About twenty years ago, when I was working in New York City, one of my clients invited me to a baseball game in a suite at the (old) Yankee Stadium right behind home plate. It was an incredible way to experience that historic venue. Last week, I had even better “seats” at the current Yankee Stadium because I used my Apple Vision Pro to watch the Yankees-Red Sox game in immersive video. Wow. For most of the game, Apple had me right next to the dugout for whichever team was batting, an amazing place to watch the game that you could never pay for in real life. I could look around and see the whole stadium, which looked even better as the sun set. I was right next to players as they headed out to bat. Sometimes, the camera would switch to another angle, such as one that approximated what it would be like to watch the game from a suite behind home plate. It very much felt like I was at the ballpark for a live game. As John Gruber of Daring Fireball remarked: “Hard to say why, but feeling like you’re at another place watching something happen live is magic.” As impressive as it was for Apple’s first time at bat (ahem) for live immersive baseball, there is room for improvement. I agree with Gruber and Michael Simon of Macworld that it would have been nice to have an option to occasionally mute the announcers and just take in the sounds of being there live. Or maybe an option to switch to the local radio broadcast, as Jason Snell of Six Colors suggested. The experience was amazing, and it seems like everyone else who saw it and wrote about it this week was equally impressed. Justin Ryan of Spatial Insider provides a picture and video to give you a sense, in 2D, of what it was like in 3D. I can’t wait to see more content like this in the future—not just live games, but live concerts, theater, etc.—especially as the technology improves and the hardware becomes less expensive. I enjoy all of the Apple products that I use, but the Vision Pro is the only one that routinely inspires awe. And now, the news of note from the past week:
- It will take you less than 30 seconds, and it will do so much good. Please click here and donate any amount to St. Jude now that it is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. Thank you!
- John Ternus became Apple’s CEO this week. He wrote a letter to all Apple employees, and Myke Hurley of The Enthusiast notes three interesting details in that letter.
- Dan Barbera of MacRumors has been using the incredibly thin iPhone Air every day for a year. Here is what he thinks.
- Ryan Christoffel of 9to5Mac notes some of the big things that Apple is fixing in the Mail app in iOS 27. I’m especially looking forward to the more reliable search indexing.
- As John Gruber of Daring Fireball notes, iOS 27 will support two iPhones sharing the same phone number. You cannot use it unless your carrier supports it, but I presume that many will, and I can see this being useful. For example, you might want to purchase Apple’s rumored folding iPhone while also sometimes using an iPhone 17 Pro (because of the great camera) or an iPhone Air (because it is so light).
- Joe Rossignol of MacRumors reports that Oklahoma now supports the Apple Wallet digital driver’s license feature.
- Stephen Hackett of 512 Pixels discusses the past and future of the iPad mini.
- Every day, I find it useful to have an Apple device on my wrist. Would it make sense to wear a device in a ring on my finger? Parker Ortolani has been trying out the Pebble Ring, and he wrote this interesting review.
- Chance Miller of 9to5Mac describes a doctor using an Apple Vision Pro to perform a hip surgery.
- A new movie premieres today on Apple TV: Mayday. It stars Ryan Reynolds and Kenneth Branagh, and as Ryan Christoffel of 9to5Mac notes, the initial reviews have been positive. My son and I might watch this one this weekend.
- If you prefer a good, older movie, Christoffel notes that Apple TV added 15 of them this week, including School of Rock, Her, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, and A League of Their Own. Is it just a coincidence, or does one of those have something to do with the new season of Ted Lasso?
- And finally, here is a short video from Apple in which a woman shares how her Apple Watch saved her life by helping her find out about her cancer early: