Vision Pro

With Mac OS X Leopard, which was released in 2007, Apple added a feature called “Web Clip” to Dashboard. This allowed users to turn any part of a website into a live widget that could then be added to Dashboard and would update in real-time.

While Dashboard on the Mac is dead, a new app this week brings the Web Clip idea back to life – this time on Apple Vision Pro.

Update: Three weeks later, Meta has announced the feature alongside a new partnership with an airline. Original coverage from April 18 below…

Today I learned two things. First, apparently Meta Quest headsets don’t work on planes? I guess Apple knew to prioritize that feature for Vision Pro. And second, support is reportedly on the way. Add this to the list of ways competition from Vision Pro is making Meta Quest 3 a better product.

Apple Vision Pro first launched in the US only back in February, and it was unknown how long it would take for Apple to bring the product to more countries. Now, a new report indicates the wait may not be much longer.

While an expensive, bulky Vision Pro headset undoubtedly has its place for some, Apple’s longer-term goal is believed to be a product dubbed Apple Glasses: bringing AR capabilities into something with a similar form-factor and weight to conventional eyeglasses or sunglasses.

Squeezing that much tech into a much smaller device is, of course, a huge challenge – but researchers at Stanford’s Computational Imaging Lab may have come up with at least part of the solution …

More functionality for Vision Pro has landed with two new third-party app updates. The popular Duet Display and Screens are both now available for Apple’s headset. Here are all the details and features.

There were no surprises in Apple’s earnings report yesterday, with the company reporting close to the $5B year-on-year fall in revenue it had warned us to expect.

Analysts got their usual chance to question CEO Tim Cook and chief financial officer Luca Maestri directly after the announcement. The pair always remain tight-lipped about specific plans, but there are a few things worth noting …

Yesterday saw the announcement of the Apple Q2 2024 earnings report, which were pretty much exactly as expected – revenue coming in at $90.75B against Wall Street expectations of $90.1B.

As usual, Six Colors has brought the numbers to life with a great set of colorful visualizations, alongside a video talking through them …

AAPL Q2 earnings are set to be announced tomorrow, and the company had already warned that we should expect a year-on-year revenue drop of around $5B.

Analysts expect the same thing, and the outlook for Q3 isn’t expected to be any better, so investors will be listening carefully to any more clues Apple gives about what to expect further ahead …

Meta continues to pick low hanging fruit features from Apple Vision Pro for its Quest headsets. The company is also expanding support for playing back videos shot on iPhone in Quest OS.

Mark Gurman’s latest Power On newsletter suggests that Apple isn’t expected to launch a new Vision Pro (or Vision something) model until the end of 2026.

That follows another report last week, suggesting that demand for the spatial computer is far lower than Apple expected …

Apple is losing another important director as a new report from Bloomberg has just revealed that Frank Casanova, currently senior director and head of product marketing for Apple Vision Pro, is retiring after working at the company for 36 years.

Apple has slashed its shipping estimates for Vision Pro, according to a new Ming-Chi Kuo analyst report. Kuo says that Apple is now targeting shipments between 400,000 and 450,000 units for Vision Pro this year. This is down from the initial market consensus of between 700,000 and 800,000 units.

The changes have reportedly prompted Apple to revisit its overall strategy for the headset market…

A new Best Buy Vision Pro app uses augmented reality to let you see how things like big-screen TVs, furniture, kitchen appliances, and more would look in your home.

Once you find something you like, you can also buy it from within Vision Pro by opening the product page in Safari and completing the purchase there …

Game Room is one of the best experiences on Apple Vision Pro, especially with newly introduced spatial Personas. The latest update to the Apple Arcade game introduces one of the most popular classics: checkers.

Microsoft on Tuesday launched a native OneNote app for visionOS, showing the company’s commitment to its customers who use Apple Vision Pro. This comes after the company released Microsoft Office apps for Apple’s mixed reality headset.

Customers in the US can book a Vision Pro demo at one of the Apple Retail Stores to experience the headset for around 30 minutes. During the demo, customers watch some pre-loaded content, including Spatial Videos made by Apple. However, the company will soon let users watch their own content during a Vision Pro demo session.

One of Vision Pro’s most exciting capabilities, to me personally, is the ability to display multiple Mac monitors in virtual form. Viture One XR glasses have now gained that same capability.

When I first tested the glasses, I noted that while they could act as a Mac monitor, they were limited to a single monitor – this this has now changed …

The AR/VR device market has always been considered a niche. Even with the launch of the Apple Vision Pro earlier this year, there was no expectation of major changes due to the high price tag of $3,500. However, a new survey by Piper Sandler has revealed that teenagers are using more VR headsets, at least in the US.

You don’t need to own an Apple Vision Pro to appreciate it. Just having competition from the high end is pushing Meta to improve its mainstream mixed reality headset.

Meta Quest 3 hit the market last year for $499. That’s $3000 shy of Vision Pro, but with the same goal of colorized passthrough for mixed reality. The only problem was that Meta’s version of passthrough was hardly comparable to Apple’s. My own evaluation is that Meta Quest 3 passthrough is usable but not convincing.

That appears to be changing now. In a Quest software update called v64, Meta says that it has improved passthrough quality for the Meta Quest 3 headset. Here’s a summary from the release notes:

Apple has released a new software update for Apple Vision Pro. visionOS 1.1.2 is now available. According to the release notes, visionOS 1.1.2 focuses on bug fixes.

Apple is also testing visionOS 1.2 for Apple Vision Pro users on the beta release cycle. A new build of visionOS 1.2 has also been released today.

A new non-destructive teardown published today offers an incredible look inside Apple Vision Pro. Created using an industrial CT scanner, the images give us a look at the precise engineering that went into cramming all the cameras, sensors, and other technology inside Vision Pro.