Five boring apps that Apple shouldn't forget about for the Apple Vision Pro

AppleInsider

Apple's next leap in computing rests on its Vision Pro headset and the apps people have to use with it. The company shouldn't forget about some of its more boring ones -- those could end up being the most fun.

Apps on Vision Pro

When the Apple Vision Pro debuted, presenters used time WWDC to mostly focus on productivity and content uses for its headset. It didn't even mention Fitness+ at all.

Apple will surely show off more apps for its spatial computing device, but it shouldn't forget some of its less obvious choices to make the headset feel robust and complete. Even though not all apps make sense for the headset, most just need the right context.

Apple Music, already shown on the Home View, will be present but doesn't have to be straightforward and boring. It can be clever about how people interact with its experience. Apple has a chance to create fully immersive apps in unexpected ways.

Apple Music Listening Room

Apple should expand its Music app's capability and turn it into a full VR experience -- as an option for those who want it.

A full virtual Apple Music listening room that looks like a vinyl record store, dim lounge, or poster-clad bedroom could be an intriguing place to zone out and listen to music. Just like Cover View was a fun fullscreen viewing experience to flip through music albums, Apple Music Listening Room could be that same whimsical delight for spatial computing.

Karaoke shown being used on Apple TV

Apple Music can merely be a regular, boring, app inside a window and still get plenty of use alongside Safari and other tasks, but it should go further too.

An Apple Music listening room could be multi-faceted. It could be for meditation and relaxation, but an Apple Music listening room could also finally be Apple's second coming of Ping which was Apple's attempt to make iTunes a social network.

If Apple Music did dive into the VR space, the Sing karaoke feature seems perfect for a headset. The person wearing Vision Pro could be on a virtual stage with song lyrics placed anywhere in the room they want.

Find My

Looking for misplaced AirPods Pro 2 or an item with AirTag attached might not be the killer Vision Pro app, but it is a perfect augmented reality use.

Finding an AirTag on an iPhone

Currently, Apple's ideal scenario for finding something on the Find My network is pointing your iPhone around the house while it shows an arrow with the distance to it.

A Find My app on Vision Pro could lay down arrows on the floor itself and point to couch cushions, closet doors, or other areas to show exactly where lost items reside.

Widgets

While not a specific app, hopefully, Apple will bring widgets to Vision Pro. There are so many bits of useful information that don't need full-blown windows.

Widgets shown on iPhone in StandBy

Once Apple found its groove and put widgets on the iPhone's Lock Screen it started bringing them to more areas for iPad and Macs. Vision Pro should absolutely get widgets too.

Apple Music could surely benefit from having a widget, for the times you're not in a virtual Apple Music listening room that looks like a scene from "High Fidelity."

Plus, if a developer has already made any widget already, it would afford them a simple path to getting some software onto the headset.

Weather Environment

Environments on the Vision Pro are different virtual surroundings to retreat to. One example Apple showed off was Mount Hood. Instead of a full Weather app, the local weather could be an Environment that you spin the Digital Crown to enable.

Apple Weather app on iPhone

You might not need a dedicated Weather app or even a widget if you could get subtle weather cues like rain droplets, clouds, or sun rays in whichever room you're using Vision Pro.

An augmented weather environment on Vision Pro could turn out to be gimmicky, but there's a chance contextual info presented as an Environment could be tasteful and neat.

Apple Maps Explorer

An Apple Maps Explorer app could bring the company's latest guides to life and allow people to discover new places to visit.

Flyover Tours on iPhone

Google Earth was a time suck for so many people when it was first released. If you're going to go down a rabbit hole, however, there are worse ways to spend time than learning about different cities and areas of the world.

Apple Maps is beautifully designed and has a lot of 3D elements to it. From Look Around to Flyover Tours there are lots of ways to get sucked into a Maps app, even if it isn't augmented use on the streets yet.


Read on AppleInsider

beowulfschmidt

AppleInsider said:

Google Earth was a time suck for so many people when it was first released. If you're going to go down a rabbit hole, however, there are worse ways to spend time than learning about different cities and areas of the world.

Now, there is an understatement if there ever was one.  I've probably spent more time in Google Earth than I have in any other VR app, including Skyrim.  It's bloody amazing.

eriamjh

The suggestions of improving the Vision Pro experience for apps is going to take years to truly take advantage of the hardware’s capability or even the essence of immersive.  

We haven’t dreamed of the possibilities for many things this device could allow us to experience.   Too bad it’s hard work to take something simple like weather to make it take Advantage of the VP. 

hammeroftruth

eriamjh said:

The suggestions of improving the Vision Pro experience for apps is going to take years to truly take advantage of the hardware’s capability or even the essence of immersive.  

We haven’t dreamed of the possibilities for many things this device could allow us to experience.   Too bad it’s hard work to take something simple like weather to make it take Advantage of the VP. 

It’s probably not that hard to do it. More likely the reason it doesn’t have those things now was secrecy.  For all the leaks they have, they have even more things we don’t know about that they are working on which may or may not ever come out. 

mike1

Absolutely can envision some really cool applications for Fitness+.

byronl

Also Health and any other app that’s on the phone but took years for the ipad to adopt it.

stoneyg

I've heard a lot of talk about how successful Supernatural has been on the Quest for fitness, but that's one area I don't get. Maybe it's the type of exercise that I do, but having a headset strapped to my face doesn't sound ideal.

For music, having concerts recorded in Apple's new proprietary 3D camera technology (mentioned by John Gruber https://daringfireball.net/2023/06/first_impressions_of_vision_pro_and_visionos) would be incredible.

chutzpah

If I had a job in product design at Apple, surrounded by super smart creative people then you can bet your bottom dollar I'd be super grateful for all the people on the internet telling me what I should do.

xed

I hadn't even thought of the implications until this article, but it would really neat to have Find My in Apple Vision Pro with AR overlays showing you a visual representation of where your AirTag on your keys are if you're looking for them.

I doubt it will come with an initial release as it's better to work from a smaller set of well oiled apps and then expand outward, but I could see something clever added years down the road.

radarthekat

Apple Maps Street View?  Nah.  

Godzilla View.  

You heard it here first.  

roake

This may have been addressed.  I know Apple Vision Pro is a different kind of (spatial computing) platform, but it certainly seems powerful enough to additionally manage compatibility with other platforms.  What I wonder is if it will have any compatibility with Steam VR or any other platforms/games/apps without that app having to be written for this platform specifically.

I really want to try Half Life: Alyx!  I hear it’s maybe the only honest-to-goodness excellent VR game in the VR world.

I can imaging a world where Steam modifies their library to work with Apple’s hardware to make it easier on their developers.  But I doubt they would do it unless they could own a huge percentage of the sales (very common, but only Apple catches he’ll about it).

chutzpah

roake said:

This may have been addressed.  I know Apple Vision Pro is a different kind of (spatial computing) platform, but it certainly seems powerful enough to additionally manage compatibility with other platforms.  What I wonder is if it will have any compatibility with Steam VR or any other platforms/games/apps without that app having to be written for this platform specifically.

I really want to try Half Life: Alyx!  I hear it’s maybe the only honest-to-goodness excellent VR game in the VR world.

I can imaging a world where Steam modifies their library to work with Apple’s hardware to make it easier on their developers.  But I doubt they would do it unless they could own a huge percentage of the sales (very common, but only Apple catches he’ll about it).

SteamVR doesn’t even support macOS, there’s no way that you could accomplish this with minor modifications. 

And VisionPro’s compatibility with VR motion controllers is an unknown factor. Without that most of SteamVRs library is useless - you can’t use gesture controls to run!

roundaboutnow

chutzpah said:

roake said:

This may have been addressed.  I know Apple Vision Pro is a different kind of (spatial computing) platform, but it certainly seems powerful enough to additionally manage compatibility with other platforms.  What I wonder is if it will have any compatibility with Steam VR or any other platforms/games/apps without that app having to be written for this platform specifically.

I really want to try Half Life: Alyx!  I hear it’s maybe the only honest-to-goodness excellent VR game in the VR world.

I can imaging a world where Steam modifies their library to work with Apple’s hardware to make it easier on their developers.  But I doubt they would do it unless they could own a huge percentage of the sales (very common, but only Apple catches he’ll about it).

SteamVR doesn’t even support macOS, there’s no way that you could accomplish this with minor modifications. 

And VisionPro’s compatibility with VR motion controllers is an unknown factor. Without that most of SteamVRs library is useless - you can’t use gesture controls to run!

I don't know much about Steam or SteamVR, but I just read the recent AI article reporting that Steam just updated their app (not SteamVR I realize) and supports hardware acceleration on macOS. 

I recall that they used to support SteamVR on Mac but stopped doing so a couple of years ago. They might be re-thinking that decision now that AVP is out.

So far as controllers, while not spelling out details, Apple is saying on their AVP web page "Spatial computing makes new types of games possible with titles that can span a spectrum of immersion and bring gamers into all-new worlds. Users can also play over 100 Apple Arcade games on a screen as large as they want, with incredible immersive audio and support for popular game controllers."

chutzpah

roundaboutnow said:

chutzpah said:

roake said:

This may have been addressed.  I know Apple Vision Pro is a different kind of (spatial computing) platform, but it certainly seems powerful enough to additionally manage compatibility with other platforms.  What I wonder is if it will have any compatibility with Steam VR or any other platforms/games/apps without that app having to be written for this platform specifically.

I really want to try Half Life: Alyx!  I hear it’s maybe the only honest-to-goodness excellent VR game in the VR world.

I can imaging a world where Steam modifies their library to work with Apple’s hardware to make it easier on their developers.  But I doubt they would do it unless they could own a huge percentage of the sales (very common, but only Apple catches he’ll about it).

SteamVR doesn’t even support macOS, there’s no way that you could accomplish this with minor modifications. 

And VisionPro’s compatibility with VR motion controllers is an unknown factor. Without that most of SteamVRs library is useless - you can’t use gesture controls to run!

I don't know much about Steam or SteamVR, but I just read the recent AI article reporting that Steam just updated their app (not SteamVR I realize) and supports hardware acceleration on macOS. 

I recall that they used to support SteamVR on Mac but stopped doing so a couple of years ago. They might be re-thinking that decision now that AVP is out.

So far as controllers, while not spelling out details, Apple is saying on their AVP web page "Spatial computing makes new types of games possible with titles that can span a spectrum of immersion and bring gamers into all-new worlds. Users can also play over 100 Apple Arcade games on a screen as large as they want, with incredible immersive audio and support for popular game controllers."

Steam is just an app.  Updating an app is (relatively) easy.  Updating a whole platform, and the hundreds of titles developed on it is a world apart.

$10 says that the controllers referenced are the PS5 DualSense, Xbox Controller,  Switch JoyCons/Pro Controller, and anything on the MFI program, and not much more.  i.e. the controllers than iOS and macOS currently support.  I highly doubt it'll include motion controllers, at least not for a while.  Apple avoided any kind of stylus for the iPad for 5 years, they're proud of their touch and gesture interfaces.

glnf

Add the Graphic Calculator to the list! It will blow our mind and body in 3D VR Vision Pro.😁😋

roundaboutnow

chutzpah said:

roundaboutnow said:

chutzpah said:

roake said:

This may have been addressed.  I know Apple Vision Pro is a different kind of (spatial computing) platform, but it certainly seems powerful enough to additionally manage compatibility with other platforms.  What I wonder is if it will have any compatibility with Steam VR or any other platforms/games/apps without that app having to be written for this platform specifically.

I really want to try Half Life: Alyx!  I hear it’s maybe the only honest-to-goodness excellent VR game in the VR world.

I can imaging a world where Steam modifies their library to work with Apple’s hardware to make it easier on their developers.  But I doubt they would do it unless they could own a huge percentage of the sales (very common, but only Apple catches he’ll about it).

SteamVR doesn’t even support macOS, there’s no way that you could accomplish this with minor modifications. 

And VisionPro’s compatibility with VR motion controllers is an unknown factor. Without that most of SteamVRs library is useless - you can’t use gesture controls to run!

I don't know much about Steam or SteamVR, but I just read the recent AI article reporting that Steam just updated their app (not SteamVR I realize) and supports hardware acceleration on macOS. 

I recall that they used to support SteamVR on Mac but stopped doing so a couple of years ago. They might be re-thinking that decision now that AVP is out.

So far as controllers, while not spelling out details, Apple is saying on their AVP web page "Spatial computing makes new types of games possible with titles that can span a spectrum of immersion and bring gamers into all-new worlds. Users can also play over 100 Apple Arcade games on a screen as large as they want, with incredible immersive audio and support for popular game controllers."

Steam is just an app.  Updating an app is (relatively) easy.  Updating a whole platform, and the hundreds of titles developed on it is a world apart.

$10 says that the controllers referenced are the PS5 DualSense, Xbox Controller,  Switch JoyCons/Pro Controller, and anything on the MFI program, and not much more.  i.e. the controllers than iOS and macOS currently support.  I highly doubt it'll include motion controllers, at least not for a while.  Apple avoided any kind of stylus for the iPad for 5 years, they're proud of their touch and gesture interfaces.

I suppose this is where my limited knowledge of gaming gets exposed...

I think at least some of those controllers you listed have motion sensors. Is that different than "motion controllers"? (You're probably right about which controllers are going to be supported).

When you refer to SteamVR as a "whole platform", is it more like an OS rather than an "app"? I see that you need certain VR hardware to run it, and I get that porting from one hardware platform to another is probably not trivial, but I would think that if the AVP has significant sales numbers, it would be wise for the Steam folks to take a good hard look at supporting it.

cesar battistini maziero

The possibilities are truly endless. This tech is amazing. 

tht

My vote would be for Terminal.app. Been wishing for it on iPadOS for the longest time too. It opens up a gazillion CLI tools and workflows.