Apple Vision Pro – Week 2

Every day, I learn something new about the Apple Vision Pro, and it is all good. Although I have a lot more to learn, I quite happy with this great new product. I am using it mostly for the basics: email, messages, reading news, following stocks, and viewing pictures in my photo library. Some people use Vision Pro for gaming, but I am not a gamer.

David Sparks (MacSparky), Mac expert said this week, “This device serves a function unlike any other Apple device currently in my arsenal. It gives me a focused, distraction-free space to do contextual computing in a way I’ve never experienced before. This is due to the incredible fidelity of the environments.”

I see his point. You can create an environment in which you can work on whatever you want. You can put a widget off to the side in the office. Off to the right you can put a spreadsheet which continuously updates stock prices, and then you can put your email. You can do all this on a desktop, but there is no comparison. Instead of a 24” screen, you can have very large virtual screens as big as your office.  It is like you are in your own private space. I find an hour is about enough time at a sitting. More than that you can dizzy or even nauseated

On occasion, I watch a movie. It is like having a private movie theatre. We have a 65” Samsung curved screen TV. It is very nice, but nothing compared to putting a 3D movie on a ten- or twelve-foot virtual screen in any room. Watching a movie on Vision Pro is a one-man band. No problem. There are a lot of movies nobody wants to watch but me.

A new feature I learned about is creating 3D movies or pictures. This feature takes advantage of the tight integration between all Apple devices. You can use an iPhone 15 to take a picture or movie after clicking a new spatial computing icon on the iPhone video screen. After taking the movie or picture, it syncs to your Photos library which is available on the Vision Pro. The result is stunning.

Back to the basics. At first, I was disappointed I could not use two of my favorite apps. One is Spark. Spark is a Ukrainian-created and Ukrainian-supported email client. I have been using Spark as my email app since 2016. The other app I am dependent on is the 1Password password manager. Of the many password managers out there, I believe 1Password is best for managing passwords and passkeys, and I have been using it since 2017.

After trying different things, I discovered when you search Vision Pro for an app, you can specify whether you want to find only Vision Pro native apps or iPhone/iPad apps which are compatible. Sure enough, I found iPad versions of both Spark and 1Password. They work great on Vision Pro.

Another new feature I stumbled into is Vision Pro’s Optic ID. Optic ID is a secure authentication system uses the uniqueness of your irises to unlock your device and authorize various actions. Just like Face ID on iPhones, you can glance at your Apple Vision Pro to unlock it securely. You can also use Optic ID to confirm purchases, logins, and transactions within apps which support it. At this early stage, there are not many apps which support Optic ID. It was the same with Face ID and Touch ID. At the beginning they only worked with Apple apps but over time developers saw the advantage to support the technologies.

 Optic ID takes advantage of advanced sensors, and cameras in your Vision Pro which captures high-resolution images of your irises. Optic ID ensures you are a real person by checking for eye movement and other physiological cues. The major benefit of Optic ID is convenience. Unlike passwords or pins, Optic ID requires no manual input, making it faster and more convenient. When it comes to security, Iris recognition is considered highly secure as your iris patterns are unique and stable throughout your life. For privacy, Apple claims your iris data never leaves your device and is not shared with anyone, including Apple.

I am sure I will continue to learn new things about Apple Vision Pro. As I learn things, I will share them in my blog.

Note: I use Bard AI and other AI chatbots as my research assistants. AI can boost productivity for anyone who creates content. Sometimes I get incorrect data from AI, and when something looks suspicious, I dig deeper. Sometimes the data varies by sources where AI finds it. I take responsibility for my posts and if anyone spots an error, I will appreciate knowing it, and will correct it.