Making Vision Pro More Convenient
Andrew Liszewski
Right after the launch of the Vision Pro, designer Kyle Goodrich quickly mocked-up (and 3D-printed) a faceplate for the device. Less than a year later, pretty much his exact product is already shipping from Dbrand. I just bought one.
Amongst the many issues with the Vision Pro, the inconvenience of using it is probably at the top. And a part of this is not just strapping it on, but also putting it away or even just down. Because the thing is $3,500, you don't just want to leave it laying around – especially if you have young children in the home, as I do. And even now, a year later, I find myself treating it very delicately when taking it off because I'm terrified of cracking from front screen. This 'Aperture Vision Pro Face Cover' should help alleviate that fear.
And it has a bonus feature (in noting that the design enables all of the sensors on the device to still work while it's on):
There’s one feature the Aperture does inhibit: EyeSight. Parts of the Vision Pro’s low-res OLED screen used to display a user’s eyes to the outside world will be obscured by the cover. But that could actually be considered a plus. In our review of the Apple Vision Pro we found EyeSight to be disappointing. The OLED display was too dim and often obscured by reflections on the glass. Besides, people will be too distracted by what looks like a Crocs clog hanging off your face to notice your simulated eyes.
EyeSight has to be the single biggest miss of the Vision Pro overall. Not only because it's disappointing as a feature – who could have known, except anyone with eyes – but because it obviously added both weight and price to the device while hampering battery life. Just an all-around fail. We all get what Apple was going for, it's a nice idea to try to humanize XR – er, "Spatial Computing" – on paper, but in practice, it honestly makes it even worse.1 There has yet to be a time when my wife sees me using the Vision Pro and doesn't blurt out laughing because of the stupid EyeSight feature.
And this new product adds to the trend of third-parties improving the device in ways that Apple probably should but clearly doesn't want to so explicitly admit their mistakes. Notably, Belkin's headstrap that lets you use Apple's Solo Knit Band with top-of-the-head support.2
Anyway, this sort of reads like an ad, but I can assure you it's not!3 I just bought this thing and wanted to rant (yet again) about the Vision Pro since we just passed the device's first birthday and it has been basically crickets from Apple in celebrating their Next Big Thing™. So I'm celebrating by spending another $50 (on top of the $50 for the aforementioned Belkin strap) on top of the $3,500 already spent to try to get me to use the thing more.
One more thing: And actually, I'm spending $70 because the $50 kit is already sold out, which obviously speaks well to the demand for something like this. But also the slightly more expensive package gets you a battery holster too. That's another inconvenient layer here: when I'm using the device, I have basically nowhere good to put the tethered battery. My pockets have other things in them, so I usually just lay it next to me and more than a few times I've knocked it off the chair and/or desk. So yeah, a holster is another obvious thing Apple could have done and just didn't.
Design at least used to be how it works...
And yes, I bought the garish orange version because I'm not taking the Vision Pro out and about anyway 😆.
M.G. Siegler
M.G. Siegler
M.G. Siegler
1 On the upside, it gives Apple an easy thing to cut in a next version of the device to get the price and weight down while improving battery life!
2 Yes, Apple included their own extra headstrap with top-of-the-head support, but it's obviously much worse than the Solo Knit Band (and an obvious admission that they screwed up the design).
3 Not even using an affiliate link!