2024-02-09 07:29:35
Perhaps in the last few days you have come across videos of people walking the streets of New York (or another city) with Apple’s new glasses, and seem disconnected from their surroundings. Actually, it’s not a problem at all. The Apple Vision Pro glasses were launched a week ago and are currently only sold in the US, yet we managed to get a pair for a short test and initial review – and yes, there is no problem walking with them on the street and crossing the road, except for how it looks from the side.
They have already won the popularity test: in a short walk on Rothschild Boulevard in Tel Aviv, they were immediately recognized and repeatedly asked, just to be sure, “Are these Apple glasses?”, “How much does it cost?” and “what do you actually see”.
The interface feels almost like mind reading
Let’s start from the beginning: when you put on the glasses for the first time, the device’s system detects your eyes and automatically adjusts the display according to them – you have to press a button on the frame of the glasses until the right point is found for the person who uses the device in the same way. After that you have to get used to how to use the device, and for that there is a short setup process – at the beginning one point appears on the screen, you have to look at it and make a pinching motion with your fingers to select it. This is the principle that holds true all the way – look at the menu, link or icon you want to open and pinch with your fingers.
Later on there are 2-3 more screens with more points, to make sure that the system is calibrated and that you understand how it works, then you go to the main screen. This short process causes a small shock, when you realize that the system recognizes the eye movements and follows them. It feels like a step before mind reading – maybe it will also fit in with the chip that Elon Musk is trying to implant in the brain.
The glasses look messy, in the city because of the connection to the battery with a cable for an external battery, but they don’t actually feel heavy or bulky. I used the glasses while standing and walking with the battery in the pants pocket, and when sitting or lying down you have to find a place for it where it won’t get in the way. The glasses fit on the head easily, I didn’t feel that they were pressing or uncomfortable, although after a little less than an hour of use, marks appeared on the nose. By the way, at the end of the tour with the glasses, 57% remained in the battery, which means it should be enough for two to three hours.
After the first setting of the device (and the shock) the main screen hovers in front of you, but does not hide the reality – the background is transparent and the display does not hide the surroundings. You can change this, using the crown, a dial like the one on Apple watches and allows you to hide the background completely, like a background image on a computer, only here it can surround you from all directions, or stay behind the main screen while the rest of the environment is still visible on the sides.
Pay attention to what you are looking at
Now you can start browsing. The eyes are allowed to run left and right, and the app where the eye focuses stands out a bit from the line. To select it again you have to pinch with your fingers – you can get used to it quickly and it just works, and works simply. The problem is that the display of the applications is normal, and in Safari, for example, the buttons are close to each other. The system knows where you’re looking and is usually accurate, but it’s enough for the eye to wander a little to the side and you’ll find that you’ve chosen a different menu than the one you intended.
A small bar appears under each open application, with the help of which you can grab the entire window and move it to another place. Little by little you can build a work environment for yourself – open the Safari browser, Apple TV, Apple Music, the photos application and more, and drag each window to another place in the space in front of you, including the sides. Yes, as with other Apple devices, the idea is of course that you use the company’s apps.
The windows you opened stay in place, as long as you don’t move. When you start walking, you will pass “through” the open screen and it will stay behind (if you turn around you can see it from the other side, in a mirror image). Therefore, those who walk with the glasses on the street are not really cut off from the environment, because the window does not continue to float in front of them. Fact – when I returned from a short walk on Rothschild Boulevard I found a window that continued to float near a street corner on the road I had passed earlier. There are also built-in speakers in the glasses, which are mainly intended for you, but those who are close to you will also hear at least some of the sounds.
So each window can have its place and you can also choose to enlarge the view, not all of them have to be equal. If you want to watch a movie on YouTube or Apple TV, you can focus for a moment on the corner of the screen until a small mark appears there and when you drag it the screen will enlarge. If you move your hand in the other direction the screen will shrink back. When displaying images you can also zoom, again using hand movements.
A look and a pinch don’t solve everything: in any search window, whether it’s in Safari or Apple Music, you can open a keyboard that will float in front of you in the air, just below the glasses, and use it. You also have to get used to this – it seems for a moment as if the typing is done in the air, but you have to play the game and actually press the keys, even if they don’t exist at all in reality. A bit confusing. You can also focus your eyes on each individual letter and pinch it to compose text, and of course there is also a voice search (and Siri). All of this currently only works in English, you can’t change the language on the keyboard either, to remind you that the glasses are currently only for the United States.
You can immerse yourself in pictures and movies
To see pictures and surf the Internet or watch movies on a big screen you don’t need glasses that cost $3,500, which is why Apple integrates additional content into the device that you won’t be able to experience on other devices. You can watch the 3D photos and videos you took with the iPhone (the format Apple calls Spatial), and then feel as if you are entering the image and returning to the moment it was taken. It reminds a bit of the memories shown in the movie “The Voice in the Head”. Apple TV has content that is especially suitable for the new glasses, to take advantage of the additional capabilities, for example watching movies from someone else’s point of view like walking on a tightrope. Imagine how it would feel to watch an Inter Miami football match in the American Football League from the perspective of a spectator in the stadium and maybe even through the eyes of Leo Messi, for example – Apple already has the rights to the broadcasts, now you just need the appropriate photography equipment.
There is also a game that shows the new abilities, a Super Fruit Ninja game where you have to cut the fruits that float in front of you. To activate it, you first need to find a place with enough free physical space – in a relatively crowded room it was difficult to find such a point where all the details of the game would appear.
Will we wait for the next generation?
On the one hand, the use of the device is quite intuitive and after a few moments you get used to the idea of looking and pinching. When I walked around with the glasses I didn’t feel cut off from the world, I saw the whole environment without problems, but when I took them off at the end of use there was a somewhat blurring moment of returning to the real reality, and not as it is projected inside the glasses.
The important and obvious questions are who needs it, who is it suitable for and whether the price is justified. The answer: not clear. The initial filter is the price, of course – who can afford to buy such a product for $3,500, for fun.
After we passed this hurdle – why is it good? In general, it feels like an iPhone or iPad that is constantly in front of you, with a familiar operating system, apps that behave the same and a virtual screen that can house a workspace with several open windows floating around you. It seems that the natural and obvious use will be watching movies, thanks to the ability to open a large screen in good quality anywhere, with or without adapted content.
Beyond that, you have to wait for additional content and apps that will be adapted to the new capabilities so that the glasses are not just an iOS-like screen that floats in front of your eyes. I will mention that the first iPhone was launched without an app store (Steve Jobs didn’t want to hear about external apps being installed on the company’s device) and without connection to 3rd generation cellular networks. Despite this, it heralded a huge revolution that was realized in the models that came after it. And perhaps in the next models of the glasses the price will be more accessible and will solve the main barrier, and developers will find innovative uses that will also answer the questions of who needs it and why it is good. Yes, you can work with the glasses – surf, read documents, watch content and more, but they still feel mostly like a toy for the rich or a tool for developers.
And there is another thing: in the end, the use of glasses disconnects from the environment. Even if the person putting them together sees everything as normal, to the people around him it seems as if he is not with them at the moment. In addition, the consumption of the content is done by yourself. So you can immerse yourself in a special 3D video or watch a football game from a new angle, but you will not be sharing the experience.
We contacted the iStore chain, an official distributor of Apple in Israel, to check when the glasses will be launched in Israel. The iStore chain responded that “Apple Vision Pro glasses were launched on 02/02 in the USA. The launch date of the product outside the borders of the United States, including the State of Israel, has not yet been determined.
#tested #Apples #glasses #worth #high #price