I sometimes feel like it’s the opposite. Memes and images of people being stupid while wearing the damn thing make me feel like people are trying to increase the stigma around it to kill it. I mean… this meme is showing the character completely unaware of their situation and doesn’t make the product seem good at all.
Hard disagree. We are all sitting here talking about Apple Vision. Worst thing for Apple is if we were not talking about it. People did the same shit when iPad was introduced and all the tampon memes. Ancient history but the iPad is not.
Look at all the memes and discussions regarding Teslas. #5 and #13 top sold car in the USA.
Which is dumb, because Apple wants this to be AR first and foremost. So most of the time, you'll use it with video passthrough so that you can see around you.
Yeah I mean VR headsets have existed for a number of years now. Weird how people are reacting this way to Apple's headset but didn't feel the same way about things like the HTC Vive, the Oculus/Meta Quest, etc.
For me there are two interesting bits that make the Vision Pro worth watching.
When Apple gets into a new market, others follow. Whether you like apple or not, you have to admit they have sway in the industry. Remember how much wireless earbuds blew up after AirPods came out? At the very least, a big competitor has entered the VR space, which will pressure others to do even better.
More on the apple fan side, it’s rare apple releases an entirely new line of products. And even more rare they take risks. This is risky, and therefore interesting!
Some of it is just Apple fandom, but this headset does make more of a leap into AR/productivity than others have as a main feature. From reviews it sounds like it still ain’t thaaat great at it, and I’ve heard the meta quest pro or whatever can do some similar stuff, but this is another step towards it I guess.
I realize google glass and the Microsoft ar glasses attempted this a bit, but both were such immature tech that they seemed like
Proof of concept instead of a potentially mass market product.
I want to know what happened to magic leap… all that super hype about light fields and AR, and then some super expensive goggle things and silence for a while, maybe I just haven’t been saying attention enough or something.
I think that the push for using it as AR is much stronger than with other headsets. Apple (and their investors especially) want there to be another huge shift in how computers are used, on par with the massive shift from desktop PCs to mobile devices. I think it's a long shot, but there is some belief that AR will replace all your other devices. You'll go to the coffee shop to work with your visor instead of your laptop, setting up your "virtual office" wherever you are. They want you to drive with it on and get smart AR navigation and avoidance hints.
I don't think the memes are entirely astroturf (I wouldn't be surprised anymore though) but there's definitely a societal shift occurring where people are hashing out what the acceptable norms for headsets are. Memes are part of our communication about what we find normal and what is weird or bad.
It’s the power of marketing. Apple have crafted a strong brand with broad appeal, which gives the launch of any new product line a wide reach.
Focusing the Vision Pro more on productivity and apps has probably helped in this specific case too. All of the other big consumer VR systems have been heavily focused around gaming. Gaming is a lot more popular than it used to be, but it’s still anathema for a lot of people.
There is only one thing I'm paying attention to with the Vision Pro at this point: use in public. When the Quest 3 came out people did stupid stuff like wearing it at amusement parks and ordering coffee with it on, then stopped cause it was just for the memes. I really hope people stop being such fuckwits with Vision Pros but I'm afraid they won't because Apple status symbol.
It's the launch of the iPhone all over again. Smartphones existed before, even touchscreen smartphones. But the iPhone made people so vocal and opinions so polarized just because Apple did it.
When Google Glass was a thing, I remember people being alarmed with the fact that it has a front facing camera and worry it'll be abused to record videos in inappropriate settings without permission (e.g. public restroom). I think there were instances where the glass wear getting harassed because of this. The camera wasn't even turned on by default.
Fast forward today, the vision pro has multiple always on cameras pointing to every direction, yet the thing most people worry about is how goofy it looks?
How times have changed. I guess people are more comfortable getting recorded these days with so many CCTV and smartphones around.
Although we have surely become more comfortable with cameras around us more often, if I remember correctly what freaked people out was that there wasn’t a visible indicator when Google Glass was recording.
Had Google added a tiny red LED next to the camera, it would’ve been different.
The camera existing was definitely part of it, not just an indicator light.
Also Google Glass was designed to be "casual" in that you'd always be wearing them passively, even when not actively using them. Therefore you'd have to be aware of the camera on you anytime you're in the room with someone that had them.
Apple's aren't the sort of thing people are just going to be wearing around all the time in casual moments. I mean, some will, but the vast majority of use cases will be purposeful, not just wearing them to wear them.
That's because people are now aware of all of this shit happening, and some discreet day, just flip off the power from the house, doing indescribable things, and listens to the voices in their heads. And nobody will know.
Not much complaint about the Meta Ray-bans and those have been on sale for years now. Hell, Snapchat had three separate releases of their spectacles product and I really didn’t hear much complaints. All of these products still look goofy.
Yeah it is called Vision Student Edition but it isn’t that casual because when you put them on it just shows you the crushingly cruel reality of your student loans in a context of countless other people with crushing student loans who will never be able to live a full life because of a predatory ruling class.
Most people start crying when they put it on but for some reason upper management think it is the funniest, most relaxing thing ever they just pass it back and forth in board meetings doubled over laughing hollering stuff like “I can’t believe they let us do this to them, can you imagine?” so it hasn’t been canned despite almost no positive reaction from normal users.
Have people always made it their business what other people spend their money on or is this a new thing? I seriously don’t remember so many being people being so butthurt over what others do.