After years of waiting, the Vision Pro is finally here. Apple's XR headset has finally been announced.
Vision Pro, announced as a "one more thing" near the end of the event, is a headset with a see-through display and a fully 3D interface controlled with your eyes, hands, and your voice.
The long-awaited XR device from Apple is the culmination of over 5000 patents and years of development.
Vision Pro is Apple's first mixed-reality device, it features the powerful M2 chip with a custom R1 chip. It is capable of showing passthrough video of a wearer's eyes. The device features an all-new operating system that features a three dimensional interface. Experiences in Vision Pro are fully spatial which means they aren't constrained to the boundaries of a display, users can make apps any scale, and place apps where they wish. Environments extend beyond your physical space, and control how immersed you are by turning the digital crown. Apple says that it marks the beginning of "spatial computing."
A Home view floats in the world in front of you to feel "truly present" in your room. Users use a combination of their eyes, hands, and voice to control the device. It uses eye tracking, and finger tapping and flicking to scroll or select.
The headset features passthrough video of a wearer's eyes in a feature that Apple calls "EyeSight," showing different feedback to surrounding people about what you are viewing inside the headset. It uses a lenticular OLED display to show the correct perspective to anyone viewing the wearer.
Vision Pro also allows users to connect to their Mac and expand its display in a virtual space, including alongside apps running on Vision Pro itself.
FaceTime on Vision Pro can display life-sized individuals over video calls.
There is an optimized experience for viewing photos and videos. Vision Pro is also "Apple's first 3D camera," showing depth in video with Spatial Audio. The headset features a cinematic video viewing experience to scale the screen beyond the dimensions of your room. Users can create a Digital Persona to use during video calls.
As a special guest on the event, Apple invited Disney's CEO Bob Iger. Iger emphasized the incredible creative potential of the Vision Pro Headset.
Disney promoted themed experiences for sports, Star Wars, Marvel, National Geographic, and more with Apple's Reality Pro headset. Disney+ will be available for the headset upon the device's launch.
The entire front of the headset is made of polished glass that flows into a lightweight aluminum frame. The top of the headset features a button and a Digital Crown. It has a modular system to achieve an optimal fit. The sides of the headset feature audiopods. Those who wear glasses must use magnetic prescription glass inserts. The headset's battery is separate and links via a magnetic connection to the side of the headset.
The device also features a toggle that a user can use to increase or decrease their levels of digital immersion. This is a completely revolutionary and reimagined feature coming from Apple.
The headset features a microOLED Apple silicon backplane and has 23 million pixels across two display panels. 4K video can be rendered at full resolution.
Vision Pro features a new Spatial Audio system provides ambient sound. It can match the sound to an environment using audio ray-tracing.
The headset contains the M2 chip paired with a new "R1" chip, dedicated toward real-time sensor processing.
Apple has partnered up with Unity. To the average person this might not be big news, but anyone in the development community fully understands what a big deal this is. All the games made in Unity will now be easily ported to the new visionOS.
During the event Apple also announced software updates to the majority of their devices, as well as a new 15 inch MacBook, and a major redesign to the Apple Watch.
However, understandably, Apple Vision Pro absolutely stole the show with the complete re-imagining of how humans will use technology.
Finally, the price and rough release date are also known.
The device will set you back $3,499 and is expected to start shipping "early next year".
You can contact us at Takeaway Reality if you have any ideas about apps you wish to develop for the Apple Vision Pro.
