11 ms·
What's the killer app? Quest headsets have been out for years and haven't seemed to find one. Well.. besides 3d porn
by spogbiper 3y ago
What's the killer app? Quest headsets have been out for years and haven't seemed to find one. Well.. besides 3d porn
- jasonsb 3y agoIt looks like there's no killer app this time. They just bet on the fact that people will buy it because it's expensive and it's designed by Apple.
- joezydeco 3y agoMacintosh '84 didn't have a killer app until 1985-1986. And it was a laser printer.
- microtherion 3y agoNot sure about the social acceptance of people walking around with a laser printer strapped to their face…
- JumpCrisscross 3y ago> What's the killer app? Movies on airplanes. I’m guessing these will become virtually ubiquitous in the front cabin within a few years.
- ghaff 3y agoYou mean the front cabin where they have big screens for every seat? I couldn't see carrying one of these instead of just an iPad for movies. (But then I'm a very light packer.)
- hwbehrens 3y agoI think it will be more like the proliferation of noise-cancelling headphones; it's not about what it brings (music, dialog, etc) but about what it blocks out (the ambient sounds). Yes, you can watch a movie on a plane now, but with a headset you remove the depressing, crowded, and claustrophobic visual environment.
- ghaff 3y agoAlthough I'm not sure I want to be that isolated from the environment. (I do use noise canceling devices but they're in-ear.)
- prawn 3y agoAnd watching content on a plane's built-in screens is a miserable experience: poor interface, lag, constant forced interruptions for even the most boring announcements (captain, donating foreign coins, meal schedule).
- whartung 3y agoBack in the day I was flying back east and had some movies loaded on my iPod Touch. And I was casually watching one in my seat, the movie was “Blackhawk Down”. And it occurred to me how a neighbor might not enjoy watching blood, guns, and violence out of the corner of their eye. So, I can absolutely see value in a headset style movie experience in public places.
- ghaff 3y agoI am perhaps slightly selective about what I watch on a plane--depending somewhat on who is sitting beside me. But my observation is that US airlines have gotten quite a bit less editing-heavy in that regard and, at some level, it's not my problem. (Although I'll be reasonable if someone cares enough to ask me to not watch something.)
- saagarjha 3y agoThankfully, most newer planes have those polarizing privacy filters on their screens that make it hard to see what the person next to you is watching.
- bemmu 3y agoThose screens don't show 3D movies though.
- amlib 3y agoWouldn't just about any available headset that costs 10x to 20x less suffice for this?
- spogbiper 3y agoPretty much, but I haven't seen anyone on a plane watching movies with a Quest or similar headset
- astrange 3y agoI met someone at a party once who claimed to do this. He turned out to be a cofounder of Twitch. There may be something to conclude here, not sure.
- filleokus 3y agoXReal's glasses seem like they could be enough for this: https://www.xreal.com/air2 https://www.xreal.com/air2
- bnolsen 3y agoFor international flights they have may have a screen on the back of the seat in front of you. Using a tablet or small laptop works just as well without the discomfort of a headset.
- AlexandrB 3y agoA tablet also takes up less luggage space and probably has better battery life.
- JumpCrisscross 3y ago> they have may have a screen on the back of the seat in front of you They always have a screen in front of me. And I always have my laptop or iPad. There are still advantages to this, from immersiveness to privacy.
- coolspot 3y agoCurrently you can’t use Quest/Vision Pro in any moving vehicle, as they rely on accelerometers to capture head movements.
- JumpCrisscross 3y ago> you can’t use Quest/Vision Pro in any moving vehicle You aren’t unpredictably accelerating most of the time in a plane. It makes sense Facebook would have fucked this up. I’d be surprised if Apple has.
- coolspot 3y agoYou actually do wobble a bit, and sometimes s lot in turbulence, which can be unnoticeable for you but will throw accelerometers meters at a time. Also routine altitude/speed changes also cause accelerations,
- willio58 3y agoI've seen a few ideas that seem really interesting, just not at the price point Apple is offering. And honestly I'm just going to wait for these headsets to be smaller and lighter too before buying one. I don't think anyone at Apple is under the impression this device is going to be a money maker, but more of a gen-1 device to provide a place to start from for further work. - Learning instruments in a guitar-hero way (Piano, guitar, drums) - Cooking with timers and recipes right in front of you (will be even more doable with better internal displays in the future) - Coding with virtual displays on-demand. This is another thing where we still need more resolution to make it really doable. - Watching movies. Obviously a solo way of doing this but I could see it being big. - (once these are much lighter and less intrusive) I could see these being huge for virtual workouts like Yoga, weight lifting, etc. Also regarding your question, I'm trying to think of the "killer app" is for a currently successful device - iPhone. I mean, camera? Texting? Most people use tiktok a ton but I wouldn't consider that a killer app. I think it's more of the device providing a home for a bunch of different apps.
- spogbiper 3y agokiller app for the iphone was a truly usable portable web browser. everything else early iphones did had been done many times before, but a web browser that actually worked pretty well on a portable device was new
- patchorang 3y agoCooking sounds like a nice application, but as soon as the headset steams up/get condensation on the glass it will be quite annoying. I can't imagine cooking in ski goggles.
- MegaDeKay 3y agoWorse than that would be when you fry something and the front of your $3500 headset gets splattered in grease. No thanks.
- theshackleford 3y ago
- ENGNR 3y agoI think the killer app will be remote work. The social interaction in VR chat is pretty good, if they can bring your work environment in with lots of monitors, and then share parts of it seamlessly and on demand but also have ample 100% focus time, I can see it being better than an office in some ways
- bnolsen 3y agoI thought so too but it doesn't take much time for a headset to become uncomfortable. Taking one off and putting it back on is cumbersome.
- MichaelNolan 3y agoFor me, I think the killer app would have to be something that interacts with the real world. Watching movies, FaceTime, or browsing the internet won’t be enough for me to ever buy this. But maybe if there was something like a home repair or car repair app that could in real time identify and inspect the objects, give me visual and audio instructions on how to perform the repair, that could be a killer app. But I’m not sure the AI/ML side is good enough yet to enable that.
- spogbiper 3y agoThe Microsoft Hololens demos included some examples of this. It certainly looked interesting example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIsjVaqdNpc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIsjVaqdNpc
- vaylian 3y agoSpeaking of the MS Hololens: Is it still a thing and is there a community of 3rd-party developers around it? It showed a lot of promise when it was released.
- pjmlp 3y agoLets say I predict the same future for Apple's device.
- bikson 3y agoHololens are dead. Even their github is not updatel if i remember well 2 years.
- ephemeral-life 3y agoThey pivoted to military applications and I haven't seen much news about it. It looks like something out of the futuristic call of duty games. It looks super cool, but apparently soldiers didn't like it. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_Visual_Augmentation_System https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_Visual_Augmentati...
- 3y ago
- GeekyBear 3y agoWatching sports in 3D with spatial audio. > According to an exclusive report from The New York Post, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver “said the league is working with Apple to bring a tech-enhanced viewing experience” to its upcoming headset. When asked about it, he told the outlet: “We’re working very closely with Apple.” https://www.tomsguide.com/news/nba-games-could-be-apple-vision-pros-secret-weapon https://www.tomsguide.com/news/nba-games-could-be-apple-visi... If there is one group that has a track record for laying down piles of money for hardware like giant televisions and expensive streaming services, it's sports aficionados.
- dpflan 3y agoFloor seats will be less desirable...or floor seat patrons are wearing Apple Vision/goggles for the AR (joking! but maybe serious)... I do agree, just watching a sporting event on a projector where the athletes are life-sized is excellent, on-field cameras already provide a better view of the game then any seat. Now make it more immersive, and the trick of immersion is very cool. Like The Sphere, that immersion is next level. Add sports-betting to the Vision experience, that is a great side-car app for this. (I am not pro-bet but see the usage).
- matwood 3y agoMeta already has a deal with the nba for select games. Not sure what the usage is like.
- spogbiper 3y agoWith standard coverage of sports, they cut between cameras and zoom in/out, pan to follow the action etc. Even people attending the game will be watching big screens showing this content some of the time. I'm wondering how that translates to VR.. do they just teleport you around the arena? That seems like it would be a bit jarring if not altogether sickening.
- curiouscats 3y agoIt could offer a couple options. One being the main view is like you are there. You see the court in a huge view in your main view. Then, similar, but way better than in person, you have several big views off to the side, for replays, stats, maybe following a view of your favorite player... I would think they we have a way to make it so your view (switches as the action on the court switches to the other basket). That will have to be a good design but just the idea of something like teleporting from your seat with a great view of this half of the court to now having it on the other half. And for other sports even better I think. With say soccer/football and football (USA) you can have a big overview (like you are sitting at midfield) but then camera angles for closer view of the action... I think sports viewing could really be incredible. Figuring out exactly how to do it well will take awhile. But it seems to me the kind of thing Apple could do very well.
- danso 3y agoFor me it’s movies. But the fact that Netflix and Amazon haven’t updated their Quest apps in years — nor has Meta bothered building its own movie streaming solution (e.g. making the Quest Browser compatible with streaming services) leads me to think that the active user base might be slim. Can’t imagine doing work is the killer app, not while wearing a headset is more cumbersome than opening a laptop.
- spogbiper 3y agoI'm not sure how Apple can make watching movies in VR that much better than they are already on the Quest series and other existing VR headsets. And as you noted it doesn't seem to be a popular use for those devices. Maybe the higher resolution on Apple's headset will win people over?
- GeekyBear 3y ago> I'm not sure how Apple can make watching movies in VR that much better than they are Apple is already making it's own 3D content. For instance watching a concert shot in 3D with spatial audio may be something that people find compelling. Certain artists, for example Taylor Swift, have fans who are well known to be willing to spend a fortune to attend her shows in person with high end tickets running $750.
- spogbiper 3y agoI tried some of the 3d concerts that Quest recorded a few years ago.. it's a neat trick but Apple will definitely need to do something different to make it compelling
- wombat-man 3y agoI haven't tried them personally but I think current quest headsets still have visible pixels. The vision pro is Micro OLED with no visible pixels. So it should feel like watching an actual IRL screen.
- theshackleford 3y ago
- baby 3y agoVideo games are the killer apps and Quest definitely found it. The other one that could be huge IMO is attending real-life events like sport, concerts, shows, etc.
- AlexandrB 3y agoBoth of these suffer from the fact that a good portion of the target audience is going to want to barf as soon as the camera moves. So games are limited in what kind of gameplay they can offer and real life events are stuck with either a fixed location or "jumping" from camera to camera.
- baby 3y ago> So games are limited in what kind of gameplay they can offer I disagree. Games will have limitations. Limitations constrain but foster creativity. Console games were already limited in so many ways yet people found amazing ways to make them fun as hell. When mobile games come I truly believed that nobody would be able to have fun there, yesterday I played the entire game of League of Legends retrofited for mobile and it works! So now VR gaming is great, people will find ways to make it even greater without free movement that makes you sick
- bnolsen 3y agoGames like doom3 in VR are just freakin' awesome. blasting some monster coming up behind you by firing over the shoulder takes the cake.
- TulliusCicero 3y agoQuest headsets are already pretty compelling for some use cases, but the tech still needs more advancement (at a reasonable price point) to go fully mainstream. For a lot of people, Beat Saber and similar games are a killer app for the Quest. It can be good for making exercise fun and accessible at the same time.
- theshackleford 3y agoSure they have, it’s funny how often this is repeated. It’s anything social. It absolutely destroys every other technology for interacting with others over distance. There is nothing else like it and when the hardware catches up it will do a lot to shrink the distance you feel between those who live an ocean away from you.
- macrolocal 3y agoA killer app for me would be proper Blender integration, say with VR viewports.