When technology regularly seems to defy the bounds of imagination, APPLE has enjoyed reigniting the spotlight this week, with its newest version of its visionOS operating system for the much-touted new mixed reality headset. On the surface, the update to the software powering APPLE’s latest product – a significant offering in its own right – might seem rather underwhelming. For anyone who lives in the APPLE ecosystem, however, it’s part of a broader pattern of how the tech giant is doubling down on the user experience.
At its yearly developer conference held in Cupertino, California, APPLE announced visionOS 2, the most recent version of its operating system for the Vision Pro mixed reality headset. As with the updates, the name is in between an iterative improvement and a quality-of-life increment, but that’s APPLE’s secret sauce: polish to perfection, if not always innovation.
The prospect of multiple virtual Mac monitors, like the idea of head-tracking, may be present for APPLE aficionados (and the Vision Pro’s adopters), but it is not yet here. However, APPLE does offer another, somewhat thrilling alternative: a single, huge virtual display, with a resolution and scale, like a true ultrawide, that’s the equivalent of two 4K screens’ worth of real estate. This is the APPLE way: to take a useful technology and to enhance it by digital magic.
The distinctive machine-learning power of APPLE is on display in its latest feature, which converts the old world of two dimensions into the new of three dimensions. It was impossible to know or feel the depth of memory in a two-dimensional photo. It’s as if in old days you forgot to take an eyewitness and a GPS with you, so your memories are flat images, devoid of the richness of personal experiences. Well, now with APPLE’s magic your old 2D pictures can magically turn three-dimensional, so that you and your family relive the ‘lifeness’ of a memory. APPLE isn’t satisfied only with memories. They are reaching into every aspect of our lives, including the moments to come. Indeed, this is what motivated Canon to add a lens for spatial photos to the latest DSLR in their line.
Travel is easier, as is navigating the interface. (APPLE ditches the plane and adds travel mode for trains.) Interaction has become less cumbersome – virtual reality-worthy with only simple finger gestures in the air, and far less dependent on Siri or buttons. With these changes, it’s clear that APPLE continues to emphasise (in a different way) the notion of intuitivism. Its utopian philosophy continues to emphasise the user.
Beyond beautification, new developer APIs are enabling a host of apps for the spatial aspects of the Vision Pro. APPLE has laid the framework for new educational applications, including for board and card games, with TabletopKit, and is paving the way for new types of shared spatial apps. The possibilities for entertainment and education seem boundless for wearables and are sure to be a part of a future-forward era.
APPLE also made waves with the announcement that the Vision Pro would be sold in dozens of countries across Asia and Europe – a decision that both indicates APPLE’s ambitions for the Vision Pro and also a movement towards universalising mixed reality with greater geographic and technological spread.
There’s a steadfast dedication to intuitive technology that constantly moves lives forward, regardless of the mechanism. From the genesis of the iPhone and iPad, to the ground-breaking Vision Pro mixed reality headset, APPLE has introduced new ways for us to interact with the world around us. As another chapter in that story gets written with the rollout of visionOS 2 this fall, it becomes clear that APPLE isn’t interested in starting from scratch with each new device. Sometimes, the company is simply building upon an existing platform.
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