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Apple Vision Pro Virtual Keyboard Blasted As 'Complete Write-Off'
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Greenmeenie
macrumors 68020
Virtual typing in mid air sounds exhausting anyway. 😂 i still don’t get the mass appeal of virtual headsets. Personally, I don’t see this technology being widely adopted like an iphone until Apple can create glasses that look like actual glasses you can walk around with. More like a true wearable device such as the Apple Watch. I’m sorry, I just don’t see this as anything more than a cool novelty device for gaming perhaps. But hey, what do i know? I’m just some dude & not a Trillion dollar company. 🤷♂️
This is going to suck for a lot of us content creators who rely on typing. I genuinely wanted to buy one to replace my MacBook and iMac, but won't since the keyboard sucks.
Why the hell can't the glasses project a keyboard on a flat surface for typing? It costs $3.5K and runs a rubbish version of iPadOS without a proper keyboard. I thought Apple would create some seamless magic for typing, but I was mistaken.
Why the hell can't the glasses project a keyboard on a flat surface for typing? It costs $3.5K and runs a rubbish version of iPadOS without a proper keyboard. I thought Apple would create some seamless magic for typing, but I was mistaken.
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Surf Monkey
Suspended
What if you don’t want to talk to your headset? I mean, insult to injury. It looks dumb and now you’re taking to it like a total jerk? Wow.
Surf Monkey
Suspended
Projecting it on a surface presents the same problem. Your head is inside a headset.
Surf Monkey
Suspended
Surf Monkey
Suspended
Mrkevinfinnerty
macrumors 68040
I don’t understand why the keyboard in the picture is so tiny. If a major point of this is to use more space as a canvas, why make the keyboard small? Why have the keys stuck together like that at all? Make it like the old Microsoft ergonomic keyboards. Split it apart to better suit your hand position.
Also I thought the point was to not have to hold your hands in the air to make the gestures. If you can look at a key and pinch that might be almost as good.
If it is how it looks in the picture then yes I am sure it will be awful. Hopefully they revise it. But I also think they expect voice input to be the main way. Same as the watch. The watch has a tiny awful keyboard. But you just transcribe to it. Works most of the time. Except when it doesn’t and you scrap the message with a sigh and just wait until you can reach a real keyboard.
Also I thought the point was to not have to hold your hands in the air to make the gestures. If you can look at a key and pinch that might be almost as good.
If it is how it looks in the picture then yes I am sure it will be awful. Hopefully they revise it. But I also think they expect voice input to be the main way. Same as the watch. The watch has a tiny awful keyboard. But you just transcribe to it. Works most of the time. Except when it doesn’t and you scrap the message with a sigh and just wait until you can reach a real keyboard.
Mrkevinfinnerty
macrumors 68040
But Apple didn’t bill the watch as a replacement for the Mac, it’s always been an accessory. Even the first few iPhones were billed as accessories to PCs or Macs, they required one for setup just like an iPod.
But Apple specifically told us this is its own computing platform, the one they’ve been spending all their time on while their current ones stagnate, the future of computing.
They better get the fundamentals right. This is a huge gambit. They can do better than a tiny cramped virtual keyboard.
They changed all the interface elements on their more popular operating systems to look like this. This is why notifications on the Mac are awful now and all the windows don’t have any controls. Alan Dye has been locked in his office for five years making everything look like the Vision Pro.
It’s actually had a detrimental effect on everything else. If they are going to spend all their time on this, make this the new gold standard, better than what came before. Backport improvements, don’t drag the entire ecosystem down with it.
The whole thing has all the disadvantages of the touchbar, plus some new ones!
Mrkevinfinnerty
macrumors 68040
Yeah I agree I don’t expect it to be a world class fully featured operating system right out the gate. But read the edits I made quickly. They really need to nail the fundamentals since there’s a lot riding on this for everyone, Vision Pro owners or not, and this keyboard isn’t encouraging. They made a big deal about it being a business productivity device. Seems much more like a pure consumption device at launch.
Similar problem with the iPad. They keep insisting it’s a computer but that’s just deluding themselves and confusing everyone. And I still need a keyboard if I want to actually enter more than a sentence of text on it without going insane.
One thing I don't get is why you even need to align your fingers with the keyboard. It should be possible to simply look at the letter you want to type, and then tap your finger in the air anywhere. If the word you want to type comes up as a suggestion, just look at it and, again, tap your finger. That could get very, very fast.It has every typing option available on you mac, plus eye control, virtual keyboard and tighter voice integration. If you could work before, you can still work. Oh, and look how he can write with his fingers! Can't do that on your fancy pants Mac can you, Mr. Work? 🙂. Gurman aside, this is fine as an alternate when you are on the can. We have known this since June. See how he does that cool little finger circle on the J? That is for June, or Joy 🙂
When he does the circling on the J key, is he scrolling through a list of suggested words and then picking the one he wants with the tap?
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techfreak23
macrumors 6502a
The specific area I'm hoping Apple innovates is gloves. If they don't want to do motion controllers, give us tactile motion gloves. They would get better tracking of the hands for the keyboard and also for certain games. I still think a motion controller is needed to capture all aspects of VR and AR, but gloves would be a nice in-between until they decide to add the motion controller support.
For those who like to compare this launch to the iPhone launch (and its doubters to the doubters of the time), the capacitive touch keyboard was a small miracle. It had its detractors for sure, but it was also acknowledged as far better than expected. By contrast, this one sounds like an unmitigated mess.
It should just link to an iPhone (maybe iPad) to use as the physical interface device.
The iPhone screen could display whatever interface is needed and of course would also provide haptic feedback which is needed.
The iPhone screen could display whatever interface is needed and of course would also provide haptic feedback which is needed.
hybrid_x
macrumors 6502a
I would argue that this is even worse than typing on a touch screen, because you have zero tactile feedback at all.
Not even a surface to interrupt the motion of the finger. Users will have no idea if they've even struck the imaginary surface or not, let alone pressed a "key." They're just wiggling their fingers in the air.
I can't see how they've figured out how to sense precise finger position in three dimensions and map it onto a virtual keyboard. This will be a frustrating and exhausting experience.
SFjohn
macrumors 68030
If that could be projected onto a flat surface, such as an airline tray table, I can see it being useful… 👍🏻
NT1440
macrumors P6
Really? The man famous for stressing the point that the right task requires the right tool (no stylus’s)?
I’d imagine he’d point out that if your *task* is long form writing, hey! We sell a keyboard that you likely already have if you’re a Mac user.
…use a keyboard?
Years and years of patents and patent updates from Apple on that front…
joloriquelme
macrumors regular
I am waiting for Apple Vision 2 (non-Pro), or Vision Pro 3.
So, we can finally see how Apple reinvented the entire tech industry, like did with the iPhone, that doesn't even had copy/paste, front camera or 3G.
So, we can finally see how Apple reinvented the entire tech industry, like did with the iPhone, that doesn't even had copy/paste, front camera or 3G.
TruthAboveAllElse
macrumors 6502