Can you see it? Look to the horizon and you’ll find the next chapter in Apple’s history: spatial computing, made possible with the Apple Vision Pro. After Apple introduced the world to this platform on Monday, a small number of folks have now had a chance to try the device, and the initial reviews have been glowing, with many reviewers stating that they had high expectations that were exceeded by how impressive the device is. I think that the review by John Gruber of Daring Fireball did the best job of helping me to imagine what it is like to use a Vision Pro. I also enjoyed reading and can recommend this article by Jason Snell of Six Colors, this article by Joanna Stern of the Wall Street Journal, and this video from Marques Brownlee. Finally, this article that Michael Liedtke wrote for the Associated Press is quite good and is written for a less techy audience. We will need to wait until early 2024 before folks can purchase the device, but that’s good because at $3499, we all have lots of time to start collecting all of the loose change in the couch cushions. I’ve already told my family that I don’t want presents for Father’s Day, my birthday, and Christmas in 2023 to help to soften the financial blow next year. And now, the news of note from the past week:
- ABC News “Good Morning America” co-anchor Robin Roberts interviewed Apple CEO Tim Cook to discuss the Apple Vision Pro, and her video report is quite good and worth watching.
- Alex Heath of The Verge shares Mark Zuckerberg’s initial reaction to the Apple Vision Pro. Zuckerberg criticizes the price and the “design trade-off” as compared to what Meta is doing with its Quest 3 headset, noting that Meta has “sold tens of millions of Quests.” This is probably a good time to remember what Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said in 2007 when the iPhone was first introduced: “500 dollars? Fully subsidized? With a plan? I said that is the most expensive phone in the world. And it doesn’t appeal to business customers because it doesn’t have a keyboard. Which makes it not a very good email machine. … Right now, we’re selling millions and millions and millions of phones a year. Apple is selling zero phones a year. In six months, they’ll have the most expensive phone by far ever in the marketplace.”
- Chance Miller of 9to5Mac shows what it is like to type on a virtual keyboard using the Vision Pro. You can also connect a Bluetooth keyboard if you plan to type more than just a few words.
- Stephen Hackett of 512 Pixels shares the key numbers associated with the Apple Vision Pro.
- Federico Viticci of MacStories explains how Stage Manager works better in iPad OS 17.
- Justin Myers of Gadget Hacks explains ten great new features of Messages in iOS 17.
- Juli Clover of MacRumors explains that if you use the built-in Reminders app in iOS 17 to create a groceries list, the app will automatically organize the food items into categories to make your shopping more efficient.
- Tim Hardwick of MacRumors has a short list of lesser-known but interesting iOS 17 features.
- Mitchel Broussard of MacRumors discusses the new features in Apple Music in iOS 17.
- Chance Miller of 9to5Mac notes that Apple came up with a better way to scan QR codes in iOS 17.
- Zac Hall of 9to5Mac explains how you can link from one note in the Notes app to another note in iOS 17.
- I mentioned earlier this week that I’m excited to see Continuity Camera mode work with an iPhone and an Apple TV for videoconferences. But that’s not all. As Joe Rossignol of MacRumors explains, you can also use Continuity Camera so that you and others appear on screen while you sing along to the lyrics of your favorite songs. I’m not a big karaoke fan so I don’t know that I myself will use this feature, but I do love that Apple is looking for additional uses of Continuity Camera.
- The Apple Watch will see substantial changes this Fall in watchOS 10. For example, buttons and gestures will perform different functions, as Dan Moren of Six Colors explains. In a separate post, Dan Moren some of the key new features in watchOS 10.
- Graham Bower of Cult of Mac provides a good overview of what is new in watchOS 10.
- Zac Hall of 9to5Mac also discusses some of the changes in watchOS 10.
- Zac Hall also shows off some of the biggest changes in CarPlay in iOS 17. For example, a passenger can now scan a QR code to control the music from their own iPhone.
- Bradley Chambers of 9to5Mac reviews the Aqara Smart Lock with Home Key and explains that if you are considering a smart lock, don’t just get one that works with HomeKit; you really want one that takes advantage of Apple’s Home Key feature.
- Matt Birchler of iMore reviews Final Cut Pro on the iPad, and he is impressed.
- I’m impressed too. I had a family beach vacation late last month, and after taking some videos during the first few days of vacation, I used Final Cut Pro on the iPad to put them together into a fun movie that I shared with the family on one of our last nights. The final video came out great. I did encounter some bugs along the way. First, I had trouble getting some video clips from my Photos app into Final Cut Pro; as a workaround, I moved them into the Files app in a local folder on my iPad, and Final Cut Pro had no trouble with that video. Second, I had some difficulty exporting a 4K HDR final movie, so instead I just created a 1080p version, which was more than adequate for sharing with family on a big screen. So Apple has some work to do, but the foundations were very sound. Using a finger (and sometimes a stylus) to edit clips worked really well on my iPad.
- And finally, here is a fun, quick overview from Apple of just some of Apple’s announcements this week: