Federico Viticci Jun 13, 2023

The Apple Vision Pro is a watershed moment for personal computing.

I tried it a week ago, and haven't stopped thinking about it since.

Here is my story on three pivotal moments from my Vision Pro demo and why spatial computing is a new frontier.

https://www.macstories.net/stories/apple-vision-pro-a-watershed-moment/

Apple Vision Pro: A Watershed Moment for Personal Computing

I’m going to be direct with this story. My 30-minute demo with Vision Pro last week was the most mind-blowing moment of my 14-year career covering Apple and technology. I left the demo speechless, and it took me a few days to articulate how it felt. How I felt. It’s not just that I was

Show threadJeff AtwoodJun 13, 2023
@viticci the Don Draper carousel. really. really. wow, man. Imagine being this excited about the first apple watch. I wish I still had that sense of childlike wonder about the world.
Show threadSteven BarnhartJun 13, 2023
@codinghorror @viticci right. Or the iPad enthusiasm seems silly now considering how long it took to get useful and is today mostly still an accessory.
Show threadchetmanJun 13, 2023
@StevenBarnhart @codinghorror @viticci That’s a crazy weird take on the iPad.
Show threadSteven BarnhartJun 13, 2023
@chetman @codinghorror @viticci Really not an uncommon one considering the years of complaints about the OS being a huge letdown to the hardware. They can’t even get multitasking right.
Show threadchetman

@StevenBarnhart @codinghorror @viticci That power users of the Mac were unhappy the iPad was something different is not news, but that doesn’t render the iPad disappointing to people who saw beyond that bias.

It just reminds us how short-sighted that reaction was.

Jun 13, 2023 at 9:03pmWeb
Show threadSteven BarnhartJun 13, 2023
@chetman @codinghorror @viticci it’s not anyone’s primary machine in the office or at home. That’s the phone and the computer. Next?
Show threadJeff AtwoodJun 13, 2023
@StevenBarnhart @chetman @viticci yeah exactly this. It's not primary for anyone, statistically speaking. It is an accessory, like the Apple Watch.
Show threadSteven BarnhartJun 13, 2023
@codinghorror @chetman @viticci And not a huge dev story (i.e., not much money there). Could change, but I see right now the parallels to at least the apple watch and the vision pro. Not to mention it involves a new culture of people wearing them outside which I despise.
Show threadJeff AtwoodJun 13, 2023
@StevenBarnhart @chetman @viticci yeah "spend quality time with your family, oddly isolated inside this weird bulky headset!" Makes total sense! I'll take twelve!
Show threadpebcakJun 13, 2023
@StevenBarnhart @chetman @codinghorror @viticci that might be true for you. It was for a long time the main machine for my then preteen son... he made his own audiobooks with it. If he had not moved to 3d modeling and animation it would likely still be his primary machine. It's a generational thing.
Show threadchetmanJun 13, 2023
@pebcak @StevenBarnhart @codinghorror @viticci Also I know a number of seniors who use it as their primary platform.
Show threadSteven BarnhartJun 13, 2023
@pebcak @chetman @codinghorror @viticci right he moved to actual production work. Most podcasts STILL aren’t on iPad either. It’s only just now getting proper external mic support.
Show threadpebcakJun 13, 2023
@StevenBarnhart @chetman @codinghorror @viticci but the only reason he moved is processing power. (It's not production work, he's a carpenter. ;))
Show threadJeff AtwoodJun 13, 2023
@pebcak @StevenBarnhart @chetman odd because the M2 is quite powerful (assuming iPad Pro). I guess if you need obscene amounts of compute..
Show threadSteven BarnhartJun 14, 2023
@codinghorror @pebcak @chetman the iPads memory management has sucked until recently with memory swapping. If you wanted to see me enraged just watch me use the browser and some apps and go to copy and paste between them and see that the iPad reset the app.
Show threadJeff AtwoodJun 14, 2023
@StevenBarnhart @pebcak @chetman note that the 1TB iPad Pro models have 16gb RAM, anything with 512gb or less have 8gb RAM.
Show threadJeff AtwoodJun 14, 2023
@StevenBarnhart @pebcak @chetman also are you really seeing a lot of tab swapping with 8gb RAM? Because that's a fair bit of RAM even on the "low end"
Show threadSteven BarnhartJun 14, 2023
@codinghorror @pebcak @chetman randomly but no not as much. Sadly lots lately on my iPhone 12. It never wants to handle anything these days. I was speaking more so the situation until recently.
Show threadJeff AtwoodJun 14, 2023
@StevenBarnhart @pebcak @chetman well, iphone 12 is 4gb ram, iphone 13 and 14 are 6gb ram. Maybe 15 will jump to 8gb? Google says the iPhone 15 Pros will have 8gb, indeed. Apple has always been frustratingly stingy with RAM and storage, but over time they're getting there. Where they should have been a few years ago..
Show threadSteven BarnhartJun 14, 2023
@codinghorror @pebcak @chetman yeah just crazy to think because it was so fast for so long and feels like it just cratered recently. Constantly running lot on 64 GB too and barely am a picture taker. The damn apps are too big these days.
Show threadchetmanJun 13, 2023
@StevenBarnhart @codinghorror @viticci This is just plain wrong. Think beyond your bubble.
Show threadJeff AtwoodJun 13, 2023
@chetman @StevenBarnhart @viticci I think it's a mixture, but let's check the sales stats "In the latest quarter, iPad sales accounted for nearly about eight percent of Apple's total global revenue" so 8 percent. It's the lowest revenue generating item they ship.
Show threadSteven BarnhartJun 13, 2023
@codinghorror @chetman @viticci I listen to lots of Apple Podcasts. The biggest apple enthusiast. None of them are made on the iPad and only one (masochist) at this point are using the iPad for the majority of their computing.
Show threadJeff AtwoodJun 13, 2023
@StevenBarnhart @chetman we can all be correct here. iPads are great, I love them, own many of them, but they're not.. essential. A phone is ESSENTIAL, I don't think anyone would even dare argue this central point? $205b in sales will tell you that. Everything else Apple does is a "nice to have" relative to that enormous number.
Show threadJeff AtwoodJun 13, 2023
@StevenBarnhart @chetman and come on, the iPad market is about half the size of the Mac market, which itself isn't doing so great to put it mildly.