Just as iPhone is a Mac in your hand, an iPad is a Mac in your hands, and Apple Watch is a Mac on your wrist — iOS, iPadOS, and watchOS are, of course, all based on based on Darwin (BSD), otherwise known at various times in history as Mac OS X, OS X, and, currently macOS — Apple’s Vision Pro is a Mac on your face (visionOS is also based on macOS). Really, Apple’s Vision Pro is a 3D Mac on your face!
I suppose, for good or bad (probably the latter), this is the natural evolution of things: after 16 years of hunching over handheld displays all day, we’re now ready to plaster them right in front of our eyes. Ah, “progress.”
One of Apple’s biggest advancements with Vision Pro is eliminating handheld controllers and, in doing so, making every so-called rival’s VR headset look like a horse and buggy in comparison, but the main thing is that Vision Pro is not a “VR headset” or “AR headset” or whatever. It’s a computer. A “spatial computer,” to be precise.
Computing in 3D space is how we should have been computing all along, but the technology wasn’t ready for several decades. It’s not even really ready today. The real goal is a pair of lightweight glasses (a decade plus away, at least), then – forget the contact lenses; won’t work – ultimately, brain implants. (Laugh now, but you’ll sign up for your procedure (much) later.)
Now, we can finally use our Macs naturally, with no 2D displays confining us!
So, don’t let the the Vision Pro’s ancillary features – watching giant 3D movies, playing giant 3D games, taking 3D photos and videos, etc. – drown out the fact that for just $3,500, you can own and use the world’s first spatial computer – a Mac on your face! – that allows you to compute anywhere and everywhere.
Note: When connected to power, the Vision Pro will run all day just like a desktop computer. It will run for approximately 2 hours per battery pack.
Apple’s Vision Pro is a tremendous achievement and a very strong start to a whole new platform. I can’t wait to see how far and fast it will develop!
SteveJack is a long-time Macintosh user, web designer, multimedia producer, and contributor to the MacDailyNews Opinion section.
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I am purchasing the future day one, just as I did with the Lisa and Macintosh.
I may be right there with you… as long as Applecare isn’t another $499 😆
Ditto….!!! I’m all in…..
I don’t agree that whatever device Apple makes is a “Mac.” It’s actually the opposite most of the time. For example, before iPhone, existing smartphones were miniature PCs, complete with pointing device (like a stylus), drop-down menus, and tiny physical keyboard. If Apple did the same, iPhone (and later iPad) would have been a hand-held Mac. Instead, Apple intentionally made iPhone NOT a Mac by creating a new multi-touch interface optimized for hand-held devices.
Before Apple Watch, early smartwatches were designed like tiny smartphones (iPhones) with a wrist strap. Apple created a new interface for computing devices worn like a wristwatch. Even the Mac is an example. Previous computers (including Apple II) used a command-line interface, like the room-sized mainframe computers and their remote terminals. The Mac introduced the graphical user interface for PERSONAL computers and non-geek users.
And now, Apple creates a new user interface for a AR/VR device. You can control a Mac with it, but it’s not a “Mac on your face” 😉
Dude:
It’s ultimately MUCH more than putting a virtual Mac screen in front of you. In fact, being able to manipulate something as detailed as a Mac screen with a completely new interface that uses line-of-sight to point and finger movement (with no physical accessories) to manipulate demonstrates the potential to move beyond a familiar Mac screen as an initial means for productivity. Like the first iPhone was marketed as the best-ever iPod that’s also a phone (along with the potential for being so much more).
This is as exciting as 3D TV. In a year or so, Apple will be facing pressure from opthamalogists and various regulatory agencies about the effects of screens so close to your eyes for so long. Interventions will happen because kids will spend 16-hours playing FPS. People will lose touch with reality due to the immersive nature.
It sure would be great if Apple focused on making an OS that you could skin, or a mid-tower? You know, things that people actually want? No. Instead, they’re going to create a gee-whiz piece of addicting tech instead of enabling devices. (And yes, I am aware that this might really help a very small number of people, so back off.)
Step down already, Tim Cook.
Steve Jacks is almost always on target in all things Apple, but I have a mild disagreement here. The Vision pro is not “a Mac on your face.” It is a Mac on your brain.
I purchased a pretty maxed out M2 MacBook Pro laptop just a few months ago. By the time I added my Mac monitor, cables, mouse, keyboard, etc., I was pretty close to $8K. I needed this because my “office” is pretty much made me work remotely now, except for a couple days a month when I need to go in. (side note: not my choice)
When I do go in, my monitor, keyboard and other periph’s I have to leave at home.
The way I look at this is for $3500, basically all my equipment travels with me and a way better experience and more! I would need some extra battery packs to run the same amount of time not plugged in, but since I really am mobile only about 10% of the time anyways…….$3500+ vs $8K………Count me in!
I do have a few questions: Hard drive space? Rendering? Connectivity issues? Not all my external devices can make this leap this fast.