Apple’s new augmented reality headset, the $3,500 Vision Pro, is just over two weeks old, but early adopters are already testing the limits of where they can try out their new toy in polite society.
Social media has been flooded with posts capturing mesmerized Vision Pro users interacting with their virtual environments in public and looking like futuristic mimes.
While many of these videos have proven to be influencers pulling tricks for clicks, Apple’s big bet on its expensive wearable glasses means customers will look for any excuse to get their money’s worth and flaunt their tech splurge. deluxe.
Or, as one Instagram user put it, “Welcome to the era of Vision Bro.”
Social media has been flooded with posts capturing mesmerized Vision Pro users interacting with their virtual environments in public and looking like futuristic mimes, but many of these videos (like Shervin Shares above) are influencers doing tricks to get clicks .
Apple’s safety information didn’t stop YouTuber Casey Neistat (above) from skateboarding down a bus lane in Manhattan while wearing the headphones for his review, a stunt that earned him more than 4 million views in just 48 hours.
Tesla owner Dante Lentini, 21, went viral on Elon Musk’s X last week for a video that appeared to show him being pulled over by police for using his Vision Pro while driving on the highway.
Lentini later said popular science that the entire clip was done in ‘sketch style’ and that ‘the police weren’t even in the parking lot to begin with.’
However, the safety information for Apple Vision Pro on the company’s website explicitly prohibits using the headphones while driving, regardless of your intent.
“Never use Apple Vision Pro while operating a moving vehicle, a bicycle, heavy machinery, or in any other situation that requires attention to safety,” the company said.
This didn’t stop YouTuber Casey Neistat from skateboarding down a bus lane in midtown Manhattan while wearing the headphones for his review, a stunt that earned him over 4 million views in just 48 hours.
Another YouTuber, Shervin Stock and their ‘The Content Closet’ roommates challenged each other to wear Vision Pro for 24 hours straight.
Given the device’s two-hour battery life, this could mean having 12 battery packs each charged and available, or at least a few in rotation charging on standby.
Their glasses-wearing tour of New York took them to Time Square, where bright animated billboards collided with Vision Pro’s augmented reality, as well as the city’s public transportation.
To pay for his subway ride, Shares and his friends They crouched down and put their faces and headphones inches from the scanner, where less tech-savvy New Yorkers would have simply swiped their debit card or used Apple Pay on their iPhone.
“We’ve been wearing these for about three hours,” Share content partner Colt Kirwan told viewers, “and I feel (like) a dent in my forehead right now.”
With more than 600 apps and games designed specifically to take advantage of the Vision Pro’s capabilities, and a million older apps compatible with the device, it’s hard to predict how much additional content social media power users will get out of the headset. .
But some already fear the prospect of others’ augmented reality invading their own ordinary reality.
When Zipeng ZhuChinese-born designer and art director, posted his ‘Vision Bro’ parody ads on instagramone commentator summed up the feeling these performative public expeditions with software can provoke.
“It doesn’t look good,” the commentator said.
Another commenter said, “Pinch,” referring to the pinching motion Apple has chosen as the Vision Pro’s response to clicking. Zhu joked: “iPinch.”
When Zipeng Zhu, a Chinese-born designer and art director, posted his ‘Vision Bro’ parody ads on Instagram, one commenter summed up the feeling these performative public expeditions with software can provoke: “It’s not a good look,” he said. The commentator.
Another commenter said, “Pinch,” referring to the pinching motion Apple has chosen as the Vision Pro’s response to clicking. Zhu joked, ‘iPinch’
Outside of the culture of influencers and content creators, my private and sincere Apple fans are more quietly debating how and where to best use Vision Pro’s hot new ‘spatial computing’ interface.
Sincere efforts are being made to integrate the Vision Pro into daily life, not only functionally but also in terms of clothing, with some suggesting that only a mid-2000s cyberpunk or ‘Matrix’-inspired aesthetic will fit the bill. .
Even devoted followers of developments in virtual reality hardware – a visionary concept that has required decades of false starts and risky ventures to get to where it is today – aren’t sure where it’s acceptable to use their Vision Pro.
‘Does anyone else have concerns about using Vision Pro in public?’ asked a Reddit user in the r/virtual reality sub-Reddit.
The user, who calls himself Freshclover, wondered if the problem is simply that the technology is too new and the social cues surrounding it have not yet been normalized.
“Even then, using VR while out to eat with your friends will always seem dystopian to me,” Freshclover added. “It feels like the equivalent of talking to someone while looking at your phone.”
Sincere efforts are being made to integrate Vision Pro into daily life, not only functionally but also in terms of clothing, with some suggesting that only a mid-2000s cyberpunk or ‘Matrix’-inspired aesthetic will fit the bill. .
Apple sold out of its VisionPro pre-orders on January 19, selling 200,000 devices. Above, a Reddit ‘Wall Street Bets’ moderator wonders which of those 200,000 will be the first to use the Vision Pro so irresponsibly that he will die.
Separately, a Reddit ‘Wall Street Bets’ moderator wondered in a post for that will die.
“Who will be the first person to be hit by a car while wearing their Apple Vision Pro?” they asked.
But even the most serious Apple fans and Vision Pro consumers on Reddit’s virtual reality subreddit raised similar questions among themselves, some speculating that the disaster could be due to the headset’s minuscule two hours of battery life.
“It will be interesting to see what happens when the battery runs out.” Reddit user MrRandomNumber he said, “and the real world suddenly becomes a pitch black space.”
“I hope they’re not driving when it happens.”