Apple Vision Pro Virtual Keyboard Blasted As 'Complete Write-Off'

[Lounge vibes 05]

You have generations who grew up learning to type on typewriters and keyboards. Of course some Boomer is going to have difficulty. Have someone from the iPad generation review it and report back.

I assume you’re joking, but if not, I’m pretty sure that Mark Gurman is like… 30.
Definitely a lot closer to iPad generation than boomer.
He started writing about Apple in 2010 as a high school sophomore.

Bloomberg just hired 22-year-old Apple scoop machine Mark Gurman

Gurman graduated college last month.

www.vox.com

 

[Ctrlos]

I would probably argue that if you find yourself using your $3500 VR headset for extended typing sessions then you probably shouldn't have bothered in the first place.

 

[koil]

Is Beat Saber going to be available on it btw? Best thing ever

Using which controllers for the sabers? Just your hands? I can't imagine that'll actually work well, but I could be wrong I guess.

 

[turbineseaplane]

why did anyone at Apple think that the future of computer is just moving windows around in a virtual space with pinching gestures?

I'm not sure anyone does (I know I don't)

Apple is just out of ideas

 

[coffeemilktea]

This is just a brilliant scheme to either get people used to voice dictation, or to sell all of those Bluetooth keyboards that still use Lightning instead of USB-C.

 

[Victor Mortimer]

Apple Lisa, hockey puck mouse, G4 cube, HP iPod, the iPod phone (Motorola ROKR), iPod hi-fi, mobile me, iAds, first generation Apple TV, iTunes Ping.
I bet Steve would’ve never allowed any of those either…

The Lisa was actually really good. It was just so expensive that most people never got to use one.

And the Cube was fine, a bit expensive for what it was, but it looked really cool. I installed a few before the fake 'cracks' rumor killed sales. And let me be very clear on this, THERE WERE NO CRACKS. The injection molding process left mold lines, they were barely noticeable. The only way they wouldn't have been there would have been an expensive post-molding polishing process, and the cube would have been even more expensive.

The iPod Hi-Fi was a pretty good speaker. But it was WAY too expensive (noticing a theme here?) and so it didn't sell well.

And the 1st gen Apple TV was great. You could hack it and turn it into a cheap (if slow) Mac.

 

[jimbobb24]

Unlike touch screens, this actually has a huge benefit: You don't need to have a carry/get/go to a physical thing.

If you actually write something long, you should sit down at your desk with a keyboard. But using a keyboard for every little text input would severely impact the flexibility of this device. It's a shame if it's not good, but at least there's also speech input.

The primary input is probably physical keyboard, then Siri then virtual keyboard.

 

[jimbobb24]

So something worse than butterfly keys? /s

Jokes aside, I suspect this could be one reason - not the main reason - why Apple is rumoured to be working on “SiriGPT” and advanced LLM. Until they’ve figured out how to dramatically improve this voice input has to be infinitely better than what it is right now. After all, this is Cook’s icing on the cake to his Apple legacy.

LLM have nothing to do with correctly hearing spoken language and translating it into text.

 

[hagar]

if it relies on the all new updated Autocorrect introduced with great fanfare in iOS 17, it’s definitely a no go.

 

[bradman83]

Steve Jobs would NEVER have allowed this to go to market...

The best analogy here is Mac OS X 10.0, which Steve absolutely allowed to go to market. It was ungodly slow, it was buggy, it was feature-incomplete, had limited native software, and was in no way a replacement for the established Mac OS 9 and earlier. But it was launched (and people had to pay for it) to get the platform off the ground, to get it into the hands of early adopters, and to build momentum for the OS transition. It took a solid 3+ years before it was truly a mature replacement for Classic Mac OS.

The same applies here. visionOS 1.0 is just that, version 1.0 - as is the hardware. This is for early adopters to get the platform up and running while Apple smooths out the software and works to make the hardware less clunky and cheaper. Steve 100% would have allowed this to go to market.

 

[AsarTheGod]

Love swipe to texting in the air on the meta quest 3. Sure Apple will just software update this feature down the line.

 

[turbineseaplane]

The best analogy here is Mac OS X 10.0, which Steve absolutely allowed to go to market. It was ungodly slow, it was buggy, it was feature-incomplete, had limited native software, and was in no way a replacement for the established Mac OS 9 and earlier. But it was launched (and people had to pay for it) to get the platform off the ground, to get it into the hands of early adopters, and to build momentum for the OS transition. It took a solid 3+ years before it was truly a mature replacement for Classic Mac OS.

The same applies here. visionOS 1.0 is just that, version 1.0 - as is the hardware. This is for early adopters to get the platform up and running while Apple smooths out the software and works to make the hardware less clunky and cheaper. Steve 100% would have allowed this to go to market.

The hardware being this different (and an only subjectively enjoyable form factor) is a huge difference here.

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

The Lisa was actually really good. It was just so expensive that most people never got to use one.

And the Cube was fine, a bit expensive for what it was, but it looked really cool. I installed a few before the fake 'cracks' rumor killed sales. And let me be very clear on this, THERE WERE NO CRACKS. The injection molding process left mold lines, they were barely noticeable. The only way they wouldn't have been there would have been an expensive post-molding polishing process, and the cube would have been even more expensive.

The iPod Hi-Fi was a pretty good speaker. But it was WAY too expensive (noticing a theme here?) and so it didn't sell well.

And the 1st gen Apple TV was great. You could hack it and turn it into a cheap (if slow) Mac.

Sounds like you’re describing the first generation Vision Pro.
Expensive, unnecessary, but very very cool and possibly a steppingstone to an augmented reality future.
But also, a lot of your points completely go against the original post about Steve Jobs.
Steve Jobs didn’t OK the Apple TV because you could hack it and turn it into a slow Mac, that was just a possibility. That is absolutely not the way he intended it to be used though.
you can’t say “ Steve Jobs would never released this flawed product”, while ignoring all of the flawed products he actually did release because you could… hack them?

 

[macduke]

The only effective way of typing is via physical keyboard. Humans have this really great feature, thats called "fingers", which allow them to touch, feel and use stuff, even when not looking directly at it. Believe it or not, It's highly effective. But unfortunately, majority of developers and UX designers these days think, that the answer to "what comes next after physical keyboard/buttons?" is a solution via touchscreen. You can see this sheer stupidity in modern cars like Tesla, Mercedes, Audi, BMW etc. where they keep removing phyiscal buttons, and replacing them with touchscreen. Typing "in-air" like this keyboard utilizes, is on same level as touchscreen typing - It's annoying, it's cumbersome and it's stupid.

While I agree with your sentiment, I wouldn’t blame the UI/UX people for this specifically. Typically what happens in these situations is some higher up manager joins your weekly standup call and says “We can save $74/vehicle removing the physical buttons for the climate and media systems. Your job is to make that happen.” And then you never see that person again. Meanwhile the automaker charges you $4000 more for the new model year with these “improvements.”

Then in a few years after thousands of customer complaints, ratings drop, fewer awards, and slumping sales, they’ll come back all angry saying “Just fix this mess you created, or your team is done!” And eventually you get laid off anyway and your job is outsourced. The American Dream.

 

[SoldOnApple]

We need brain implant that’ll let us feel like we are touching something in these virtual worlds.

 

[MaximizedAction]

Steve Jobs would NEVER have allowed this to go to market...

Unironically this. UX is one of the things he’d have made sure to absolutely nail, even on 1.0.

 

[robgreene]

The best analogy here is Mac OS X 10.0, which Steve absolutely allowed to go to market. It was ungodly slow, it was buggy, it was feature-incomplete, had limited native software, and was in no way a replacement for the established Mac OS 9 and earlier. But it was launched (and people had to pay for it) to get the platform off the ground, to get it into the hands of early adopters, and to build momentum for the OS transition. It took a solid 3+ years before it was truly a mature replacement for Classic Mac OS.

The same applies here. visionOS 1.0 is just that, version 1.0 - as is the hardware. This is for early adopters to get the platform up and running while Apple smooths out the software and works to make the hardware less clunky and cheaper. Steve 100% would have allowed this to go to market.

Interesting analogy... because Mac OS X 10.0 was the entire reason I switched from Windows to Mac. Would not have even considered switching to OS 9 at the time.

 

[Surf Monkey]

You have generations who grew up learning to type on typewriters and keyboards. Of course some Boomer is going to have difficulty. Have someone from the iPad generation review it and report back.

Counter productive generational framing.

 

[tazinlwfl]

I tried using Siri to dictate in the clinic for all of one day. Until we can import custom/medical dictionaries, train Siri like the very expensive dictation software we already license, or AI Siri can become medically aware, we will always need to have efficient typing capabilities in healthcare.

Siri and Dictation aren’t the same.
But you can add your own vocabulary to the phone. I have quite a few words and names that I added manually - including phonetic pronunciations - to make dictation (and Siri) easier to use.

 

[NEPOBABY]

The only effective way of typing is via physical keyboard. Humans have this really great feature, thats called "fingers", which allow them to touch, feel and use stuff, even when not looking directly at it. Believe it or not, It's highly effective. But unfortunately, majority of developers and UX designers these days think, that the answer to "what comes next after physical keyboard/buttons?" is a solution via touchscreen. You can see this sheer stupidity in modern cars like Tesla, Mercedes, Audi, BMW etc. where they keep removing phyiscal buttons, and replacing them with touchscreen. Typing "in-air" like this keyboard utilizes, is on same level as touchscreen typing - It's annoying, it's cumbersome and it's stupid.

VR/AR ski goggles. You can't wear this for too long daily otherwise your face will be a distorted creased write-off.

Virtual keyboard air typing. Forget about it except for something very brief. Real life isn't like a dumb Keanu sci fi.

The Oculus stuff introduced us to air typing and air painting and air 3D sculpting years ago. Hardly anyone uses them after 10 years because working with a real keyboard, real pen tablet and real screen turns out to be really suited to our physical anatomy that requires physical feedback and resistance.

Trying to make air typing and air working 'a thing' is a bogus fantasy for dweebs who never go out, aren't as productive as they claim they are, and are actually just wasting their lives away getting scammed by virtual reality AI cyber girlfriends. They should just admit why they want to wear ski goggles.

 

[NEPOBABY]

Unironically this. UX is one of the things he’d have made sure to absolutely nail, even on 1.0.

We're in the Late Stage where tech corporations will try anything, even harm the lives of their users, if they can generate a few bucks more for their top shareholders.

 

[btrach144]

Jokes on you Marky, I never learned how to type. I still chicken poke my keyboard.

 

[darngooddesign]

VR/AR ski goggles. You can't wear this for too long daily otherwise your face will be a distorted creased write-off.

Virtual keyboard air typing. Forget about it except for something very brief. Real life isn't like a dumb Keanu sci fi.

The Oculus stuff introduced us to air typing and air painting and air 3D sculpting years ago. Hardly anyone uses them after 10 years because working with a real keyboard, real pen tablet and real screen turns out to be really suited to our physical anatomy that requires physical feedback and resistance.

Trying to make air typing and air working 'a thing' is a bogus fantasy for dweebs who never go out, aren't as productive as they claim they are, and are actually just wasting their lives away getting scammed by virtual reality AI cyber girlfriends. They should just admit why they want to wear ski goggles.

You seem agitated over the fact that the VP has to function without other physical accessories. If you don’t like it, use a BT keyboard.

 

[1129846]

I am not surprised about it being a write off. No matter how good you make the software it does not solve some of the problems of no physical keys and even worse lack of a physical service to go against.

We have had projected keyboard on tables before and it was found people don’t use them any were close to as fast or as well as traditional keyboards. The tactical feed back is so important. The touch screen keyboards on our phones yes they work ok but compared to a real keyboard they are POS in terms of speed and quality. Look how much on auto correct is added and even auto finish to speed things up and improve things. It gets even worse when you are typing with the more standard keyboard layouts with less then zero feed back as you are air typing.

 

[tomtad]

Oh man, I can't wait to spent more money on a bluetooth keyboard to be able to use my $3500 monitor that no one else can see for basic tasks like typing. It's all so lightweight and mobile. Pretty soon, we won't need to type we'll just be flinging windows all over the place and evolving into crab people. This is the future.

Apple couldn't even get the iPad to be a productive tool without an external keyboard and a pencil, why did anyone at Apple think that the future of computer is just moving windows around in a virtual space with pinching gestures?

Because Tim Cook is in charge and time is finally catching up with him.

He needs to go.