Vision Pro First Impressions

Hardware
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On Friday I went to an Apple Store to get a demo. The part of the demo that blew me away was the immersive videos. Especially the 3D sports, baseball and soccer. So I decided to buy one for myself. I’m totally blown away by those immersive videos, my favorite being the Highline video where Faith Dickey walks on a rope over a massive canyon in Norway. I really feel like I’m there and when I look down feel some vertigo as I’m sure I would in real life (not enough to make me sick). This is still the best feature of Vision Pro, I’ve watched each of these short videos several times and can’t wait for more of this content to be produced.

One downside of buying it in the store is I couldn’t get the Zeiss lenses I need. I had to upload my prescription and wait. I can read text, but it is definitely not crisp enough to do real work. In the store they put in lenses after scanning my eyeglasses and that experience was better, but I’m not sure why I couldn’t just take home those lenses instead of having to wait.

So I can’t really judge if this is something I’d want to do real work with since that will be text reading heavy. I am able to read and respond to text messages, but the virtual keyboard isn’t great. I have to hunt and peck even though I can touch type on a real keyboard. I’m relying more on Siri to dictate, but we all know the problems with Siri which requires way too many corrections and is cumbersome with the virtual keyboard.

Another issue I’m having is that the device feels heavy on my face and when I took it off after a two hour session, I had red marks on my face where the Vision Pro was resting. It didn’t hurt, but I didn’t feel great either. After that experience I’m using the Focus pomodoro timer app to take five minute breaks after every 25 minutes. The red marks and discomfort are much less, but not sure I want to watch a 2 or 3 hour movie this way.

I love how you can place windows off to the side or up above so you can quickly glance and get some information and then it is out of your normal field of view.

Window management is really pretty bad if they overlap each other. I’m still not sure what to do when I open an app and it covers up another app I want to use. How do I get to the back windows?

I watched some sports on Fubo (no app for some reason, but it works in Safari). It was great watching on a large screen bigger than any TV I own. But after watching the demo of the immersive video, now I want that experience! I wonder if the MLB Friday night games that Apple has will be in immersive video. We’ll find out in April.

I also love watching movies in the TV app using the cinema environment. The Disney theater modes are also great, especially the old time movie theater and the Avengers tower. I just wish other apps would do that, Max, etc you have to fiddle around too much to position the window at the right size and distance and set an environment to make it the focus. Hopefully the other streaming platforms will put in the work to support this.

I’ve done a few FaceTime calls with family and friends, every single time they crack up at how bad my Persona looks. Some insisted I hang up and make the call using my iPhone. Since I can’t really tell how it looks myself, I’d like to do a FaceTime with another Vision Pro user to see if they are as bad as all my friends and family say it is.

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I’m hearing from my developer colleagues and friends about the ability to have large virtual windows even in small work-from-home spaces as super useful, lots of praise for the immersive environments as a focus aid, too. praise for the panoramas, even older ones shot in iPhones.

Also hearing that people definitely need to try both straps, and fiddle with adjusting/placement until they find what works. And that for productive work, you need a bluetooth keyboard, and ideally, a trackpad.

I really hope to try a demo someday. I suspect that the AVP might not work for me in some respects, but it might make reading easier.

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My wife, my father in law , mother in law, & myself watched a movie in 3d using SharePlay. It was awesome to be able to see the movie together and it looked better than in a theater. The immersion is amazing.

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Please, can we see a photo of the four of you sitting there in your Apple Vision Pro headsets? (Or did I misunderstand what you were describing?)

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Some more follow-up, I finally tried using a Bluetooth keyboard and this makes the Vision Pro much better for doing real work. I still have to wait for my Zeiss lenses so the text isn’t quite so blurry, but I can see how a keyboard makes it much more possible to use this device for work.

I also want to mention that about 10 years ago, I had shoulder and wrist problems from using the computer so much of the day. After talking to doctors and doing my own research, I was able to alleviate those problems by using the Pomodoro method of working 25 minutes and then taking a 5 minute break. So after experiencing the red face after 2 hours with the Vision Pro, I naturally tried this same method which has made it much better. The only time I think this isn’t great is when I’m watching a movie. Having to take a break every 25 minutes isn’t great. Maybe I can stretch it to 45 minutes or so, I’ll experiment and see what works best.

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Maybe Apple will hear you and come up with a configurable “intermission mode?”

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I don’t think you said which headband you are using. I couldn’t go more than 30 minutes with the default band. The over the top of the head band I can wear that for 2 hours without issue.

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I’m using the dual band, but even with that I need the breaks because the weight on my cheeks will cause red marks if I wear it too long. It doesn’t actually hurt when it’s on, but I assume the red marks are not a good sign.

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I wish someone had been there to take a picture. Next time we do this I will try and get a picture.

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Is it possible that you need to adjust the fit?

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Huh? Make like the Dad at the birthday party in the Apple ad taking photos and videos of his kids FROM THE AVP ITSELF!

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Thanks, I’m following the advice in this article and we’ll see if it helps. It gives specific advice on how to relieve the pressure on my cheeks.

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