[abaymado]

I have owned both Quest 3 and the Vision Pro. It is safe to say that what Meta lacks in quality, it makes up for with creativity.

When I initially bought the Quest 3, it felt unnatural, bulky, and had a poor resolution. I regretted the purchase after a few minutes. But then I started downloading apps, mainly social apps like "Big Screen", where random people can create/join rooms. I started joining these rooms with my 480p avatar with low expectations. But to my surprise, each room was unique, with crypto talks, atheist/religious debates. I accidentally even stumbled on a rap battle room, where people were passing around a mic and free styling. All of a sudden, it felt like the Metaverse. The social interaction overshadowed the corky avatar and somehow convinced my brain that I was talking to a real human being and not an avatar.

I got invited to demo the Vision Pro prior to its release. They had already announced it at WWDC at this point. Given the price tag and the fact that it is Apple, I had high expectations. I was not disappointed. In fact, I was even more amazed. The cinema was phenomenal. After a few updates, my avatar or persona, like Apple likes to call it, looked just like me. But the plateau came too fast. Everything I tried on demoed the first day was everything it had to offer, just with different content. I still use the Vision Pro 2/3 times a week to watch movies or shows, and it is still a mind-blowing experience, but nothing that would make me rush to put the Vision Pro on.

I wish Apple would follow Meta’s footprint and bring more social apps to the Vision Pro. I don't want to be on FaceTime with people I know and watch an Apple TV show. I want to join rooms with randoms arguing about why Bitcoin will be in the future.

[wpm]

Yeah I clocked Apples death grip on the OS as a fundamental weakness after a few weeks with it. Every idea I had for an app, I had to cross off the list because “no API” or “no permission” etc. I’d have to wait years for Apple to first develop the APIs, then grant me permission to use them.

What worked on the iPhone and to a lesser extent the iPad, will absolutely not work on the head. It’s a head mounted TV because that’s all Apple allows it to be. They’re killing their own future to protect App Store sales.

[bitpush]

Apple burned a lot of goodwill with developers over the years with App Store. Developers play by Apple's rules on App Store, because iPhone is such an attractive (and obviously hugely successful platform).

But when Vision Pro came, no developer wanted to give in very quickly. Netflix and YouTube sat out, and so did Spotify. And why not? They learned their lesson with App Store - you give an inch to Apple, and they'll bully you for years.

The same thing is playing out with Apple CarPlay Ultra. Ford (and other manufacturers) dont want Apple to barge in and bully their territory.

If only Apple were a little less selfish, they could have had this one

[paool]

To be fair, big screen has been around since the oculus DK2 days, so they had a lot of time to iterate.

But ya, apple should be more Dev friendly overall.

[bigyabai]

Apple doesn't support VR/AR standards like OpenXR, so really developers haven't had a lot of time to iterate. They've had a lot of time to experiment, and then were asked to write a program from scratch for a headset without motion-tracked controllers.