textZhou Hanming.
At Apple's campus, the tech giant's CEO spoke about the birth of an "exciting" new device that could revolutionize the way we live and work. The first-line directors have experienced it first-hand and have given high praise. James Cameron said, "My experience has a religious feel." But would the average iPhone user really be willing to spend $3,500 on such a headset?
When Apple CEO Tim Cook first tried the Vision Pro, it wasn't called that name. That was seven or eight years ago, before the Apple campus was built. Today, in this incredible rotunda, we are sitting around a bleached oak table. It had just finished raining outside, the clouds had lifted from the pines and rows of citrus and maple trees, and the sun was reflecting off the meadowy pond, which was a little mesmerizing. Cook recalls that moment many years ago, in his soft Ali Bama Robertsdale accent.
It is located in Mariani I, a nondescript low-rise building on the edge of the old Infinite Loop campus, with windows covered. This place is very private and is known as one of the facilities of Apple's "Black Ops". Of the thousands of employees who work at Apple, almost no one has been able to get into the place. There were multiple locked doors, and only Mr. Cook, as the CEO, was free to come and go. It was here that Cook introduced devices such as the foldable iPhone, a MacBook with a retractable keyboard and even the coveted transparent TV. Almost all of this equipment will not leave the building, and it is stored in locked Pelican boxes.
For Apple, the building is full of mystery and legend. It was here that the iPod and the iPhone were invented. It was also here that Cook discovered that the industrial design team was working on several new things. Mike Rockwell, vice president of Vision Pro, who was also there when Cook arrived, witnessed the historic moment. "The device is like a monster," Cook said. After Cook was invited to sit down, a huge, bulky machine was placed in his face. The device was crude and massive, like a giant box with six layers of screens embedded and the camera sticking out like a beard. Cook later recalled, "You couldn't wear it at all, it wasn't a wearable device at all."
When the device is put on, the large fans on either side of the device emit a continuous, deep humming sound. The wiring of this large device winds its way across the floor and into another room, where hundreds of millions of supercomputers are connected. With the push of a button, the lights come on and the CPU and GPU start running the ...... at billions of times per secondAt this moment, Cook is like being on the moon.
He seemed to be on the moon for a long time, looking around with the Apollo 11 astronauts Aldrin and Armstrong, and under the black starry sky, there was a ghostly glow of ancient dust. That's amazing, it's amazing. There, you can also see the blue earth, where humanity began.
But in fact, Cook is not only on the moon, he is also in the secret room. In the mysterious building, he could see Mike Rockwell and other Apple employees, and he could see his own hands. At that moment, he knew what that meant, and he seemed to realize what the universe seemed to be telling him. He understands that this huge, bulky device is the future of computing, entertainment, applications, and memory. He knew that Apple had to position the product as the next big product category.
For years, I've been convinced that we're going to get to this point," Cook said, "and I don't know exactly when, but I'm convinced we're going to get there." ”
It wasn't clear to Cook at the time how his engineers were going to shrink this thing, which required a supercomputer, a fan and multiple screens in another room, to the size of a pair of goggles, a little heavier than a box of spaghetti.
Now, this dream moment has arrived. The first Vision Pro, a perfect white cube that looks like a large shoebox, will hit the market on Friday and has been pre-ordered by tens of thousands of Apple obsessives and early adopters. Cook knew that this niche need had already been met.
But Mr. Cook and his executive team also understood that it was necessary to convince more people that a $3,500 purchase of the device was necessary in their daily lives, such as work, play, meditation or capturing incredible family memories. The headset makes you look like you're skiing in The Matrix, but it doesn't currently support well-known streaming platforms like Netflix and YouTube. Still, it's not hard to get people to try Vision Pro, and the real challenge is to get users to buy it. Of course, fortunately for Apple, almost everyone who tried out the headset before launch was raving about its features.
I would say that my experience is comparable to the revelation of religion", when I asked the famous director James Cameron about his first experience with Vision Pro, he told me. "I was skeptical at first, after all, I never blindly worship Apple products. But I was really blown away," said Jon F**Reau, another well-known filmmaker, "and I was blown away by the technology and the impact it would have on storytelling." I'm excited about the new stories I can tell now, which I couldn't have done before." "When I hit Om Malik, he was even more excited and thought it was incredible," he said. ”
When I walked into the all-glass-walled, giant dome of Steve Jobs Theatre, which seemed to float in the air, my mind resounded with the amazement and admiration of the crowd countless times. It was my first visit to "SJT" and, as people say, a tribute to that great, legendary Steve Jobs. At that moment, an Apple employee walked out with a pelican box the size of a lunch box, and I knew what was inside. Yes, it's the Vision Pro device. When I saw it, I remembered that when I first approached Apple a few months ago, I wasn't interested in it.
It can even be said that there is no interest at all.
I didn't watch Cook's June keynote on Vision Pro, nor did I look at the speculation and analysis about this product on social **. When I sat in the same room as Cook and he gave the keynote, I told Cook that I had seen the scene and knew what the first act, the second act, the ending was like.
The device isn't quite the same as a VR headset for virtual reality, and the difference between the two is as big as a child's Schwinn bike and a Gulfstream G800 private jet.
Back in 2013, I was in a conference room in Los Angeles and had my Oculus VR headset strapped to my head for the first time. (Oculus was later acquired by Facebook, which later changed its name to Meta.) It's so cool, I even let out an exclamation. I was playing a block-style game like Pablo Picasso's design under the influence of opium. But it didn't take long for me to become a little claustrophobic, and then I even began to wonder if I had left the real world and lived only in the virtual world. In the decade since, graphics have become clearer and smoother, and processors have gotten faster, but I still feel the same way every time I experience new devices like RIFT, Vive, Quest, Quest 2 and 3. After trying them out once or twice, I put them on the shelves and put them in a drawer, cupboard, or box in my basement because I didn't want to experience the claustrophobia and fear of wearing a helmet again.
In August 2023, I was invited to visit Apple's office in Los Angeles, which was previously home to Beats. I thought I would come back here to experience a VR device. As I sat in a room decorated with white oak furniture and a polished floor, I was wondering how long it would be before I could get home, and whether I would bypass the already crowded 405. As I sat down on the couch, an Apple employee picked up the Vision Pro and put it on my head, which I reluctantly did, thinking I would end it as soon as possible and go home early. When I put it on, I felt like I was using a VR headset as usual, and the world around me suddenly turned black. But just a few seconds later, a digital curtain slowly opened, and the real world began to unfold before my eyes. I could see my arms and legs. Then, the app icon of Apple products began to emerge like a ghost.
This device is very different from a regular VR device, and the gap is as big as a child's Schwinn bike and a Gulfstream G800 private jet. I'm reminded of the first time I swiped my finger on an iPod device, or the moment I zoomed in with my finger and thumb on my first-generation iPhone**. When I put the Vision Pro on, I just had to look at the app's icon, and when I pinched it slightly, the app would launch and open to reveal the content. Unlike other VR devices that require a controller, Vision Pro turns people's eyes into a mouse, which is really impressive. Cook then said, "We live in a three-dimensional world, but what we like is flat."
It was an experience where I felt like I was in Oregon's famous Mount Hood volcano, I was able to hear and see thousands of raindrops falling into the Mirror Lake, and I felt like I was there, and the only thing missing was the earthy smell of the rain-soaked soil. I don't need a mouse or keyboard to touch the clear and realistic graphics in the air. I've also seen the space**, which is an understatement with a shocking feature, and I feel as if the characters in the ** are right in front of me, and the feeling of being within reach. I** shot 100 feet wide of film footage with more clarity and sharpness than any IMAX theater. Most importantly, I was able to see the world around me without claustrophobia and fear. I was there, but I felt like I was in the midst of everything.
After leaving the Apple office, I went to a nearby café. When I opened my relatively new laptop, it suddenly felt like it was an old antique from a Soviet-era power plant.
You know, one of the most common reactions that we like the most is that people will say,'Wait a minute, I just need a little time to process what just happened,'Greg Joswiak, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide marketing, said during a meal at Apple's campus. "How cool is it, how many products can people be speechless after experiencing it? ”
At first, I was actually skeptical," said director James Cameron. "I'm not going to blindly worship the great Apple, but this time I was really blown away. ”
It was the second time I was demoted, that I was really shocked. A few months after my initial experience, I was back in Apple's Los Angeles office. Two Apple employees guided me into the room, and I then put on the Vision Pro, and I could see them the moment the curtain opened. The difference this time was that I had a cup of tea in my hand. During the demonstration, I also took a few sips. As I did so, my fingers flickered briefly, as if I was in a simulated world that was no different from reality** and there was a glitch.
Wait, what do I see? I asked, confused, "Is this true, or is it ......?"”
No, what you're seeing is our real-time rendered **, one of the employees explained. I sat there stunned. I thought what I was seeing was the real world, and that the digital marvel was nothing more than stacking on top of reality. I thought Vision Pro was transparent, just with a layer of technology on top. In reality, the opposite is true.
I think it's not just progress, it's just a revolutionary leap," Cameron said when I talked to him about my experience. As someone who has worked in the VR field for 18 years, Cameron does have a voice.
He said that the reason why the picture looks so realistic is because the Vision Pro puts 4K images into my eyes. It's like projecting the clarity of a 75-inch TV — 23 million pixels — into everyone's eyes. For comparison, the average 4K TV only has about 8 million pixels. Apple engineers didn't simply cut a piece of the 4K display into the Vision Pro, but compressed a pixel twice the size of our eyeballs into such a small space. For someone like Cameron, who has been in the field for two decades, this technology solves "almost every problem."
But even with a stunning 23-megapixel image that's hard to distinguish from digital compositing, Apple still has some unsolved problems — at least not yet.
In Silicon Valley, there's an old story about Steve Jobs. Nearly 25 years ago, in that inconspicuous black Mariani I building, where Steve Jobs' development team worked to create the first generation of the iPod, they were using their wits to try to make the smallest possible prototype of the iPad. A number of iPod prototypes were made, and in Jobs's opinion, they could be made smaller. The engineers said it was small enough, and an angry Jobs threw it into the fish bowl and splashed it. After the iPod prototype sank, Jobs said, "Look, there are bubbles, so we can make it smaller!" ”
This has the M2 chip. R1 chip. Near-zero latency. 5000 patents. It lasted seven years. Richard Howarth, Apple's vice president of industrial design, pointed to the dozens of disassembled components scattered in front of me, but I was reminded of the story of the fish tank and the iPod prototype. If Jobs were alive today, wouldn't he throw this Vision Pro into a fish tank and say, "There's a bubble, and you can make it smaller!" ”
The most criticized thing about the Vision Pro is its weight and volume. At only 20 ounces, it doesn't sound heavy, but you have to know that it's the equivalent of five butter sticks – imagine what it's like to wear something like that on your face all day? Carolina Cruz Neira, a pioneer in virtual reality, told me that the feeling of wearing a device greatly influences people's acceptance of this new technology and new product. "I've been working in VR for more than 30 years, and it's only when we take away this bulky diving mask thing on our face and make it lighter and more inconspicuous that we can democratize this technology, this product, on a large scale," says Neira. Everyone knows that the obvious reduction in the size and weight of the diving mask cannot be solved in just one year.
The question of whether Vision Pro can be a commercial success is critical. While Apple executives simply said they were "excited about our sales numbers to date," Wall Street analysts estimated that Apple sold about 180,000 units in the first weekend of online presales. Morgan Stanley**, in the next five years, its annual sales will increase to 2 million to 4 million units, becoming another new category for Apple. But in the view of well-known Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, the Vision Pro will maintain its niche tone for a long time. But Dan Ives, a senior analyst at investment firm Wedbush Securites, also said that "in a few years, Vision Pro will look like sunglasses and will drop below $1,500."
Greg Joswiak, Apple's senior vice president of global marketing, said, "Apple reached into the future and brought this product. We will wear the future on our faces. ”
I didn't even have to ask Howarth about the weight, he raised it himself. He explained that the Vision Pro's components are made of magnesium, carbon fiber, and aluminum, which are some of the lightest materials on the planet, and that Apple has yet to find a smaller and lighter alternative. "We've done it to the extreme, and we couldn't make it lighter and smaller," says Howarth.
Cook said to me, "You can even lie on the couch and put the monitor on the ceiling**." In fact, I've already watched the third season of Ted Lasso on the ceiling, and it's unbelievable! "When I got home and connected to the Vision Pro, I also had Ford V Ferrari on the ceiling, and with the spatial audio, I felt like Ken Miles' Ford GT40 was really in my room. "I've been meditating for a long time, and meditating with Vision Pro has been an unprecedented experience. Cook said.
Typing with the Vision Pro virtual keyboard is a bit like holding a pen on your toes. It can be done, but it's not practical. But when I turned on my MacBook Pro while wearing the Vision Pro, the screen seemed to appear in an augmented reality space, allowing me to work seamlessly. Actually, the text you're seeing, I'm wearing the Vision Pro and typing it through my MacBook Pro. I bet if you look at me right now, you'll think I'm just slightly handsome, just like Tom Cruise from Minority Report. As for the space**, I've recorded a lot of clips of the kids laughing, playing, and talking. These seemingly ordinary moments, but when they are played, they are very touching, as if they are in the vivid memories of that time.
Also, there are some quirks with using this device. One of my favorites is that when you use Vision Pro in one room and then go to another room and open the same app, you have to find it by looking around the room, sometimes it's on the ceiling or floor. I couldn't find my text app the other day and turned around to find it in my bathroom. Later I learned that you can reset the app by pressing and holding the Digital Crown for a few seconds. But as I used Vision Pro more and more, I came to realize that another problem was not weight or size, nor that tech giants like Meta, Netflix, Spotify, and Google hadn't adapted to develop apps. Even, ** is not a problem. Because as long as Apple is willing, then it can completely subsidize the cost of Vision Pro, and this cost will not have any impact on the company's finances.
I'm talking about some problems that I can't find a solution to.
I first became aware of the problem in the SJT basement office on the Apple campus. At that time, I was in the silhouette of Joshua Tree Desert, experiencing a demonstration of the product. I played the game of Fruit Ninja, and I had to use my hands to cut the fruit that flew over. Later, I experienced a DJ app and it was as if I was actually standing in front of a DJ station, and I slid the tracks, tweaked the mixer, and scratched the records.
One Silicon Valley investor put it this way, "I'm sure the technology is great, but I still want to see it fail." Now Apple is more and more like a high-tech fentanyl dealer posing as the one behind the center. ”
While I DJed, an Apple employee reminded me that the experience was over. When I removed the Vision Pro from my face, I suddenly had a new feeling. It's the same feeling as at home, and when I look at the stereoscopic images of the kids I've been recording with this device over the past few weeks, they feel like they're right in front of my eyes. When I finished writing this article, the word document in front of me was gone.
When I take this device off my face and use other electronic gadgets, I always feel bored. The big 75-inch OLED TV in my house is like a CRT TV from the 90s, my iPhone is like a flip phone from the past, and even the real world around me feels bland. That's what I'm talking about.
Just like we can't imagine the driving experience without stereo, we can't imagine what it would be like to communicate with people and record life without a mobile phone, and we can't imagine how it would work without a computer. We can see how we will live without augmented reality in the future.
When we are controlled by more and more technology, we crave these devices like drugs, just as we crave our iPhone all the time today, hoping that it will bring more dopamine stimulation.
I know that Vision Pro has a strong sense of immersion, but I still want to see the world through it. "Apple is now more and more like a high-tech fentanyl dealer hiding behind the center." It sounds harsh, but it represents the sentiment of most people: we have become slaves to smartphones, and we will most likely become slaves to Vision Pro again in the future.
Later, I asked Cook if the technology is advancing too fast now, whether it's artificial intelligence, spatial computing, or our reliance on technology, is this too advanced? What does the future of these technologies look like?
It's really hard, Cook said.
So can't it**? ”
Cook explained to me, "Apple's approach is that when you're passionate about an idea, you explore it and see if it can be implemented and how many possibilities there are." Cook continued, "Of course, Apple has its own development plan and a clear perspective, but a big part of that is also due to constant exploration. Sometimes, a series of small discoveries can unexpectedly connect and lead us to unexpected places. ”
The key issue, of course, is that we are about to enter the era of spatial computing. Will the era of spatial computing really make our lives better, or will it become a world that is impossible to imagine without augmented reality with a technology that we must have in our lives? Joswiak is half right. He once said, "It's like we're reaching into the future and getting this product that we can wear on our face." "But I think it's probably the opposite. It is Apple that is leading us into a new era of computing. Some of us may take the initiative, some of us are forced to follow, but either way, we are moving forward. We will all go to the moon and look up at the glimmer of light in the ancient dust under the dark starry sky. At that point, we'll realize that this is the future of computing, entertainment, apps, and memory. This device, which is put on our face, will completely change everything for us.
This article is originally produced by the Digital Intelligence Research Society, without permission, please do not use any channels and platforms. Violators will be prosecuted.