Apple has released VisionOS, the operating system running the new Vision Pro headset. But, according to Apple, they build their products specifically for spatial computing.
Apple Vision Pro: The corporation announced the operating system, among numerous others, at the 2023 Worldwide Developers Conference. The operating system’s primary goal is to overlay digital features on top of the physical world. For example, in Apple’s video, new objects like windows and icons floated over actual areas.
The headset can primarily be operated using your eyes, hands, and voice. The business provided an example of how you might start speaking to input text by looking at a search field. Alternatively, you can flick your fingers up to scroll across a window or pinch your fingers to choose something. The “EyeSight” feature of the Vision Pro allows you to see your eyes outside of the headset.
The headset can primarily be operated using your eyes, hands, and voice. The business provided an example of how you might start speaking to input text by looking at a search field. Alternatively, you can flick your fingers up to scroll across a window or pinch your fingers to choose something. The “EyeSight” feature of the Vision Pro allows you to see your eyes outside of the headset.
It will also be a full entertainment system. You can enlarge the screen significantly by touching the corner of a window (Apple demonstrated this with a clip from Foundation). Thanks to a feature Apple calls Environments, you can display the screen on different backgrounds, such as in a movie theatre or front of Mount Hood (Apple’s suggestion!). On the device, you may watch 3D movies as well. Disney is also developing content for the headset, which might be a big factor in getting people to use it to watch television episodes and films. Disney Plus will be accessible from the start, according to Disney CEO Bob Iger, who stated this during the show.
Apple demonstrated someone using the device with a PS5 DualSense headset, demonstrating that Apple Vision Pro will play games and support gaming controllers. On “day one,” more than 100 Apple Arcade games would be playable, according to what Apple announced at its keynote.
You can take “spatial” images and videos with the Vision Pro’s 3D camera and see them within the headset. Additionally, while wearing the device, panorama pictures may wrap around your field of vision. Additionally, FaceTime will receive some “spatial” enhancements. For example, according to Apple’s press release, the Persona feature in Vision Pro reflects users wearing it during a FaceTime call as a digital representation of themselves. Apple’s most advanced machine learning techniques create this representation, which mirrors users’ faces and hand movements in real time.
The Vision Pro will be able to run “hundreds of thousands of well-known iPhone and iPad apps,” according to Apple, and Vision will have a brand-new App Store where customers can download Vision Pro apps.
The new OS system release is significant for Apple and its developers. We’ll almost surely see a rush of developers creating apps that try and use the new platform in the expectation of becoming the next huge success now that Apple has released this new headset. However, as my colleague Adi Robertson wrote, augmented reality needs an iPhone moment, and Monday could have been it. Apple has already shown a particular interest in the technology.
Nevertheless, a sufficient number of users for other augmented reality platforms still exist. We’ll also have to wait and see if Apple’s new vision operating system will avoid becoming the next watchOS, which lost some significant apps like Microsoft Authenticator, Uber, and Instagram over time.
Apple hopes its new operating system will one day surpass iOS in popularity. Apple and developers are racing to create the next big thing now that the corporation has fully disclosed what the platform is capable of. Although Apple says the headset won’t be ready until early next year, we’ll have to wait to find out exactly how big it might be.