Apple Vision Pro: Ready for the Spotlight

 

Like so many, I’ve spent a fair amount of time inside my Apple Vision Pro this weekend. Not going to do a point by point review — there are plenty of those out there — but I do have a few takeaways I’d like to share.

1) I’m blown away by the power of the platform for developers to do amazing things. Do some of those apps already exist? Absolutely — there are many truly stunning experiences already. I watched 5 NBA games simultaneously Friday night. I *loved* the 3D experience inside Alicia Keys’ recording studio. And who doesn’t want to see a cute little butterfly land on your hand, prior to getting roared at by an angry 3D dinosaur in your kitchen after all.

It’s not just about having so much real estate to work with for apps and their windows, it’s also about having three dimensions in which to work, gather, and create. Developers are going to have a field day.

2) It really is about the ecosystem, at least for now. I was able to manage several different workflows and conversations at the same time, and already I am feeling just as productive, if not more so, as when I’m on my three large monitor Mac Mini set up, with my iPhone alongside.

3) I’m finding the the eye tracking and the hand gestures remarkably precise. This morning, I used my cable provider’s AVP app to watch Sunday morning news shows while I was doing all sorts of other things inside the AVP. I can now use the same way to interact with my TV (eye tracking/hand gestures) as I can with all my other productivity and entertainment applications. Sounds trivial I’m sure, but the ease of going back and forth was surprisingly impactful, without having to find a remote or use my phone to load an app to control the TV.

4) I was in the device for hours — one’s eyes get tired eventually, but I’ve been in all the major headsets over the years and this one is in a different league in terms of comfort, ease/duration of wearing, etc.

5) I’m excited to see what apps have more utility because they can now be deployed in this environment. I need to think more about this.

6) Voice recognition for Siri works startlingly well — I think it’s better than on my iPhone 15 Pro frankly. Good thing too, because it’s more cumbersome on AVP (at least for me right now) to go back and make corrections.

7) You’re going to be seeing people using these in public nearly immediately. People won’t be self-conscious for long. The power of the device will be too great for many to leave it behind.

I’ve posted a dozen different pieces on the APV on LinkedIn, and they have all been re-posted at Get Real’s website.  Just go to the Get Real Library and select “Apple Vision Pro.”

I will have more to say in the coming days on what I’m hoping for in future versions of either the operating system or AVP itself.