Apple today unveiled Apple Vision Pro, a revolutionary spatial computer that seamlessly blends digital content with the physical world, while allowing users to stay present and connected to others. Vision Pro creates an infinite canvas for apps that scales beyond the boundaries of a traditional display and introduces a fully three-dimensional user interface controlled by the most natural and intuitive inputs possible — a user’s eyes, hands, and voice. Featuring visionOS, the world’s first spatial operating system, Vision Pro lets users interact with digital content in a way that feels like it is physically present in their space. The breakthrough design of Vision Pro features an ultra-high-resolution display system that packs 23 million pixels across two displays, and custom Apple silicon in a unique dual-chip design to ensure every experience feels like it’s taking place in front of the user’s eyes in real time.
“Today marks the beginning of a new era for computing,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, in a statement. “Just as the Mac introduced us to personal computing, and iPhone introduced us to mobile computing, Apple Vision Pro introduces us to spatial computing. Built upon decades of Apple innovation, Vision Pro is years ahead and unlike anything created before — with a revolutionary new input system and thousands of groundbreaking innovations. It unlocks incredible experiences for our users and exciting new opportunities for our developers.”
“Creating our first spatial computer required invention across nearly every facet of the system,” said Mike Rockwell, Apple’s vice president of the Technology Development Group, in a statement. “Through a tight integration of hardware and software, we designed a standalone spatial computer in a compact wearable form factor that is the most advanced personal electronics device ever.”
Extraordinary New Experiences
Apple Vision Pro brings a new dimension to powerful, personal computing by changing the way users interact with their favorite apps, capture and relive memories, enjoy stunning TV shows and movies, and connect with others in FaceTime.
An infinite canvas for apps at work and at home: visionOS features a three-dimensional interface that frees apps from the boundaries of a display so they can appear side by side at any scale. Apple Vision Pro enables users to be even more productive, with infinite screen real estate, access to their favorite apps, and all-new ways to multitask. And with support for Magic Keyboard and Magic Trackpad, users can set up the perfect workspace or bring the powerful capabilities of their Mac into Vision Pro wirelessly, creating an enormous, private, and portable 4K display with incredibly crisp text.
Engaging entertainment experiences: With two ultra-high-resolution displays, Apple Vision Pro can transform any space into a personal movie theater with a screen that feels 100 feet wide and an advanced Spatial Audio system. Users can watch movies and TV shows, or enjoy stunning three-dimensional movies. Apple Immersive Video offers 180-degree high-resolution recordings with Spatial Audio, and users can access an exciting lineup of immersive videos that transport them to entirely new places.
Spatial computing makes new types of games possible with titles that can span a spectrum of immersion and bring gamers into all-new worlds. Users can also play over 100 Apple Arcade games on a screen as large as they want, with incredible immersive audio and support for popular game controllers.
Immersive Environments: With Environments, a user’s world can grow beyond the dimensions of a physical room with dynamic, beautiful landscapes that can help them focus or reduce clutter in busy spaces. A twist of the Digital Crown lets a user control how present or immersed they are in an environment.
Memories come alive: Featuring Apple’s first three-dimensional camera, Apple Vision Pro lets users capture, relive, and immerse themselves in favorite memories with Spatial Audio. Every spatial photo and video transports users back to a moment in time, like a celebration with friends or a special family gathering. Users can access their entire photo library on iCloud, and view their photos and videos at a life-size scale with brilliant color and spectacular detail. Every Panorama shot on iPhone expands and wraps around the user, creating the sensation they are standing right where it was taken.
FaceTime becomes spatial: With Apple Vision Pro, FaceTime calls take advantage of the room around the user, with everyone on the call reflected in life-size tiles, as well as Spatial Audio, so it sounds as if participants are speaking right from where they are positioned. Users wearing Vision Pro during a FaceTime call are reflected as a Persona — a digital representation of themselves created using Apple’s most advanced machine learning techniques — which reflects face and hand movements in real time. Users can do things together like watch a movie, browse photos, or collaborate on a presentation.
Even more app experiences: Apple Vision Pro has an all-new App Store where users can discover apps and content from developers, and access hundreds of thousands of familiar iPhone and iPad apps that run great and automatically work with the new input system for Vision Pro. Apple’s developer community can go even further and take advantage of the powerful and unique capabilities of Vision Pro and visionOS to design brand-new app experiences, and reimagine existing ones for spatial computing.
A Revolutionary Operating System and User Interface
Built on the foundation of decades of engineering innovation in macOS, iOS, and iPadOS, visionOS was designed from the ground up to support the low-latency requirements of spatial computing. The result is a revolutionary operating system that delivers powerful spatial experiences that can take advantage of the space around the user, unlocking new opportunities at work and at home.
visionOS features a brand-new three-dimensional interface that makes digital content look and feel present in a user’s physical world. By responding dynamically to natural light and casting shadows, it helps the user understand scale and distance. To enable user navigation and interaction with spatial content, Apple Vision Pro introduces an entirely new input system controlled by a person’s eyes, hands, and voice. Users can browse through apps by simply looking at them, tapping their fingers to select, flicking their wrist to scroll, or using voice to dictate.
Apple Vision Pro also features EyeSight, an extraordinary innovation that helps users stay connected with those around them. When a person approaches someone wearing Vision Pro, the device feels transparent — letting the user see them while also displaying the user’s eyes. When a user is immersed in an environment or using an app, EyeSight gives visual cues to others about what the user is focused on.
Breakthrough Design
Apple Vision Pro builds on Apple innovation and experience designing high-performance products like Mac, iPhone, and wearables like Apple Watch, culminating in the most advanced personal electronics device ever. To achieve ambitious goals for performance, mobility, and wearability, Apple utilized the most advanced materials possible.
Apple Vision Pro has an astonishing amount of technology in a compact design. A singular piece of three-dimensionally formed and laminated glass is polished to create an optical surface that acts as a lens for the wide array of cameras and sensors needed to blend the physical world with digital content. The glass flows into the custom aluminum alloy frame that gently curves around the user’s face, while the modular system allows for a tailored fit to accommodate a wide range of people. The Light Seal is made of a soft textile, and comes in a range of shapes and sizes, flexing to conform to a user’s face for a precise fit. Flexible straps ensure audio remains close to the user’s ears, while a Head Band — available in multiple sizes — is three-dimensionally knitted as a single piece to provide cushioning, breathability, and stretch. The band is secured with a simple mechanism, making it easy to change to another size or style of band.
Unrivaled Innovation in Hardware
Apple Vision Pro is designed to deliver phenomenal compute performance in a compact wearable form factor. Featuring a breakthrough ultra-high-resolution display system built on top of an Apple silicon chip, Vision Pro uses micro-OLED technology to pack 23 million pixels into two displays, each the size of a postage stamp, with wide color and high dynamic range. This technological breakthrough, combined with custom catadioptric lenses that enable incredible sharpness and clarity, delivers jaw-dropping experiences. Users with vision correction needs will use ZEISS Optical Inserts to ensure visual fidelity and eye tracking accuracy
An advanced Spatial Audio system is core to the Apple Vision Pro experience, creating the feeling that sounds are coming from the environment around the user and matching the sound to the space. Two individually amplified drivers inside each audio pod deliver Personalized Spatial Audio based on the user’s own head and ear geometry.
In addition to creating a breakthrough display and advanced audio experiences, the high-performance eye tracking system in Apple Vision Pro uses high-speed cameras and a ring of LEDs that project invisible light patterns onto the user’s eyes for responsive, intuitive input.
These groundbreaking innovations are powered by Apple silicon in a unique dual-chip design. M2 delivers unparalleled standalone performance, while the brand-new R1 chip processes input from 12 cameras, five sensors, and six microphones to ensure that content feels like it is appearing right in front of the user’s eyes, in real time. R1 streams new images to the displays within 12 milliseconds — 8x faster than the blink of an eye. Apple Vision Pro is designed for all-day use when plugged in, and up to two hours of use with its external, high-performance battery.
Industry-Leading Privacy and Security
Apple Vision Pro is built on a strong foundation of privacy and security, and keeps users in control of their data.
Optic ID is a new secure authentication system that analyzes a user’s iris under various invisible LED light exposures, and then compares it to the enrolled Optic ID data that is protected by the Secure Enclave to instantly unlock Apple Vision Pro. A user’s Optic ID data is fully encrypted, is not accessible to apps, and never leaves their device, meaning it is not stored on Apple servers.
Where a user looks stays private while navigating Apple Vision Pro, and eye tracking information is not shared with Apple, third-party apps, or websites. Additionally, data from the camera and other sensors is processed at the system level, so individual apps do not need to see a user’s surroundings to enable spatial experiences. EyeSight also includes a visual indicator that makes it clear to others when a user is capturing a spatial photo or video.
Pricing and Availability
Apple Vision Pro starts at $3,499, and will be available early next year on apple.com and at Apple Store locations in the U.S., with more countries coming later next year. Customers will be able to learn about, experience, and personalize their fit for Vision Pro at Apple Store locations. For more information about Vision Pro, visit apple.com/apple-vision-pro.
MacDailyNews Take: This is the start of something new that will nonetheless feel very familiar as soon as you start to use it.
Of course, as a first go-round, we can see issues immediately – two hours per battery is too little, for example – but those will naturally be addressed with subsequent versions, if not in the rather long period of time before this first version ships to early adopters “early next year.”
As for the price, this is not just an AR/VR headset, it’s a personal computer system (and a personal television / movie theater). Add a Magic Keyboard and a Magic Mouse and compare Apple Vision Pro’s $3,499 price to the cost of a Mac plus multiple monitors and, even with six displays, you’d have just a fraction of the infinite “display space” that’s available with Apple Vision Pro.
Most users could save a lot of money with Apple Vision Pro vs. a traditional Mac and external display(s). Among other things, it would also replace an iPad + AirPods used for personal media consumption while traveling.
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Buying it the moment it becomes available
Same.
Cheaper than the PowerBooks of yore, but I’ll still wait for the price to come down.
Buying two. One to use, and one to never open and stash away.
Im from the future and I have a few, but what for VP 7. That’s when things get really interesting. Uses your own body to power the M9 processor.
THIS.WILL.BE.TECHTONICALLY.HUGE………………………………!!
Wow
Que haters in 3….2….1..
Incredible. And only Apple would ALSO so carefully consider (external) perspective beyond the user by adding an outward facing display to show interactive eyes, as if the user is looking through the device. That level of secondary detail means the primary functionality will be extraordinary.
The only thing I didn’t catch was how Vision Pro will show you in video calls.
That was part of the presentation 😏 Also shows amazing attention to detail about perception of people beyond the user.
I thought the same. Prolly an avatar of you.
I remember the use of an iPhone or iPad as the camera. A little clunky. It must somehow stitch together your eyes with the rest of your face?
No, when you set up the device you first aim the goggles at your face and it creates an avatar, maybe the eyes are yours, but the rest is a cgi character. This was the one aspect of this thing that was weird, you’re trying to make the FaceTime/video call more personal but you’re showing people a digital representation of yourself. I suppose there’s no other way around it for now since the goggles cover your face.
US$ 4K ? Well, i guess I’ll wait until it goes down to 10% of this value…
$3500 for a pair of glasses?! It doesn’t even have a keyboard!
Hehe… Channeling Ballmer?
And no stylus? It’s gonna fail big time!! 😂
OMG, this is awesome😂🤣
I watched the introduction and couldn’t help but laugh when I saw the glasses: like a mix of ski and scuba goggles – bonus: the “see through” eyes that seem slightly larger than real-life LOL. Then I noticed the tether that every shot tried so desperately to hide – in hair, scarfs…anything. By the time I saw the price I already knew this was DOA – the $3500 was just the flowers on the grave.
Don’t get me wrong: from a technical perspective, Apple did an amazing job. But this product is done in by its form factor – nobody wants to be even more isolated than they already are by wearing dorky goggles, tethered to some batteries in your pocket no less – and by the lack of a killer app. You heard the word “replace” a lot during the presentation – it can “replace” a large screen TV (not mentioned, of course, is that it can only do so when you’re alone)…it can replace multiple monitors so you can work with more of your apps (of course, interacting with those apps is a lot more clumsy than with a physical keyboard and mouse/touchpad)….I kept looking for the metaphor that best fits this product as presented – “jumped the shark” came to mind. Apple just threw everything it had at the board and hoped that something will stick to make this product succeed. But I really don’t see a standout feature I’d pay $3500 for. Now – if this had been presented in a nice pair of stylish AR glasses without an insane tether to an external battery, I might have been convinced….wait another 3-5 years, I guess.
Spoken like a true dinosaur. Best hand back all of your Apple tech and grab yourself an android phone & match it with a windows based PC. Sheesh!
For every hater of tethers, there would have been 10x the amount of complaints for adding another pound to the goggles weight and the heat it would put off in your face.
For home/office use it runs ALL DAY if plugged into power, not a huge problem near a couch or desk. And the 2-hour battery looks pretty sleek. I wouldn’t be surprised when Apple puts out another battery that’s thicker and maybe a bit larger that can work for 6-8 hours or so.
Just as phones are everywhere now, I see these all over in plane and car passengers 5-10 years from now.
I admit it. I was a naysayer, but the presentation won me over. This is so much more than gaming. It’s the future of computers, personal and working on team projects, it’s the future of FaceTime, it’s the future of how we watch sports, movies, and concerts. Gaming developers are going to jump on this big time.
Coupled with AI this has the ability to bend the curve in ways not seen since the advent of the personal computer.
Imagine the impact on medical research and how doctors with VisionPro, robots and AI will do surgery. A doctor could do the surgery remotely in ways never before thought possible. Not today, but soon.
When developers get the opportunity to start writing for the VisionPro, the sky is the limit.
The only people who shouldn’t like this are at Facebook with the 💩 AV mask.
Don’t be like the prospective customer who told Henry Ford all he wanted was a faster horse.
Tim Cook is not a “products guy.” But you have to give it him despite all his flaws. He has unveiled a device as groundbreaking as the iPhone.
Apple just changed the world again.
Well, do they charge extra for the KY jell?
Apple Card and Vision Pro . . . When you buy a Mac, the Apple Card allows you to pay it off in 12 payments at 0% interest — so with the Vision Pro, that would be $291 per month . . . If you buy an iPhone, you can pay it off in 24 months– If that were to apply to the Vision Pro ($3500/24) that would be $145 per month . . . it will be interesting to see which route Apple goes (12 or 24 month financing) . . . For you, would you see $145 per month as “affordable” ?
The amount of engineering and R&D and the attention to detail is amazing. Putting an M2 chip in your goggles is amazing. Compare that to a Cray computer from not too long ago.
1/2 the cost of my blown out Mac Studio. Looking forward to reading the independent reviews. Was stunned my most frugal wife wants one. Occulus is now a buggy whip.
The cost of VisionPro is a matter of perspective. If you view primarily as a gaming device or novelty, $3,500 is expensive. If you think of it as a new computer and communication device with input technology as innovative as the original GUI & mouse, then $3,500 isn’t that big a deal. I paid more than that for my MacBook Pro with M1Max chip.
It will be a novelty at first, until it has a larger installed base. Also, for viewing/gaming with others you’ll need one per user. And Apple’s walled garden may prove limiting.
My original Mac with meager RAM and a plug-in memory floppy reader was close to that especially once a printer was added.
The fact the Vision Pro is (for now) “tethered” to the home or office will make it less of a must-have than, say, the iPhone. So Apple doesn’t have to worry about cannibalising iPhone sales (yet).
It may, however, replace the iPad for those who primarily use it for media consumption.
P.S. I guess the inevitable future lightweight “glasses” version will be more of an iPhone killer.
Can one see through the device or all the “reality” is seen through cameras and displays?
I assume you can see through it. Would need a lot less processing power that way.
I don’t think you can see through it, it’s all through the cameras. They wouldn’t have made a big deal about showing people on the outside a representation of your eyes if you could just look through it. The 4k displays in each eye would need to be transparent and your eye would still perceive the fat goggles (maybe you can see through it when it’s off but it wouldn’t be meant as part of the experience). Displaying everything on the tiny screen right in front of your eyeballs with those fancy lenses creates the impression that you aren’t wearing the headset.
People will laugh……until this adds $30 billion in revenue.
Looks phenominal from the vt. Can’t wait to give it a go and I can imagine larger battery packs being available, wonder is they will be purchasable separatly and if the headset can be ran while you switch the cable over.Interested to know what the limitations will be.
Finally, I bet Meta and MS collectively pee’d in there pants after they saw this headsets capabilities. Makes them look like ameture hour.
Impressive tech, but come anywhere close to my children with your recording capable and invasive headset (like the Vision Pro) and both you and your headset will never be the same again…
The Achilles heel in all this is Siri. Will she have improved enough by the time it goes mainstream?
Do I have to spell it out? The Jeffrey Epstein types; the Hollyweirds; the billionaires of every stripe? When they’re bored with life what do some of them do? I had tech friends in Silicon Valley who told me in the early 2000s that the biggest volume usage on the internet was….. PORN!!!
Now you know who the wealthy users will be. The Apple app store may not sell apps for it but the innovators will make it happen. Imagine, they can experience anything they want and no jail time.
Also, rich people can swing at pitches; return a tennis serve, shoot quail; swing an electronic simulated golf club, all to their hearts’ desires.