Virtual Reality

Why both Vision Pro & Quest are Good & Great?

If you have been a regular reader, then you know very well how I feel about Vision Pro, which is the best entertainment device I have ever owned (outside of my iPad.) And you also know that I think it is a two-horse race between Meta and Apple. (You can see my comments in this CNBC story.)

Hugo Barra, who was the Head of Oculus from 2017 to 2020 and a lifelong virtual reality enthusiast, makes the argument in his essay about the Vision Pro and how it compares with not only Meta’s Quest devices, but also with other headsets that are available on the market. 

“The Apple Vision Pro is the Northstar the VR industry needed, whether we admit it or not,” he writes. Barra, like many others, doesn’t think it is anywhere even close to being a finished product. Except:

The Vision Pro launch has more or less done exactly what I had always hoped for, which is to build

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What does Vision Pro have in common with a T1 connection?

A review unit of Apple’s Vision Pro showed up yesterday. I’ve spent the majority of the past 24 hours setting it up. The setup was much simpler than I thought it would be. Given my previous experiences with the device at Apple Park, I have a slight advantage. So, your mileage might vary. Still, I didn’t see any obvious stumbling blocks — unless you count Siri’s difficult relationship with my accent.

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Technology
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Stuck@Om with Herman Narula

In this episode of Stuck@Om, Herman Narula joins me in a conversation about our future. Herman is the CEO of Improbable, a company that is obsessed with multiplayer games and builds the underlying technology to support new gaming experiences. He strives to create a “virtual environment that is as representative and complex as the real world.” He envisions a virtual world that improves upon — not replicates — the real world. 

With the uncertainty of the future of travel, the ability to experience the world without leaving our homes would be astounding. What about the future of social gatherings? Will we shift to more virtual events in the vein of Travis Scott’s concert in Fortnite? The types of experiences and interactive communication we can have in such environments is endless. Herman posits that we may see a gradual freeing of identity and an emphasis on the ability to influence the

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Virtual Unreality

Virtual Reality sometimes feels like the boy who cried wolf. Doesn’t it feel like we have been talking about VR and its amazing potential forever? The $2 billion acquisition of Oculus by Facebook made the world take VR even more seriously. And I admit, I have not been immune from the hype. I’ve tried all the headsets. In most cases, I wore my eyeglasses, and the whole experience made me, well, unsteady. But I like new technologies — even the ones that make me literally throw up — and I remain enthusiastic about it.

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