Apple Vision Pro News & Reviews

Vision Pro is steadily becoming the premier destination for 3D theatrical releases to reach home audiences. The latest 3D movies headed to Vision Pro include The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (2026) and Avatar: Fire and Ash (2025).

The News

Apple has confirmed two new 3D movies headed to Vision Pro. The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (2026) is available to buy or rent in 3D as of this week, through the Apple TV app.

That will be followed by the top-grossing movie of 2025, Avatar: Fire and Ash, which will be available starting on June 24th, streaming in 3D on the Disney+ app.

That’s it… that’s the news.

My Take

Vision Pro is the best way to watch 3D versions of major movies today, thanks to a combination of high-quality OLED displays and ease-of-access to high-quality 3D content. 3D movies on Vision Pro are generally streamed in 4K with HDR and surround sound, and you can make the screen literally as large as it would be in an actual movie theater. From my personal experience, if a movie in Vision Pro is available in 3D, there’s no reason not to watch the 3D version; it’s a pure value-add to the experience.

This follows the collapse of the 3DTV market years ago, which led to a near-elimination of movies being released in 3D for at-home viewing. Vision Pro is offering a second life to the 3D releases at home. And while the number of 3D movies available on the headset is continuing to grow, the high cost of Vision Pro makes it anything but certain that releases will continue in the long term.

Avatar: Fire and Ash, in particular, is a major win for 3D movies on the headset; Vision Pro is now the only way to experience the movie with the 3D perspective that director James Cameron originally intended it to be seen.

Granted, the release calls into question the partnership between Cameron’s Lightstorm Vision studio and Meta, which was announced at the end of 2024, a year before the release of Avatar: Fire and Ash.

At the time the studio and Meta said they were partnering to “scale the creation of world-class 3D entertainment experiences spanning live sports and concerts, feature films, and TV series featuring big-name IP on Meta Quest—which will be Lightstorm Vision’s exclusive MR hardware platform.”

While it wasn’t ever confirmed that the partnership would include a 3D release of Avatar: Fire and Ash on Meta’s headsets, the release of an exclusive 3D clip on Quest—to promote the movie’s release—certainly teased as much. But at this point it’s unclear if the movie will be released in 3D on Quest like on Vision Pro. We reached out to Meta about this but the company didn’t respond to a request for comment.

According to an official EU filing spotted by Apple Insider, Apple has recently acquired key talent and IP behind Animato, a Bay Area startup creating AI avatars.

Animato was known for the now-defunct AI video calling app Call Annie, which paired 3D avatars with AI for face-to-face tutoring and language learning.

According to the filing (seen below), Apple isn’t outright acquiring Animato, but rather reserving the right to hire certain employees, get non-exclusive licenses to Animato’s intellectual property rights, and acquire Animato’s patent applications.

Here’s the January 19th filing via the European Commission’s Digital Markets Act:

Apple Inc. (“Apple”) will have the right to make employment offers to and hire certain employees of Animato, Inc. (“Animato”), receive a non-exclusive license to Animato’s intellectual property rights, and acquire Animato’s patent applications. Animato develops and distributes software that creates virtual avatars for video chats and tutoring. Apple (together with its group companies) designs, manufactures and markets smartphones, personal computers, tablets, wearables and accessories, and sells a variety of related services.

According to LinkedIn, Animato was founded by Francesco Rossi, who worked at Apple from 2015-2022 in the company’s computer vision R&D department, which included work on machine learning.

Having left Apple in 2022 to found Animato, the company released two now-defunct apps, Call Annie and BeSanta, the latter of which let users create impersonate Santa Claus and record videos for playback.

This isn’t the first avatar-related acquisition (or in Animato’s case acqui-hire) Apple has undertaken following the 2024 launch of Vision Pro.

In early 2025, Apple quietly acquired 3D avatar company TrueMeeting, having obtained its 3D avatar tech stack and a number of its employees. At the time, the deal was thought to support the company’s photorealistic avatars for Vision Pro, aka ‘Personas’.

Notably, Personas are some of the most realistic 3D avatars in the XR space right now. Based on facial scans, Personas are animated with the help of Vision Pro’s various sensors; the downward-facing camera tracks mouth movement, internal sensors track your eyes and facial micro-expressions, and a particularly advanced machine learning stack blends all of this together into a realistic 3D avatar.

At least in terms of what we’ve seen in Call Annie, Animato’s tech seems to be more targeted at creating realistic AI avatars, which is something Apple may be after as the company further develops not only XR headsets like Vision Pro, but its forthcoming AR glasses, which are rumored to follow its first smart glasses—still in development behind closed doors.

Apple announced that CEO Tim Cook is stepping down, and John Ternus, a long-time Apple veteran, is set to take his place. As head of hardware engineering, Ternus oversaw the launch of Vision Pro in addition to a slew of core Apple products over the years, although the new CEO may have some reservations about the company’s premium XR headset moving forward.

Fresh out of the University of Pennsylvania, where he majored in mechanical engineering, the soon-to-be Apple CEO actually did a four-year stint at Virtual Research Systems, a now-defunct hardware company making some of the first commercially available VR headsets.

Virtual Research’s PC VR headsets were decidedly of a different era, although they helped spark the latest generation. Just three years prior to the release of Oculus Rift DK1, in 2010 Oculus founder Palmer Luckey even called an owner of a Virtual Research V8 a “lucky bastard”, noting the device’s 60-degree field-of-view was “pretty fantastic” more than a decade after the headset’s release.

Notably, as Ternus was a mechanical engineer at Virtual Research Systems from 1997-2001, he likely worked on the V8, which came out at the tail end of the VR craze of the ’90s.

Leaving Virtual Research Systems in 2001 for Apple, Ternus worked his way up through a number of the company’s hardware teams, contributing to the development of multiple generations of core products, including iPhone, iPad, and Mac.

His biggest role came in 2021, when Ternus became Apple’s Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering, taking over from Dan Riccio. As a result, Ternus also inherited the company’s long-term gamble in XR, which spanned more than a decade in the making, as he oversaw Vision Pro’s launch in 2023.

Still, despite his XR lineage, Ternus seems to be skeptical of Vision Pro’s place in Apple’s lineup.

As mentioned by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman last month, Ternus has shown some trepidation around Apple’s previous moves in the past, including the now-cancelled Apple Car project as well as Vision Pro, which has underperformed relative to other hardware launched under Ternus, including the Apple Watch and AirPods.

“When the company has taken swings at big new product categories in recent years, Ternus has often been in the conservative camp,” Gurman says. “He was circumspect about Apple building a car, fearing it would distract the company, drain profits and pull engineers from core products. He was similarly wary of the mixed-reality headset that became the Vision Pro, drawing on his experience of trying to create a virtual-reality head-worn device at a startup in the 1990s. In both of those cases his skepticism was prescient. Apple eventually killed the car, and the Vision Pro has been a bust.”

Slated to take over as CEO once Cook officially steps down this summer, he’s also inheriting the company’s years-long efforts in developing AR glasses, which Cook reportedly hopes they can release before Meta.

“Tim cares about nothing else,” Bloomberg reported last year. “It’s the only thing he’s really spending his time on from a product development standpoint.”

It remains to be seen just how enthusiastic Apple’s new CEO will be on pushing those segment-defining XR devices though. Heading into the second half of the decade, the Cupertino tech giant is ostensibly now balancing ambitions across more segments than ever, including the new consumer-friendly Mac Neo ($600) which is making headway in stripping market share from a host of mid-tier Windows laptops.

Meanwhile, the company’s XR hardware roadmap may be taking a slightly unexpected turn. Last month a separate report from Gurman detailed a move by Apple to more heavily invest in a competitor to Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses—a stark departure from Apple’s initial XR strategy, which supposedly include three distinct categories: an iPhone-tethered AR headset with wireless controller, a high-end mixed reality headset, and standalone AR glasses.

Whatever the case, Ternus’s entry as CEO marks a decisive next chapter as the company. And we’ll be watching to see how he ultimately views Vision Pro, be it a dead end or a launchpad to sleeker, more consumer-friendly XR devices in the future. As it is, we’re still waiting to hear more about the reported follow-ups to Vision Pro, which supply chain leaks suggest could include two new headsets.

Vision Pro users have been waiting over two years for a native YouTube app. Now, it’s finally here—thankfully also including support for immersive videos.

The News

Google first announced that a YouTube app was “on the road map” shortly after Vision Pro’s February 2024 launch, although it never gave a specific release window, leaving users searching for alternatives beyond simply opening YouTube in Safari, which notably didn’t include native support for spatial video.

The official YouTube app, which is now available on the App Store, now gives Vision Pro users access to every YouTube video and Short, which includes access to all of the regular YouTube features, such as subscriptions, playlists, and watch history.

What’s more, the official YouTube app also comes with support for viewing spatial videos, which including all 3D, VR180, and 360 videos on the platform. Vision Pro users can find them by navigating to the app’s dedicated ‘Spatial’ tab.

Additionally, Google maintains YouTube for Vision Pro also includes video playback up to 8K for the M5 version, which was released last October.

My Take

There’s no official explanation out there (yet), although there are probably a few reasons why YouTube didn’t come to Vision Pro up until now.

The most obvious to me: Apple’s $3,500 XR headset likely presented a limited return on investment for Google, which may or may not have been influenced by the companies’ historical platform rivalry. Notably, there is still no Gmail, Chrome, Docs, Drive, Photos, Maps—no Google-owned app on Vision Pro except YouTube right now.

That said, YouTube did make a spatial version of its app for Android XR, which was released with Samsung Galaxy XR last October. The relative timing makes me think the release on Vision Pro was more of a knock-on effect of having already built than leadership at YouTube specifically determining that now would finally be profitable, as I don’t suspect the M5 hardware refresh has significantly driven additional consumer interest.

Whatever the case, YouTube has now found itself on the hook for maintaining the app across three distinct XR platforms: Android XR, visionOS and Horizon OS.

Apple announced the next slate of immersive content is on its way to Vision Pro, this time bringing an immersive documentary from Real Madrid and some extreme sports from Red Bull.

First reported by GQ Spain and later confirmed by Apple, next year Apple and Spanish football club Real Madrid are teaming up on a new immersive documentary, coming exclusively to Vision Pro.

The documentary, which hasn’t been named yet, is filmed with over 30 Blackmagic immersive cameras during the 2025-26 Champions League, which pitted Real Madrid against Italian football club Juventus.

Apple says the immersive documentary “brings viewers inside the world’s most decorated club, capturing moments from practice to the pitch with a level of access that fans have never experienced before.”

Also coming to Vision Pro is the first installment of World of Red Bull in December, which Apple announced a few months ago.

World of Redbull is a new series of immersive experiences that will start with ‘Backcountry Skiing’, featuring the world’s top freeskiers taking on the wilderness of Revelstoke, British Columbia. That’s scheduled to land on Vison Pro on December 4th.

The next episode, called ‘Big-Wave Surfing’, is slated to let viewers follow elite surfers off the remote coast of Teahupoʻo, Tahiti, which is scheduled to arrive sometime next year.

Apple seems to be releasing its next Vision Pro with M5 chip soon, but according to a new report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, the company may have shelved plans for a follow-up headset that’s cheaper and lighter in favor of releasing smart glasses set to compete with Meta.

The News

According to previous rumors, Apple was developing a Vision Pro follow-up more squarely aimed at consumers—often referred to as ‘Vision Air’ (codenamed ‘N100’). Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reported in September that Vision Air was expected to be “over 40% lighter and more than 50% cheaper” than the current Vision Pro, putting the device at less than 400g and less than $1,750.

Notably, a hardware refresh of Vision Pro featuring Apple’s latest M5 chip is likely releasing soon, according to recent FCC filings, although its 600g weight and $3,500 price tag are likely to remain the same.

Now, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman maintains Apple is putting Vision Air on hold, citing internal sources. Instead, Apple is reportedly shifting resources to accelerate development of smart glasses, which aim to take on Ray-Ban Meta and the new Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses.

Gurman reports that Apple is pursuing at least two types of smart glasses: an audio-only pair codenamed ‘N50’, which are meant to pair with iPhone, and ostensibly compete with Meta’s fleet of $300+ smart glasses built in partnership with EssilorLuxottica. Apple is reportedly set to preview N50 as soon as 2026, with a release by 2027.

A second pair is said to contain a display, similar to Meta Ray-Ban Display, which launched late last month in the US for $800. In contrast, Apple’s display smart glasses were expected to release in 2028, however the company is reportedly fast-tracking the device’s development.

Both versions are said to emphasize voice interaction and AI integration, and offer multiple styles and a new custom chip to power the devices.

My Take

The shifted development timeline feels a little out of character for Apple, which typically enters segments after a technology is generally proven. Apple didn’t invent the smartphone, smart watch, laptop, or desktop, although it owns a significant slice of each in 2025 thanks to its unique brand of ‘ecosystem stickiness’ and inherent cool factor.

The entrance of Meta Ray-Ban Displays however marks an important inflection point in the race to own the next big computing paradigm. Smart glasses with displays aren’t the end destination, but they are an important stepping stone along the way to all-day augmented reality. And a strong foothold in AI is integral.

“Let’s wait and see what Apple does” has been a pretty common thought process when it comes to emergent tech—something people have been saying for years in VR. The big hope was Apple would eventually swoop in, redefine VR for the masses, and make the best version of it with their first device.

But Vision Pro isn’t the first-gen iPhone (2007). While a lighter, cheaper version could address pain points, it would still have a hard time not drawing direct comparisons to Meta devices 5-10 times cheaper.

But AI isn’t one of those technologies you can afford to sleep on, if only from a user data collection perspective. In contrast to its biggest competitors, Apple has notably lagged in AI development, having only released its Apple Intelligence platform in late 2024 to counter Google Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, and OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Apple needs to play catchup.

While Apple is expected to release a rebuilt Siri this year to power its hardware ecosystem, smart glasses are the tip of the AI spear. Even without displays, wearing an always-on device represents a treasure trove of data and user behavior that companies will use to improve services, figure out what works and what doesn’t, and ultimately build the next big platform that companies have been salivating over: all-day AR glasses.

That’s the real battle here. Not only does Apple need smart glasses to compete in the next computing paradigm, but they also need them to bridge a very real component price gap. Economies of scale will eventually bring fiddly components down in price, like the extremely expensive and difficult to manufacture silicon carbide waveguides seen in Meta’s Orion AR prototype revealed at last year’s Connect, which cost the company $10,000 each to build. Companies also need to create parts capable of fitting into a glasses form factor, with smart glasses representing an important first testing ground.

Apple may be preparing to release its long-rumored M5 hardware refresh of Vision Pro, according to new certification tests filed with the US Federal Communication Commission (FCC).

The News

As first spotted by MacRumors, Apple’s next Vision Pro seems to be right around the corner, as the FCC has published a trove of transmission tests, SAR test reports, and WLAN test reports for a new “Head Mounted Device” from Apple.

The FCC documents in question don’t include any specs as such, however they do include a single image that seems to confirm the device is Apple’s next Vision Pro, and not, say, a pair of smart glasses.

This follows a leak in August, which seemingly confirmed that Vision Pro isn’t getting a massive overhaul, instead pointing to a hardware refresh that could feature Apple’s upcoming M5 chipset, according to code shared by Apple and discovered by MacRumors. 

The report also suggested that the new Vision Pro hardware refresh “isn’t expected to feature any design changes or hardware updates aside from the new chip,” although it could feature a new, more comfortable head strap.

My Take

The inclusion of M5 alone doesn’t feel like a massive overhaul, although it is a fair leap in chipset generations. Released in February 2024 for $3,500, the original Apple Vision Pro was saddled with the then two year-old M2—still the most powerful consumer standalone to date, but just not one on par with the rest of its ‘Pro’ lineup at the time.

Notably, despite having access to almost all iPad apps in addition to built-for-XR apps of its own, Vision Pro (M2) doesn’t run some of the most requested productivity apps natively, like Final Cut Pro or Logic Pro. There’s no guarantee the new hardware refresh will either, but it could do a few things.

Provided we’re getting what’s reported (no more, no less), that essentially puts Vision Pro on par with the rest of Apple’s core products. It could allow developers to build apps that perform consistently across all of the reported ‘Pro’ Mac and iPad devices coming with M5, new Vision Pro included.

As Road to VR reader Christian Schildwaechter points out in the comments of the initial report, the M5 Vision Pro refresh might actually be a distinctly pragmatic move by Apple though, and less about enabling more powerful apps for prosumers, making it more of a stopgap measure.

As Schildwaechter puts it, “most users won’t benefit from an M5. Enterprise customers creating inhouse apps will be happy about the extra performance, but developers targeting consumers probably won’t bother with it.”

So, Apple could be killing two birds with one stone. Hypothetically, the company can flush its stock of Vision Pro parts and plonk in the new M5 to keep enterprise buyers engaged until the company releases its first real headset targeted squarely at consumers.

As reported by independent analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple’s next big XR push could be a cheaper and lighter version expected to release in 2027, called ‘Vision Air’. Kuo maintains Vision Air will be “over 40% lighter and more than 50% cheaper” than the current Vision Pro, making it around 350g and less than $1,750.

Questions worth some healthy speculation and rapid fire answers: When is the M5 Vision Pro coming?—possibly in the October/November timeframe alongside its new new MacBook Pro M5 model release. How much will it cost?—likely nothing short of the $3,500 if Apple is, you know, still Apple.

Independent supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo released a report claiming that Apple is gearing up to launch a cheaper and lighter version of Vision Pro in 2027, which is expected to be called ‘Vision Air’.

Ostensibly leaked from supply chain sources, Kuo claims Vision Air is estimated to be “over 40% lighter and more than 50% cheaper” than Vision Pro, which weighs in at around 600g, and is priced at $3,500.

Notably, that weight figure doesn’t take into account the external battery pack, which weighs 350g. Provided Kuo is only quoting that ~600g on-head weight of Vision Pro itself, this would put the rumored Vision Air at less than 400g, and priced at less than $1,750.

At least by Kuo’s description of the headset’s weight, it’s also sounds like Vision Air is sticking with the external battery; the inclusion of an internal battery, like that found in Quest 3 and Quest 3S (both around 515g), would make it difficult to reach that sub-400g weight.

One of the biggest features likely to be on the chopping block for a cheaper and lighter Vision Pro is undoubtedly the headset’s glass-covered EyeSight front display, which provides a sort of virtualized representation of the user’s eyes.

Vision Pro is also made with out of premium materials, such as aluminum and magnesium, which could be lightened by replacing them with plastic. That may be a bridge too far though, as it could sacrifice Apple’s premium design aesthetic.

According to the report, it also appears the Cupertino tech giant is hoping to make a bigger splash with Vision Pro’s lighter and cheaper follow-up—not to be confused the with reported M5 hardware refresh of Vision Pro expected to arrive sometime later this year.

Kuo maintains Apple is internally targeting anticipated shipments of Vision Air to reach one million units in 2027. While Apple hasn’t released Vision Pro sales data any time following the device’s initial launch in February 2024, an October 2024 report from The Information claimed Apple was eyeing a sales target of 420,000 units for its first year.

Additionally, Kuo maintains General Interface Solution (GIS), the Taiwan-based company involved in the lamination process of Vision Pro’s pancake lenses, will broaden its role to become the exclusive supplier of pancake lenses.