- cross-posted to:
- technology@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- technology@lemmy.world
The Apple Vision Pro is supposed to be the start of a new spatial computing revolution. After several days of testing, it’s clear that it’s the best headset ever made — which is the problem.
I very much do not want AR. There will be ads everywhere. What happened to the anger people had toward Google Glass and the feeling that people wearing them would be recording everything around them basically all the time?
One thing I give Apple credit for is keeping ads out of the primary operating system. I’ve got an Apple TV and a Google TV (I refuse to use it’s full name). Apple TV is just a grid of Apps whereas the Google homescreen immediately hits you with an ad for a show on a streaming service you might not even have. Even the Google remote has dedicated buttons for Netflix and YouTube and I’m not a Netflix subscriber.
I guess it’s the difference between Apple being a hardware/software company and Google being an advertising company.
Apple TV+, the streaming service, does show ads for content. It’s one of the worst, in my opinion, at pre-roll ads for other shows you didn’t click on.
Then, in the interface, you’ll get banner-like ads for other stuff, mostly Apple TV+ exclusives. Also, the interface also does push casual browsing (or search) into the paid buy/rent options also.
Apple’s days of focusing on user experience above all else has shifted towards getting you to pay for stuff. Just because it mainly steers towards stores they own (app store, music/movies/TV, services subscriptions) doesn’t make it any less intrusive of advertising.
Apple TV+ is an app though (which I never use). I’m talking about the operating system and the extended area above the apps is only applicable to the apps you put there (all of which for me just show the stuff you’re currently watching).
People feel that way all the time now, so AR glasses no longer seem as intrusive to most people.
Glass arrived on the scene in 2013. Since then recording in public has become much more normalised… smartphone camera use, cars with dashcams and CCTV/face recognition have all increased in popularity. YouTubers, live streamers, creators etc. If it were released again today, I’m not sure it would achieve the same hatred it did back then, at least on the “creepy camera in public” point.
The biggest problem I see from these kind of devices is: you’re isolating yourself. For example, it looks very cool that you can see a movie with a similar experience to a theatre, but you’re completely isolated using it. I don’t see a family, each with one of these devices on, watching a movie on the couch at the same time. It’s complicated enough when people have their smartphones out while eating with others…
That doesn’t mean that it hasn’t its uses, but it’s more limited than what the try to sell to you. You’re by yourself when you’re using this device, even if you can see others.
Yeah that’s crazy isolating yourself. Now excuse me while I go sit at my desktop ignoring everyone else with my headphones in.
Fun fact, over a hundred years ago people used to complain about others reading the newspaper at breakfast because it was destroying family’s time together. I don’t know how family social dynamics will survive this newspaper craze.
I’m not claiming that this is the end of western civilization or anything like that. What I mean is: the ads sell it like “you will be able to interact with those around you without problems”, and I think that’s not entirely true.
I’m not judging people wanting to isolate themselves, but in my opinion taking this thing off or putting it on is not as easy as putting your smartphone aside, or a newspaper aside.
My thinking is that this will be way more an individual experience than Apple sells. So people should take that into consideration.
Other people can see what you’re doing, and you can see them just by turning your head.
If newspapers glued themselves to your face you might have a point.
And you can take off a visor.
Have you never been so engrossed in an activity that you’ve tuned out the world around you, only to be shocked when someone taps you on the shoulder to get your attention? These complaints are as worn out as Aristotle moaning about the youths.
Which is a lot more complicated than turning your head. And it covers your entire field of vision. And people still can’t see what you’re doing.
More complicated please, it’s a lifting motion, hardly anything special and no different to removing headphones from ones ears.
And why do people need to see what I’m doing? If I’m on my phone, do they need to be able to read my screen as well? Is it not enough to see that I’m on my phone.
God VR fanboys are annoying. “There is absolutely nothing isolating about putting on goggles that completely blind you to the world.”
They had to put creepy eyes on the outside and invent super low latency video pass through for fun I guess.
I don’t own or have any inclinations towards getting a VR headset.
Im an isolation fanboy thank you very much.
I see nothing wrong with people being able to tune out and enjoy whatever they want without others demands for their attention.
It isn’t any more isolating than reading a newspaper. You can take both off in a second.
Or do you mean putting it away?
Yes and no. I’ve used a Quest to watch movies in a theater with different people from around the world and it was a very social experience. I’ve also attended a few support group meetings for dealing with loss in VR and that was honestly a really positive experience.
That’s interesting. It’s a bit funny that new technology can take us closer to those far, and at the same time take us far from those close. :P
Agreed on that, it’s a weird dichotomy. I think in a way the internet as a whole has had that effect on people.
Connections in real life don’t feel a deep as I remember them being in the past and its so often you see a group of people out to dinner or drinks together staring at their phones. Meanwhile I have a lot of pretty decent connections online with people I’ve never met in person or maybe only once or twice.
That’s an interesting perspective because I often feel the opposite. Especially post pandemic, I’ve gotten really into going out to bars and just talking to people. I barely even use my phone and sometimes will put it on do not disturb (unless wife calls) even while talking to people I barely know. They’re interesting folks.
But also I do have friends I made on the internet and have been greatly changed by internet interactions. Hell even my ideology was as I grew up on XKCD. But I’ve isolated myself to nothing but the internet before. Once with depression and fear as a queer teenager, and once with depression and fear as a person living through a global pandemic (thank fuck I had my wife for that), and I need quite a bit of face to face communication too or my brain loses its shit. And I need real irl community.
I don’t think these glasses are intended for general public use right now. I know big businesses that want them for manufacturing quality control but outside that what is the point of AR?
Spoken like someone who lacks vision.
How about going to a foreign country and being able to navigate the streets like a local thanks to the overly guiding you to your destination like Waze? How about being able to read signs and communicate with locals thanks to the instant translation services built in? How about a virtual assistant that can walk you through an oil change specifically for your car? How about a cooking assistant that can warn you if your pot is about to boil over or if you forgot to add the butter? How about taking my shitty dystopian studio apartment and giving me a balcony view of a tropical beach?
There are countless applications for AR ranging from the mundane to the extremely helpful. The tech needs to be developed more before it will be adopted by the masses, but it’s far from useless.
By 2030 we’ll have AR in a sunglasses form factor with integrated AI that will be able to digitally remove the clothing of everyone you see with a good degree of accuracy for what’s underneath.
As an industrial engineer I can think of plenty of uses of it has a halfway decent pathway overlay. Part picking with highlighted parts can be amazing and it could revolutionize assembly.
Outside factories, I’d love a gps hud on my car, and on walks. Not enough to sacrifice the little privacy I have in my own eyes though.
Edit: sorry was thinking AR glasses in general not these specifically. I wouldn’t even let my QC team use these. If the battery connection breaks you’re blind in a manufacturing environment and that’s dangerous