with my geotagged pictures.
- A game, any game. Beat Saber was the killer app for me to get my Vive, and Valve already spent tens of millions of dollars to create a triple-A VR game. Neither seem compatible with the Vision Pro input methods. Apple could at least play their strengths, like an AR hide-and-seek, or a horror game with eye tracking.
- Content creation or professional work. The last thing we need is another passive device to watch 3D TikTok. Show someone customizing their "home screen" environment to look like a fantasy potion shop; or a mechanic looking at a 20x magnified broken part; or an SRE watching their kubernetes cluster as a floating 3D graph; or a VFX artist in the scene scrubbing forward and backward to adjust an effect.
It feels like inventing the first smartphone, camera apps and all, but it doesn't make calls and the only input is tapping on icons.