Something that struck me about the VR meeting concept is something that struck me in a recent Zoom call with chair of my department. They were mad that I didn‘t have a camera on for the call. I Don’t even have a camera in my set up as I used a desktop to teach online. I also screen share the entire time so there is no lack of things to look at without looking at me sipping my coffee on the call.
But it made me realize that even though we have this perfect opportunity to shift the way in which we work, so many people are locked into these worthless rituals of how we are supposed to work. We are "supposed to" make eye contact and like smile and nod at each other. All these little dances that simulate connection but have nothing to do with actually getting things done.
To me, VR outside of some fun games (Astrobot!) is about manufacturing the illusion of working together. Look how much we are getting done! We are using technology! VR is the Powerpoint presentation WOOSSH slide transition of the modern era.
@“safety_lite”#p118822 form my understanding they marketed a world changing product and then sold a clunky overpriced prototype that could barely hold a charge, and it heated up in people's heads. Also, they were marketing it as a device you would wear all day everywhere and people were righteously uncomfortable being around tech bros wearing a camera 24/7 and that created huge backlash.
A guy who wrote a whole book about Google Glass was interviewed [in a great lefty tech criticism podcast and that episode](https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5idXp6c3Byb3V0LmNvbS8xMDA0Njg5LnJzcw/episode/QnV6enNwcm91dC0xMjExNDY1Mg?sa=X&ved=0CAgQuIEEahcKEwjo9MCaz7D_AhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQNg) is a nice quick overview about the whole deal with Google Glass:
Even though I hate the apple thing in every way possible, I think pitching it as something you primarily wear in your house/office rather than in public was a good move.
The more I read about the Apple Vision the more intriguing I find it. I have no interest in this 1.0 version due to the cost and the early nature of the thing. Apple is positioning this as a major computing platform with an astonishing piece of hardware engineering and a seemingly well thought out operating system.
It bums me out that tech has been so poisoned over the past 15 years by crypto/web 3.0/tech bro/metaverse/speculative bs that new tech is viewed with hostility. Apple is by no means perfect but at least they are a tech company, not an advertising company in tech clothing (Facebook, google, amazon - I'm looking at you). Apple also announced a Mac Pro that starts at $6,500, but few are lamenting the cost or saying that it will bring about a dystopic isolation (the isolation aspect has been leveled at both computers and video games from the early '80s onward). This is just a computer you put on your head - not too much different than using your laptop in bed all things considered. End of mini-rant.
If you are at all interested in Apple Vision I recommend this [article](https://stratechery.com/2023/apple-vision/).
Edited to add that this post is not to call anyone out and I can totally understand thinking this is a dumb, useless product, especially without really looking deeper into it than some of the promo photos and headlines.
@“tomjonjon”#p118885 the isolation aspect has been leveled at both computers and video games from the early ’80s onward). This is just a computer you put on your head - not too much different than using your laptop in bed all things considered.
then what is being described here?
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What was much more compelling were a series of immersive video experiences that Apple did not show in the keynote. The most striking to me were, unsurprisingly, sports. There was one clip of an NBA basketball game that was incredibly realistic: the game clip was shot from the baseline, and as someone who has had the good fortune to sit courtside, it felt exactly the same, and, it must be said, much more immersive than similar experiences on the Quest.
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It turns out that one reason for the immersion is that Apple actually created its own cameras to capture the game using its new Apple Immersive Video Format. The company was fairly mum about how it planned to make those cameras and its format more widely available, but I am completely serious when I say that I would pay the NBA thousands of dollars to get a season pass to watch games captured in this way. Yes, that’s a crazy statement to make, but courtside seats cost that much or more, and that 10-second clip was shockingly close to the real thing.!<
and here, if not detachment from social activity?
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One of the issues is the fact that recording those memories does, for now, entail wearing the Vision Pro in the first place, which is going to be really awkward! Consider this video of a girl’s birthday party:
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It’s going to seem pretty weird when dad is wearing a headset as his daughter blows out birthday candles; perhaps this problem will be fixed by a separate line of standalone cameras that capture photos in the Apple Immersive Video Format, which is another way to say that this is a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem.
@“yeso”#p118894 The basketball example sounds like a pretty awesome iteration on how most people watch sports right now, which is on a screen. The only difference is the technology is more immersive, and the screen is an all-encompassing headset instead of being mounted on a wall 10' away. I have a college friend that lives in NY that I see maybe once a year. He is a big hockey fan and loves the NY Rangers. Maybe in a few years it will be possible to “go” to a game with my friend without needed to get on a plane. Sounds good to me.
Let me paint another version of the birthday party scenario - it's so-and-so's 10th birthday party and family and friends are having fun, enjoying food and refreshments, laughing and being social. "Hey its time to open so-and-so's presents!" Dad says "hang on a sec - I want to record this." and puts his headset on. There are a few jokes, "Hey Gary you like like Ready Player One!" and whatever small talk jokes people make. Dad wears the headset for the 15ish minutes it takes for so-and-so to open her gifts. The whole time dad is present, he can hear everyone and see everyone, he's just wearing a somewhat odd set of googles on his head. After the gifts are opened, dad takes the googles off and the party continues. Cut to several weeks later - dad has to travel a lot for work, and he's currently in the middle of Ohio going over new equipment the he works for company has ordered. It's been a stressful few days. Dad comes back to the cheap hotel room and pulls out his headset he brought in case he had to conference with the home office. He lays down on the bed and watches those wonderful 15ish minutes of his beloved daughter opening her birthday gifts. ~~A tear runs down his check shorting out the headset blowing his head clean off!~~ A touching moment relived, he sleeps soundly and the rest of the business trip flies by. Beautiful, man.
the basketball example, to me, highlights that rather than having courtside seats I'm sitting at home wearing goggles designed to mimic the sensation of courtside seats, and that weirds me out personally. But open to interpretation ofc, but it seems artificial in a way that watching the game on tv is not. Also, I can watch the game on tv with other people
And idk about the scenario you describe with the birthday party. I'd personally want my actual face and eyes present in that situation. To me the goggles make it seem like the actual event is less important than the recording of it, you know?
Trying to decide if this thing will succeed after a tough 1st gen because despite the tech someone eventually figures out some actually cool thing to do with it, or if it will end up being super expensive google glass 2.0 and it ends up as a punchline or asshole signifier like 1.0 did before getting discontinued.
(I’m not saying all google glass users were assholes of course, but the correlation was strong based on my personal experiences)
Having all the guts stuffed into the display, and if they don't make it too heavy and the sensors are exact enough, and the adjustment knobs and straps are intuitive enough: sharing the headset around could be more of a thing with this than with competitors. I would feel more comfortable doing that depending on how close I was with the person previously sweating and breathing and blinking all over it, but in an intimate family situation that could be something some people get ok doing (beats shelling out 7k for a pair).
Travelling is an interesting use case becuase the shape of a VR/AR (which I guess together equals MR) headset is so weird. It's the most un-Apple form factor, and at least for now un-Appleable, by which I mean it will never fit in a manila envelope. Not a problem if you have tons of khakis to pack around a lopsided cylinder and a bellhop carrying the trunk around for you.
Throwing up a stream of your eyes feels like a placeholder that we're going to be living with for the decades it will take to reduce AR goggles down to the size of actual glasses. We can pretend the thing is see-through for now, and once we're used to that it just won't go away, and the tech will be refined to something passive. Maybe!
The scene with the parent and the kids during the Apple keynote immediately felt thoroughly dystopian to me. I was watching and the only thing I could think was: “ … oh no.”
Maybe, eventually, this sort of thing will be normalised -- but it just feels wrong to me. Maybe it will be like everyone failing to "live in the moment" and recording live events like concerts on their damn phone, and instead of looking at the damn performers on a stage _right there_ instead people look at them through a stupid glass rectangle they are holding up. This behaviour is now 100% normalised, but I personally still think it is ludicrous.
(and does anyone, _ever_ watch those stupid shaky cam videos with totally blown-out audio they are recording at these concerts? surely not)
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In ten or so years' time, when Apple Vision Pro X is out and it is just a pair of spectacles rather than a whole stupid bulky set of goggles with an AI face projected on an outward-facing screen, then it'll be worth considering.
Vision pro is so ugly!!! These things will never go fully mainstream till they stop fucking with people's hair.
Also once again I'm turning super grumpy dumpy when Apple gets credit for being innovative (well, i guess it's my fault for reading/watching dumb news people and hype bros). I give you that they're good at hyper refinement at later time.
This Hololens bullshot video is pretty much the exact pitch but Apple is doing it better 7 years later with newer tech.
@“yeso”#p118949 And idk about the scenario you describe with the birthday party. I’d personally want my actual face and eyes present in that situation.
I agree but, to be fair, most people nowadays are already experiencing live events and such touching family moments like this.
@“yeso”#p118949 And idk about the scenario you describe with the birthday party. I’d personally want my actual face and eyes present in that situation. To me the goggles make it seem like the actual event is less important than the recording of it, you know?
To pushback slightly on this argument, is this really any more obtrusive than an old school shoulder mounted camcorder with the eyepiece and shit? The species seems to have survived the cognitive dissonance between being someone else being present and human at a social gathering and looking like some fuckin cyborg with a shoulder cannon aiming their Hallmark Greeting Card Laser at their loved ones in wide-eyed fascination. The goggles can even project out an image of a little kitty cat, on the outside surface, or perhaps an advertisement for your favorite products!
On the other hand, I don't even know if I would not consider this to be equivalently obtrusive to a smartphone hovering in that weird grip in the bottom right of someone's field of vision as they repeatedly glance at it. So I don't know if I could actually say the Goggles are worse because I think recording anything of that nature is kind of weird. Snap a few pictures when your kid blows out the candles and get to cutting the cake already.
