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This article is dead on, all the way to the end. Takes a few minutes to read, but its observations on the market position of the device, all the way to the indi

This article is dead on, all the way to the end. Takes a few minutes to read, but its observations on the market position of the device, all the way to the individual/social ramifications and the relevance vis a vis Meta, are as sharp as anything I’ve read about this yet. If it seems like he’s gushing, he is. He’s speaking as someone who has seen lots of these devices and, in his view, this hardware and software outclasses anything else available. If that bothers you but you push past it, I think you’ll find that whether you like this device or not, it could reflect or represent changes in how we incorporate technology in our lives that we might not yet fully appreciate.

eep_social 3y ago
> If it seems like he’s gushing, he is. This is how he writes. If you ever read him on a topic where you are an actual expert, you’ll probably never bother reading him again.
- CharlesW 3y ago
  > This is how he writes. Maybe, but Marques Brownlee gushed about it as well (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFvXuyITwBI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFvXuyITwBI), and he's not a person that pulls punches. This is an extremely ambitious, qualitatively different device than anything that's come before.
  - eep_social 3y ago
    Completely agree about MKBHD. My point was strictly that Stratechery is trash. I cannot argue with Apple’s ambition but as has been hashed over in these, and many other comments I am skeptical of the adoption story. The [i]VP is a snazzy product without a market. It remains to be seen whether it will create the market in the way gpt3 did or if it will be another flop like glass, oculus, and every other attempt in the space.
    - ymolodtsov 3y ago
      I will probably save a link to this discussion to check in on you in 5 years.
  - penjelly 3y ago
    > This is an extremely ambitious, qualitatively different device than anything that's come before. what exactly is different? I see high quality display, foveated rengering, and controller-less control... anything else im missing?
    - CharlesW 3y ago
      I used the word "qualitatively" because you're right — most of the concepts we see in Apple Vision Pro aren't unfamiliar, but the implementation/execution is radically different. For example, the Quest has a passthrough feature, but as of Monday it seems incredibly quaint. From reports, the Apple Vision Pro completely sells the "mixed reality" effect. "My first moment with Vision Pro seeing the physical room viewed through the headset's display in passthrough, I looked down at my own hands and it felt as if I was looking at them directly. This was a powerful moment, more powerful than any previous 'first' I'd experienced in VR. I feel the need to reiterate. I was looking at my own hands reconstructed by a headset's sensors and it felt as if I was looking at them directly." https://www.uploadvr.com/apple-vision-pro/ https://www.uploadvr.com/apple-vision-pro/
- magarnicle 3y ago
  Does it make a difference that he acknowledges he is gushing?
  - eep_social 3y ago
    No, it’s a tactic to disarm criticism by pretending to pre-address the obvious “don’t do that” response. “I know my behavior is bad but I am openly acknowledging it so you should trust me and look beyond it” is remarkable in its ability to disarm critics. To put it another way, “they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab them by the..”
    - magarnicle 3y ago
      Invoking That Guy's sexual assault in this context, really? So far over the top I don't know what to say.
- rapsin4 3y ago
  Can you name one instance of this? I think he's incredibly fair provides good insights. Who are other people recommend instead of him then?
- spopejoy 3y ago
  It's a bit dated really. His era is when VC was king and everything was about how this or that tech was truly disruptive or had a deeper moat than you think. I've never been able to get anything from the whole west coast "startup intelligence" blogosphere, and now it seems increasingly irrelevant and archaic.
Mimmy 3y ago
To provide an alternative perspective, your comment convinced me to read the article and I didn't think it was substantive at all. Can you give an example of an "sharp" "observation" he made?
- cubefox 3y ago
  That the device will, if successful, make us even more lonely.
  - Mimmy 3y ago
    That's certainly an observation (and one I agree with), but it's a stretch to call it "sharp". Everyone and everyone's mother has already made the claim that VR is dystopian. Snow Crash was written in 1992. For literally decades before it's been even implemented, VR has been the quintessential symbol for the irony of technology both bringing us together while keeping us apart. And to be clear, I'm not even criticizing the product. I think the Vision Pro could be very cool. I'm criticizing the idea that this blog said anything insightful.
  - panarky 3y ago
    As if the skyrocketing rate of anxiety, depression and self-harm that started with the release of the iPhone and Facebook weren't bad enough, now we're going to mediate human relationships even more immersively through silicon and megacorps. Mass alienation is rat poison for civilization.
  - ruh-roh 3y ago
    Yes - that mental picture of a divorced dad watching old family photos come to life, while sitting alone on his couch - is just gutting. Like a literal punch in the gut. But having said that, is "loneliness" the correct (or only) takeaway on that? I mean, there are people toying with the idea of uploading emails and documents of the deceased to an LLM so relatives can still "talk" to them. I don't have a word for what that kind of world looks like.
    - BitwiseFool 3y ago

eep_social 3y ago

> If it seems like he’s gushing, he is. This is how he writes. If you ever read him on a topic where you are an actual expert, you’ll probably never bother reading him again.

CharlesW 3y ago
> This is how he writes. Maybe, but Marques Brownlee gushed about it as well (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFvXuyITwBI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFvXuyITwBI), and he's not a person that pulls punches. This is an extremely ambitious, qualitatively different device than anything that's come before.
- eep_social 3y ago
  Completely agree about MKBHD. My point was strictly that Stratechery is trash. I cannot argue with Apple’s ambition but as has been hashed over in these, and many other comments I am skeptical of the adoption story. The [i]VP is a snazzy product without a market. It remains to be seen whether it will create the market in the way gpt3 did or if it will be another flop like glass, oculus, and every other attempt in the space.
  - ymolodtsov 3y ago
    I will probably save a link to this discussion to check in on you in 5 years.
- penjelly 3y ago
  > This is an extremely ambitious, qualitatively different device than anything that's come before. what exactly is different? I see high quality display, foveated rengering, and controller-less control... anything else im missing?
  - CharlesW 3y ago
    I used the word "qualitatively" because you're right — most of the concepts we see in Apple Vision Pro aren't unfamiliar, but the implementation/execution is radically different. For example, the Quest has a passthrough feature, but as of Monday it seems incredibly quaint. From reports, the Apple Vision Pro completely sells the "mixed reality" effect. "My first moment with Vision Pro seeing the physical room viewed through the headset's display in passthrough, I looked down at my own hands and it felt as if I was looking at them directly. This was a powerful moment, more powerful than any previous 'first' I'd experienced in VR. I feel the need to reiterate. I was looking at my own hands reconstructed by a headset's sensors and it felt as if I was looking at them directly." https://www.uploadvr.com/apple-vision-pro/ https://www.uploadvr.com/apple-vision-pro/
magarnicle 3y ago
Does it make a difference that he acknowledges he is gushing?
- eep_social 3y ago
  No, it’s a tactic to disarm criticism by pretending to pre-address the obvious “don’t do that” response. “I know my behavior is bad but I am openly acknowledging it so you should trust me and look beyond it” is remarkable in its ability to disarm critics. To put it another way, “they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab them by the..”
  - magarnicle 3y ago
    Invoking That Guy's sexual assault in this context, really? So far over the top I don't know what to say.
rapsin4 3y ago
Can you name one instance of this? I think he's incredibly fair provides good insights. Who are other people recommend instead of him then?
spopejoy 3y ago
It's a bit dated really. His era is when VC was king and everything was about how this or that tech was truly disruptive or had a deeper moat than you think. I've never been able to get anything from the whole west coast "startup intelligence" blogosphere, and now it seems increasingly irrelevant and archaic.

Mimmy 3y ago

To provide an alternative perspective, your comment convinced me to read the article and I didn't think it was substantive at all. Can you give an example of an "sharp" "observation" he made?

cubefox 3y ago
That the device will, if successful, make us even more lonely.
- Mimmy 3y ago
  That's certainly an observation (and one I agree with), but it's a stretch to call it "sharp". Everyone and everyone's mother has already made the claim that VR is dystopian. Snow Crash was written in 1992. For literally decades before it's been even implemented, VR has been the quintessential symbol for the irony of technology both bringing us together while keeping us apart. And to be clear, I'm not even criticizing the product. I think the Vision Pro could be very cool. I'm criticizing the idea that this blog said anything insightful.
- panarky 3y ago
  As if the skyrocketing rate of anxiety, depression and self-harm that started with the release of the iPhone and Facebook weren't bad enough, now we're going to mediate human relationships even more immersively through silicon and megacorps. Mass alienation is rat poison for civilization.
- ruh-roh 3y ago
  Yes - that mental picture of a divorced dad watching old family photos come to life, while sitting alone on his couch - is just gutting. Like a literal punch in the gut. But having said that, is "loneliness" the correct (or only) takeaway on that? I mean, there are people toying with the idea of uploading emails and documents of the deceased to an LLM so relatives can still "talk" to them. I don't have a word for what that kind of world looks like.
  - BitwiseFool 3y ago