Yo dawg, we heard you like screens. So we put some screens inside your screens.
Today was the annual Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, and as predicted, Tim Apple Tim Cook finished the event with the reveal of the new Apple headset. Called Apple Vision Pro, the headset is more AR than VR, utilizing a system of cameras to project screens and objects into the world around you. It’s arguably the most exciting piece of tech to come out of Apple since the iPod. Looking at the Vision Pro and how it works is some real sci-fi shit, technology I thought was still years away. But it’s actually less than a year away.
There is a lot going on under the hood with Apple Vision Pro, including two chips (the M2 and the R1), 23 million pixels across the device’s two screens, eye-tracking, gesture tracking, and 4K video resolution that will be rendered at scale. As if it wasn’t hard enough to get people to look away from their screens, one device feature is EyeSight, which reveals your eyes when you start talking to somebody else in the room. Because heaven forbid you take it off your head when talking to others.
While the showcase focused more on how Apple Vision Pro will take your apps off your iPhone, iPad, and iMac and display them as virtual screens in your real world, it also emphasized that gaming will be a part of the experience. One hundred Apple Arcade games will be available on day one, and the device is compatible with standard video game controllers. The feature I’m most excited about is being able to watch movies on virtual screens of any size. While I still prefer going to a real theater to watch films, something like that will greatly improve the home theater experience. If you’re wondering about battery life, you can run this thing for two hours before needing to recharge or you can plug it in for continuous use.
The tech may be sci-fi, but the presentation painted a more dystopian future than I imagine Apple intended. There was a loneliness about the showcase. Everyone was alone outside of those few people who needed to show off the EyeSight feature or those who were doing their best to cut off the outside world. There have already been studies about how our current crop of technology is making us lonelier, and I can’t imagine everyone walking around with these headsets on will change that.
The price for all of this technology? The Apple Vision Pro will retail for $3499 when it releases in early 2024. That automatically takes it off my to-buy list, but I am curious how the device would even work for me. As I’ve written about before, I do not have two properly functioning eyes, which rules out all VR and 3D technology for me. AR has always seemed like the tech of the future more than VR ever did, but given how this specific device works, it remains to be seen if I’ll be able to immerse myself in the tech.
