Tried Apple Vision Pro - a glimpse of the future

The Apple Vision Pro is a product they've been working towards for many years. The software progress has been public, in the form of ARKit, and the hardware in private. It shipped early this year and, while I've read many reviews, it's something I wanted to try myself.

You can book a personal 30 minute demo at Apple stores and it was easy to get an appointment.

The first step is that they put your glasses (if you wear them) in a machine that figures out your prescription. I had mine with me but they preferred to let the machine do it. My sight requires astigmatism correction and the magnetic clip in lenses they came back with seemed good.

There are some new user interface gestures to learn. Basically you "point" at things just by looking at them and "click" by touching your thumb and forefinger. It's hard not to try to point with your fingers at first.

After putting the headset on and adjusting the straps to keep light out the magical thing is when the outside world appears thanks to the high resolution cameras and high resolution screens in front of your eyes. It really looks like you're looking at the world through glass. Perspective seems the same and it's high dynamic range.

The first thing I did, which perhaps puzzled my demonstrator, was turn my head side to side rapidly to test the refresh rate. It's good but not perfect, the scene got a bit choppy.

There's a bit of calibration to do, looking at dots in front of you etc. It worked well.

Then a bunch of demos to run through. 2D photos, 2D video, 3D photos, 3D video and "immersive" photos and video. I have no interest in sport but the 3D video of basketball was quite impressive.

Most iPad apps can be used in a floating window and I looked up my WSPR Watch app in the App Store but it wouldn't let me install it.

The most impressive thing to me was how solidly user interface elements seem anchored in place around the room you're in. You can surround yourself in "windows" and pull or push them away.

The headset is bulky but didn't feel heavy on my head. After wearing it for about 20 minutes it did feel a bit hot and was a bit of a relief to take off. I could certainly imagine wearing one on a flight to privately watch a movie but I think that would be a waste of the technology.

I saw a couple of minor glitches during the demo but overall it was a solid platform.

The jury is still out on the future of spacial computing. One day the big flat screens we put on our desks will seem as dated as the deep CRT screens we used to use.

It was great to try this out. If you have time, take the opportunity. There was zero pressure from the demonstrator to have me buy one. At AU$5,000 and up, I wasn't tempted. If the price comes down to something similar to an 8k monitor they'll sell like hot cakes.