Apple & Tech — Numeric Citizen Blog

I'm Sorry but Apple Vision Pro Is Another VR Headset, or Is It?

Of all people who reviewed or are now active users of the Apple Vision Pro, some are mentioning, rightfully, that this is not about AR¹ but 95% about VR². Apple doesn’t want to admit it, but this is a VR headset. Why is that? Is is because it is “easier”³ to recreate something from the ground up (the virtual world enabled by visionOS) than taking the reality and adding meaningful and useful stuff to it? I see much more limited use case for augmented reality than for virtual reality. It might change in the future, now that people are now exposed to it through other people using the headset sharing their experience.

Augmented Reality. ↩︎
Virtual Reality. ↩︎
It’s not an easy feat to do what visionOS is doing. ↩︎

I’ll probably buy an Apple Vision Pro when it arrives in Canada. My wife doesn’t know it. She will undoubtedly question my decision. She can be challenging at times. But I’ll go ahead anyway. We don’t have a home theatre by today’s standards. We never invested money into these technologies. But this time, it’s different. It’s a too important moment in technology to pass.

Basic Apple Guy writing about the Apple Vision Pro:

For now, Vision Pro remains a very exclusive playground for developers and enthusiasts, clay waiting to be moulded into something quite incredible for the future.

Craig Hockenberry writing about the Mac turning 40:

Apple Vision Pro is a technical marvel, but ultimately falls short in ways that satisfy the natural curiosity of developers.

Time will tell if a new generation of developers will find their way to be creative and think outside the box¹. Otherwise, Apple will eventually have to try harder to think outside the box.

Third level pun intended. ↩︎

Remember that, at some point, it was strange to see someone working at a computer and holding a mouse on a table beside the keyboard. #AppleVisionPro

Either AirPods Max is overpriced, or Apple Vision Pro is not expensive enough¹.

It could be that both products are too expensive too. 🤷🏻‍♂️ ↩︎

Technologies At Play in a "Compact" Device

I have this thought right now as I’m watching the first reviews of the Apple Vision Pro: it is utterly fascinating to see all the basic technological elements (both hardware and software¹) that are at play here and put together in this headset. Besides a product still looking for its use cases, I find this product to be the most ambitious one to be launched by Apple to date. Bravo for trying. And I’m pretty sure it’s only the beginning. You bet Apple is going to iterate on this for quite some time. I feel excited for this thing.

Handoff, Continuity, Digital Crown, 3D modelling, etc. ↩︎

Apple’s insistence on retaining control of the iPhone and the way it’s used is not about protecting the poor stupid users that need Daddy Cook to stop us downloading dodgy stuff off the internet it’s about protecting their bottom line. Source: Apple ruins its big week | The Dent

Well said.

This will be a weekend of reading about Apple and its stance with EU. Lots of good stuff so I can, maybe, make my own opinion.

How often did Apple kill an app from launching on the Mac because it was deemed a bad actor? I think not that many times. Could this be the same on the iPad in the post-iOS 17.4 world? 🤔

Apple, Generative AI and the iPhone Revenues

Numerous applications and services now incorporate AI features. For instance, consider Notion Q&A or Raycast AI. Companies view this as an opportunity to boost revenue by offering these additional features for a fee. However, I recently pondered the possibility that if Apple integrates generative AI into Siri, as rumored for iOS 18, they may not charge for it. This could give Apple a significant advantage, as the revenue from iPhone sales could cover the associated costs. This could become an enormous advantage for Apple.