Apple Vision Pro - Indie Hardware PT 2
Naturally, like I assume many startup/tech offices around the world, the Eternal office came to a near stand still to watch the WWDC keynote.
Having a pretty high degree of confidence that Apple would finally unveil their long awaited headset, we all waited for that “one more thing…” moment.
I’m not going to try to present a structured narrative to the thoughts on the headset / hardware space in general. Instead I’m going to simply rifle through a bunch of “on my mind bullets” about it +++ what I’m seeing elsewhere.
Some further context before we go through my thoughts. I previously wrote about my views on the indie-fication of hardware 3 years ago now: PIECE HERE. Additionally I have peers building new hardware which deeply shapes how I think about this subject.
DIRECTLY ABOUT THE HEADSET
When I first became interested in VR/AR, I told a friend there wouldn’t be a headset that truly takes off, until you can simply rotate your opacity from nothing → AR overlay → full VR immersion. Vision Pro gets very close to that.
No remotes. Good and bad. The good is that it’s natural and differentiates it from feeling like a gaming first device. The eye-tracking is one of the most impressive things I’ve seen demo’d, and from reports from those that used it comes off as very legit. The bad is that they had to go really hardcore on exposed camera on the bottom of the headset…
SO MANY EXPOSED CAMERAS. Omg this feels like spyware scanning my body and home at all times. How many Apple privacy lock animations are needed within a presentation for me to ignore the amount of exposed Apple eyes in my home.
You would think Apple would have learned directly from Snap that no one want’s to wear a headset to take a photo. The fictional millennial parent in this scenario is going to really push their kids’ memory in a weird direction.
What Apple does best is familiarity across the devices. They didn’t stray from that here, including the interaction style. I’m pretty confident the learning curve here will be quite low.
Speaking of familiarity, this really does feel like nearly every device & service in one. Digital Crown interactions borrowed from the watch. Decades of operating system design neatly fitted to the new spatial interaction set. Apple TV, News, and more placed simply as core apps.
I wonder if Apple TV+ & Arcade will really expand under this new device. Feels like it could have a more unique home under the Vision family.
Speaking of content, they didn’t even try to show Apple Fitness with the headset. I assume it would have crossed the line on awkward looking… despite them showing someone wear it on a flight…
Despite leaning into communication, the device itself does not feel social. Even something that feels like a layup, watching a movie with your partner while they wear the headset as well, was strikingly absent.
This isn’t AR/VR, this is Spatial Computing. And Apple wants to be VERY clear about that.
APPLE AT LARGE
I wrote a while ago that Apple Watch started a really big shift in Apple marketing/advertising language. There’s an Apple Watch ad where someone falls in the woods and they disperse emergency help for them. The message is clear… if you don’t have this device on you, you might die alone.
Apple just feels so lifeless right now.
If you’re serious about software, you build your own hardware. If you’re serious about hardware, you build your own chips. Apple has shifted all products to its own chips within a couple years… which is absolutely insane.
Apple really wants to be the third parent. From ipad baby features to the spatial camera on the headset… they will continue to try and be the fabric of which all of life happens on. Decide for yourself if you want that to be true.
A focus on meditation and wellness would be really beautiful. I said a while ago that Apple’s future could be in medical/health. Instead they’re completing a side quest with Goldman Sachs and finance. But after that, I could see them building Apple Health Care services.
OTHER DEVICES
Came across Sol Reader, a VR headset for immersive reading. Single purpose. Clear value prop. Lightweight. Attainable. Interesting.
But the real if you know you know wave in VR is happening with Maxim’s stealth VR headset. I had the honor of being the 5th ever demo. I can’t say much, but I’ve never been blown away by the thoughtfulness in new technology quite like this. The question isn’t Apple vs Meta. It’s Apple vs Unison.
My friends Eugene & Tigris recently released a Lychee spiral. A light machine that reacts to audio inputs. I like using while I dj. They have some more things cooking at the studio in London… being hand assembled right now.
My friends Yatu & Norm activated USB Club in Paris during mens fashion week at the Entropy pop-up, founded by our mutual friend Cedric. Watching them distribute USBs to new believers, their world continues to expand.
Don’t know Avi but… he’s building what I believe is AI based hardware as well.
Humane presented a short demo of their device at Ted. Which I thought was a very strange choice, but I’m sure it racked up a bunch of organic impressions beyond maybe what they could produce themselves. They recently announced the actual name “Humane AI Pin”. With the tag of “Easier, faster, more powerful... more human.” This I also find strange. Easier than what? Faster than what? More powerful than what? I really want to consult for this team because it all feels so close but they’re either missing something (sauce) internally… or trying to be something they think they should be instead of themselves.
If you’ve been paying attention… one thing is really clear. The kids want to build hardware. They are dying to build hardware. There are new hardware experiments at a rate that I haven’t witnessed before.
AI is going to continue to expand this. AI isn’t a new container for software like spatial is. It is an entirely new type of software… and that new function is going to open new forms.
There was a belief, during the major crypto bull rush, that web3 was going to open all of these use cases for new hardware. I saw how that could work, but when apps simply continued to work on producing financial token that did nothing + NFT’s that did nothing… that higher spiritual narrative died as the space slid into the current bear conditions. And we are hard pressed to find any hardware narrative that isn’t “protect my assets”. This idea around new storage isn’t fruitless by the way… quite the contrary. But I can’t say too much.
AI however, in its self contained generativeness, seems to be opening that door in a completely new way.
This is where the AI Pin gets interesting again. They’ve picked a primary interaction model (speech) + gestures that can guide it towards more specified actions. How many AI models can the pin hold + how many gestures can I remember to pull up the right model? Give it my credit card + cellular actions, and now we can just skate around API’s for a lot of things that could rid me of my phone. That’s the bet there.
But that’s a very post-iPhone, I don’t care about cultural media on the go mindset. I don’t know how the kids will react to that. It’s all a bit to adult and too smart.
“A widescreen iPod with touch controls, a revolutionary mobile device, a breakthrough internet communications device.”
What if the next 3 part play is simply swapping out “iPod with touch controls” → and replacing that with “the best Midjourney experience yet.”
I think you can swap out just that simple part across a slew of AI grounded applications, and unlock a new paradigm of what someone would want materialized outside of their current phone / laptop.
That’s enough of a prompt to start building towards something amazingly great.
FINAL FOOTNOTE:
I’m off of Twitter for a while. Everything felt so noisy. I had to just cut it off. I set a 5 minute screentime control for both Twitter and Insta, just to not miss any important messages. It’s actually incredible how much it’s shaped my thinking patterns being off the speedrun of those apps.
And my hope, outside of general sanity, is that I can spend more time here on Substack getting ideas out.
Love.
I don’t do edits really, so excuse typos and things that don’t make sense.
Thanks so much for giving me your attention. I hope it was worth it, if not… unsubscribing will not hurt my feelings, and will give you back time you literally cannot have back.
Much love.
Live in the light