For air travel, I really like my Xreal Air glasses now that I have a newer iPhone 16pro. Just plug in the USB-C cable, and you have a virtual 60" screen in front of you which works perfectly for Netflix, etc. And they cost less than 10% of the cost of an AVP, and are not limited to 2-3 hours of battery life (they get power from the phone).
Note that if you have an older (lightning) iPhone, don't bother with these. They require a pair of dongles. Not only does that make things really awkward, but one of the dongles ends up apparently blocking HDCP, and prevents you from using anything but ... your own... downloaded content.
Taking a flight as an opportunity to indulge in a moment of blissful idleness is great... on a three-hour flight.
But on a 14-hour trans-continental flight, you've gotta have something to do. If nothing else, to distract you from how uncomfortable it is to be effectively confined to your seat + a few feet of narrow walkway for that long. That's more confined than a prison cell!
doesn't it depend on how long the flight is? the effect of alcohol is pleasant and relaxing for few hours. after that it gets me sleepless tired and my legs need to fidget more than otherwise.
I write this while on a United IAD-SFO direct (a bit over 5 hours), sipping a scotch on the rocks.
I've gotten the AVP demo at Apple HQ 3 times now, twice before release day. I really like it, can't imagine dropping $5000 of my own cash on it. Maybe for V2. I had a similar reaction to the Airpods Max. V2 is here. Meh. In this case, my boss has indicated we can get a few for testing, but the check's still in the mail. I have a certified-for-actual-flight-training VR system next to my desk at the office and have used that more than anyone else in the office that I'm aware of. So despite some of the most compelling, hard, spatial problems on Earth, medicine and national defense - everything from protein docking to casualty evacuation in contested environments, I'm hanging tight for now.
Does the screen stay in one place or does it move when you move your head? That turned out to be the thing that made viture glasses unusable for me. I get that slam can be hard but I would be okay with sticking a target sticker up somewhere in my field of view and having the glasses force the screen there.
I think you need the XReal Beam in addition to the glasses to be able to anchor the screen in space, without it the screen is just fixed to the glasses.
My understanding is that I can just use them as an external monitor, so if I'm traveling I could plug in my linux laptop and just have an external monitor to work on and could play music through them at the same time.
That sounds really tempting to me, travel work setups are always sub optimal.
I have a portable external monitor, and can bring my mechanical keyboard, and if there's a spare TV I might also use it.
But it's still not the same as a proper home setup.
Even for working on a couch, it would be nice to have a screen in front of you so you don't have to slouch.
My understanding is that they can be used standalone as a monitor, or if you want to actually do VR stuff, play VR games etc, you need to buy a "XREAL Beam" or "XREAL Beam Pro" which does the VR apps etc?
Not too sure on the differences between Air, Air 2, Air 2 pro etc, but for my requirements they would all probably be fine.
You can plug them directly into your laptop (as long as it supports DP Alt mode, which I understand is common - my Thinkpad does). But, the virtual monitor will be in a fixed position relative to your head. Which is really not comfortable. In order to get the virtual screen to stay fixed in space while you move your head, you need the Beam.
I use the Xreal Air 1 with the Beam on my Thinkpad X1 and it's great. I really recommend it for flights. I don't understand why it hasn't gotten more popular. I can use my laptop comfortably for many hours, which makes long flights a lot more tolerable.
I only use them for laptop productivity. Not sure about VR stuff.
Still works with a USB-C computer, or tablet, or Xreal's own Beam Pro. I'm sticking with my 13 Mini as a phone but still happy to travel with Xreal Air glasses.
I have Nreal Air glasses (they changed name?), they aren't useable for programming really, image is too soft, but neat for watching Netflix on the train etc.
I got the prescription inserts for the xreal air 2 pro. They were a little more expensive than I would’ve liked ($150 plus $40 because I need -8 SPH) but I have somewhat severe myopia.
For my 12 hour transatlantics, nothing beats a Steamdeck for me. Sure it’s less immersive than a VR or xreal but it doesn’t really matter once you get into the game. I can easily play for 8 hours and barely notice the flight.
Those look pretty cool. Can you make the image from the input source fill your field of view? My issue with all of these headsets so far is the dumb "virtual screen" that's "equivalent to a 60-foot screen 100 feet away!"
My concerns are around the normalization of pointing high-resolution cameras at people around you all the time. Perhaps this specific device may have a company behind it that, at least at the moment, will resist handing the video feed with you in it to the data brokers.
Make no mistake though, the data brokers are foaming at the mouth to get access to high-resolution constantly-streaming video content that includes your face, your location, and your activities. Imagine the sorts of things that are going to be sold to whoever is buying.
"Jake Jacobs, who is married, is striking up a lengthy conversation with the young woman seated next to him. His wife might be interested in ads for divorce lawyers."
"Jeff Jones is taking a middle-of-the-week flight to San Jose, and he just finished writing an email to a recruiter from another company who is based out of that city. His company is paying the data broker for intel on employees who may be shopping around, so let's get this info to them stat."
"Jennifer Smith looks to be 3 months pregnant and is flying from Texas to Colorado. She's reading a Planned Parenthood pamphlet. The State of Texas passed a law in 2026 requiring data brokers to report on such activities, so of course we'll let them know."
As competing products come along that are cheaper than the Apple doohickies in part because of the subsidies they get from the data brokers, portable VR headsets are going to bring along a significant deterioration of our already-dismal privacy protections.
>My concerns are around the normalization of pointing high-resolution cameras at people around you all the time.
This already exists with CCTVs on every major city streetcorner and Ring cameras on every doorstep. Not to mention Tesla cloud-connected cameras pointed inward and outward.
But we don't have CCTV in bathrooms, locker/changing rooms or swimming pools etc. You can't take a Tesla in there either (please don't give Elon any ideas though).
While I can't promise that all CCTV operators are honest people, at least there's some chance of going after the company involved if there's a mess-up. Random people on the street where you have no idea who they are filming you, that's a different thing.
Randos installing hidden cameras in women's toilets seems to be a big enough problem in South Korea that some of the public toilets at major stations are security checked for them every single day, as far as I know. I don't want those people anywhere near me with an always-on camera, even in public fully-clothed spaces.
Try getting CCTV footage passed as admissible in court in most of Europe. It's basically impossible, even at HD resolutions. That's if you can even get hold of the footage under GDPR - as it requires the police to request the footage and follow up with the business to ensure its passed on.
Most of the CCTV and Ring cameras are pretty lousy and they're in fixed locations. All the time I'll be out walking and hear an obnoxious "You are currently being recorded" announcement, but I'm far enough away from that cheap camera that I'm probably a shadowy figure in a grainy video.
These VR headsets on the other hand are high-quality, very close to other people, and mobile.
To the degree that this is a risk, I'd note that airports and train stations tend to have a _large_ quantity of cameras in them; some of them owned by the airport operator, some by law enforcement, and some by lessees of retail space within the airport.
This problem is real, but it is better managed by creating massive, punishing fines for companies that engage in that behavior than it is by attempting to ban augmented reality devices (or laptops, or tablets, or phones, or any other camera-containing device).
Just like we had with TVs and other screens. Interestingly enough though, when I look around in my office, the majority of people in my team wear glasses, so there's that...
> Imagine the sorts of things that are going to be sold to whoever is buying.
Gargoyles represent the embarrassing side of the Central Intelligence Corporation. Instead of using laptops, they wear their computers on their bodies, broken up into separate modules that hang on the waist, on the back, on the headset. They serve as human surveillance devices, recording everything that happens around them. Nothing looks stupider; these getups are the modern-day equivalent of the slide-rule scabbard or the calculator pouch on the belt, marking the user as belonging to a class that is at once above and far below human society.
Stephenson, Neal. Snow Crash: A Novel (pp. 140-141). Random House Worlds. Kindle Edition.
The current top comment in this thread recommends AR glasses from a Beijing-based company which has indirect Chinese state involvement (through Alibaba). So yeah...
> Perhaps this specific device may have a company behind it that, at least at the moment, will resist handing the video feed with you in it to the data brokers.
In that case go with devices made by Meta. As selling the raw data is the last thing they would do.
This is complete science fiction / FUD. Amazon can't even stop showing you ads for vacuum cleaners after you buy a vacuum cleaner, you think they have the compute for something that sophisticated?
Not able to compute that won't stop them reselling or holding it.
At some point it will leak, and available for sell to PI or someone will more personal interest on you
If 1% of people buy a second vacuum that ad placement could be very rational.
Some people have big houses, others want to buy another brand, and some people love their cleaner so much they buy a similar one for their cousin's birthday.
It’d probably be mostly happening on-device. Why waste their own compute on it when they can just drain your battery and send themselves only the pertinent details.
Oh yeah, no, you're definitely streaming high-definition video from the airplane. You'd better put your phone in airplane mode. The front camera is silently recording and selling your complaints about the airplane food to a competing airline in full HD. Some say they can tell from your pores. Airlines specifically upgraded in-flight wifi to 100 Gbps upload so that we could get seamless data brokering on-demand. A data broker I know sometimes hits a button to get instant live-streaming access to the inside of the seatback pocket. He really likes it. "He's watching Modern Family S4 E3" he laughed the other day. "He doesn't know the airline doesn't have S4 E4! He's going to be so disappointed"
I won't buy a device with cameras slapped all over it either. But anyone fearmongering over this has not thought through what it would take to do this at scale and really consider how this is worthwhile over existing tracking methods. The amount of compute required to squeeze useful targeting data out of hours of video is just not cost-effective compared to the plentiful data from your activity on a phone or laptop. In all your examples, the same signal would be visible from online activity that is practically guaranteed to be there.
It is also one of the few public places to 'safely' do it.
Would you feel comfortable wearing one and limiting your awareness of your surroundings on a public bus? In a coffee shop? Sitting outside a coffee shop? In a park? In a pub?
And also your answers may be yes if you are male, but I can imagine in the current world we live in a lot of women would feel potentially at risk if they were wearing these in public.
> The work part though? I had the same feeling as with the iPad early on. I need a keyboard and a mouse to be productive.
Both my iPad Pro and my Vision Pro have a keyboard and trackpad:
- The iPad Pro of course uses the excellent Magic Keyboard.
- The Vision Pro uses an Apple keyboard w/o numpad side by side with the Magic Trackpad, in a custom tray to hold both. (Make sure that your carryon's front pocket can hold the full tray.)
For sure if I thought I could only do work on a MacBook not an iPad Pro (what most people seem to think, insisting iPad is a consumption device), then I definitely couldn't work on a Vision Pro.
But once you've figured out how to code (e.g. VSCode using blink code, or Koder, Working Copy, Textastic, etc.), do graphic design (e.g. Affinity suite), or run Office on an iPad (Teams, Outlook, Word, PowerPoint, Excel), the Vision Pro does those too but with "all the app windows at once" (ofc, iPad Pro 13" makes excellent use of Stage Manager for window groups).
All that said, I haven't felt a burden to pull AVP out on the plane.
iPad Pro 13" HDR with AirPods Pro USB-C using Spatial Audio that anchors to your iPad screen seem more than enough. Especially since you can share audio with a seat mate who also has AirPods, and both watch the same movie together.
Not often talked about: for doing real work, do consider a fresh glasses prescription and the Zeiss add-ins. To keep windows rectangular instead of trapezoid, insist you're under 40 regardless of your age, otherwise Zeiss do a stealth "progressive" that warps window sizes.
It's really unfortunate that they decided for an ios variant instead of a macos variant for the vision pro. Even if the power of macos (a real filesystem and the software library) is hidden behind a 'expert mode' or some shit.
I want to replace my macbook, I don't want to replace my ipad. I can't work properly on my ipad unless i'm using it as a dumb terminal. And at the price point of a macbook that's what it should be replacing.
People may point out that i can use it to mirror my macbook screen.. but now i'm paying 2x to replace a screen. I think this is a primary misplay in he vision pro strategy.
Give me a windowing system that lets me place windows, not in a little box that is essentially a virtual monitor, but wherever i want in my immediate vicinity. Let me put my goland/ide window front and center, let me put a terminal to the left, and my music player above.. whatever.
I'd take a vision pro with much of the compute hardware stripped out but that I can tether to a macbook via usbc/thunderbolt as well.. just not an ipad strapped to my face.
Apple Vision Pro can recognize a Macbook and turn that screen into the "theater" screen so you can continue using your Macbook as is with the keyboard and trackpad.
There was even a Youtuber that got annoyed of the black screen on the Macbook when doing this that he removed the screen from a Macbook altogether[0].
I don't see why won't you be able use a keyboard if you can touch-type. I can imagine that a CAD or an animation app could make great use of the 3D views, a mouse for precise coordinate input, and a keyboard for numeric and text input.
I wonder how soon will Maya or CATIA offer good enough integration. Maybe they already offer it at the high end.
"It’s a fantastic device to travel with—Be it by train or by plane, it offers an unparalleled opportunity to selectively tune out your environment and sink into an engaging activity like watching a movie or just working on your laptop. "
Lord forgive you have a new unexpected experience while traveling or expose yourself to the underclasses or subject yourself to the shtty social environment you helped create...
I recently took a long flight and brought my Quest device, set to travel mode. It worked great! Pretty much the same experience as this article describes.
One protip, I bought a 512G flash drive and loaded it with content. Then I could pop the drive in and play movies off it. I did not want to deal with needing connectivity for DRM or other server checks.
Highly recommend that people try this out, the next time you travel. It’s a killer use case for VR.
Aside from the Meta integration which will always be a non-starter for me, it would be great if Quest and other headsets followed Apple's design with an external battery pack. I wonder if there are/will ever be "dumb headsets" that are powered/ran by a phone.
Do you know that you can create a Meta account with a one-time email address, fake name, and no connection to any other Meta service but the Quest platform? That may still be more connection to Meta than you prefer, but to many "Meta integration" implies an automatic linkage to Facebook or Instagram.
They only recommend your real name in case you need to recover your account.
----
To create a Meta account using your email address, you will need to provide:
Email: You can only create one Meta account per email address.
First and last name: We recommend using your real name in case you need to recover your account or manage your store purchases.
Birthday: You need to be at least 13 years old (or the applicable age in your region) to set up and manage your own Meta account. If you are between 10 and 12 (or the applicable age in your region), then you need a Meta account that’s managed by a parent or guardian.
Password: This must be at least 8 characters. Avoid passwords that someone could easily guess.
You can extend your Quest with third-party accessories to do this. I got a better head strap with external battery support + 2 batteries and charger from BoboVR. With the magnetic snap-in the batteries can be easily replaced mid-play, in essence providing infinite charge time.
I have a Quest 2 and a Quest 3 - both headsets allow you to continue using them while they're plugged into an external battery pack or charger, so you can absolutely do this already.
I agree it'd be nice to have an external CPU pack for heat and weight reasons, but we're not quite there yet. The closest thing currently is wireless streaming via a PC running Steam VR, but that's not exactly portable.
I believe XREAL headsets are exactly that. Bulky sunglasses form factor, Pepper's Ghost optical setup, dumb display by itself + 3DoF for comfort with an adapter, takes DP Alt input.
Pretty much yes, there are already hints that this will be coming but for the current experience what would be the benefit Quest with battery included is already the same weight as the Vision Pro without the battery. So just add an external battery bank via USB and you have the same weight experience
The very first gen of untethered headsets were powered by the phone. They quickly realized that the phone stack in that phone stole too many resources to reach the performance they wanted. The Quest came out "shortly" after that Carmack presentation.
Why? There's are already 1000s of external batteries. Unless you mean you think Meta should do it so they can charge 4x of any other battery like Apple does?
Quest is also lighter than Vision Pro, even with it's built in battery
I have a Quest One collecting dust, but now I'm thinking it might be fun to bring it on a long flight if I know the onboard entertainment will be really lacking--some airlines I've been on have really reduced the TV/movie selections for some reason.
An iPad works pretty well for in-flight entertainment like video or reading. Though I’ll just bring a Kindle on a shorter trip where I sort of know I won’t be watching video.
There’s a headphone port in the Quest 3. I just got a $20 set of wired headphones for it. I think you can connect via Bluetooth for wireless but I have t tried.
Depends on the content, but some disc rips, some ytdl, some internal corporate stuff that I just hit Save As. The nice thing about the Quest, it is pretty much just a computer so lots of formats can get played (and you can even just copy files to the filesystem in a format the e.g. BigscreenVR or other video player apps can read)
Life is way too short to spend it worrying about what other people think about this type of thing. Reality is, they almost never care and are far more concerned about their own problems than whether someone else looks like a dork.
I think that will fade. I don't know if you remember how mocked the airpods were when they first came out ("They look like q-tips"). All it'll take is a few celebrities spotted using one and they'll turn cool in no time.
You're not wrong, but I think there's at least a couple of orders of magnitude of awkwardness between the Airpods and the the Vision Pro that will have to be overcome, before the VP becomes mainstream.
I don't think it will pass, but I think subsequent versions will be slimmer and less mock-prone. In 10 years people will look back at the first version the way people look back at the first bulky cell phones.
Oh, I have no doubt that it will get better over time, but I think people forget that part of the early adopter tax is often that you look like a fucking dork. Which in my mind isn't a bad thing - it shows that you're committed to making it work. There's something noble about that, wouldn't you say?
At least the AVP seems like a reasonably engineered piece of equipment. The cybertruck has a seemingly unending list of flaws documented in /r/cyberstuck.
It's possible for those concerned with this to overcome it! Most people are way more focused on themselves than whatever a random person is wearing in public, and will likely forget the encounter the second they set foot off the plane.
Just reading this blog makes me feel like it is actually not a great device to travel with. For me, a good travel device is one that takes up minimal room when packing to the point where it becomes easy to forget I even have it in my bag. The Vision Pro typically requires its own dedicated spot on top of your carry on as you go through the airport - kind of the opposite. The author talks about just packing it with a single cover for the goggles but that also makes me nervous given its MSRP
A kindle/book/tablet seems superior in this regard. You get your entertainment for the plane and you don't have to worry about unpacking it on the plane, being precious with a very expensive piece of equipment and they are negligible in terms of lugging around/storing in your hotel. You can even reasonably use these if you have a little down time waiting in a line, during quick trips, will be without power for a while, etc.
The last time I remember flying with a tablet, it was so suspicious that airport security hauled me into a private room and interrogated me about it. They questioned why I didn't take it out of my bag for the scanner (since it was a 'laptop'). They asked what it was. They made me turn it on and use it. They were extremely rude and kept me holed up for a long time while investigating it.
So I don't fly with a tablet any more haha! Although, I get that time has passed and I would no longer be accosted so much, I assume. Must be pretty common now. My story takes place in ~2011 with the Motorola Xoom tablet. I guess they had never seen a tablet before.
I was also working hard on a plane one time, writing code to access barometer data on mobile devices to build a distributed weather sensor network that could be activated in software. The flight attendant came by and told me, "okay, time to put your toys away sweetie" referring to my tablet and phone. Oooooooooh my god.
The author (me) specifically recommends to not buy the bulky travel case from Apple and instead, just use the default front cover + a lens protector.
This is specifically to not to take up any extra room than is necessary. The only room it takes up is essentially the width of the HMD itself (even negating the strap)!
FYI, you may want to revisit a couple of your "only me" points on the AVP with the release of the Quest 3S.
The 3S has an IR blaster that allows it to work in total darkness. Meta also enabled a travel mode[1] a couple of OS revisions ago (back in June or so).
For those that might find themselves nervous with a naked AVP, consider this popular option, a Syntech Hard Carrying Case compatible with various goggles:
I've stopped carrying my over-ear noise-cancelling headphones for this reason. They take up like a quarter/half of a normal item-sized backpack. I can sleep with plane noise. But I always bring a sleep mask, because I can't sleep with bright lights turning on and off all the time. I did recently get some in-ear headphones w/ noise cancelling, perhaps they're enough.
There's always the fear of losing stuff when you're moving objects around so much, too. One less thing to worry about.
In my experience my Airpod Pros and Huawei Freebud Pros achieve 95% of the audio and noise cancellation quality of my Sony XM3s that I just barely use the big headset anymore. I understand that they are technically different categories of products but for me and a lot of other non-audiophiles I know switched to TWS earbuds once they got half decent ANC.
There are both wired and wireless noise canceling earbuds that work well. Never had an interest in the bulky over the ear ones. I pack pretty light even for 2-3 week trips.
OP uses the Apple case which pretty much every VP owner I've heard of agrees is comically oversized. You can make do with a much, much smaller case that would fit in a backpack.
That said, the last time I had the opportunity to use my VP on a plane I just used my kindle and laptop instead.
Just putting in my take for the vision-pro-curious, coming from a tall/big tech guy with excellent vision who owns one:
I kept mine this whole time and I still actually use it regularly and it still amazes me. There's a steady trickle of interesting things that appear for it, and it's VERY useful as a giant virtual extended laptop screen if you have a Macbook. Especially if you are in a recliner and can tilt the virtual screen above your head a bit- vastly more comfortable. Very much looking forward to the extra large virtual curved monitor they're working on, hopefully this fall.
The thing is still kind of magical.
When I first got it, I would get some eye fatigue and/or dizziness after about an hour of using it, but that seemed to improve after a couple weeks (adaptation?) and I can now use it for 2-3 hours at a time uninterrupted without any discomfort. Chewing ginger apparently helps (same as with VR headsets).
Drinking coffee from a mug with it on is difficult. Get a straw.
I'm a big guy (6'3", 260lbs) and the headset is still a bit heavy.
The gestural and eye-focus UI is extremely good, my only complaint is that I still find it hard sometimes not to make erroneous inputs which can get frustrating, but that is more the fault of web UI's with closely-clustered controls that were not designed with this interface in mind- but sometimes with text input as well, it's sometimes frustrating.
The quality of the passthrough video (AR) can be improved, it's a bit shimmery (although still clear enough to comfortably read things on your phone or watch). It's stitched together from a bunch of cameras so it is surely already a technical feat.
For those who wear N95s on planes, I can confirm that 3M Aura 9205+ works great with Vision Pro※ and doesn't hinder using it at all, nor reduce comfort, at least for my head and face shape.
※ - Tested during my 30 min demo (more like 45 mins) at the Apple Store.
I used to think this especially since airlines touted how good the air filtration was when COVID hit.
It's actually quite poor and significantly worse than most indoor spaces I've entered (most spaces aren't great at around 800-1600ppm). On planes I've measured※ very high CO2 levels (1800-4000ppm), with the worst air during boarding and deplaning. This matches the findings of others (both amateur and professional researchers).
I don't know, but I always tended to get sick after flying. I started wearing a mask while flying during COVID and it's the one place I still do it. Not scientific but I feel like I have gotten sick after flying less frequently since then. It could even just be the effect of making myself breathe humid air in what's normally an extremely dry environment.
There are long periods where the filters aren't running during startup and shutdown, you'll notice once the seatbelt sign turns on at the beginning and right after it turns off at the end, things get stale super quickly and the temps start rising. That's because they turned off/haven't switched to air supplied by the jetway yet.
A few family members caught covid on a plane despite everyone needing a negative covid test before departure and wearing a FFP2 mask during the whole flight.
Put a lot of people in close proximity for a long time and it's going to be very hard to prevent transmission of airborne viruses...
Airplane air is clean but there are just too many people aboard and for too long. Something like a quarter of all air travel passengers get a respiratory illness within a week. Some hypothesize that the incredibly low humidity of cabin air (in most aircraft, except the very newest) makes it easier to acquire infections. A face mask, in addition to its normal role, also solves this problem because it is very humid inside the mask.
Slightly OT but I much prefer the 9211+: the vent[*] makes a difference in comfort when worn over long periods. Or the 9105 / 9105S which sticks out further away from the face, and its elastic design makes it a bit quicker to don / doff at checkpoints.
[*] Yes I'm prioritizing my comfort over safety for others, but that's the American Way (tm), isn't it.
Thanks for this recommendation; I was considering ordering these for my next trip since they should fit the same as 9205+.
(I don't see an issue with wearing an exhalation vent next to folks who aren't wearing masks themselves. If they cared about the air they'd also be wearing a mask. If I sat next to someone wearing one I'd switch back to the 9205+.)
Same here. I use the Honeywell Saf-T-Fit masks, with the exhaust, either N99 or P100. They have a soft cushion where it touches the face and I find it's far superior in comfort on long flights to masks without the soft inner part. A little more expensive, but I'll never fly with a regular N95 again.
There are masks with full N95 filtration that have a fan built in to pull the air through the filter. Makes it much more comfortable to wear for long periods.
(I switch to a mask with no metal in it for airport metal detectors, but I can switch back again immediately afterwards.)
Readit News
Note that if you have an older (lightning) iPhone, don't bother with these. They require a pair of dongles. Not only does that make things really awkward, but one of the dongles ends up apparently blocking HDCP, and prevents you from using anything but ... your own... downloaded content.
But on a 14-hour trans-continental flight, you've gotta have something to do. If nothing else, to distract you from how uncomfortable it is to be effectively confined to your seat + a few feet of narrow walkway for that long. That's more confined than a prison cell!
I've gotten the AVP demo at Apple HQ 3 times now, twice before release day. I really like it, can't imagine dropping $5000 of my own cash on it. Maybe for V2. I had a similar reaction to the Airpods Max. V2 is here. Meh. In this case, my boss has indicated we can get a few for testing, but the check's still in the mail. I have a certified-for-actual-flight-training VR system next to my desk at the office and have used that more than anyone else in the office that I'm aware of. So despite some of the most compelling, hard, spatial problems on Earth, medicine and national defense - everything from protein docking to casualty evacuation in contested environments, I'm hanging tight for now.
My understanding is that I can just use them as an external monitor, so if I'm traveling I could plug in my linux laptop and just have an external monitor to work on and could play music through them at the same time.
That sounds really tempting to me, travel work setups are always sub optimal. I have a portable external monitor, and can bring my mechanical keyboard, and if there's a spare TV I might also use it.
But it's still not the same as a proper home setup.
Even for working on a couch, it would be nice to have a screen in front of you so you don't have to slouch.
My understanding is that they can be used standalone as a monitor, or if you want to actually do VR stuff, play VR games etc, you need to buy a "XREAL Beam" or "XREAL Beam Pro" which does the VR apps etc?
Not too sure on the differences between Air, Air 2, Air 2 pro etc, but for my requirements they would all probably be fine.
I use the Xreal Air 1 with the Beam on my Thinkpad X1 and it's great. I really recommend it for flights. I don't understand why it hasn't gotten more popular. I can use my laptop comfortably for many hours, which makes long flights a lot more tolerable.
I only use them for laptop productivity. Not sure about VR stuff.
Dead Comment
update: nvmd. I found this - https://vroptician.com/prescription-lens-inserts/nreal-air
Ended up selling my Deck and using a much lighter handheld instead.
Dead Comment
Or they intentionally want to confuse people
Air: the originals, still rather good, just reinforce the fragile temples
Air 2: the current standard, pile of minor upgrades and higher durability
Air 2 Pro: same as the Air 2 with an electronic dimming option for the lenses
Air 2 Ultra: the Air platform dev kit
The very bottom of the Air 2 page has an Air/2/Pro comparison.
Make no mistake though, the data brokers are foaming at the mouth to get access to high-resolution constantly-streaming video content that includes your face, your location, and your activities. Imagine the sorts of things that are going to be sold to whoever is buying.
"Jake Jacobs, who is married, is striking up a lengthy conversation with the young woman seated next to him. His wife might be interested in ads for divorce lawyers."
"Jeff Jones is taking a middle-of-the-week flight to San Jose, and he just finished writing an email to a recruiter from another company who is based out of that city. His company is paying the data broker for intel on employees who may be shopping around, so let's get this info to them stat."
"Jennifer Smith looks to be 3 months pregnant and is flying from Texas to Colorado. She's reading a Planned Parenthood pamphlet. The State of Texas passed a law in 2026 requiring data brokers to report on such activities, so of course we'll let them know."
As competing products come along that are cheaper than the Apple doohickies in part because of the subsidies they get from the data brokers, portable VR headsets are going to bring along a significant deterioration of our already-dismal privacy protections.
This already exists with CCTVs on every major city streetcorner and Ring cameras on every doorstep. Not to mention Tesla cloud-connected cameras pointed inward and outward.
While I can't promise that all CCTV operators are honest people, at least there's some chance of going after the company involved if there's a mess-up. Random people on the street where you have no idea who they are filming you, that's a different thing.
Randos installing hidden cameras in women's toilets seems to be a big enough problem in South Korea that some of the public toilets at major stations are security checked for them every single day, as far as I know. I don't want those people anywhere near me with an always-on camera, even in public fully-clothed spaces.
These VR headsets on the other hand are high-quality, very close to other people, and mobile.
This problem is real, but it is better managed by creating massive, punishing fines for companies that engage in that behavior than it is by attempting to ban augmented reality devices (or laptops, or tablets, or phones, or any other camera-containing device).
Gargoyles represent the embarrassing side of the Central Intelligence Corporation. Instead of using laptops, they wear their computers on their bodies, broken up into separate modules that hang on the waist, on the back, on the headset. They serve as human surveillance devices, recording everything that happens around them. Nothing looks stupider; these getups are the modern-day equivalent of the slide-rule scabbard or the calculator pouch on the belt, marking the user as belonging to a class that is at once above and far below human society.
Stephenson, Neal. Snow Crash: A Novel (pp. 140-141). Random House Worlds. Kindle Edition.
In that case go with devices made by Meta. As selling the raw data is the last thing they would do.
Some people have big houses, others want to buy another brand, and some people love their cleaner so much they buy a similar one for their cousin's birthday.
My wife still makes fun of me when I'm working at home with Vision Pro - I wouldn't wear it out in public. See: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41836437
Would you feel comfortable wearing one and limiting your awareness of your surroundings on a public bus? In a coffee shop? Sitting outside a coffee shop? In a park? In a pub?
And also your answers may be yes if you are male, but I can imagine in the current world we live in a lot of women would feel potentially at risk if they were wearing these in public.
I tested the device in an Apple Store and was blown away by the experience. Such an amazing tool to explore, enjoy and relax.
The work part though? I had the same feeling as with the iPad early on. I need a keyboard and a mouse to be productive.
Both my iPad Pro and my Vision Pro have a keyboard and trackpad:
- The iPad Pro of course uses the excellent Magic Keyboard.
- The Vision Pro uses an Apple keyboard w/o numpad side by side with the Magic Trackpad, in a custom tray to hold both. (Make sure that your carryon's front pocket can hold the full tray.)
For sure if I thought I could only do work on a MacBook not an iPad Pro (what most people seem to think, insisting iPad is a consumption device), then I definitely couldn't work on a Vision Pro.
But once you've figured out how to code (e.g. VSCode using blink code, or Koder, Working Copy, Textastic, etc.), do graphic design (e.g. Affinity suite), or run Office on an iPad (Teams, Outlook, Word, PowerPoint, Excel), the Vision Pro does those too but with "all the app windows at once" (ofc, iPad Pro 13" makes excellent use of Stage Manager for window groups).
All that said, I haven't felt a burden to pull AVP out on the plane.
iPad Pro 13" HDR with AirPods Pro USB-C using Spatial Audio that anchors to your iPad screen seem more than enough. Especially since you can share audio with a seat mate who also has AirPods, and both watch the same movie together.
Not often talked about: for doing real work, do consider a fresh glasses prescription and the Zeiss add-ins. To keep windows rectangular instead of trapezoid, insist you're under 40 regardless of your age, otherwise Zeiss do a stealth "progressive" that warps window sizes.
I want to replace my macbook, I don't want to replace my ipad. I can't work properly on my ipad unless i'm using it as a dumb terminal. And at the price point of a macbook that's what it should be replacing.
People may point out that i can use it to mirror my macbook screen.. but now i'm paying 2x to replace a screen. I think this is a primary misplay in he vision pro strategy.
Give me a windowing system that lets me place windows, not in a little box that is essentially a virtual monitor, but wherever i want in my immediate vicinity. Let me put my goland/ide window front and center, let me put a terminal to the left, and my music player above.. whatever.
I'd take a vision pro with much of the compute hardware stripped out but that I can tether to a macbook via usbc/thunderbolt as well.. just not an ipad strapped to my face.
There was even a Youtuber that got annoyed of the black screen on the Macbook when doing this that he removed the screen from a Macbook altogether[0].
0. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUa_pPUbpGQ
I wonder how soon will Maya or CATIA offer good enough integration. Maybe they already offer it at the high end.
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Lord forgive you have a new unexpected experience while traveling or expose yourself to the underclasses or subject yourself to the shtty social environment you helped create...
One protip, I bought a 512G flash drive and loaded it with content. Then I could pop the drive in and play movies off it. I did not want to deal with needing connectivity for DRM or other server checks.
Highly recommend that people try this out, the next time you travel. It’s a killer use case for VR.
They only recommend your real name in case you need to recover your account.
From https://www.meta.com/help/quest/articles/accounts/account-se...:
---- To create a Meta account using your email address, you will need to provide:
Email: You can only create one Meta account per email address.
First and last name: We recommend using your real name in case you need to recover your account or manage your store purchases.
Birthday: You need to be at least 13 years old (or the applicable age in your region) to set up and manage your own Meta account. If you are between 10 and 12 (or the applicable age in your region), then you need a Meta account that’s managed by a parent or guardian.
Password: This must be at least 8 characters. Avoid passwords that someone could easily guess.
I agree it'd be nice to have an external CPU pack for heat and weight reasons, but we're not quite there yet. The closest thing currently is wireless streaming via a PC running Steam VR, but that's not exactly portable.
Why? There's are already 1000s of external batteries. Unless you mean you think Meta should do it so they can charge 4x of any other battery like Apple does?
Quest is also lighter than Vision Pro, even with it's built in battery
No sale.
Come to think of it, you can skip the first step too, and just download them.
But long before that we had DoucheTooth (or BlueTool, whichever you prefer) earpieces. Now those were mocked.
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But to your point, it will probably get slicker over time. For this one, they erred on the side of high fidelity, and they nailed it pretty well.
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So I don't fly with a tablet any more haha! Although, I get that time has passed and I would no longer be accosted so much, I assume. Must be pretty common now. My story takes place in ~2011 with the Motorola Xoom tablet. I guess they had never seen a tablet before.
I was also working hard on a plane one time, writing code to access barometer data on mobile devices to build a distributed weather sensor network that could be activated in software. The flight attendant came by and told me, "okay, time to put your toys away sweetie" referring to my tablet and phone. Oooooooooh my god.
This is specifically to not to take up any extra room than is necessary. The only room it takes up is essentially the width of the HMD itself (even negating the strap)!
The 3S has an IR blaster that allows it to work in total darkness. Meta also enabled a travel mode[1] a couple of OS revisions ago (back in June or so).
[1] https://www.meta.com/help/quest/articles/in-vr-experiences/o...
Small: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0C4YFV9F9/
Medium: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09QPN321B
Syntech recommend medium. Folks likely would prefer small, but caution about cracking glass front.
There's always the fear of losing stuff when you're moving objects around so much, too. One less thing to worry about.
I love the Sony XM3/XM4 for this reason. They fold up to a very compact volume
I guess that would be different if I was flying first or business class.
That said, the last time I had the opportunity to use my VP on a plane I just used my kindle and laptop instead.
I kept mine this whole time and I still actually use it regularly and it still amazes me. There's a steady trickle of interesting things that appear for it, and it's VERY useful as a giant virtual extended laptop screen if you have a Macbook. Especially if you are in a recliner and can tilt the virtual screen above your head a bit- vastly more comfortable. Very much looking forward to the extra large virtual curved monitor they're working on, hopefully this fall.
The thing is still kind of magical.
When I first got it, I would get some eye fatigue and/or dizziness after about an hour of using it, but that seemed to improve after a couple weeks (adaptation?) and I can now use it for 2-3 hours at a time uninterrupted without any discomfort. Chewing ginger apparently helps (same as with VR headsets).
Drinking coffee from a mug with it on is difficult. Get a straw.
I'm a big guy (6'3", 260lbs) and the headset is still a bit heavy.
The gestural and eye-focus UI is extremely good, my only complaint is that I still find it hard sometimes not to make erroneous inputs which can get frustrating, but that is more the fault of web UI's with closely-clustered controls that were not designed with this interface in mind- but sometimes with text input as well, it's sometimes frustrating.
The quality of the passthrough video (AR) can be improved, it's a bit shimmery (although still clear enough to comfortably read things on your phone or watch). It's stitched together from a bunch of cameras so it is surely already a technical feat.
The FOV is OK, but more is always better.
The immersive environments (and being able to dial them in and out) are FANTASTIC. Shout-out to the Bora Bora one in vOS 2.0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKueDGv4OVQ and the Marvel and Star Wars ones provided by the Disney app https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lisof6XWtII&t=491s I also love the moon one. Each one has both a "daytime" and "nighttime" view as well.
It's fantastic on a plane, if dorky.
※ - Tested during my 30 min demo (more like 45 mins) at the Apple Store.
It's actually quite poor and significantly worse than most indoor spaces I've entered (most spaces aren't great at around 800-1600ppm). On planes I've measured※ very high CO2 levels (1800-4000ppm), with the worst air during boarding and deplaning. This matches the findings of others (both amateur and professional researchers).
※ - using Aranet4
Put a lot of people in close proximity for a long time and it's going to be very hard to prevent transmission of airborne viruses...
[*] Yes I'm prioritizing my comfort over safety for others, but that's the American Way (tm), isn't it.
(I don't see an issue with wearing an exhalation vent next to folks who aren't wearing masks themselves. If they cared about the air they'd also be wearing a mask. If I sat next to someone wearing one I'd switch back to the 9205+.)
https://www.amazon.com/Honeywell-14110404-SAF-T-FIT-Particul...
(I switch to a mask with no metal in it for airport metal detectors, but I can switch back again immediately afterwards.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_N95