The problem with the Vision Pro, aside from its shocking price tag, is it claims to replace the laptop – a device that has been perfected over decades to be the perfect productivity machine for on-the-go workers. Laptops didn’t need replacing (nobody I know has had a complaint that their laptop wasn’t spatial enough), and honestly, they’re the perfect form factor for the job they do, which is why the Vision Pro may not be the ideal device to replace them… but that doesn’t mean a spatial laptop isn’t a good idea. Meet the Spacetop, a hybrid ‘laptop’ that fills the gap between the conventional Laptop and the Vision Pro. It’s slim, light, affordable, and gives you a traditional laptop experience with an augmented reality twist.

Designer: Sightful

The Spacetop G1 comes from the minds of the folks at Sightful, who believe AR/VR may be the future of work, but current headsets aren’t. The Spacetop G1 is a unique AR laptop that ditches the display for a set of AR glasses. Pop them in and you’ve got yourself a screen that’s wider than your FoV, and the fact that the Spacetop G1 still packs a keyboard and a trackpad means being able to work on a laptop, but just in AR.

The format is very unique, but isn’t surprising. Most AR/VR headsets come with remotes, and are targeted towards entertainment and immersion. The fact that the Spacetop G1 opts for a close-to-laptop-style format means there’s less of a learning curve. Pop the glasses in, have multiple virtual screens unfold in front of you, and begin working. The Spacetop G1 boasts a massive 100-inch virtual workspace, shattering the limitations of traditional laptops. Imagine working on documents, browsing the web, or editing videos on a virtual canvas that feels like a home theater screen. This expansive workspace allows for effortless multitasking and a truly immersive computing experience.

Given its spiritual closeness to a laptop, the Spacetop G1 is designed to be slim enough to fit right into backpacks without any problem. The keyboard and trackpad are as thin as the kind you’d find on most conventional laptops, while the ‘lid’ houses a pair of AR glasses that fold down to a slick format. They aren’t as bulky and cumbersome as the Vision Pro, Hololens, or any of Meta’s headsets, making it less clunky to wear and making you less awkward around other people. Your eyes still perceive the environment around you too, so you’re not completely blocked out of the outer world.

Under the hood, the Spacetop G1 packs a powerful punch. A Qualcomm chipset delivers a 70% performance boost over previous models, ensuring smooth operation even with demanding tasks. With a commendable 8-hour battery life, you can work uninterrupted throughout your workday, or even work in AR while on a train or flight without missing your multi-display setup. The 90Hz refresh rate of the optics translates to crisp and responsive visuals, further enhancing the user experience.

The presence of a 100-inch workspace just means being able to do more with less. You can multitask effortlessly, having various windows within your periphery that you can move around, bring forward, or push backward. Important tasks can occupy the center of your attention. Other windows can lounge in the back or in the corners, still letting you see them if/when you need them.

That being said, the AR laptop doesn’t come cheap. It’s available for pre-order at $1900, which is significantly higher than your conventional laptop, but factoring in the AR aspect makes the price more palatable. After all, you’d spend a lot more on a laptop along with a widescreen/multiscreen layout. The fact that the Vision Pro costs a whopping $3499 is also something that makes the case for the Spacetop G1. Shipments of the Spacetop G1 start as soon as October 2024. Early adopters can secure their unit with a $100 reservation.

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Although the buzz around the Apple Vision Pro has died down, there’s little doubt that spatial computing, mixed reality, and the metaverse will be our unavoidable future. We still have ways to go, of course, but the industry is already trying to get us used to seeing digitally in 3D, whether we’re wearing glasses or just looking at specially-designed monitors. Those 3D objects, however, don’t just pop out of thin air and have to be created one way or another. Not a problem for fabricated 3D models, but it’s a big problem when you want to make real-world physical objects into believable digital 3D objects. As part of its own push for spatial computing, Acer is launching a consumer-friendly stereoscopic 3D camera that lets anyone capture the real world in a way that can be easily viewed in 3D glasses and on glasses-free 3D monitors.

Designer: Acer

Video conferencing and live streams have become quite common these days, the latter even turning into a lucrative business opportunity. But while these mediums are able to bridge distances, there are some things that are still difficult to convey in flat, 2D monitors, things such as miniature models of architectural designs or merchandise you’re trying to sell online. While some online stores now offer 3D views of products or spaces, it’s something that’s way out of reach of regular people because of the lack of accessible and affordable tools.

The Acer SpatialLabs Eyes puts one such tool in the hands of the masses. The rather unassuming compact box packs the hardware necessary for a computer to see in stereoscopic 3D, especially thanks to an 8MP sensor per eye and plenty of controls for both beginners and experts to tweak the video quality. The hardware is encased in a weather-proof shell that has a built-in selfie mirror for easier framing, as well as a touch-sensitive LCD screen on its back.

Although the SpatialLabs Eyes is quite capable of capturing still 3D images, it really shines in its capability to record and stream stereoscopic 3D video in real-time. This makes it a powerful tool for making presentations in video calls, showing off products during live selling streams, or simply committing special, once-in-a-lifetime moments to memory in an extra special way. Of course, you’ll need a way to actually view these videos in stereoscopic 3D, and, not by coincidence, Acer’s SpatialLabs brand has a line of monitors and laptops that won’t require you to wear headsets or even glasses just to do that. The Acer SpatialLabs Eyes stereoscopic 3D camera launches in Q3 of this year for $549 in the US.

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Immersive VR is great for entertainment… but for work, not that much. The idea is to be able to interact with spatial elements, but not have them completely cut you off from the real world. Just the way a laptop screen or desktop monitor offers you only with a window of productivity but still gives you the option of stepping away to attend meetings, talk to coworkers, or take notes/make doodles, this VR headset concept from Umeå Institute of Design student Simon Ljungblahd lets you easily switch between real and spatial life.

The VR headset features a familiar design, but instead of having screens strapped to your eyes, this one mounts them on a visor-style hinge that you can flip upwards when not in use, allowing yourself to engage with the real world. Meanwhile, a screen on front acts much like the one found on the Vision Pro, giving people around you a sense of your status, whether you’re busy, free, or even when you’re up for a coffee break!

Designer: Simon Ljungblahd

The headset’s design is relatively lightweight, with a display unit that doesn’t need to be bulky because it doesn’t wrap around your eyes, cutting light from the outside world out. It sits ahead of you almost like a HUD (Heads-up Display), giving you the spatial experience just within a portion of your PoV, like a desktop monitor would. Except, you can move your head around to see more of the spatial environment around you. Or look through the corner of your eye to see the real world. When you want to quickly leave the simulation, flip the headset up and you’re out of virtual reality.

“As screen resolution on these devices increases, the use-case of work, or productivity, becomes more interesting as it enables users to view interfaces with a high density of information, which is necessary for that use-case. Spatial Computing would allow users to have a full 360-degree interface and with depth, which would enable much richer multi-tasking,” says Simon. “The depth aspect would also potentially create more intuitive interfaces when it comes to use cases like 3D modeling, or map viewing. The Spatial Computing headsets that are made for entertainment, social experiences, and simulations are designed to optimize the user experience for those use-cases, but so far, no headset on the market is made to focus solely on the use-case of productivity.”

The headset is unique in that it offers the best of both VR headsets and desktop monitors. VR headsets keep you locked in an environment that can affect your productivity by cutting the real world out, but also give you a sense of fatigue with too much use. Laptops and desktop monitors, on the other hand, don’t give you unlimited virtual space for multiple tabs/windows and the ability to work in 3D. Simon’s design therefore strikes a clever balance between the two. Besides, I love the idea of the display on the front of my headset being used to let others know whether I’m busy, free, or up for a quick break in between work sessions!

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“Ten years from now, we will be living in a more multi-layered world where physical and virtual realities overlap without boundaries,” says the entertainment and hardware company. With the number of pies they’ve got their fingers in (you remember they even announced a car a few years ago?), it makes sense for Sony to operate not one but ten steps ahead to make sure they’re leaders in every single industry they’re in. That even means condensing a home theater to a size small enough to fit around your neck). Today, the company unveiled their Creative Entertainment Vision, a demonstration or visualization of what Sony wants the future to look like. It’s a practice that a lot of companies do, helping consumers, investors, and even competitors understand what direction technology and innovation are going to go in. Sony doubles down on mixed reality and spatial entertainment in this segment (they aren’t, after all, an enterprise or productivity company), showcasing a few unique concepts that feature holographic floating screens, absurdly futuristic gaming controllers, and super-slim spectacles that transform into AR eyewear.

Designer: Sony

Somewhere around the 1-minute and 12-second mark, Sony reveals a few very interesting concepts. One of them is what looks like a futuristic PlayStation controller with its own holographic screen. The controller itself looks familiar yet nothing like any controller we’ve seen. It features a hollow center with two grips on each end. The center is supposedly where the holograph projects out of, while thumb-pads on the left and right come with unusual controls to help maneuver the game. The controller is also space-aware and can be tilted as a means of input.

Another concept was a tablet that looks like, as Apple likes to call their iPad, a slab of magic glass. Except, this does feel like glass and the experience is tantamount to magic. There are no bezels, no cameras, not even any perceived electronics. The glass is transparent when the screen is off, and translucent when you’re watching stuff, so you can still see through it.

The third is an extension of Sony’s tablet vision, but in the form of a smartphone. According to Sony, the future of phones isn’t rectangular slabs of glass, it’s capsule-shaped oval slabs of glass. I don’t know what that says for the future of videos and TikTok, but this new form of screen real estate feels unique for sure. Sony displays a music interface on this mobile device, with album art practically existing from edge to edge. The games, videos, and music in all the concepts above are connected to Sony’s hit PlayStation game Horizon Zero Dawn.

These concepts are also coupled with a set of AR glasses that completely immerse you in a virtual world. As slim as a pair of sunglasses albeit with ski goggle-style eyepieces, this concept piece offers a kind of immersion even the Vision Pro can’t promise. You’re turned into a full-body AI avatar, immersed in a virtual world that exists separate from reality. Made more for entertainment, it lets you play games, interact with people, or even see movies in a way that you never have before. Sony even previews a scene where the city’s streets are filled with ghosts and a giant Pillsbury Dough Boy trods across buildings, lifted right out of the Ghostbusters movie.

While these concepts don’t specifically confirm what Sony plans to release in the near future, it’s important to understand their ‘vision’ of what’s to come. Ideas change based on consumer feedback and technological innovation, but in an ideal world, Sony believes the future will be about crafting new and wonderful realities, and living in stories instead of watching or playing them.

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The Apple Vision Pro’s take on spatial computing would have us imagine a seamless integration of the physical and digital worlds. That dream of the future is shared by virtual, augmented, and mixed reality technologies, and they almost deliver that promise when it comes to the visual aspect. The illusion, however, breaks when you start interacting with and manipulating those virtual entities, an experience that quickly becomes less natural compared to how we do it with physical objects. The problem lies in the tools we use for this, which are often a game controller or two sticks that function in the same way. This concept for a virtual reality controller tries to reshape that standard design into something that, while still technically the same, offers a more familiar form for artists and designers.

Designer: Jiwoong Yan

When you think about it, it’s almost amazing how digital creatives are able to make do with the input tools available to use in the present. At the very least, a stylus approximates the experience of drawing with a pen on paper, though some people are even able to create mind-blowing art using a keyboard and a mouse. On the one hand, it’s pretty convenient that we don’t have to deal with a dozen different pens, brushes, and other tools when creating digital art, but, at the same time, the disconnect between the tool and the desired outcome is often jarring.

This is especially true in a world that tries to have some fidelity with reality like VR. It’s even worse because it makes us believe we’re seeing virtual objects we can touch, but we can never really touch them and have to be satisfied with pointing and clicking with both hands. Medium is a concept design that offers a compelling compromise for artists and designers. It still has that same two-piece approach that puts a controller in each hand, but ones that are designed to actually mimic the tools that artists would be familiar with.

The right hand, for example, can be held either like a paintbrush or a can of spray paint, and the handle can be rotated to accommodate different ways people hold these tools. The left-hand controller, on the other hand (no pun intended), is like a painter’s palette, though it will probably show more than just colors in the virtual representation that you’ll see through VR glasses. Using these two pieces might feel intuitive for some artists familiar with painting, with the “palette” providing tools and options for the “brush” that you draw with.

Such a design is theoretically already possible with today’s technologies, but it requires a manufacturer to take the risk of actually producing a device that might appeal only to a small segment of VR users. But with these companies trying to push mixed reality and spatial computing harder, it might only be a matter of time before more specialized variants of controllers become available, at least as a stopgap measure until we can directly manipulate those virtual worlds with nothing but our hands.

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Who knew that Porsche would become the Vision Pro’s most valuable customer?!

Addressing people for the first time since the Vision Pro went on sale in March, Tim Cook decided to give viewers an update of the Vision Pro’s success during this year’s iPad keynote. Although it isn’t clear exactly how many spatial headsets the company sold so far, although the Vision Pro is surely finding its footing in certain industries beyond just the average movie-watching and multi-screen workspace scenarios that Apple sold us on back at WWDC last year when the headset was first announced.

Cook mentioned that the Vision Pro is already becoming a crucial part of Porsche’s showroom experience, with the automotive giant investing heavily in building spatial experience centers around the Vision Pro and their cars. Prospective buyers can wear the Vision Pro to easily and quickly see all the car’s color options in virtual reality instead of looking at images or swatches in a catalog. The Vision Pro’s incredibly high resolution displays help customers experience the car in ways that were never though possible, allowing Porsche to provide a new dimension to their showroom’s UX in ways that other car companies cannot. Additionally, the headset also enables track experiences, and can also be used to train service technicians, harnessing the true power of Spatial Computing. Quite like the Apple Watch eventually settled into becoming a healthcare device, even though the company originally wanted it to be a fashion-tech wearable, the Vision Pro is only now finding its footing months after its announcement and delivery.

What’s remarkable is that Apple’s Vision Pro managed to breach the filmmaking industry and the healthcare industry just months after being delivered – something that Meta hasn’t really spoken at length about when it comes to their devices, and something that Microsoft’s own Hololens has taken years to achieve (at least in the healthcare and military research industries). Cook spoke about Dr. Tommy Korn, using the Vision Pro to improve surgical eye care through simulations and visualizations, while director Jon M. Chu was using the Vision Pro to oversee the entire post-production process for his upcoming film Wicked.

While entertainment and healthcare seemed like sure shot areas where the Vision Pro would create some form of procedural disruption, seeing Porsche invest so heavily in reinventing their showroom and technical training domains by relying on Vision Pros is fascinating. It’s been just over 2 months since the first Vision Pro was delivered to customers, so one can only wait and see what updates Apple provides us with over the next few months. The 2024 WWDC will mark the first anniversary of the headset’s announcement, and maybe we’ll get a few more upgrades to the device’s software as well as some updates on its industrywide acceptance. Hopefully even a price drop, perhaps? Or maybe that’s just wishful thinking!

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Thanks to smart home technology integration, we have become dependent on digital displays for communication, infotainment, and even for preparing culinary bites in the kitchen. This means we need multiple displays: one in the family room for entertainment, another in the bathroom to read news and weather updates, one in the study for working from home, and if you’re not a Michelin chef yourself, a display in the kitchen to run the recipe guide for help!

Investing in all such displays, and still having them suffice for only one purpose at one place doesn’t really add up in 2024. If you’re in the same league of thought, Overlay – designed for Samsung – is the “Next Home Display” that wants to skim down the multiple display demand and fill it with one wholesome unit that has mobile roots.

Designers: Susanna Kim

More than an adjustable, mobile display, the Overlay is a sensor-enabled contraption that can move about the house – on preset commands or on call – to suffice a multitude of infotainment objectives and more. The onboard mapping sensors allow the mobile display to map the space and divide it into understandable zones. Users can pin the desired location on the map and set content (entertainment, information, etc) for each pin with a time. For instance, “the user” can pin the dining “table area to watch Netflix” while dining.

When it is time for dinner, the Overlay will automatically arrive at the table and turn on Netflix, as advised. The user can adjust the height of the display to their liking and watch the movie on Netflix without additional setup requirements (it has an integrated speaker system). In case you are too lazy to adjust the height, Overlay is designed to do that automatically for you. Auto height adjusting display rests on a solid base which is equipped with small radius omni-wheels for smooth maneuvering within the mapped space.

It can be teamed up with the TV or other devices in the house as an enlarged display for them. The unit can overlay more information about what you’re watching on TV or stand by the washing machine and give you a heads-up about when it’s time to take them to the dryers. It comes with an AI assistant to take voice commands and has a transparent screen to display match or player statistics when you’re watching a game of football on TV for instance.

Alongside being an omnipresent mobile display, the Overlay comes with motion sensors and LiDAR camera that provide it the ability to identify objects and perhaps provide plant and pet care tips to the user. Over and above monitoring the condition of plants in its mapped space, it can even regulate watering for personalized, automated care. All this functionality demands great power, for which the Overlay is pretty self-sufficient as well. It is powered by a rechargeable battery that it juices up by heading straight to the charging dock when the power is running low (no human intervention required here either). Capable of bringing MR experience to the home, the Overlay is designed in four distinct colors that should complement any home effortlessly.

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From the moment I set my eyes on the Apple Vision Pro, the intuitive nature of its interface struck me. Controlling the device through natural gestures—like tapping fingers together for selection or pinching to zoom—felt like an extension of my own movements, creating a seamless user experience that was truly impressive. “Everything’s all eye track,” I marveled, amazed by the device’s responsiveness, which made every interaction feel intuitive and natural.

Designer: Apple

During the initial setup, the Digital Crown—borrowed from the Apple Watch—brought up the home view with a simple press. The blend of futuristic technology with familiar elements made the icons react as I looked at them, creating a magical experience. This immediate and responsive engagement reinforced the intuitive nature of the user interface. As I explored this advanced technology, I remember thinking, “I haven’t read any reviews on the Vision Pro, and that’s a good thing.” Approaching the device without any preconceptions allowed me to truly immerse myself in the experience.

As I navigated through a demo photo library, the ambient lighting dimmed, focusing my attention on images that transported me to places like Iceland and the Oregon coast, displayed panoramically. “That was so amazing,” I exclaimed, overwhelmed by the vividness and the immersive experience the photos provided.

Viewing spatial photos and videos added incredible depth to everyday moments. Watching a family birthday party captured with the Apple Vision Pro felt as if I stood among the celebrating children, bringing these moments to life. “So no one else can see this except you and me, huh?” I remarked to Avnish, my guide through this journey, who was able to see what I saw through an iPad. This added layer of interaction enhanced my appreciation for the technology as I watched a spatial video shot with the iPhone 15 Pro, captivated by the depth and realism.

The design of the Apple Vision Pro was notably sleek and modern, with a lightweight, comfortable frame suitable for extended wear. The minimal physical buttons enhanced its streamlined appearance, highlighting its advanced gesture and eye-tracking capabilities. A dedicated button for capturing spatial photos and videos added real-world interactions into vivid digital clarity, showcasing Apple’s meticulous attention to hardware design.

Manipulating my environment with a turn of the Digital Crown was particularly impressive. I could adjust my immersion levels from partial to full, exploring digital renditions of places like Mount Hood National Forest as if I were truly there. This smooth transition back to reality, while remaining connected with those around me, showcased the device’s seamless integration into personal and social settings.

Spatial multitasking introduced a new way to interact with applications, allowing me to manipulate windows in a spatial context as if handling physical objects. This dynamic, intuitive approach transformed traditional interfaces into a vibrant, three-dimensional workspace.

The entertainment capabilities of the Apple Vision Pro were striking. Watching 3D movies like “Super Mario Bros. Movie” and “Avatar: The Way of Water” transformed any space into a personal cinema. The high-resolution display and spatial audio created a viewing experience that far surpassed traditional setups. “That’s impressive,” I remarked, blown away by the depth and immersion of the features.

The Apple Immersive Video demo was a highlight, transporting me to the center of the action—flying over landscapes, diving with sharks, and standing on a soccer field. This segment was so engaging that I was left nearly speechless, managing only to say, “That was so amazing.”

An interactive session where a butterfly landed on my hand and a close encounter with a dinosaur showcased the Apple Vision Pro’s unique capabilities, blurring the lines between digital and physical realities. These experiences felt real and tangible, enhancing my appreciation for the device’s ability to create such vivid and interactive moments.

Finally, with the Apple Vision Pro, I got the chance to rehearse—well, more like pretend—to present Apple’s infamous “one more thing” on the stage of the Steve Jobs Theater. It felt so real that I almost waved to the nonexistent crowd! I’ve been to press events there before, but never on stage. The closest I’ve gotten was the last third of the theater.

Photo credit: YouTuber MKBHD demonstrates Keynote on Vision ProMKBHD on YouTube

After the demo—and yes, I highly encourage anyone and everyone remotely interested in spatial computing to visit your local Apple store—I had the option to purchase a brand new Vision Pro constructed right there. The Solo Knit Band, Dual Loop Band, and importantly, the Light Seal are available in size 21W, which fits me perfectly. Apple has streamlined the sizing process in the Apple Store app, which now includes a 3D scan of the face for a customized fit, guiding you through capturing the necessary facial dimensions.

The Apple Vision Pro demo was a breathtaking introduction to futuristic technology that felt straight out of science fiction. Its intuitive interface and gesture controls impressed me immediately, making every interaction feel natural and fluid. While the immersive experience of exploring vibrant, distant locales and engaging with life-like spatial videos was captivating, the demo ended too soon, leaving me eager for a more extended, immersive exploration with the Vision Pro. I’m looking forward to delving deeper into its potential in a longer session.

The post First Time Using the Apple Vision Pro: It Blew My Mind first appeared on Yanko Design.

Upscaled using AI

The Meta Quest 3 was supposed to be the cheaper alternative to the Meta Quest Pro… but now leaked photos from an internal presentation show a new device called the Meta Quest 3S, a ‘lite’ version of the already wildly popular VR headset. Sparked by user u/LuffySanKira on Reddit, screenshots supposedly from a Meta user research session offer a glimpse of the potential Quest 3s. The images showcase the rumored headset alongside the standard Quest 3, revealing some key specifications.

Designer: Meta

The Quest 3s is expected to be a more affordable version of its pricier counterpart. According to the leaks, it will feature a display resolution of 1920 x 1832 with 20 pixels per degree (PPD). This falls short of the Quest 3’s rumored 2208 x 2064 resolution and 25.5 PPD. Storage capacity is also speculated to be lower at 256GB compared to the Quest 3’s 512GB.

The leaked images provide a visual comparison as well. The Quest 3s appears slightly smaller overall, with the most noticeable difference being the front sensors. The Quest 3 has three oval cutouts, while the Quest 3s sports a configuration of six stacked cutouts, three on either side. These leaks are yet to be confirmed by Meta. However, they offer an exciting possibility for VR fans seeking a more accessible entry point into the world of virtual reality.

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Feel free to call it the “Spatial KitKat Hypothesis”…

The Apple Vision Pro wasn’t designed to bend, but when you’ve got two straps pulling on the massive headset from either side with a human head in the middle acting as a wedge of sorts, the headset’s bound to feel some stress at its weakest point. Theoretically, that weakest point lies at the nose bridge, or the narrowest part of the Vision Pro’s design. If you imagine the Vision Pro to be a massive KitKat, or a Toblerone, or any bar of chocolate for that matter, it’s usually the narrowest part that’s designed to snap, resulting in a perfectly broken piece of chocolate. The problem here, however, is that this particular ‘chocolate’ is a cutting-edge spatial computer that costs upwards of $3500.

It seems like Apple products don’t really have great luck when it comes to structural soundness. If you remember exactly 10 years ago, #BendGate was plaguing the 2014 iPhone 6, a scandal that arose after people found their iPhones bending in their pockets when they sat down. Sure, Apple worked hard to fix the iPhone 6’s flimsy design (in part because people were just walking into Apple Stores and folding iPhones in half), but #bendgate still lives on in infamy, especially through its latest avatar, or what people are calling #CrackGate. Multiple users are reporting that the Vision Pro’s glass is cracking almost perfectly down the center, for no apparent reason. The crack runs almost perfectly symmetrically, going from the nose upwards, causing an extremely visible fault line right down the center. While it doesn’t seem to affect the Vision Pro’s actual functionality, it’s just like getting a scratch right down the side of your Lamborghini, emotionally gut-wrenching.

The reason, however, isn’t really clear (in part because Apple hasn’t officially addressed the issue or offered repairs), but multiple users have their own theories. Some sleuths noticed that the crack almost always emerges right near the LiDAR sensor, causing speculations that the invisible light from the sensor may be weakening the glass. Others claim it’s a heat-related issue, caused by the fact that most people don’t turn their Vision Pros off after using it for the day, causing it to heat up and the aluminum frame to expand, cracking the glass. The latter theory makes much more sense than the former, but there’s yet another issue that could just contribute to the glass’ structural weakness, and its most simple explanation lies in the shape of a KitKat bar.

Unless you’re an absolute psychopath who chomps right into the KitKat bar, chances are you follow the protocol of breaking it down its linear ridge, creating individual KitKat fingers that you can easily eat. The bar’s practically designed for this interaction, allowing you to snap off individual ‘batons’ that you can either share or eat on your own. The physics behind this design is as simple as it gets. The individual fingers are connected by a small valley of chocolate, which can easily be snapped with little pressure. The reason the KitKat always breaks at this ridge is because it’s easily the most vulnerable part of the chocolate bar. Similarly, the Vision Pro has the same problem. The ‘nose bridge’ on the front is where the Vision Pro’s glass panel is at its narrowest. Apply enough stress to the area and chances are, just like a KitKat bar, it’ll break there first.

Heat could be a contributing factor to this structural weakness, but let’s not forget, the Vision Pro comes with a headband that’s secured to its sides. Wear the Vision Pro on your face, and the headbands tug on the headset from the left and right, while your face being the solid mass it is, applies forward pressure. The rest of the Vision Pro is made from Aluminum, a material famous for being able to bend easily (no points for guessing what the iPhone 6 was made of), but glass – especially curved and hardened glass like the one on the front of the Vision Pro – isn’t really susceptible to bending. The result? A crack at its weakest point, caused by people wearing the headset too tight, coupled with the obvious heat issues because people don’t turn their Vision Pro off every night.

There are two solutions to this problem – the first comes from MKBHD and a bunch of other tech experts, who recommend turning the Vision Pro off after use and disconnecting the battery pack every night so the headset doesn’t keep running and heat up. The second solution is much more obvious, and is an indication of Apple’s hubris. In the pursuit of creating ‘the greatest spatial device ever seen’, Apple’s premium choice of materials is biting them in their backside. The Vision Pro’s aluminum structure is notoriously heavy, causing neck fatigue for people wearing it for long hours… but more importantly, the use of glass on the front seemed highly unnecessary. A well-polished plastic facade on the front would have worked just as fine, even if it didn’t line up with Apple’s ‘luxury’ image. It would have been stronger, easier to produce, and would probably have helped Apple cut costs and boost profits – to the benefit of the consumer. Instead, Apple’s being predictably silent while multiple users are fuming at the prospect of having a difficult-to-ignore crack on their rather expensive $3500 headset.

The post Some Apple Vision Pros are cracking down the center. To understand why, look at the shape of the KitKat bar. first appeared on Yanko Design.