18FEB2024

The way I know Vision Pro is something special is that I find myself thinking about it constantly (both positive and critical thoughts), and I feel like I can't get enough analysis about it- I have the device, and yet I keep watching and reading new reviews as they come out. Just in case anyone else finds themselves in the same camp, here are a few more thoughts and recommendations.

• John Gruber and Adam Lisagor Discuss Vision Pro: Daring Fireball's John Gruber and Adam Lisagor (formerly of You Look Nice Today) have a great 2+ hour conversation on the Vision Pro and its impact on the world. I really enjoyed this one.
• Huge if true episode: Cleo Abram and Marques Brownlee did an awesome episode on the power of what the Vision Pro can do for our society.
• Day Peek: Manuel Keel (who made Zenitizer, a really great meditation timer app) released Day Peek this week which is a great side bar to have running in the Vision Pro while you work-- It includes a clock, a countdown timer to your next appointment, and a snapshot of your schedule for the day. Really clean, simple design.
• Persona Studio: One of the things that really surprises me with the Personas Beta is that there is no way to share your persona with others short of doing a FaceTime call or taking a screenshot. Jordi Bruin (maker of the excellent Mac GPT and MacWhisper steps in to the rescue with this app that lets you make and share video messages with your Persona.
• Phone Keyboard: Phone Keyboard is only in Beta, but it's another app that looks to be plugging a hole in VisionOS 1.0-- the typing experience. As I've written before, the pinch to type UI is actually quite good, but not something you'd want to do for more than a short sentence... as a result, I wind up voice dictating A LOT. Being able to pull out your phone and type out longer messages would be a great additional interaction choice.
• Space Vision: This is a really cool little, fully immersive orrery that let's you explore a 3D model of our solar system, with options to scale it and adjust the speed of rotations and orbits as needed. It's pretty magical. I love the fully immersive experience (the models are presented as if you are floating in space), but it would be cool for a future update to let us keep it floating in pass through mode- I'd love to have the solar system just floating in a corner of my room while I work.
• Spatial Noise: The maker of Dark Noise (my favorite iOS white noise generator), has made a cool app that let's you custom mix your sound environment by "dropping" little noise sources around your space. Thanks Vision Pro's Spatial Audio capabilities, it really sounds like the sound sources are floating right where you left them (even like it's coming from another room if you left it somewhere else in your hose).
• Beautiful Things: This is a very cool website with beautifully rendered 3D objects you can play with in your physical space. The best part for me is how they actually reflect the things in your room, and embrace the lighting conditions around you.
• AnnaPro Headstrap*: This clever little strap attaches to your Vision Pro and shifts the weight of the device off your fave, even allowing you to remove the face shield entirely for a wider field of view experience. I've seen mixed reviews of this thing, but it has made the device lots more comfortable for me to use.
  *Amazon-affiliate link

What apps and other things are you delighting in related to the  Vision Pro? I want to hear!