This has become a pattern: one moment he’s not wearing the headset, and the next he is. The transition always happened unexpectedly: when I left the room to get in the shower, put on makeup in the bathroom, or get ready to go out.
One time, after I finished brushing my teeth before going to bed, I walked out into the living room to find him sitting on the edge of the couch, staring into the distance with the Vision Pro firmly on his head. He was playing chess. I sat next to him and watched silently as he pinched his fingers and moved imaginary chess pieces through the air in multiple directions (left, right, diagonal) slowly stepping back to watch his opponent’s (a computer) next move.
During similar interactions, he would always ask, “Can I try?” In an attempt to persuade me to love the Vision Pro as much as he does, he always does. It’s not that I’m totally against having my own headphones, but I have a hard time understanding the need to have them in their current form. Aside from the outrageous $3,500 price tag and heavy frame, I know I’ll never reach for it as much as my iPhone, MacBook, or iPad. Besides, shouldn’t that mean one for each? Is the home enough if you spend so much? Unfortunately, sharing the experience seems more like a hassle than fun.
For starters, you have to log in to Guest Mode every time, so I’m forced to do the 90-second calibration test. each time. I also wear glasses. Technically, I’m supposed to buy the prescription Zeiss optical inserts. But I refuse to give Apple $150 for something completely out of my control. It’s also annoying to think that you would have to spend even more money if you live in a household with several people wearing glasses.
I’ve also never had a problem using other headsets, like the Meta Quest 2, with glasses. And so, out of sheer spite, I continue calibrating the Vision Pro with the glasses on anyway. It’s not foolproof: the internal eye-tracking cameras sometimes have a hard time identifying where my eyes are looking. Some things, like spending time on virtual Mount Hood, looking Spiderman: No Way Home 3D and browsing the web in Safari are easy. But anything that requires more precise eye tracking, like navigating visionOS or trying to play a game, is a struggle.
A shared problem
When my boyfriend and I wanted to share the experience in any way, we tried streaming content on the TV. using AirPlay. Unfortunately, such a simple task as watching a movie was not very successful. We try to look Bad Girlsbut because it is on a streaming service, the content was blocked on both the Vision Pro and the TV due to copyright.
Meanwhile, play a game like fruit ninja On the big screen the fun only lasts so long. Every time we wanted to switch players, we had to go back and forth between their profile and Guest Mode. I couldn’t help but think how easy this process was with a headset like the Quest 2. A few years ago, when my dad, brother and I were playing The Walking Dead: saints and sinners For a few hours together, we simply passed the headphones between the three of us and jumped into the game without having to change profiles or modify settings. However, on Vision Pro, my boyfriend and I must have played for a total of 10 minutes before the whole experience started to get boring.