Apple Vision Pro: A glimpse into the future of mixed reality
Apple Vision Pro is Apple’s first “spatial computer.” Revealed at WWDC23 and released on Feb. 2, 2024, the $3,499 mixed-reality headset wins accolades for its high-end hardware and remarkable user interface. A passthrough video system allows augmented reality applications.
Vision Pro runs on visionOS, Apple’s intuitive new operating system designed to enable immersive virtual reality experiences. (Apple calls Vision Pro the “ultimate entertainment device.”) Users control the headset with their eyes, thanks to Vision Pro’s impressive eye‑tracking system, and a handful of simple gestures.
Read Cult of Mac’s full coverage of Vision Pro, including news, how-tos, reviews and opinions.
Introduction
Apple unveiled its groundbreaking Apple Vision Pro at the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference in June 2023, and released it to the public eight months later in February 2024.
The Apple Vision Pro stands is a “mixed reality” headset, capable of showing both virtual and augmented reality content. Unlike typical augmented reality glasses, Vision Pro fully covers the user’s eyes, completely immersing its wearer by blocking out their surroundings entirely.
However, Vision Pro has six external cameras that show the surrounding space, offering users an accurate depiction of their real-world environment. While not transparent like see-through glasses, Vision Pro effectively presents a lifelike representation of the user’s surroundings using passthrough video.
Inside the headset, users can interact with 3D windows, objects, and content seamlessly integrated into their physical space. Alternatively, the cameras can be deactivated by turning the device’s Digital Crown, immersing users into a fully virtual environment. Apple emphasizes the headset’s versatility, enabling users to work, consume content, engage in gaming, communication, and more, regardless of their location, solely with the Vision Pro.
What Is Apple Vision Pro?
Designed to resemble ski goggles, Apple Vision Pro is a high-end headset that blends the digital and physical worlds. Here are some key features:
4K Micro-OLED Displays: Vision Pro is powered by a pair of custom 4K micro-OLED displays — with more than 11 million pixels each — that deliver extremely sharp visuals directly into the wearer’s eyes. Users can browse the web, work in apps, use Mac Virtual Desktop, watch gian TV and movies or chat in Messages—while staying aware of their surroundings.
3D Camera: Vision Pro’s external 3D cameras can capture Spatial photos and videos. When replayed in the headset, these 3D photos and videos have a depth that makes the viewer feel ‘almost there.’ It also supports Spatial Audio, which adds to the illusion of immersion. Spatial videos can also be captured with iPhone 15 Pro to view on Apple Vision Pro.
Spatial Audio: Vision Pro support Spatial Audio: sound that appears to be anchored in a particular location in space. Vision Pro’s high-quality speakers are located on the headset’s arms. The speakers can also combine sounds broadcast by the headset with sound from the environment.
Collaboration and Connection: Apple redesigned the FaceTime video-calling app to work in 3D. During FaceTime calls, speakers appear life-size, while the wearer’s face is depicted via a digital representation called a Persona. On FaceTime calls, users can simultaneously work on shared documents or apps. On conference calls, Spatial Audio helps make it clear which person is speaking.
Design: Apple Vision Pro is distinguished by its high-end materials and clever, thoughtful design.
EyeSight: The front of Vision Pro features an EyeSight screen, made from a single piece of three-dimensionally formed laminated glass, which depicts the wearer’s eyes and facial expressions. This is designed to lessen isolation with people around the wearer; although it’s come in for some early criticism.
Light Seal: The light seal is a soft, cushiony seal to keep out light. It attaches magnetically to the glass-and-aluminum-alloy frame, and comes in a variety of sizes according to the wearer’s face.
Headband Straps: The main headband is made from a soft, 3D knitted fabric, designed it to be stretchy and breathable. It is adjusted by a Fit Dial on the left-hand audio arm that ensures the headset fits closely against the wearer’s head. Apple also includes a dual-band strap that fits over the top of the wearer’s head to alleviate the headset’s weight; and across the back of the head to ensure a tight fit. Apple offers headbands and light seals in a variety of sizes, and the are easily swapped out.
How Does It Work?
Apple Vision Pro runs visionOS, a spatial operating system built upon macOS, iOS, and iPadOS. Interactions feel intuitive and magical:
Eye Control: Look at an element to select it.
Gesture Interaction: Tap your fingers together to interact.
Voice Commands: Use dictation to type effortlessly.
Applications
1. Entertainment
Apple Vision Pro won early praise as a private cinema. Movies and TV shows appear in the headset to be projected onto a giant, 100-foot or larger screen. And with great speakers that support Spatial Audio, the experience is like being inside a private IMAX theater.
2. Photos and Videos
Spatial Photos and videos also received high praise. Thanks to the 3D effect, spatial videos and photos enhance the illusion of reliving the moment captured in them. Vision Pro is compatible with iPhone Panoramas, which wrap around the viewer in 180 degrees.
3. Collaboration
Using FaceTime, participants can collaborate on documents or other work files, bridign the gap between physical and virtual spaces.
Availability and Pricing
Apple Vision Pro starts at $3,499. It’s available for purchase in the United States, with a worldwide launch on the horizon.
Apple made the visionOS App Store available for anyone to look through. The change will give anyone thinking about buying the Vision Pro AR headset a preview at what software is available.
Previously, the list of available app was only viewable by those who already owned the cutting-edge computer that launched in the United States in February.
Apple’s $3,500 Vision Pro is only available in the US right now. But this could change soon, with the company purportedly preparing to launch the headset in nine new countries.
As a part of the AR headset’s international expansion, Vision Pro’s virtual keyboard will gain support for 12 new languages.
Vision Pro demonstrated its healthcare chops recently, assisting a surgical team operating on a patient’s spine in the U.K., reports indicated. It marked the first Vision pro surgery in Europe and one of the first worldwide, undoubtedly.
Because a nurse assisting the surgeons wore the device, they could efficiently help prepare for and track the procedure.
iPhone 15 Pro Max Vision is a version of Apple’s premier handset modified so it matches the look of the Vision Pro AR headset. It’s from Dubai-based Caviar, and is actually a beautiful option for someone who uses both devices.
But buyers will need deep pockets. The modification adds tremendously to the cost of the iPhone.
And you have to see Caviar’s crazy mod that turns a Samsung S24 Ultra into a Tesla Cybertruck. Both creations are part of Caviar’s Future collection, designed to reflect “the most prominent futuristic hits,” according to the company.
Powerful new health and wellness apps take advantage of visionOS’s “infinite canvas” to use spatial experiences to improve patient outcomes in clinical settings and at home, Apple said Monday. It seems that Vision Pro health apps are changing medical care.
“We’re thrilled to see the incredible apps that developers across the healthcare community are bringing to Apple Vision Pro,” said Susan Prescott, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide Developer Relations. “The imagination and drive of our developers, combined with the technical capabilities of visionOS, are igniting new possibilities for physicians, frontline workers, and even students, and we can’t wait to see what’s to come.”
Anyone criticizing Apple Vision Pro as a Meta Quest at seven times the price misses the profound difference between the two headsets. Apple made an augmented reality device, while Meta focused on virtual reality.
And the basic distinction between the two is that AR is the future of computing while VR will always be much more limited.
Both Apple and Meta seem to realize this, which is why their devices support AR and VR. The difference comes down to which one the rivals focus on, and that’s where Apple has the advantage.
This week on Cult of Mac’s podcast: Apple pulled the plug on Project Titan, its not-so-secret, decade-long effort to build a self-driving electric car. After spending a reported $10 billion on R&D, the moonshot Apple car project winds up canceled — in favor of generative AI!
Let’s just say we have some opinions.
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Apple Arcade’s shifting mission means kids will be winners (but indie devs will be losers).
Waiting for a second-gen Vision Pro that will be lighter, brighter and less expensive? You might want to rethink that plan.
Listen to this week’s episode of The CultCast in the Podcasts app or your favorite podcast app. (Be sure to subscribe and leave us a review if you like it!) Or watch the video live stream, embedded below.
Very few Vision Pro units are being returned to Apple, according to TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. He pegs the Vision Pro return rate at less than 1%, which flies in the face of previous reports that many of the headsets bought by early adopters would wind up in the refurbished bins.
The reason Kuo states for a large percentage of those Vision Pro returns is even more surprising!
Apple hasn’t released Vision Pro in China yet, but that hasn’t stopped scads of merchants from offering the headset for rent to enthusiasts. Many of them appear to think the AR headset may go beyond typical gaming uses, a new report says. Vision Pro rentals in China have attracted tens of thousands of customers.
Some eager testers think Apple’s pricey Vision Pro bests competitors like Meta’s Quest 3, as well.
This week on Cult of Mac’s podcast: The latest iPhone 16 Pro rumor comes with a mockup that looks like a fidget spinner. Will Apple really do that? On the other hand, the latest iPad rumors sound totally believable.
Also on The CultCast:
There’s an iOS trojan in the wild that steals your face to drain your bank accounts.
Apple is hard at work future-proofing iMessage to keep it safe from quantum computer attacks.
We discuss the new Apple Sports app, including one of its weirdest features: betting odds. (Supporting gambling seems like a strange move for the normally vice-averse Apple.)
Erfon recounts his Vision Pro return experience, with some interesting behind-the-scenes intel.
Also on the Vision Pro return front, Griffin tells us his sob story about parting ways with the expensive headset. (Don’t miss the surprise twist ending!)
And finally, Griffin raves about a new wireless microphone in an Under Review segment.
Listen to this week’s episode of The CultCast in the Podcasts app or your favorite podcast app. (Be sure to subscribe and leave us a review if you like it!) Or watch the video live stream, embedded below.
If you want to get work done on your Vision Pro, you’ll really want a Bluetooth keyboard and trackpad for precision input and pointing. And for gaming, you can connect a controller, too. The Vision Pro officially supports Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo Switch controllers, with support for some other Bluetooth models as well.
Follow these instructions to pair a Bluetooth device with Vision Pro.
The best Vision Pro apps, games, demos and experiences showcase the AR capabilities of Apple’s headset.
If you own a Vision Pro and don’t know where to start, I put together a list of apps and games to try out first. Alternatively, if you can’t afford a headset (or if you live outside the United States), you can live vicariously through me as I show you all of the most interesting Vision Pro apps I’ve found.
Vision Pro is years ahead of its time. Apple’s AR headset lets us see today what using an average computer a decade in the future will be like.
In 2034, being surrounded by physical screens will seem charmingly obsolete. Virtual displays of any size generated by an AR headset from Apple (or its rivals) will take the place of displays connected to our computers, phones, watches, etc. And that’s only the start.
You can experience the coming revolution now because Vision Pro is another example of Apple giving us a glimpse of the future.
I’ve had a lot of fun playing Void-X, a modern arcade shooter game. If you’ve ever emptied a whole pocketful of quarters into Galaga or Zaxxon, then you’ll love playing it, too. And you’ll like it even more if you play Void-X on Vision Pro. (You can play the tame on iPhone and iPad, too.)
The two-week return window for my Vision Pro is fast approaching, so I need to make my keep it/toss it decision in a matter of days. And I desperately want to keep it.
Many publications (including Cult of Mac) are reporting on the mass of people selling their Vision Pros after the two-week return window. A lot of it, I think, is for the drama — Apple is taking a big swing on a brand-new product, people aren’t keeping it, instant controversy. (I bet a lot of these people bought their headsets to produce content on the buzzy device and never planned on keeping it, no matter how good it was.)
Well, here’s the other side of the coin. My Vision Pro has fit into my life perfectly. I use it for hours every day. But justifying the purpose is a financial stretch.
You’d think readers of a website called Cult of Mac would be into Apple products. But a straw poll of Cult of Mac Today readers found a whopping 76% of respondents plan to return their Vision Pro to Apple.
The eye-popping number comes as droves of Vision Pro early adopters say they plan to take advantage of Apple’s generous return policy. Discomfort, the headset’s high price and the lack of a clear use case for the isolating device top the list of reasons cited by disaffected Vision Pro owners.
Control Center in Vision Pro works very differently than on iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and Mac. But as with Apple’s other platforms, you can customize the Vision Pro Control Center to make it far more useful.
The first few days after I got my Vision Pro, I found Control Center to be intensely irritating. It constantly appeared in my field of view, bugging me like a hair in my mouth or a piece of popcorn in my teeth.
Luckily, with just a few changes, you can make Control Center way less annoying.
TikTok just outraced some of its biggest rivals by releasing a native Vision Pro application. The short video service that’s become a global phenomenon can now be enjoyed on Apple’s AR headset thanks to the TikTok Vision Pro app.
The head of development for the new app says the company “redesigned the entire TikTok experience.”
Three games designed for visionOS spatial experiences through the new Vision Pro headset will soon join a dozen existing such titles, plus another 250 compatible games already in Apple Arcade, Apple said Thursday.
The company highlighted all the fun Vision Pro users can have, including descriptions of the upcoming versions of Alto’s Odyssey, Gibbon and Spire Blast for Vision Pro.
If you get a Vision Pro, you’ll soon need to learn how to charge up that battery. Apple only promises two hours of battery life on its revolutionary headset. Although real-world usage is pushing closer to three, if you want your spatial computing to be untethered, you’ll need to charge the Vision Pro battery often.
Here’s how to do it — along with some tips that will keep you (and your data) safe.
The Vision Pro’s virtual, floating-in-the-air keyboard has been nearly universally condemned. There’s no way around it: Typing on Vision Pro sucks.
But people said the same thing about the original iPhone, which ditched a physical keyboard compared to the BlackBerry. And these days, physical keyboards for your iPhone are more of a novelty than a standard accessory that everybody buys.
So to get to the bottom of exactly how bad the Vision Pro keyboard is, I took a bunch of different typing tests across a bunch of different keyboards. And the results I found were incredibly surprising. I accidentally discovered the best way to input text in Vision Pro.
Many early adopters seem set on returning their Apple Vision Pro headsets. As the 14-day return window approaches for people who bought the device on launch day, an avalanche of posts on X and other social media channels point to a wave of Vision Pro returns.
Apparently, it’s not just Mark Zuckerberg who thinks Apple’s expensive headset isn’t worth the money. There appears to be a mass exodus of early adopters who ponied up the cash for Apple’s pricey headset. They cite three main reasons for returning Vision Pro. But is the situation really as bad as it seems?
It’s possible to share your screen in your Vision Pro so that other people can see what you’re seeing, too. This is especially helpful in Vision Pro Guest Mode, to help you guide newbies through the unfamiliar headset.
Vision Pro is an exciting new product, but it can be isolating. The incredible experiences it enables aren’t social. However, you can AirPlay your screen to a nearby Apple TV, iPad, Mac or iPhone.
You can easily fix Apple Vision Pro eye tracking and hand tracking if your headset starts to act up. You’ll want to follow the steps below if the device stops accurately tracking your gaze or your hand gestures.
As you probably know, hand tracking and eye tracking are essential to using Vision Pro. When they don’t work as well as possible, it’s incredibly frustrating. I know, because sometimes the headset’s sensors have a hard time tracking my eyes up and down. It’s like using an iPad stylus on a touchscreen that’s slightly uncalibrated.
The quick methods below can fix some Vision Pro eye- and hand-tracking problems for you. You can approach trigger a reset three different ways — by pressing a button on the headset, going into Settings or asking Siri for help — all with the same ultimate result. (In my experience, this is one situation in which Siri excels.)