Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Your Mac and Apple Vision Pro: What You Can Do (and What You Can't)
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
This is speculation. It may be true, but we don’t know yet. They might require Apple Silicon to enable that new high performance screen sharing mode. But it’s incorrect to say that Intel Macs aren’t powerful enough to communicate with the AVP. Screen sharing, which is based on VNC, has been around for ages. So has RDP. Both of those protocols work just fine on even 15 year old Intel Macs and PCs. So even if Intel Macs won’t work via official AVP screen sharing, they will certainly work via third party solutions like those already available on the iPad (e.g., Screens) and those third party solutions will likely enable multiple displays as well if you want that.
Yeah, I don't understand why they leapt to that conclusion.
I can use sidecar on an ipad with my intel macbook. Will this be significantly different than sidecar?
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
I am not going to say there are no advantages. The same argument has been made about the HomePods. I wish they were blue tooth that any of my devices could use. But I suppose I am a pragmatist, wanting Apple to open up their walled garden is going to happen as fast as talking to my mother before she had her first cup of coffee. If I tried, she would just ignore me.
There is one small advantage with my HomePods being closed. They are always available to my apple devices
Ah yes it might have been the iPad FCP app.
Cool, thanks for the tips.
Yes, everything will be clear soon!
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
The simplest benefit is TRAVEL. It's hard to take the large, high-res display with you. This virtual version will be small, light and easily mobile.
If you never travel, or never need to compute beyond an iDevice or laptop screen when traveling, this may not be for you. But if you want to get stuff done everywhere on a large, high-res display, this one should be a great option when away from the one probably anchored to a desk at a single location.
Oh, and it likely does a bunch of thing things too besides only this mobile super-sized monitor use. And some of those may prove appealing as all is revealed soon.
I am not going to say there are no advantages. The same argument has been made about the HomePods. I wish they were blue tooth that any of my devices could use. But I suppose I am a pragmatist, wanting Apple to open up their walled garden is going to happen as fast as talking to my mother before she had her first cup of coffee. If I tried, she would just ignore me.
There is one small advantage with my HomePods being closed. They are always available to my apple devices
LOL, good points.
I'll fully admit that you're right about talking about Apple opening things up. I am wasting my time. 😂
I agree with you 100%.
But if Apple say they are, then they are.
All that renewable/green/recycling/Mother Earth yadda yadda is just that: talk.
There's no doubt the VP will look much better than anything else, but will it look 8x the price better? I suppose for some price isn't an issue, and honestly if it was going to fulfill an important function I wouldn't care either as I have no issue spending $3500 on a desktop computer for example. I just think the other negatives it has going for it will mire it down and make those other "inferior" products make more sense.
Edit: Maybe not 8x the price when you factor in the VR side of it. A virtual screen/AR set of glasses might be anywhere around $400-$600, add in a decent VR headset like the Quest 3 and now you are at about 1/3 the price, but at least you can segregate the functions instead of, for example, being forced to wear a clunky VR headset when all you want is AR and/or a virtual screen.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
Vpro as regular glasses will likely need a breakthrough in some kind of wireless energy to power it. Best option for you to avoid "clunky" is to NOT buy this one and wait until that breakthrough is realized.
I do not foresee the wireless energy thing being resolved anytime soon. If not, we need micro-batteries that are super dense that can fit into the frame of regular glasses, along with all of the other tech. Seems quite distant into the future too.
With neither breakthrough impending, the simple glasses version of Vpro appears to be far off. WAIT if that is crucial. In the meantime, others may just tolerate a bigger package. Fortunately, there are buyers willing as evidenced by a look back at- say- Apples first laptop...
...and any of the early generations of cell phones...
Last edited:
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
Fake a test now: Airplay from your MB through AppleTV to a TV. Begin clamshell mode. Does it work? If so, then that is probably a good approximation of how it would work with Vpro. If it doesn't work, you probably know it won't work with Vpro either.
Sadly, I think many people here believe the sole use for AVP is as an alternate Mac display. There's much more to it than that.
Doubtful. Apple users have money. They’re willing to spend it and Apple is well aware of it. It’s one of the reasons why Apple dominates the flagship market.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
Why would you go through a whole day? You are already set up with 4 32" screens to use for that.
Now, if you were traveling and wanting to have the same setup on the go, could you put up with it when you need to see those screens while on the plane/train/ship? A few hours... or a few checks throughout a day's travels... like you might do on a laptop while traveling?
I lean positive on this product but in no way do I see it as a full-time REPLACEMENT for "as is" screens. I mostly see it as ALT laptop screen. Most of my work in on a desktop on a desk with a giant screen. Sometimes I have to travel and that shifts me to a tiny laptop screen. For those "sometimes", I can see this delivering my desktop screen where I am. Once I'm back from the travels, it parks like the laptop parks and I'm back to using my desktop screen again.
I would think it COULD be this way for you too... as there's probably no practical way to take the 4 32" screens with you when you travel... and even more unlikely to pull them out and set them all up on the plane (for example). But a small, mobile bit of tech like Vpro might be able to simulate that view even in a cramped airplane seat.
Want to share your amazing Apple Vision Pro experience with a friend or relative... No problem! To do so, just carefully unstrap the device from your head... untangle the power lead and battery pack. Detach you Zeiss prescription lenses from the unit. Check which prescription your friend or relative has (You can order another set of lenses for the great price of $99 from Apple to be delievered in a few short days). Once you have them, fit the new lenses to your Vision Pro. Securely strap the Vision Pro to your friend or relative's head and make sure the battery pack is safely attached. They are now ready to share your experience!
It just works!
...or you could just hand them your phone.
It just works!
...or you could just hand them your phone.
You can have multi window setup.
Why would you wirelessly cast all those screens, desktops from mac? Just open those apps on Apple Vision Pro.
You can have a huge safari floating on the right, a Mac screen in the middle, and Mail and Messages app on the left, or Infuse app playing some movie or video, while having Office opened in the middle, and Mac screen on the right.
You've got endless possibilities, actually.
We will still be stuck with wired glasses for a while although some units like the Xreal ones can even suck power from your phone instead of a battery pack. I'm honestly ok with the wire and battery pack for now as battery technology matures, it's just the incredibly clunky nature of the VP (and really any current VR headset) that pushes me away. There are many companies making *almost* glasses sized units. But even *almost* still gets you something that at least only sits on your nose and ears that you can put on and off as easily as glasses. Honestly, the more I think about it, the more amazed I am that Apple truly is releasing something so incredibly clunky.
good point, i’m sure in like 3 or 4 years you’re gonna walk down the street and everyone is gonna be wearing one of these 🙄
I think it will be an epic flop. Of course
It will sell out for a bit. But, once the novelty and hype has died down. Apple will have no where to go with it.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
No doubt at all that hair/makeup/etc are likely to be casualties in using this product... just like if that wife opts to take a motorcycle ride, wear a baseball hat for a while, strap on a diving mask for a swim, etc. Even a convertible can be a hair disaster if one takes a ride with wet hair.
And yet, men and women buy convertibles, ride motorcycles, wear baseball hats, dive, etc. If at the end of usage one needs perfect hair, don't use it. I see people opt to sleep on airplanes and head positions against airplane seats/walls can yield hair disasters. I see people using headphones and that mussing up the hair by the end of the flight too. Yet such people still fly anyway and still opt to sleep or use headphones while flying.
Last edited:
Why this comparison? They’re different devices for different purposes.
Sad but true. Even a person like myself who lives completely in the garden can see value to their opening up, but Apple is a business, and a very successful business at that, and will act in its own best interests. I can't find fault in that. I find it funny those that think its the death of apple if they don't open up (not you).
Off topic, but I have been using Macs since the first one, 1984, and have never been a fan of windows (though I actually have been given 4 PC's to review, another story). I once changed jobs into a company that was 100% windows and I assumed I would have to change. Nope. They told me it was fine to use my Mac and it integrated just fine. Darn. Opportunity lost.
So yeah, this device is probably going to be as walled off as the HomePods. It's not a device for the whole world of electronics. It is a device that integrates into their garden. Just what it is. Might as well wish I could get a Big Mac at Wendy's.