Apple Vision Pro's first week: Impressions, predictions, morons

FRANCE 24 English

After a week in the wild, the consensus is in: Apple's new "spacial computing" headset, the Vision Pro, is impressive, expensive, and ludicrous to wear in public. The Vision Pro is another first-generation product from the company behind the Mac, iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch, so the industry is watching to see whether Apple will do it again, and transform augmented reality into a technology desired by the masses.The headset has been out for one week in the United States, and there has been no shortage of viral videos – staged or not – documenting novel locations in which to use it: a restaurant, a subway, a pool, even a self-driving car.The device is region-locked to the United States, so few people in France have got their hands on it. Numerama journalist&#160;Nicolas Lellouche went to New York to fetch one; we get his impressions on today's Tech 24.  Visit our website: http://www.france24.com  Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FRANCE24.English  Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/France24_en

Transcript

00:00 It's been one week since Apple released its highly anticipated augmented reality headset,

00:05 the Apple Vision Pro.

00:08 That's only in the United States for now.

00:10 Very few people have got their hands on one in France.

00:13 And one of them is on set with us, Nicolas Lelouch, journalist for the tech news site

00:19 Numérament, who joins us on set once again.

00:23 Thank you so much for being here.

00:24 And of course, we've got Peter O'Brien here, our technology editor, to ask, to fire away

00:30 some of those questions.

00:32 Go ahead.

00:33 Yeah, so of course, the hype is still growing one week after it's been been released in

00:38 the United States, because it's a first generation Apple product.

00:41 The company behind the iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, the Mac, even if some of these products

00:46 were slow to start, they obviously became the leaders in their field of consumer technology.

00:52 So it's no surprise that people are still excited.

00:54 It changed our lives sometimes, right?

00:55 I mean, the Mac certainly did, the iPhone certainly did.

00:58 Absolutely.

00:59 And of course, I think what we can see is the consensus is that it's very impressive.

01:04 It's very expensive, but it's also quite ludicrous to use in public.

01:09 And we've seen a deluge of viral videos of people using the Apple Vision Pro in strange

01:14 places.

01:15 Seriously, oh my gosh, I'm losing it.

01:31 But look at this.

01:32 All of my windows are up here.

01:35 I'm going to go to the bathroom.

02:05 Yikes!

02:21 They're spoofs, although they're people doing it for fun and to go viral, right?

02:24 Like, I don't think many of them are people seriously doing it, but they were taken seriously

02:29 enough, at least the ones with people driving at the same time for the US.

02:33 US Transport Secretary Pete Buttigieg to actually issue a warning to people using this while

02:38 driving their self-driving car.

02:40 But I think the fact that someone can even whiz down a road on an electric skateboard

02:44 while using it on their head shows how far the tech has come and perhaps how far it's

02:49 going to go in the future.

02:50 I don't know what you thought looking at this, Nicolas.

02:51 Yeah, I agree with that.

02:52 The hype is huge for that product.

02:55 You're right on something, that the fact that a lot of people that wear it in the street,

02:59 in the car, honestly, they don't see anything when they wear it.

03:02 That's for the video, but the interesting part, I'm going to do a live demo with you

03:06 right now.

03:07 If I wear the headset, I can see the world.

03:10 And that's the amazing thing with that product.

03:12 Right now I can see you, I can see you too.

03:14 We can talk directly.

03:15 You're soon going to see my eyes, my fake eyes replicated by the AI in the headset.

03:22 And the interest for Opel is to have a computer, they call it a computer, not a headset, that

03:28 allows you to see the real world, but also to see applications.

03:31 So if I want to put a web page in front of me, I can do it.

03:35 I can resize it.

03:36 There is no limit, like with the computer screen, for example.

03:41 So obviously the pictures we're seeing behind you are ones that you took earlier when you

03:44 were testing it for Numerama.

03:45 Yeah, we can't make the demo live, unfortunately, but right now I'm doing it.

03:49 I have my settings in front of me.

03:51 And if I put my finger on the button right here, I can see my application, I can see

03:57 the photos, I can move it by looking at the ball and making it everywhere in the place.

04:02 What are you connected to?

04:03 Is that a battery?

04:04 It's a battery, absolutely.

04:05 Does it need that to work?

04:06 The thing is, it's heavy.

04:07 Yeah, the product is heavy.

04:09 Even without a battery, it's not very comfortable.

04:11 I guess there are a lot of things they can improve on that side.

04:14 So they chose, and I guess it was the right choice.

04:16 Do you know how much it weighs?

04:18 More than 600 grams.

04:20 So that's a lot.

04:21 That's kind of an iPad Pro.

04:23 So if you want to make a comparison, an iPad Pro on your head is not...

04:26 On your nose.

04:27 On my nose, on my forehead specifically.

04:29 On your eyebrows, yeah.

04:30 It's not very comfortable.

04:31 I have used it a lot for the last week, almost four, five hours a day.

04:36 Did you get dizzy?

04:37 Sorry?

04:38 Did you get dizzy?

04:39 I heard some people getting dizzy.

04:40 It happens sometimes, but the mass majority of the time, it's comfortable enough to be

04:46 used for a lot of time without sickness.

04:49 But I guess at some point, if I watch a lot of movies, big movies for a long time, I can

04:55 have to want to remove it to make a pose.

04:58 So that's why the technology may not be ready for mainstream.

05:01 I guess we are not going to see a lot of people in the streets without for some years, but

05:07 they have something really interesting and maybe it's going to replace the TV and the

05:11 computers.

05:12 I think one thing they've surely got to improve is the eyes, right?

05:15 If you're looking at you, your eyes, we like to say in English, are offside.

05:18 Yeah, I know.

05:19 They're so wide.

05:20 I hope I'm not looking like that.

05:22 I can remove it if you want.

05:23 Maybe for the best.

05:24 Normally, I'm better without the headset.

05:25 I already feel like you're much more a person now.

05:26 Yeah, that's what I was going to say too.

05:31 It's also about communication.

05:34 These are all communication tools.

05:36 And yet at the same time, the simplest forms of communication are the most effective.

05:41 And when you're wearing that, I feel like you're not even really in the same place as

05:45 you are.

05:46 However, Shona, what it has improved, I don't know if you'd agree with this, is the FaceTime

05:49 experience.

05:50 Because there's cameras on the inside of the mask as well as on the outside.

05:53 So it recreates your face in 3D.

05:55 I remember reading your article on this and you phoned your dad.

05:59 And what he didn't realize was he was seeing an avatar of you and not you.

06:02 I don't know how he didn't realize.

06:04 I'm really disappointed by him.

06:06 But yeah, it took him, I guess, 15 to 20 seconds to understand, "Oh, that's not you."

06:10 So yeah, it can trick some people.

06:12 And I guess it's the most technology product ever released by Apple.

06:17 They never have released a product with so much technology in it.

06:21 But even with doubt, it's not perfect enough to be something that everyone can buy.

06:26 It's very expensive.

06:27 Yeah, it's like $3,500.

06:28 Exactly.

06:29 That's a lot.

06:30 That's a lot.

06:31 However, it isn't that much for a status symbol, right?

06:33 Because surely it's a first generation Apple product.

06:36 Then don't tell it to be kept up by, bought by the masses.

06:40 So it is going to be bought by people looking for a status symbol.

06:42 And in that case, it's sort of in a...

06:44 And if the promise is kept in a hypothetical world where the promise escapes, you can replace

06:49 your TV, your computers.

06:51 You can have several screen at once.

06:52 So this product can compare to other devices that you can replace it with it.

06:57 But the thing is, it's not really enough to be on your face for the whole day.

07:04 So it's still complicated to say that you can recommend it to everyone.

07:08 So when Steve Jobs told his biographer, Walter Isaacson, "I finally cracked it."

07:13 He was talking about the future of television.

07:14 He told his biographer, "I finally cracked it."

07:16 We never found out what he was referring to.

07:19 Do you think this is the kind of thing he would have had in mind?

07:22 I honestly think this is in the good direction.

07:25 I wasn't thinking that way a week ago.

07:28 I was convinced that Apple was maybe doing a mistake and they had not a good view on

07:33 the future.

07:34 But now that I wore it for a week, I can say that I want to use that kind of product.

07:38 I think that having an infinite amount of screen with the size I want when I want it

07:45 is a cool direction and it can eliminate all of the screen and all of the light.

07:49 Everything else.

07:50 Yeah, everything else.

07:51 Only one device that allows you, only you, to see the things you want to see.

07:55 But at the same point, I'm not sure the product is ready for, it's really a V1, not a prototype.

08:02 But this is not the first kind of thing that exists, right?

08:04 Aren't there other VR headsets on the market?

08:08 Absolutely, yeah, there are other VR headsets.

08:10 It's the most sophisticated one, I would say.

08:14 The screen, for example, I have not mentioned that, but when you look at the screen, you

08:17 don't see any pixel.

08:18 And that's impressive.

08:19 You wrote in your article that they were potentially the best screens, it's the best screen in

08:23 the world.

08:24 Yeah, I believe it can be the best screen in the world because you never have that amount

08:26 of pixel in the same size.

08:29 So that's really impressive what they've done with that product.

08:32 And when you are in it, when you look at the movie, for example, you don't see that it's

08:37 the screen.

08:38 You have the feeling you are looking at the reality.

08:40 So that makes it a different piece of tech than the other VR headset.

08:44 But of course, Apple has not invented VR.

08:46 Apple has not invented phone or computer either, but they always perfection.

08:50 Yes, and that's what's interesting about it.

08:52 I mean, I find it interesting that the first generation here is called the Vision Pro.

08:56 They usually reserve that for later on when it's the sort of higher end model.

09:01 Perhaps in a later version, we'll get something just called the Vision.

09:05 Yeah, probably, the Vision, the Vision Air, there are a lot of things for them.

09:08 Maybe it would be more lightweight, but I still question whether people will be willing

09:11 to wear something on their face all day.

09:14 I guess people wear glasses.

09:15 But also, I don't want to be around someone who's wearing something on their face.

09:18 It just feels like it's, it almost feels like right now it feels a little bit rude.

09:22 I agree.

09:23 I'm sorry for that.

09:24 No, no, I'm not talking about you, but I'm in my world and I can see you, but you don't

09:30 know if you don't know what I see.

09:32 You don't know what I see.

09:33 And you can't, we can't really, it just feels like, I don't know.

09:37 You can't share the experience.

09:38 Yeah.

09:39 You can't share the experience.

09:40 I mean, surely not.

09:41 Exactly.

09:42 I mean, everybody's going to be sitting on the same couch and watching the same thing,

09:45 but separately in their own worlds, right?

09:48 I guess that's one of the social problems with that product is that it's a product you

09:52 can only use alone.

09:53 You can't share it with friends.

09:55 So that limits the things you can do with it.

09:57 And even if you see a lot of people in the street with it, it's not a product you can

10:01 use when you walk.

10:02 It's not a product you can use outside.

10:04 It's a product for the inside.

10:06 It's a product for the office and for the sofa.

10:08 People are trying.

10:09 People are trying.

10:10 Yeah, people are trying.

10:11 But is that what it's made for?

10:13 I thought it was also made for giving directions in real time.

10:15 I don't know.

10:16 What is it?

10:17 No, there is no direction, no fitness for now.

10:20 People want to make people believe they use that to work because it's more futuristic.

10:24 But the truth is it's only to replace your computer or your screen for now.

10:28 But in the future, I'm sure when it's going to be glasses, for example, it's going to

10:33 improve.

10:34 It's kind of like a hybrid between glasses and a computer, right?

10:36 Because it's on your face.

10:38 Yeah.

10:39 Physically, can they get it down to the size of, you know, like those steampunk kind of

10:42 glasses with the lights on?

10:44 I mean, is that even physically possible?

10:46 Because you need to occlude what's inside.

10:48 That's the dream of a lot of Silicon Valley companies.

10:50 But the truth is, and you're right, it's physically complicated.

10:53 I'm not going to say it's impossible, but complicated because all of the transparent

10:58 glasses have some optic problems.

11:01 For example, the lights, the colors, it's very complicated to use that outside.

11:05 So I guess Apple for years wanted to make glasses, but they realized it's not going

11:11 to be possible for maybe 10 years, maybe more.

11:13 So they chose that kind of devices because it imitates the glasses.

11:17 I can see the world using cameras, but I can do a lot more than with glasses or than with

11:23 a computer.

11:24 So that's the first pick.

11:25 That's the first try.

11:26 I'm sure it's going to be really better.

11:28 I want it to be better because I liked my first freaking needs and we will see in the

11:33 future how it's going to evolve.

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