Vision Pro

Apple has allowed some press to view their own spatial videos in Vision Pro, Final Cut gaining editing ability next year

Zac Hall | Nov 10 2023 - 10:27 am PT

Apple released iOS 17.2 developer beta 2 on Thursday, enabling iPhone 15 Pro hardware to capture spatial videos for the first time. The public beta version just dropped as well, and so have some early press reviews of personal spatial videos on Vision Pro.

The company has also shared that Final Cut Pro will gain the ability to edit spatial videos sometime next year. iOS 17.2 beta 2 and macOS 14.2 beta 2 also introduce the “Spatial” media type in Photos for easy filtering.

Apple Vision Pro doesn’t actually launch until early next year in the US, but iPhone 15 Pro owners can start shooting spatial videos that can be viewed on the headset now. As we discovered yesterday and others were briefed on, spatial videos captured on iPhone 15 Pro in iOS 17.2 are limited to 1080p 30fps. No 4K 60fps support on this hardware and software. Presumably, Vision Pro will have that capability.

Of course, the iPhone 15 Pro can only capture spatial video. You’ll need a Vision Pro headset to actually view the video as anything but any ordinary video.

Scott Stein, Joanna Stern, and John Gruber share their first impressions:

CNET

I’m looking at a plate of sushi hovering in front of me in 3D. The chef finishes off toppings on yellowtail rolls and tuna, talking to me as she works. It looks vivid. It looks real. The amazing part is that I just shot this video myself, moments earlier, on an iPhone 15 Pro. And now it’s a VR experience I’m watching in beautiful 3D on Apple’s Vision Pro headset.

I swipe with my fingers and watch other ghostly videos Apple provided. Families in a home, walking through grass. Cuddling together. All in lifelike 3D. I feel like I’m peeking in on their lives, which is weird and intimate. But the vividness is undeniable.

I’m experiencing Apple’s new Spatial Video iPhone camera feature, now available in Apple’s new iOS 17.2 public beta, with the final version rolling out in 17.2 later this year. It allows you to record 3D videos, but to use it you’ll need Apple’s best phone, the $1,000 iPhone 15 Pro. And to watch the videos in 3D you’ll need the $3,500 Vision Pro headset, which launches early next year.

[…]

There’s no recording limit on the videos, so you could theoretically make a spatial video 3D feature-length film. But the clips will only be able to be trimmed, either in the iPhone or Vision Pro. Final Cut Pro, Apple’s video editing software, will get Spatial Video editing support, but not until sometime next year. Meanwhile if you do end up trying to edit these video files in a Mac or iOS video editor, they’ll end up being converted over into 2D-only files.

Wall Street Journal

At the demo, I recorded a sushi chef holding a piece of sushi. When I watched it back in the Vision Pro, the sushi and the chopsticks really looked 3-D. They were clearly in the foreground, hovering closer to me than the rest of the imagery. Of course the lighting was perfect when recording—we’ll have to see how it does in imperfect conditions.

Apple showed me some other spatial videos. In one, a dad was telling his young kids a story in the back of an RV. It was so lifelike and cozy that it almost creeped me out. Why am I spying on this random family? That’s obviously the big appeal here: spatial videos create intimacy in ways 2-D photos and videos don’t.

You’ll also be able to record spatial video with the Vision Pro itself—but guess who isn’t wearing a clunky face computer to her two-year-old’s birthday party? THIS MOM!

Daring Fireball / Dithering

Yesterday I got hands-on experience shooting spatial video using an iPhone 15 Pro and watching those videos that I shot — along with others, recorded by Apple — on a Vision Pro headset. I’m blown away once again. I’ll have a column describing my experience out later this afternoon, but Dithering subscribers can hear my thoughts now.

Nice plug. Vision Pro will retail for $3499 when it hits Apple Stores and Apple.com in “early” 2024, according to Apple. In the meantime, I’ll be setting up my Vision Pro Affordance Fund.