Technologies

Apple Vision Pro Hands-On: Far Better Than I Was Ready For

I experienced incredible fidelity, surprising video quality and a really smooth interface. Apple’s first mixed-reality headset nails those, but lots of questions remain.

I was in a movie theater last December watching Avatar: The Way of Water in 3D, and I said to myself: «Wow, this is an immersive film I’d love to watch in next-gen VR.» That’s exactly what I experienced in Apple’s Vision Pro headset, and yeah, it’s amazing.

On Monday, I tried out the Vision Pro in a series of carefully picked demos during WWDC at Apple’s Cupertino, California, headquarters. I’ve been using cutting-edge VR devices for years, and I found all sorts of augmented reality memories bubbling up in my brain. Apple’s compact — but still not small —headset reminds me of an Apple-designed Meta Quest Pro. The fit of the back strap was comfy yet stretchy, with a dial to adjust the rear fit and a top strap for stability. The headset’s sleek design, and even its glowing front faceplate, also gave me an instant Ready Player One vibe.

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I couldn’t wear my glasses during the demo, though, and neither will you. Apple’s headset does not support glasses, instead relying on Zeiss custom inserts to correct wearers’ vision. Apple did manage, through a setup process, to easily find lenses that fit my vision well enough so that everything seemed crystal clear, which is not an easy task. Also, we adjusted the fit and tuned spatial audio for my head using an iPhone, a system that will be finessed when the headset is released in 2024.

From there, I did my demos seated, mostly, and found myself surprised from the start. The passthrough video camera quality of this headset is good —really, really good. Not as good as my own vision, but good enough that I could see the room well, see people in it with me, see my watch notifications easily on my wrist. The only headset that’s done this previously was the extremely impressive but PC-connected Varjo XR-3, and Apple’s display and cameras feel even better.

Apple’s floating grid of apps appears when I press the top digital crown, which autocenters the home screen to wherever I’m looking. I set up eye tracking, which worked like on many other VR headsets I’ve used: I looked at glowing dots as musical notes played, and got a chime when it all worked.

An app menu in Apple's VisionOS. — A list of apps as they would appear inside of the Apple Vision Pro headset.

Apple/Screenshot by CNET

From there, the interface was surprisingly fluid. Looking at icons or interface options slightly enlarges them, or changes how bold they appear. Tapping with my fingers while looking at something opens an app.

I’ve used tons of hand-tracking technology on headsets like the HoloLens 2 and the Meta Quest 2 and Pro, and usually there’s a lot of hand motion required. Here, I could be really lazy. I pinched to open icons even while my hand was resting in my lap, and it worked.

Scrolling involves pinching and pulling with my fingers; again, pretty easy to do. I resized windows by moving my hand to throw a window across the room or pin it closer to me. I opened multiple apps at once, including Safari, Messages and Photos. It was easy enough to scroll around, although sometimes my eye tracking needed a bit of extra concentration to pull off.

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Apple’s headset uses eye tracking constantly in its interface, something Meta’s Quest Pro and even the PlayStation VR 2 don’t do. That might be part of the reason for the external battery pack. The emphasis on eye tracking as a major part of the interface felt transformative, in a way I expected might be the case for VR and AR years ago. What I don’t know is how it will feel in longer sessions.

I don’t know how the Vision Pro will work with keyboards and trackpads, since I didn’t get to demo the headset that way. It works with Apple’s Magic Keyboard and Magic Trackpad, and Macs, but not with iPhone and iPad or Watch touchscreens —not now, at least.

Dialing in reality

I scrolled through some photos in Apple’s preset photo album, plus a few 3D photos and video clips shot with the Vision Pro’s 3D camera. All the images looked really crisp, and a panoramic photo that spread around me looked almost like it was a window on a landscape that extended just beyond the room I was in.

Apple has volumetric 3D landscapes on the Vision Pro that are immersive backgrounds like 3D wallpaper, but looking at one really shows off how nice that Micro OLED display looks. A lake looked like it was rolling up to a rocky shore that ended right where the real coffee table was in front of me.

man using keyboard to work using apple vision pro headset

Raising my hands to my face, I saw how the headset separates my hands from VR, a trick that’s already in Apple’s ARKit. It’s a little rough around the edges but good enough. Similarly, there’s a wild new trick where anyone else in the room can ghost into view if you look at them, a fuzzy halo with their real passthrough video image slowly materializing. It’s meant to help create meaningful contact with people while wearing the headset. I wondered how you could turn that off or tune it to be less present, but it’s a very new idea in mixed reality.

Apple’s digital crown, a small dial borrowed from the Apple Watch, handles reality blend. I could turn the dial to slowly extend the 3D panorama until it surrounded me everywhere, or dial it back so it just emerged a little bit like a 3D window.

Mixed reality in Apple’s headset looks so casually impressive that I almost didn’t appreciate how great it was. Again, I’ve seen mixed reality in VR headsets before (Varjo XR-3, Quest Pro), and I’ve understood its capabilities. Apple’s execution of mixed reality felt much more immersive, rich and effortless on most fronts, with a field of view that felt expansive and rich. I can’t to see more experiences in it.

Cinematic fidelity that wowed me

The cinema demo was what really shocked me, though. I played a 3D clip of Avatar: The Way of Water in-headset, on a screen in various viewing modes including a cinema. Apple’s mixed-reality passthrough can also dim the rest of the world down a bit, in a way similar to how the Magic Leap 2 does with its AR. But the scenes of Way of Water sent little chills through me. It was vivid. This felt like a movie experience. I don’t feel that way in other VR headsets.

Avatar: The Way of Water looked great in the Vision Pro.

20th Century Studios

Apple also demonstrated its Immersive Video format that’s coming as an extension to Apple TV Plus. It’s a 180-degree video format, similar to what I’ve seen before in concept, but with really strong resolution and video quality. A splash demo reel of Alicia Keys singing, Apple Sports events, documentary footage and more reeled off in front of me, a teaser of what’s to come. One-eighty-degree video never appears quite as crisp to me as big-screen film content, but the sports clips I saw made me wonder how good virtual Jets games could be in the future. Things have come a long way.

Would I pay $3,499 for a head-worn cinema? No, but it’s clearly one of this device’s greatest unique strengths. The resolution and brightness of the display were surprising.

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Convincing avatars (I mean, Personas)

Apple’s Personas are 3D-scanned avatars generated by using the Vision Pro to scan your face, making a version of yourself that shows up in FaceTime chats if you want, or also on the outside of the Vision Pro’s curved OLED display to show whether you’re «present» or in an app. I didn’t see how that outer display worked, but I had a FaceTime with someone in their Persona form, and it was good. Again, it looked surprisingly good.

I’ve chatted with Meta’s ultra-realistic Codec Avatars, which aim for realistic representations of people in VR. Those are stunning, and I’ve also seen Meta’s phone-scanned step-down version in an early form last year, where a talking head spoke to me in VR. Apple’s Persona looked better than Meta’s phone-scanned avatar, although a bit fuzzy around the edges, like a dream. The woman whose Persona was scanned appeared in her own window, not in a full-screen form.

And I wondered how expressive the emotions are with the Vision Pro’s scanning cameras. The Pro has an ability to scan jaw movement similar to the Quest Pro, and the Persona I chatted with was friendly and smiling. How would it look for someone I know, like my mom? Here, it was good enough that I forgot it was a scan.

We demoed a bit of Apple’s Freeform app, where a collaboration window opened up while my Persona friend chatted in another window. 3D objects popped up in the Freeform app, a full home scan. It looked realistic enough.

Dinosaurs in my world

The final demo was an app experience called Encounter Dinosaurs, which reminded me of early VR app demos I had years ago: An experience emphasizing just the immersive «wow» factor of dinosaurs appearing in a 3D window that seemed to open up in the back wall of my demo room. Creatures that looked like carnotauruses slowly walked through the window and into my space.

All my demos were seated except for this one, where I stood up and walked around a bit. This sounds like it wouldn’t be an impressive demo, but again, the quality of the visuals and how they looked in relation to the room’s passthrough video capture was what made it feel so great. As the dinosaur snapped at my hand, it felt pretty real. And so did a butterfly that danced through the room and tried to land on my extended finger.

I smiled. But even more so, I was impressed when I took off the headset. My own everyday vision wasn’t that much sharper than what Apple’s passthrough cameras provided. The gap between the two was closer than I would have expected, and it’s what makes Apple’s take on mixed reality in VR work so well.

Then there’s the battery pack. There’s a corded battery that’s needed to power the headset, instead of a built-in battery like most others have. That meant I had to make sure to grab the battery pack as I started to move around, which is probably a reason why so many of Apple’s demos were seated.

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What about fitness and everything else?

Apple didn’t emphasize fitness much at all, a surprise to me. VR is already a great platform for fitness, although no one’s finessed headset design for fitness comfort. Maybe having that battery pack right now will limit movement in active games and experiences. Maybe Apple will announce more plans here later. The only taste I got of health and wellness was a one-minute micro meditation, which was similar to the one on the Apple Watch. It was pretty, and again a great showcase of the display quality, but I want more.

2024 is still a while away, and Apple’s headset is priced way out of range for most people. And I have no idea how functional this current headset would feel if I were doing everyday work. But Apple did show off a display, and an interface, that are far better than I was ready for. If Apple can build on that, and the Vision Pro finds ways of expanding its mixed-reality capabilities, then who knows what else is possible?

This was just my fast-take reaction to a quick set of demos on one day in Cupertino. There are a lot more questions to come, but this first set of demos resonated with me. Apple showed what it can do, and we’re not even at the headset’s launch yet.

Technologies

You Can Watch an Exclusive Avatar: Fire and Ash Scene on TikTok Right Now

Disney and TikTok partner on an immersive content hub for James Cameron’s latest movie about the alien Na’vi.

If you’re not quite ready to head to the theater to watch Avatar: Fire and Ash, an exclusive scene preview might sell you on the visual spectacle. As part of a new collaboration with the social media giant, Disney is posting snippets of its new movie to its TikTok account.

This scene isn’t part of any trailer and won’t be posted to other social media accounts, making TikTok the only place you can view it — unless you buy a movie ticket. A first look at the new movie’s scenes isn’t the only Avatar-related bonus on the social media platform right now, either. TikTok has partnered with the house of mouse to bring an entire «immersive content hub» to the app.

A special section of TikTok includes quizzes and educational videos that explore the alien world of Pandora shown off in the movies. On TikTok, you can take a personality quiz to find out what Na’vi clan you most closely align with and unlock a special profile picture border to use on your account.

Science and fiction blend together with a series of videos from real doctors who explain the basis for some of Avatar’s world-building. If you want to learn about exoplanets or how realistic the anatomy of the movie’s alien animals is, these videos will feed your brain while still providing entertainment value.

Perhaps the most enticing part of Disney’s latest social media collaboration is the opportunity for fans to win prizes and trips. TikTok creators who make edits with the #TikTokAvatarContest hashtag are entered into a competition to win Avatar merchandise. The biggest winners will be able to take a trip to visual effects studio Wētā Workshop in New Zealand or visit Avatar director James Cameron’s Lightstorm Entertainment Studio in Los Angeles.

Avatar: Fire and Ash is the third installment in director Cameron’s cinematic passion project. While the first Avatar movie was released in 2009, Cameron didn’t release another entry in the franchise until 2022. In total, there is a five-movie arc planned for the indigo alien Na’vi on the moon of Pandora.

The Avatar movies are known for pushing the boundaries of CGI visual effects in cinema. They are also historically big winners at the box office: the original Avatar is the highest-grossing film of all time, earning $2.9 billion across its theatrical releases. Its sequel, Avatar: The Way of Water, is the third-highest-grossing film of all time, trailing Avengers: Endgame. You can stream those movies on Disney Plus.

It remains to be seen whether Avatar: Fire and Ash will financially live up to its predecessors. The film currently has mixed reviews from critics on Rotten Tomatoes.

Technologies

Brain-Inspired Algorithms Could Dramatically Cut AI Energy Use

A new study dives into a major redesign for AI architecture.

One major issue facing artificial intelligence is the interaction between a computer’s memory and its processing capabilities. When an algorithm is in operation, data flows rapidly between these two components. However, AI models rely on a vast amount of data, which creates a bottleneck.

A new study, published on Monday in the journal Frontiers in Science by Purdue University and the Georgia Institute of Technology, suggests a novel approach to building computer architecture for AI models using brain-inspired algorithms. The researchers say that creating algorithms in this manner could reduce the energy costs associated with AI models.

«Language processing models have grown 5,000-fold in size over the last four years,» Kaushik Roy, a Purdue University computer engineering professor and the study’s lead author, said in a statement. «This alarmingly rapid expansion makes it crucial that AI is as efficient as possible. That means fundamentally rethinking how computers are designed.»

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Most computers today are modeled on an idea from 1945 called the von Neumann architecture, which separates processing and memory. This is where the slowdown occurs. As more people around the world utilize data-hungry AI models, the distinction between a computer’s processing and memory capacity could become a more significant issue.

Researchers at IBM called out this problem in a post earlier this year. The issue computer engineers are running up against is called the ‘memory wall.’

Breaking the memory wall

The memory wall refers to the disparity between memory and processing capabilities. Essentially, computer memory is struggling to keep up with processing speeds. This isn’t a new issue. A pair of researchers from the University of Virginia coined the term back in the 1990s.

But now that AI is prevalent, the memory wall issue is sucking up time and energy in the underlying computers that make AI models work. The paper’s researchers argue that we could try a new computer architecture that integrates memory and processing.

Inspired by how our brains function, the AI algorithms referred to in the paper are known as spiking neural networks. A common criticism of these algorithms in the past is that they can be slow and inaccurate. However, some computer scientists argue that these algorithms have shown significant improvement over the last few years.

The researchers suggest that AI models should utilize a concept related to SNNs, known as compute-in-memory. This concept is still relatively new in the field of AI.

«CIM offers a promising solution to the memory wall problem by integrating computing capabilities directly into the memory system,» the authors write in the paper’s abstract.

Medical devices, transportation, and drones are a few areas where researchers believe improvements could be made if computer processing and memory were integrated into a single system.

«AI is one of the most transformative technologies of the 21st century. However, to move it out of data centers and into the real world, we need to dramatically reduce its energy use,» Tanvi Sharma, co-author and researcher at Purdue University, said in a statement.

«With less data transfer and more efficient processing, AI can fit into small, affordable devices with batteries that last longer,» Sharma said.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for Dec. 17, #450

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for Dec. 17, No. 450.

Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Connections: Sports Edition is pretty challenging. How well do you know French soccer? If you’re struggling with today’s puzzle but still want to solve it, read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is published by The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by The Times. It doesn’t appear in the NYT Games app, but it does in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can play it for free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Put it on your noggin.

Green group hint: Goes before a division of the year.

Blue group hint: French football.

Purple group hint: Think Louisville Slugger.