Today, January 8th, Apple announced that the Vision Pro will be available in the U.S. on February 2nd, with pre-orders beginning next Friday, January 19 at 5 a.m. PST.
In their press release, Tim Cook says “The era of spatial computing has arrived,” marking the beginning of new ways to interact with our devices seamlessly in a way only Apple could.
Their headline features mention “an infinite canvas for productivity,” “the ultimate entertainment experience,” and “new gaming experiences” – the three key areas I plan to use the device myself, particularly when paired with macOS as a monitor. Apple also mentioned the Band on the device for the first time, which will likely be necessary to comfortably use the device for all three of these tasks for more than a short period.
Viewing Memories and interacting with other Vision Pro users’ Personas also sound like fascinating experiences, but I have a feeling those will be more valuable over time and a bit less so immediately at launch.
Not shown in their photos is the connected battery pack, which has up to 2.5 hours of 2D playback (and likely less for a fully-immersive 3D movie) – this will be great for detachability, but I have a feeling I’ll be using this first version near a charger most of the time anyway and will be plugged in for full battery.
Overall, I’m most fascinated by the interface and what it means for my personal productivity – the combination of spatial computing, interacting with my existing devices, and my heavy use of Apple’s Shortcuts app are going to provide a truly unique experience.
In many ways, I’ve spent the last 10 years working on Workflow and now Shortcuts to build out robust voice interactions for almost every part of my computing experience – now, there’s a truly hands-free device on the way that’s deeply integrated with Shortcuts by default.
I can’t wait to lay my eyes on my headset.
