On the Future of Apple’s Vision Platform(daringfireball.net)
daringfireball.net
On the Future of Apple’s Vision Platform
https://daringfireball.net/2026/04/on_the_future_of_apples_vision_platform
8 comments
> in an all-new product category
VR has been around for a very very long time. AR too.
The argument that Vision Pro is something other than VR is wishful thinking and a disconnect from reality, which, not that I write it out, is perhaps apropos.
VR has been around for a very very long time. AR too.
The argument that Vision Pro is something other than VR is wishful thinking and a disconnect from reality, which, not that I write it out, is perhaps apropos.
>VR has been around for a very very long time.
QuickTime VR.
QuickTime VR.
The Vision is a disappointment, in my opinion, only because the software effort was so bizarrely unambitious compared to the hardware effort.
Just the Mac display capability gives it great value. But if they had positioned the Vision as the more powerful cousin of the Mac, in interface and OS, instead of shoehorning iOS into 3D it would be worth the money. And more.
If they shipped with:
• Mx Ultra (for serious spacial, AI, or other significant apps)
• More RAM
• Hot swap batteries, larger sizes, with optionally longer or shorter cables, and daisy-chaining capable.
• Spacial pen, pens, finger tips, or if possible, incredibly precise finger tip tracking. And a fast fingers-writing system.
• Optional keyboard+trackpad slab that looks like the bottom half of a laptop. Doubling as a really big battery pack. Tripling as a port dock.
• Pro user interface: Any number of independent Mac-like windows, but with full spacial components, first-level entities, instead of flat and in a "screen" container. With Pro interaction with just eye + finger tips. And more reliable keyboard + trackpad support.
• Pro development support: Mac-level flexibility and access, enabling serious interfaces, serious development, and serious apps.
• Proper file system, terminal, Xcode, Spaces (savable, swappable contexts), etc.
I would pay $5000 or more for that today.
Cook whiffed on an amazing legacy, worthy of Steve Jobs' successor: A Mac superior device. Instead his legacy: Wasting groundbreaking hardware on another media + toy-app kiosk, service-subscription lanyard. "In 3D!", uh I mean, "It's Spacial!"
In an Apple Store, an employee went on about how the Vision Pro had a star app in the App Store. As they were clearly trained to do. Think about the nearly dystopian tragedy of that. I was waiting to hear it had "Electrolytes".
Just the Mac display capability gives it great value. But if they had positioned the Vision as the more powerful cousin of the Mac, in interface and OS, instead of shoehorning iOS into 3D it would be worth the money. And more.
If they shipped with:
• Mx Ultra (for serious spacial, AI, or other significant apps)
• More RAM
• Hot swap batteries, larger sizes, with optionally longer or shorter cables, and daisy-chaining capable.
• Spacial pen, pens, finger tips, or if possible, incredibly precise finger tip tracking. And a fast fingers-writing system.
• Optional keyboard+trackpad slab that looks like the bottom half of a laptop. Doubling as a really big battery pack. Tripling as a port dock.
• Pro user interface: Any number of independent Mac-like windows, but with full spacial components, first-level entities, instead of flat and in a "screen" container. With Pro interaction with just eye + finger tips. And more reliable keyboard + trackpad support.
• Pro development support: Mac-level flexibility and access, enabling serious interfaces, serious development, and serious apps.
• Proper file system, terminal, Xcode, Spaces (savable, swappable contexts), etc.
I would pay $5000 or more for that today.
Cook whiffed on an amazing legacy, worthy of Steve Jobs' successor: A Mac superior device. Instead his legacy: Wasting groundbreaking hardware on another media + toy-app kiosk, service-subscription lanyard. "In 3D!", uh I mean, "It's Spacial!"
In an Apple Store, an employee went on about how the Vision Pro had a star app in the App Store. As they were clearly trained to do. Think about the nearly dystopian tragedy of that. I was waiting to hear it had "Electrolytes".
First time hearing that the Vision Pro got an update. The pricing still makes it a prohibitive purchase, but the hardware update does make it a bit more interesting to look into.
This is a lovely time capsule.
Used to be the case that Gruber had the best sources in Apple. He went corporate and started doing managed PR for them and now would you believe he no longer has the inside scoop?! It’s hilarious.
The reason he doesn’t think this is happening is because he doesn’t have sources anymore, he has handlers.
Used to be the case that Gruber had the best sources in Apple. He went corporate and started doing managed PR for them and now would you believe he no longer has the inside scoop?! It’s hilarious.
The reason he doesn’t think this is happening is because he doesn’t have sources anymore, he has handlers.
I don’t know if he was captured and made to produce pro-Apple content. He does that on his own. But reading that did make me question why he wrote it. Why does he care?
I don't think "made to" but as someone who followed his blog for many years, there was a before he did a special episode of his podcast with an apple VP and after. And clearly after he had a different perspective. It's IMO just not hard to imagine why. Every giant company has a procedure on how to manage journalists and every ex-journalist turned mouthpiece thinks they're too savvy for that.
Good to know! I thought it was a bit weird for the team to have been disbanded so abruptly. Perhaps if this aspect of the story is not correct, other aspects will turn out to have been untrue as well.