The new glasses from Apple cost $3,500. It was a long wait for this. The Vision Pro has been officially available for a few days. But only in the USA.
As if our world wasn’t already full of external impressions. Apple is taking things one step further and wants us to top this sensory overload in the future and expand it to include digital information. The device of choice: the Apple Vision Pro.
In June 2023, Apple presented the first details about the glasses at the WWDC developer conference. When the Americans arrived at the price, a murmur went through the garden. The glasses, which have the same shape as the AirPods Max case, cost $3,500. For now, the Vision Pro is only available in the USA and was sold out within a few hours when pre-sales began.
Beware of eBay offers
Grandparents and parents used to say that you shouldn’t move so close to the television or you would get square eyes. Even if that hasn’t come true, people have learned to appreciate the distance from TV sets. And now Apple is simply turning the tables and unceremoniously dumping half a kilogram on your face. The 350 gram battery is not integrated and hangs on a cable.
Some Vision Pro models have now landed on eBay and are being offered there at horrendous prices. Customers outside the USA should be warned: the glasses will not work without a US Apple ID. It should also be purchased directly from Apple, because the ordering process takes you through a virtual fitting and also takes the diopters of glasses wearers into account.
The first media that received the glasses for testing were full of positive reviews. Especially because Apple is taking a two-pronged approach. While Facebook focuses entirely on gaming and virtual reality with its Quest series, the Vision Pro offers both technologies: the virtual and the expanded world, which is often referred to as augmented reality. With the latter, the wearer of the glasses not only sees the real world, but also additional information. The best-known example of this is the game Pokemon Go. Here you could see Vienna’s city park on the display as if with an open camera and also the small, well-known figures that had to be collected.
Most of the videos that have gone online about the Vision Pro show people cooking and timers running over the pots on the stove to show the remaining cooking time. Or: Instead of watching the European Championship football final on a large TV, Vision Pro turns the entire field of vision into a television. But people forget that such events are also social events.
1000 apps are already available in the designated store right from the start. There are also some that bring the four seasons into your living room. Who hasn’t always wanted to lie on the couch in the snow?
Compromises and stumbling blocks
Apple also promotes the Vision Pro as the successor to the computer. In the future, you will see the user interface of a MacBook displayed in front of your eyes and be able to control it with your hands and fingers. Dozens of sensors and cameras ensure that this is possible. We hear that the operation is also unusual and characterized by setbacks. Only a few US journalists can imagine doing the entire working day with the Vision Pro.
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