Finally available in the United States a few weeks ago, Apple's first visor, Vision Pro, promises to revolutionise this market segment to the extent that, according to some, it will put the final nail in the coffin of the already limping metaverse project so dear to Mark Zuckerberg.
Let's get this straight: as explained also by the Cupertino company's executives, the main feature of the new device is that it is not designed to relegate people to a totally artificial reality, like other VR (Virtual Reality) visors already on the market, but rather to make them interact in a mixed reality, where real and virtual merge in a hybrid environment, in a more convincing and complete way than a simple augmented reality.
Here's how.
What Vision Pro is actually for
Basically, the Vision Pro is a face-computer whose shape is the classic mask shape of the visors. Wearing it, however, we are not catapulted into the metaverse via our avatar. It is the reality that surrounds us that is replicated in front of our lenses with the possibility of using everyday technology, using hand and eye movements or voice command. Without touching a screen or a keyboard.
Vision Pro can use iOS or iPadOS applications or mirror a Mac anywhere in the room. If we want to work, for instance, we can materialise our computer's desktop and organise and enlarge the windows in front of us to our liking just by pinching them with our fingers. As many as we want and where we want them.
Just as we can “hang” photos from our gallery on a real wall for company. Or immerse ourselves (literally) in a film (or video game) by projecting it into the ether and lying comfortably on the sofa.
The great thing, however, is that while watching a video, scrolling through emails or reading an article through the viewer, there is nothing to stop us from interacting normally with objects and the environment around us and thus having breakfast, exercising or taking notes while doing so.
A “wow” experience that now seems like the future, but could be a point of no return as iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch have been.
The pros
Vision Pro makes it possible to move naturally between the physical and the digital, exploiting the space surrounding the user.
The applications of this immersive technology are endless and promising: from the field of entertainment to education, via medical and industrial applications. Many apps are already adapting.
The cons
Salty barrier to entry is the $3500 cost, but the 650 grams of weight to carry on your head is also not indifferent.
Moreover, even if Vision Pro attempts to limit the alienating effect, for instance by showing a rendering of the wearer's eyes on the outside, it is designed primarily for 'protected' use indoors and less so - for the time being - outdoors. Although there are those who do not think so.
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Among those who have tried and reviewed the visor, more than a few have found it complicated to use it for a long time in succession, due to tiredness or nausea.
Apple's worst visor
The most shared opinion is that this model is only an encouraging starting point for Apple, which from now on will work to make its visor smaller, lighter and more functional, and to solve the problems reported by users.
Vision Pro has been called, with a hint of irony, 'the worst visor Apple has ever designed' because the new mixed reality revolution has only just begun.
Mark Zuckerberg watch your back.
Illustration by Gloria Dozio - Acrimònia Studios
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