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Apple Vision Pro News & Reviews

Apple Releases Long-awaited Panoramic Display Feature on Vision Pro in 2.2 Beta

November 5, 2024 From roadtovr

Apple has released initial access to the long-promised panoramic display feature for Vision Pro’s Mac Virtual Display, which now brings three virtual screen sizes via its visionOS 2.2 beta release.

Having initially launched with Vision Pro back in February, Mac Virtual Display only included a single virtual screen size, albeit allowing Vision Pro users to have multiple app windows open at the same time.

Many were hoping Apple would release the new ‘Wide’ and ‘Ultrawide’ display formats for Mac Virtual Display last month during the company’s online Mac product reveal event. Now, as reported by MacRumors, visionOS 2.2 is here in beta, allowing Vision Pro users who opt in to finally take advantage of long-awaited wider screen real estate.

Apple said during the feature’s unveiling in June the update would bring an “ultra-wide display that wraps around you,” allowing for resolutions “equivalent to two 4K monitors, side by side.” Mac-side dynamic foveated rendering also keeps content “sharp wherever you look,” Apple said.

While it’s unclear exactly when Apple plan to push out visionOS 2.2 to the stable branch, it’s likely to come alongside the next ‘X.2’ updates for iOS, iPadOS, macOS Sequoia, watchOS, and tvOS, MacRumors suggests.

In the meantime, to enroll in the visionOS 2.2 beta, simply follow these few steps:

Updating Vision Pro via OTA updates

  1. Sign in to the Apple Developer Center with with your Apple ID and accept the ToS.
  2. Put on Vision Pro, and go to Settings General > Software Update > Beta Updates and choose the developer beta.
  3. When a new developer beta is available, you can install it from Software Update.
  4. From there, you should see the new ‘Wide’ and ‘Ultrawide’ options when tethered to your Mac.

Filed Under: Apple Vision Pro News & Reviews, News

Apple Reportedly Delays Cheaper Vision Pro Beyond 2027, M5 Chip Refresh May Arrive Instead

November 4, 2024 From roadtovr

Apple may be taking a beat before it releases a cheaper follow-up to Vision Pro, which would more broadly appeal to consumers, instead releasing a hardware refresh next year that includes the new M5 chipset.

According to independent tech analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple has delayed the cheaper version of Vision Pro “beyond 2027”. Kuo, who is a respected figure in Apple supply chain leaks, claims in an X post that “Apple’s only new head-mounted display device in 2025 will be the Vision Pro with an upgraded M5 processor.”

“I think what really drove Apple to delay the cheaper Vision Pro is that simply reducing the price wouldn’t help create successful use cases,” Kuo maintains. “It’s similar to the HomePod situation—even after launching the cheaper HomePod mini, Apple’s smart speakers failed to become mainstream products.”

Image courtesy Apple

This comes in sharp contrast to a previous report from The Information in June that alleged Apple was charging ahead with a single, more affordable headset for release in 2025—let’s call it ‘Vision SE’, and leaving a more powerful ‘Vision Pro 2’ for later release.

Granted, there’s no way of knowing exactly what Apple is planning to do, as the Cupertino tech giant is famous for seeding would-be leakers with misleading bits of information in effort to catch them, so reports of the ilk should be taken with a heaping handful of salt.

Still, Kuo’s claim that Apple is pushing forward with what will surely be an equally expensive hardware refresh to the $3,500 Vision Pro may not be so farfetched.

In the midst of recent supply chain rumors claiming Apple has sharply slowed Vision Pro production, Apple CEO Tim Cook was keen to remind doubters in a concurrent Wall Street Journal interview that Vision Pro isn’t “a mass-market product.”

“Right now, it’s an early-adopter product,” Cook told the WSJ. “People who want to have tomorrow’s technology today—that’s who it’s for. Fortunately, there’s enough people who are in that camp that it’s exciting.”

Provided Kuo’s claim is true, it would signal a decisive shift in the company’s release strategy, leaving the next Vision Pro to carry on its legacy, again putting the headset in the odd position of being both too expensive for general consumers, and too niche for a large swath of third-party developers to consider it a viable money-making platform, like Meta’s Quest platform is today.

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Meanwhile, the XR competitive landscape is changing at a pretty fast clip. After the release of Meta’s $300 mixed reality Quest 3S, we’re still waiting to hear more about the company’s next big move to release a fleet of third-party OEMs running Horizon OS, which is ostensibly in service of Meta’s bid to become the “open” XR platform to Apple’s closed garden XR ecosystem.

Meanwhile, Google has signaled its preparing support for XR headsets on Google Play, which could portend the long-awaited Samsung/Google/Qualcomm headset that rumors suggest may try to compete with Vision Pro.

Filed Under: Apple Vision Pro News & Reviews, News

Vision Pro Owners Hopeful Apple Event Will Bring News of Unreleased Panoramic Display Feature

October 25, 2024 From roadtovr

Apple announced in June it was planning to release a wider, higher-resolution version of Mac Virtual Display for Vision Pro. Now, the company says its holding a bevy of Mac announcements starting Monday, October 28th, which many are hoping includes the still unreleased mode.

“We have an exciting week of announcements ahead, starting on Monday morning. Stay tuned,” Apple marketing executive Greg Joswiak recently revealed on X.

The coming week of announcements seems to be a replacement for its annual Mac event, traditionally held in October, which in the past has seen the release of new iPads and Macs. The event is very likely centered around the reveal of the company’s new slate of Macs featuring various flavors of its M4 chipsets.

The Mac event however may present the ideal opportunity to highlight the promised panoramic Mac Virtual Display feature for Vision Pro, which was planned to release sometime after the debut of visionOS 2.0 in June.

Mac Virtual Display | Image courtesy Apple

At the time, Apple said its new Mac-tethered virtual screens would include an “ultra-wide display that wraps around you,” allowing for resolutions “equivalent to two 4K monitors, side by side.” Thanks to Mac-side dynamic foveated rendering, Apple maintains content will “stay sharp wherever you look.”

Like everyone outside of Apple sphere of influence, we haven’t seen it in action yet beyond the initial WWDC keynote, although on-stage teaser showed a simple UI toggle, letting Mac Virtual Display users choose ‘Normal’, ‘Wide’ and ‘Ultrawide’ modes.

If you’re looking to follow along, you can bet Apple will be livestreaming announcements on its website, and also very likely on its YouTube channel too. There’s no word yet on when to tune in, so check back soon.

Typically, Apple events start at 10 AM PT. You can click here to find your local time, although we’ll be updating this article once we know more.

Filed Under: Apple Vision Pro News & Reviews, News

Cisco Boosts Vision Pro Meetings with New ‘Webex’ Spatial Video Streaming Update

October 24, 2024 From roadtovr

Cisco updated its Webex networking app to include even more immersive support for meetings on Vision Pro, which now marries the app with its spatial video streaming hardware.

Cisco released Webex on Vision Pro back in February, allowing for mostly everything you’d expect from a Vision Pro version of the cross-platform video chatting app, letting users meet via Webex using their Persona avatars, and do things like place 2D chat windows around their mixed reality environment.

Now the company has gone one step further with the release of Cisco Spatial Meetings for Vision Pro, which now lets users stream stereoscopic video with the help of Cisco’s Room Bar Pro. Essentially, it spatializes non-flatscreen participants for the benefit of Vision Pro users.

Cisco’s new Webex spatial meeting update holds implications beyond the comparatively more simplistic face-to-face chats, including things like product demos, remote training, education—essentially anything enhanced by the added depth perception of viewing objects and environments in three dimensions.

“Think of all the use cases for companies in industries like manufacturing, retail, and healthcare. I believe that this combination of Cisco Spatial Meetings and Apple Vision Pro will drive unprecedented levels of creativity, productivity, and innovation,” says Jeetu Patel, Cisco’s Executive Vice President and Chief Product Officer.

Additionally, Cisco updated Webex for Vision Pro to include its AI Assistant, letting users improve productivity with AI-enhanced capabilities to catch up on meetings, get summaries, writing assistance, and more.

Bringing more immersive support for Vision Pro users is another step in the company’s ‘Distance Zero’ initiative, which the Cisco launched last year in effort to shorten the distance between users by using video and AI to make meetings more immersive.

Filed Under: Apple Vision Pro News & Reviews, News

Apple May Halt Vision Pro Production by Year-End Amid Report of Sharply Reduced Output

October 23, 2024 From roadtovr

Apple appears to be scaling back production of Vision Pro, and may even halt manufacturing entirely by the end of the year, The Information reports.

According to the report, Apple started reducing production this summer, with supply chain sources maintaining that the company has built up enough inventory to meet projected demand for the foreseeable future.

Apple hasn’t released overall sales figures for Vision Pro, which launched first in the US in February 2024 before coming to a select number of countries. Independent research firm Counterpoint Research however maintains the company has sold 370,000 units to date and is projected to sell 420,000 by the year’s end, as per The Information report.

Conversely, part suppliers are said to have produced enough components for around 600,000 headsets, with Vision Pro assembler Luxshare halving daily production to 1,000 units.

Hideo Kojima wearing Apple Vision Pro | generative extend based on an image courtesy Hideo Kojima

Owing to its eye-watering $3,500 price tag, the move to tune down production comes amid comparatively tepid Vision Pro adoption. In contrast, competitor-apparent Meta has handily shipped millions of Quest headsets over the years, and is currently pinning its hopes this Holiday season on its latest Quest 3S mixed reality headset, which starts at $300.

Despite Apple stocking its Vision Pro App Store with millions of iOS apps and some very flashy first-party content, like the recently released short VR film Submerged, such an expensive headset has predictably curtailed third-party developer interest.

Apple CEO Tim Cook however tempered expectations in a recent The Wall Street Journal interview, noting that “[a]t $3,500, it’s not a mass-market product. Right now, it’s an early-adopter product. People who want to have tomorrow’s technology today—that’s who it’s for. Fortunately, there’s enough people who are in that camp that it’s exciting.”

This follows a previous report from The Information maintaining that Apple is planning a cheaper follow-up to Vision Pro, reportedly coming sometime in late 2025 instead of Vision Pro 2, which has been postponed for a later release.

Filed Under: Apple Vision Pro News & Reviews, News

iPhone 16 Adds Spatial Photos and Spatial Audio Capture for Vision Pro

September 11, 2024 From roadtovr

Apple announced its new iPhone 16 is getting a little more spatial with the addition of both spatial photos and audio, essentially putting it in line with Vision Pro’s capture capabilities.

The company’s big event on Monday didn’t bring any giant revelations for Vision Pro, although the company announced a host of products, including its AI-infused iPhone 16 line, as well as all-new Apple Watch Series 10 and AirPods 4.

iPhone 16 Pro Max & 16 Pro  (left), iPhone 16 Plus & 16 (right) | Images courtesy Apple

The iPhone 16 introduces a new pill-shaped camera design, enhanced AI features, and a couple of new buttons (Action and Camera Control) compared to the iPhone 15. It retains the same 60Hz display (120Hz on iPhone 16 Pro), with improvements being pretty incremental overall.

The entire iPhone 16 line however also comes with the ability to not only capture spatial video like on iPhone 15 Pro, but now spatial photos and audio. Vision Pro can do all of these things, although you’d have a hard time fitting it in your pocket.

Regardless of what phone you have, if you own a Vision Pro all of your photos can be spatialized thanks to an update earlier this summer which automatically converts 2D photos to 3D—and pretty convincingly so.

Notably, spatial videos can also be viewed on other XR devices that support the MV-HVEC video codec, such as Meta Quest.

Filed Under: Apple Vision Pro News & Reviews, News

Global Hackathon for Vision Pro Development, Vision Hack, Kicks Off Next Month

August 1, 2024 From roadtovr

Vision Hack is a forthcoming remote hackathon for developers building apps for visionOS. Open to all skill levels, the event is set to take place September 13–15th.

Guest Article by Cosmo Scharf

Cosmo Scharf is an Emmy-nominated product designer and entrepreneur with a decade of experience in XR. He co-founded Vision Hack and visionOS Dev Partners to support visionOS developers. Previously, Scharf created MovieBot, an AI-powered 3D animation app, and Mindshow, a VR platform for animated content creation. His also started VRLA, one of the world’s largest immersive technology expos.

Imagine building the first iPhone apps in 2008. That’s where we are with visionOS today. Vision Hack is your launchpad into the new frontier of spatial computing.

Over the past decade, I’ve had the privilege of witnessing the virtual reality industry evolve from a niche technology to a transformative medium. From the early days of clunky prototypes to the sleek, powerful devices we have today, the journey has been nothing short of extraordinary. Now, with the introduction of Apple Vision Pro, we’re standing at the threshold of a new era.

As one of the organizers of Vision Hack, I’m thrilled to announce the launch of the first global visionOS hackathon. Scheduled for September 13–15th, this event represents a significant milestone in our industry’s progression. It’s an opportunity to explore and shape the future of spatial computing as Apple Vision Pro continues its global rollout.

Vision Hack is designed to be a truly immersive experience. We’re encouraging teams to communicate in Vision Pro itself using spatial Personas, in addition to Discord. This approach not only showcases the device’s capabilities but also provides participants with authentic, hands-on experience in visionOS development.

Our three-day program caters to both seasoned spatial computing developers and newcomers:

  • Day 1: Workshops and team formation
  • Day 2: Intensive development with mentorship from industry experts
  • Day 3: Development, project presentations, and awards

To foster collaboration while ensuring focused development, we’ve capped team sizes at 5 people each. Understanding the global nature of our community, we’re organizing local meetups in various cities so developers can connect in person.

While we highly recommend access to a Vision Pro for the full experience, it’s not a strict requirement for participation. However, developers will need a Mac with an Apple chip to run the visionOS simulator. This setup will enable meaningful participation even without the physical device.

The organizing team brings extensive experience from major VR expos (VRLA), Metaverse hackathons, and XR startups.

As spatial computing evolves, we believe early developer engagement is crucial in building a robust ecosystem. Vision Hack aims to play a key role in nurturing the visionOS developer community, potentially influencing the trajectory of spatial computing applications.

For developers keen on exploring visionOS, Vision Hack offers a unique opportunity to dive into this emerging platform. There’s a $25 registration fee, which helps us cover some of the event costs and ensures committed participation.

For companies interested in being at the forefront of spatial computing development, we offer various sponsorship opportunities. These partnerships not only support the event but also provide sponsors with direct access to a pool of talented developers working on cutting-edge spatial computing applications.

More details, registration information, and sponsorship opportunities can be found at visionoshackathon.com. We’re excited to see the innovative projects and ideas that will emerge from this event, and we look forward to welcoming you to the next chapter of spatial computing development.

Filed Under: Apple Vision Pro News & Reviews, XR Design & Development

Apple Unveils New Immersive Video Series and Films Coming to Vision Pro

July 19, 2024 From roadtovr

Apple is launching a new slate of immersive video content for Vision Pro using Apple Immersive Video, a 180-degree video format combining 8K 3D video and spatial audio for immersive experiences.

Premiering on July 18th is Boundless, which features unique travel adventures, starting with a hot air balloon journey over Cappadocia, Türkiye—the episode suitably named ‘Hot Air Balloons’.

In August, Vision Pro users will get to see the next installment of Wild Life, a nature documentary series captured at Kenya’s Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. Coming in September is Elevated, which promises aerial views of stunning landscapes, beginning with Hawaii.

Image courtesy Apple

Additionally, Apple will release an immersive experience featuring The Weeknd, the first scripted short film Submerged by Edward Berger, and exclusive sports content like behind-the-scenes access to the 2024 NBA All-Star Weekend.

A new sports series with Red Bull called Big-Wave Surfing will also be available, showcasing elite surfers tackling massive waves in Tahiti.

Apple says it’s collaborating with Blackmagic Design to enhance the production of Apple Immersive Video with new tools and workflows, including the URSA Cine Immersive camera.

All of these immersive videos will be accessible for free via the Apple TV app in several countries.

Filed Under: 180 Video, 360 Video, apple vision pro, Apple Vision Pro News & Reviews, apple vr video, immersive video, News, vision pro

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