The instrument of a terrifying dystopian world has arrived- Apple Visionpro

For those that don’t want to wake up the wife by watching a video:
It’s a more modern AR set (VR that lets you see your surroundings).
www.zdnet.com

I tried Apple Vision Pro for a weekend and here are my 3 biggest takeaways

Whether you're buying the $3,500 spatial computer or not, keep these three things in mind as Apple learns, adapts, and evolves the Vision Pro into something greater.
www.zdnet.com www.zdnet.com
 
We tried using these at work. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/hololens

They were brilliant for remote sites that had a handy person who needed someone on the other end to talk him through a process.
But we ran into all kinds of security issues, since it is easy to accidentally "view" some proprietary info and record it. Also EU privacy laws around videoing people without consent caused us problems.

But the tech is brilliant even with a clunky scaled-back version of Windows running on it.
 
hear me out, you create a program that gives halo accolades when you're shooting silhouettes.
In all seriousness, I would consider it at $300-$400 for something different. $3,500 is a different story.
 
Not gonna lie - i really wanted AR type stuff since way back. There was a set of glasses back in the 90s that just reflected a tiny display on the lens - it was super expensive but i thought it was the coolest thing.
I really wanted google glass, but that died out pretty fast.
I have a VR headset I don't use. It's too clunky. It has cameras so it could do AR... but it's tethered by its display and data cables.

I still want AR. I don't know why, but if it's gonna be big and goofy like the apple setup, I'll still pass.
 
I view this as I view a supercar, ho hum. If I and most people can't afford it it's not going to have an impact on me or those around me, or the public in general. In contrast, the Meta Quest 3 released late last year is game changing for an affordable price ($500), 1/7th the price of the Apple product. The Quest 3 has true useful AR via color passthrough cameras, high resolution screens, twice the processing power of the Quest 2, and pancake lenses that are way better than the old Fresnel lenses that were in every other affordable headset. It's also stand alone (no wires) or can be connected to a PC for PC VR games if you want. Built in pretty good sound too. Oh, and it's significantly slimmer and lighter than the Quest 2 as well.

I really think the Quest 3 stole some of some of Apple's thunder because it is such a leap beyond anything else offered in it's price range. The main draw beyond just much better graphics is it's AR capability that developers are actually writing software for. I had two Windows Mixed Reality headsets before this that technically were capable of AR/MR (heck it was in the name) but no AR/MR software of significance was ever developed for that platform. That has changed in a big way for the Quest 3. All that stuff in the video above about having multiple screens around you I can do on my Quest 3 as well. Some people have used these for work because you can have more and larger monitors than you can in reality. Although the passthrough camera image of my environment is a little pixelated (bright room light helps a lot) the content from the headset (screens, game content, etc.) is really sharp with no strain reading small text. You can move the screens around with your hands. Take that movie you are watching into the kitchen with you while you make dinner.

You can already play FPS games inside your home environment (see vid below). I wonder how long it will be before this is realistic enough to do real HD tactical training with. If you're wondering, there are many and varied physical rifle/carbine "stocks" designed to be used with VR FPS games so you can get that 4 point weld.


AR FPS in your home:


AR tech demo game that comes with the Q3:


I can already hear the cries of "no way am I giving Zuckerberg and whoever else images and exact dimensions of the interior of my home" and I get it. I would be somewhat cautious of what I exposed to the headset in terms of real guns, etc. but other than that I'm OK with it, and this is coming from someone who absolutely will not have any Alexa or similar devices.
 
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