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Insane the amount of people here who will drop 5k on a laptop but are stunned at spending 3.5k on this. People spend money all the time. The pearl clutching is insane. How many people spend $1500 on a phone every year? Tons, upgrade programs are a huge selling point for providers. People spend hundreds or thousands on clothes and shoes regularly. You personally don’t think this is worth the money. I guarantee you’ve spent money on something that you could’ve gotten a just as useful less expensive version of, why would someone ever pay for a leather interior on their car when a cloth interior gets you to the same place at the same time for less money? The examples go on and on.

You may personally feel this expense isn’t worth it. That’s perfectly fine. I actually agree. But to assume that it’s absurd and no one would ever spend a few thousand dollars on something that wasn’t completely necessary is just being obtuse to get your takes out online.
Where did I say that? People can spend money on whatever they want. I just find it hard to believe there is someone who is constantly taking long plane flights and can’t afford business class yet can afford $4K VR googles. Also this is pretty much Ben’s only use case so far - watching movies on a plane. With a $4K device that has a 2 hour battery life.
 
I would like to know that as well.

I will go on the record as saying that even if it were in the form of glasses and cost $500, I still wouldn’t want it.
I doubt I’d want it either but there could be some use cases, like if you’re traveling it could provide directions or POI information. But even in reading glasses form the use cases are limited, IMO.
 
Is the spatial video from the iPhone really that good on the Vision Pro?
No, I’d describe them as fairly poor. They are low resolution, pretty blurry outside of a narrow “sweet zone” at the middle of the image, relatively dark and have bad dynamic range. All for a bad stereoscopic 3D effect of that varies with distance (meaning some parts of the video appear to be much flatter than other parts). I feel like an AI model could be created to enhance 2D photos with depth information and you would get the same result.
 
With this year's much expected iPad lineup refresh, it's Apple's opportunity to show us that the iPad is not just a big iPhone.
They'd better deliver something meaningful to the software. Whether it's the ability to optionally run or boot macOS or by improving a lot iPadOS, it's up to them. But it has to be this year in order to go along this M3 iPad Pro refresh.
I’d be surprised if anything like that happens this year. I don’t expect any change in strategy from Apple regarding iPadOS, or any change in velocity regarding implementing features of the scale of Stage Manager.
 
That Mac marketshare has remained at 10% for awhile now. With Qualcomm releasing their Snapdragon X Elite processor that competes with Appoke's M-series, ARM-based Windows PC'S will get exciting later this year. Mac marketshare may not have a chance to go beyond 10%
I wouldn't expect Mac marketshare to ever go above 15% unless Apple opened up macOS to 3rd parties.
 
I wonder what the update frequency will be? Hard to imagine people spending $3500 every year to upgrade, but that tech is going to advance quickly I think. On a side note. It makes me dizzy and I don’t like the idea of being cut off from the world to that extent.
But passthru (poor image with current technology aside) doesn't cut you off from anything. I've seen a few comments where in some ways, it cuts people off less than before - because they aren't forced to sit at their computer setup in their office and can be around family while working on a substantial "virtual" computer setup. Interesting take.
 
I would like to know that as well.

I will go on the record as saying that even if it were in the form of glasses and cost $500, I still wouldn’t want it.
Many people probably think that $500 would be okay for something you play around with for a while, and then keep it for occasional use (watching a spacial video or a 3D movie, and maybe take it on the occasional flight, etc.), but otherwise keep it in the drawer most of the time.
 
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Vision Pro will run into the same ”problem” as the iPad…it doesn’t run macOS or work like a Mac. It will be declared a toy even though, like the iPad, you can get a lot of work done with it if you aren’t stuck in your old ways.
One of the most enticing features about the Vision Pro is that you can literally run a giant screen of your Mac on it.
 
One of the few times I agree with Mark Gurman

In the past three years the iPad has become totally decentivized. Unless you're a professional artist there's no point in buying one anymore. Guts of a Mac, but does a lot less than a Mac, and is more expensive than a Mac. So instead of spending $800+ on an iPad Pro, just buy a Macbook instead for the same price. It'll be able to do a lot more, and has vastly longer battery life than even the highest end iPad.

The fact iPadOS updates every year have just been leftovers from the previous year's iOS updates certainly doesn't help. And now with the news that iOS will get sideloading to comply with the EU's Digital Markets Act, but not iPadOS, the iPad just got even more redundant. Once consumer model Apple Vision arrives and it's at $1500 or lower, it's only gonna get worse for the iPad.
There might be no point for you, but there is for the millions of us who buy them. The iPad has the guts of an iPad, the fact that it shares its chipset with the Mac is just another factor. An iPad does different things compared to a Mac. In my opinion, it’s worse when it comes to heavy workflows (like video editing and similar), but it’s much much better for web browsing, reading, creative work, etc. For me, and many others, the argument “You can buy a MBA for the price of an iPad Pro” works the other way around: no matter how cheap a MBA is, I won’t get it instead of an iPad Pro.
 
I think it was iPhone 4S when I said: That’s it! I am getting an iPhone.

It was so iconic, the form factor and design language was probably my favorite. Of course today I favor larger screens, but for a long time it was my favorite iPhone.
The iPhone 4S was my first iPhone and I still have it. It’s so small compared to my current iPhone which is the 14 Pro. I think what made the 4S stand out to me was the addition of 1080p video recording. The addition of Siri wasn’t really special at the time to me and to be honest, it still isn’t.
 
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AVP needs to be powerful to do its job(s), you simply will not have the power of a mac in the size of an iPhone (at this time).

I follow the patents (not just Apple) and there's no way to make this thing weightless; it would take fundamentally world-changing technology to do so. Realistically, the hardware will probably evolve in the following ways:
  • Apple is rumoured to be switching to a lighter PCB material (can't recall the name)
  • AVP 2 will probably have M4, which will use 3nm iirc. The energy efficiency (less heat generated) may let them remove the fans, shrinking the size and weight noticeably. Probably gain another hour of battery life from this.
  • A research group just published a paper on a new optical system for AR/VR that is better in most ways and thinner, so that could be applied in AVP 2 as well. I'm assuming AVP 2 is >1 year away.
  • Better strap (stiff instead of floppy) and maybe a more breathable light seal with an internal structure that enables fine-tuning.
The early software complaints are a non-issue — it's a gen 1 product; yeah it'll take a couple major version updates like it always does for pretty much any software/hardware product.
All interesting but if you followed that closely, you'd also wager that AVP 2 is already designed and in testing, etc. None of those will be in gen 2.
 
We all understand that products tend to improve over time. But as an actual Vision Pro owner since Feb 2nd I am extremely impressed with how good Gen 1 actually is. The device is already changed the way I interact with media, workflow, and communications. It has almost entirely replaced my iPad Pro and MacBook Pro. I never expected it to actually allow me to improve my workflow the way it has. I do use a Bluetooth keyboard for extended typing, but it works flawlessly. Once the word gets out about how this changes the interaction with computing and software, it will a huge hit. Apple will sell as many as they can make. This may be the best gen 1 product ever produced.
 
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There's still Windows 11

Yes I suppose that's true. Right now, in operating systems, they feel like the underdog so they do have some good. But if they thought they could get away with it, they wouldn't allow general purpose software there either. They came out hard with Windows RT and S mode and the Microsoft Store and had to keep backing off. And they didn't have a mobile platform to run with instead.

But they've turned Windows into adware. I administrate Windows systems and I have to keep a list of what I'm trying to do open next to me, because every single time I touch anything there are a million things popping up at me trying to get my attention or trick me into letting Microsoft do something else to get more data.

Even on my personal Windows system that runs Enterprise so it keeps that to a minimum, still every time I open Edge or log in to Azure.

The only people making software for the people that use it anymore are the Linux and BSD family. Even that is largely funded by corporations with other motives. Someone has to pay developers, I get it. It's just getting out of hand how user hostile everything is anymore.
 
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I would love to operate a “toy” business that consumers have deemed worth of generating profits twice the size of Pepsi Cola 🤷‍♂️

Apple sells devices for experiences. They don’t care about making macOS universal across devices. Their focus is making what they consider the right tool for the task at hand.

I love my Mac, but you can bet your wallet that if I’m looking to do long form reading I’m reaching for my iPad.

Techies don’t like this approach, but when your target audience is *regular people* they’re wildly successful.
Yep, some "techies" are obsessed with putting macOS on the iPad- I think I'm technical enough but I prefer the iPad for so many things especially on any trip that isn't for work. A "big iPhone" is pretty great to me even though I also own a couple of pretty up to date Macs.
 
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One iPad can at least offer a shared experience, even if it doesn't support multiple user accounts. I don't see how one VP does that.
 
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Vision Pro will run into the same ”problem” as the iPad…it doesn’t run macOS or work like a Mac. It will be declared a toy even though, like the iPad, you can get a lot of work done with it if you aren’t stuck in your old ways.
Oh no I'm stuck in my old ways of needing access to the file system and to use an IDE for work!
 
Which is not much, the distance of your IPD.

Very easy for modern AI to fill the gap, it's way smaller than you think.
It’s relatively easy to fill something plausible in a still image. Being consistent in video is much more difficult, also because later (or earlier) frames can reveal that the guess was wrong.
 
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So anyone thinking of waiting until the second or even third generation of the AVP just got advice from the horse’s mouth. You may still enjoy using the early generations, but the real, sustained enjoyment and productivity will come at a later date. Like The NY Times review said, the first generation headset lacks polish and purpose.
 
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I don't care I still bought it.. if I wait for gen 4 I'll be a senior citizen by then. I bought the first iPod, the first iPhone, the first iPad, the first MacBook Air, the first Mac Pro, the first Apple Watch, the first Apple TV. I got to use them before they evolved but they were still magical. The AVP is equivalent to the first iPhone in that delight of something new, for me at least.
 
I just find it hard to believe there is someone who is constantly taking long plane flights and can’t afford business class yet can afford $4K VR googles.
I’d imagine that almost anyone who frequently takes long plane flights also can afford an AVP. It seems that you are saying that nobody frequently takes long plane flights in economy class.

With a $4K device that has a 2 hour battery life.
You either plug it into a power outlet in the plane, or bring extra power banks with you. It’s not a real issue.

I’m bearish on the AVP, but your particular arguments don’t make a lot of sense to me.
 
I think with any product, the question is: what can you do with it that you couldn't do otherwise?

With the iPad, the only real answer to that is "use it while standing". So for anyone who has to take notes or reference things while standing, it's perfect. But for everyone else, you're better off using a laptop: better keyboard, better OS, built in stand, etc.

With the Vision Pro I guess it's about the VR experience. You can't have a stereoscopic, immersive experience otherwise. So the next question is why you want a VR experience? I guess gaming is a big one, but gaming is one thing Apple doesn't do for some reason. So maybe watching movies? But that's not the best alone, so again, not quite sure about that one. What's left? Productivity? I guess working in 3D and having some very niche workflows would benefit from it. But that's maybe like 0.01% of people.

It's also not practical. You're not going to take it with you everywhere, and you're not going to use it anywhere. This is mostly a "use it at home only" device. You also can't use it for very long, so it can't replace any other device. You can use a computer for 12 hours, but not this. So whatever amazing immersive workflow you can use the Vision Pro for, you'll have to switch back to using a regular computer pretty soon.

I'd think the only thing you'd only want to do for 2-3 hours a day, at home, alone, is watching movies and playing games. Or just buy an enormous TV for half the price, and you can even share it with other people.
 
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