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Wait a minute … it is only visionOS/iOS?

franzkfk

franzkfk

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 14, 2011
243
167
Czech Republic
Hold on a second.
So the visionOS is like an iOS? Not MacOS?
I thought that they made it as a form of Mac alternative.
I know that a lot of you will tell me that you work on an iPad, but sorry not sorry … it is not the same as full Mac experience.
So is it consuming/midly working experience, or it is alternative to Mac?
 
Definately not an alternative to a Mac when they showed it being used with your Mac. It's visionOS, its own OS.
 
VisionOS is its own thing but seems to be much closer to iPadOS than macOS. It’s like iPadOS turned spacial, but also runs regular iPad and iPhone apps I believe.

It can work in tandem with a Mac/macOS offering spacial virtual displays, but you still need the Mac.

I would think the thermal and battery constraints alone would make running macOS on the headset itself impractical.
 
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Yes, it is more like iOS/iPadOS, which are more suited to mobile devices than macOS. Vision Pro is essentially a mobile device.
 
BeatCrazy said:
It’s neither iOS nor macOS. It’s its own thing.
Click to expand...
But ultimately, it’s probably dumbed down iOS, rather than macOS. So far we have only seen everyone’s thumbnails with an image of Vision Pro over their faces and heard their impressions. For more technical details, we’ll probably have to wait till 2024 since devs with their kits will be under NDAs.
 
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Hmmm, that is … disturbing.
I get it. We don’t even know now what is it capable of.
But I thought that they went the consuming/work route.
So it is like new “iPad” than new “Mac”.
Interesting and disturbing at once.
 
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franzkfk said:
Hmmm, that is … disturbing.
I get it. We don’t even know now what is it capable of.
But I thought that they went the consuming/work route.
So it is like new “iPad” than new “Mac”.
Interesting and disturbing at once.
Click to expand...
Well, I did a little more digging, and a proper way to say it is Apple says they should work with relatively little effort. I can't speak to the library of frameworks and tools and how they differ. Still, they are making it clear that Mac Apps don't work out of the box.

developer.apple.com

Get Started - visionOS - Apple Developer

Familiar frameworks and tools. Get ready to build and design an entirely new universe of apps for Apple Vision Pro.
developer.apple.com developer.apple.com
 
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visionOS supports many of the same frameworks as iOS and iPadOS, and Universal apps that haven't been ported to visionOS yet are specifically stated to run as iPad apps in the Shared Space. Therefore, it makes sense that visionOS is most likely derived from iPadOS.
 
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All of Apple’s platforms share frameworks and features. There is no sense in calling this a stripped down version of X or Y.

This is a new platform.
 
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I don't think we can say either of those things for sure. iOS and iPadOS are lesser stripped-down versions of MacOS. This is beyond fact. Look at any 3rd party (and even all of the Apple) apps out there. The iOS and iPadOS Apps are pretty but simple.

But we also can't say that VisionOS is going to be magically more capable than either of those without seeing it first. We can most likely say that it isn't MacOS in terms of available SDK and frameworks or they would be advertising it as such.

Plus it connects to a mac, but only as a remote session--hence the 4k limit in a screen rectangle. I have a feeling folks that expect Mac functionality out of apps are going to be extremely disappointed.
 
slplss said:
Was dumbed down version of iOS too colloquial? I didn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings.
Click to expand...
I don't think so, but then you will get lectured on how iOS is more than enough for most young people. And then that will start a whole different conversation--yet again.
 
In the end it's irrelevant as you're not going to run your regular apps on it. You won't prefer putting on the headset versus just using your Mac for these apps. Once the novelty wears off it's the same app windows with the same content, putting on the headset is an extra inconvenience that comes with no benefits. The headset will shine with apps that were programmed for it. That can include standard apps that incorporate new features, Facetime, watching (3d) movies and so on. At no point does the underlying OS matter for the user experience.

Apple did advertise it in a weird way as if running these standard apps is something we'll want to do regularly. But to put on the headset every time we'd usually use our iPads or Macs is unlikely as long as it's that clunky, has a 2 hour battery life and isn't even entirely wireless either. It's not like such headsets are comfortable to wear. Put on ski goggles and imagine wearing that but heavier and at a very different price point.
 
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You CAN use macOS with the Vision Pro. You just have to have a Mac and it will automatically screen share the Mac to a Vision Pro's window. So it can be a sorta a Mac alternative in use.

from Mac Rumors:
"Apple says that there's a Mac Virtual Display feature that works wirelessly with the Mac. You can bring your Mac's display into Vision Pro and "place it anywhere in space." You can see each of your Mac apps individually, arranging them in a way that works for you."

www.macrumors.com

How Apple Vision Pro Works With the Mac

Apple Vision Pro is a standalone hardware device that has its own processors and does not require a connection to a Mac or an iPhone to operate, but...
www.macrumors.com www.macrumors.com
 
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franzkfk said:
Hmmm, that is … disturbing.
I get it. We don’t even know now what is it capable of.
But I thought that they went the consuming/work route.
So it is like new “iPad” than new “Mac”.
Interesting and disturbing at once.
Click to expand...
Apple won’t expand macOS to any new device categories any time soon. MacOS is still much too open and carries a lot of historical baggage. Maybe once they’ve progressed far enough in closing it up and sandboxing the apps.

With the Vision Pro, there’s also various UI concerns. What do you do with the menu bar, for example? I’m sure there’s a multitude of further concerns, also with API differences that would be necessitated by the 3D vs. 2D UI. Unmodified Mac apps would be prone to breaking in subtle ways under visionOS. It doesn’t make much sense for Apple to go in that direction.

The only vaguely plausible option would be to run macOS in a VM on the Vision Pro and render it as a single window. However, for performance reasons that would likely require a second M2. And to use it with an external keyboard and monitor (because you probably won’t want to wear the headset all day), you’d have to connect those (or a hub) to the Vision Pro via USB, which would be a bit awkward, and less convenient for switching between the two modes.
 
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Julien said:
You CAN use macOS with the Vision Pro. You just have to have a Mac and it will automatically screen share the Mac to a Vision Pro's window. So it can be a sorta a Mac alternative in use.

from Mac Rumors:
"Apple says that there's a Mac Virtual Display feature that works wirelessly with the Mac. You can bring your Mac's display into Vision Pro and "place it anywhere in space." You can see each of your Mac apps individually, arranging them in a way that works for you."

www.macrumors.com

How Apple Vision Pro Works With the Mac

Apple Vision Pro is a standalone hardware device that has its own processors and does not require a connection to a Mac or an iPhone to operate, but...
www.macrumors.com www.macrumors.com
Click to expand...
Right, but it only works as a remote desktop to your mac you own. You can't run macOS apps in VisionOS. All you can do is use it as a de facto monitor.
 
eltoslightfoot said:
Right, but it only works as a remote desktop to your mac you own. You can't run macOS apps in VisionOS. All you can do is use it as a de facto monitor.
Click to expand...
Soooooo … it is what it is. My bad. It is an extension for macOS, but also a standalone device with its own system visionOS like iOS.
That is …… great!:)
Teoretical question. If you wanna work in a plane or somewhere else than your home, you’ll have to take your MacBook and Vision Pro, right?
Seems … too much.
 
slplss said:
Was dumbed down version of iOS too colloquial? I didn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings.
Click to expand...
No feeling hurt. I just put context into it because you might think VisionOS is another extension of iOS like watchOS or tvOS for example but it's not.

This is the 3rd computing platform Apple has created. The 1st was a Mac. The 2nd was iPhone. So it's dumb down of iOS just as iPhoneOS was a dumb down of OSX. Believe it or not in the early days of iPhone people used to say that but no more.
 
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matrix07 said:
No feeling hurt. I just put context into it because you might think VisionOS is another extension of iOS like watchOS or tvOS for example but it's not.

This is the 3rd computing platform Apple has created. The 1st was a Mac. The 2nd was iPhone. So it's dumb down of iOS just as iPhoneOS was a dumb down of OSX. Believe it or not in the early days of iPhone people used to say that but no more.
Click to expand...
I still say it. iOS is not near the level of MacOS....it just isn't.
 
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