Big crowds turned out Friday to greet Vision Pro, Apple’s new spatial computer. And rightly so: It’s the company’s first big new product category since the Apple Watch almost a decade ago.
Tim Cook was in New York to mingle with a large crowd of shoppers (and almost as many members of the press), who greeted the first people to buy the headset with a big round of applause.
The launch wasn’t anywhere near as big as some of the biggest iPhone launches of yore, but nonetheless, a lot of people are excited about the headset.
Despite its isolating, slightly dystopian form factor, Vision Pro’s eye-tracking interface is reportedly magical to use. And it delivers experiences people find hard to articulate beyond superlatives like “wow,” “woaaah” and “mind-blowing!”
I’m off to pick one up after finishing this newsletter. What about you?
Also in Cult of Mac Today:
After a year of declining revenues, Apple’s latest quarterly results saw it return to revenue growth again.
On day one, Vision Pro owners will be able to watch dozens of 3D movies on Disney+ and try out loads of fascinating apps built just for the headset.
We may be seeing a folding iPad in a couple of years.
If you need a great PDF editor for Mac or an AI-powered resume builder, don’t miss our deals.
See what Steve Jobs said about virtual reality in 2005 in the “One more thing” quote below.
— Leander Kahney, EIC.
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Tweetz o’ the day
What a thrilling morning celebrating the launch of Apple Vision Pro at Apple Fifth Avenue! The era of spatial computing has arrived!
— #Tim Cook (#@tim_cook)
3:44 PM • Feb 2, 2024
🇺🇸HURRAH FOR THE FIRST PERSON TO SPEND $3.5K ON APPLE VISION PRO WHO JUST WALKED OUT OF THE STORE
/end sarcasm twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
— #Mario Nawfal (#@MarioNawfal)
5:22 PM • Feb 2, 2024
🚨ALERT🚨You must go into the Apple Store to demo Vision Pro. It’s a great demo.
Initial thoughts after 20 min demo:
1) Passthrough is not anywhere near as good as reviews made me think—totally usable but clearly iPhone footage, noisy, muted colors, and not real life
2) The… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
— #Snazzy Labs (#@SnazzyLabs)
5:01 PM • Feb 2, 2024
Are you kidding me about how well that curve matches the bottom of the Apple logo
— #austin blake (building productivity apps for iOS) (#@austboston)
4:48 AM • Feb 2, 2024
One more thing ...
The fundamental problem here is that headphones are a miraculous thing. You put on a pair of headphones, and you get the same experience you get with a great pair of speakers, right? There's no such thing as headphones for video, right? There's not something I can carry with me that I can put on and it gives me the same experience I get when I'm watching my, you know, 50-inch plasma display at home. And, you know, until somebody invents that, you're gonna have these opposing constraints.
Today’s poll
Has Apple's hype machine convinced you to try Vision Pro?
Results from yesterday’s poll: Is tech addiction a real problem?
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