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Magic Rays of Light: Apple Vision Pro Preorders, Masters Of The Air, HFR, And An Historic Oscar Nomination

This week on Magic Rays of Light, Sigmund and Devon share their experiences with Apple Vision Pro preorders, highlight Apple Original war drama series Masters of the Air ahead of its debut this weekend, and break down all of the Apple FYC news in the wake of BAFTA and Oscar Awards nominations.

Show Notes

Send us a voice message all week via iMessage or email to [email protected].

Sigmund Judge | Follow Sigmund on X, Mastodon, or Threads

Devon Dundee | Follow Devon on Mastodon or Threads

View our Apple TV release calendar on the web.

Subscribe to our Apple TV release calendar.

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MacStories Unwind: Godzilla vs. Ticci’s Surprise, Part 2

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This week on MacStories Unwind, I recommend Godzilla Minus One in honor of Magic Rays of Light joining MacStories and Federico shares part two of his big gaming surprise, explaining the hardware he’s using to emulate Switch games and more.

John’s Pick

Ticci’s Absolutely Bananas Gaming Tablet

Strap included.

Strap included.

The Ultimate lifestyle shots

The Ultimate lifestyle shots

Ticci and ACRNM.

Ticci and ACRNM.

Who doesn't love a kickstand?

Who doesn’t love a kickstand?

MacStories Unwind+

We deliver MacStories Unwind+ to Club MacStories subscribers ad-free and early with high bitrate audio every week.

To learn more about the benefits of a Club MacStories subscription, visit our Plans page.

Apple Releases a Guided Tour of Vision Pro and Shares a Making Of Video

Source: Apple.

Source: Apple.

Apple has released a guided tour of Vision Pro on its website that walks through a bunch of its features. Whether or not you’re planning to purchase Apple Vision Pro, this video is worth taking the time to watch. It’s about ten minutes long and covers many of the device’s core features from the perspective of someone using it for the first time.

I wish I’d seen this guided tour earlier. As someone who hasn’t had a hands-on demo of Apple Vision Pro, this video has done far more to get me excited to try it myself than anything else.

Tim Cook also shared a montage video on X/Twitter of the Vision Pro being manufactured, which can also be viewed on YouTube. The careful orchestration of robots milling parts and stitching bands together is mesmerizing to watch.

Every Apple Vision Pro Accessory Option

The Vision Pro Travel Case.

The Vision Pro Travel Case.

If you finished the Apple Vision Pro checkout process with any money left in your bank account, Apple has several accessories available for its new spatial computing headset.

The Vision Pro battery.

The Vision Pro battery.

At the $199 price point, you have three options:

The light seal.

The light seal.

The light seal cushion.

The light seal cushion.

However, if all you need is the light seal cushion, you can order that for $29. The Apple Vision Pro Solo Knit Band and Dual Loop Band are also available for separate purchase for $99 each.

The ZEISS lenses.

The ZEISS lenses.

If you forgot to order ZEISS lens inserts during checkout or your prescription changes, they can be purchased separately starting at $99 for non-prescription ‘reader’ lenses and $149 for prescription lenses.

The Dual Loop Band.

The Dual Loop Band.

The Solo Knit Band.

The Solo Knit Band.

As previously reported, Belkin is offering a battery clip that includes a case with a clip for the battery and a smaller clip for the power cable for $49.95. Apple also lists a 30W power adapter, USB-C charging cable, the Magic Keyboard, Magic Trackpad, and AirPods Pro (2nd generation) alongside the Vision Pro.

Oh hey, here's an accessory for less than $100. Thanks Belkin.

Oh hey, here’s an accessory for less than $100. Thanks Belkin.

Thankfully, it looks like Apple heard the critics of its AirPods Max case and built a polycarbonate protective case with a ‘ripstop outer shell’ and spots to tuck the device’s battery, optical lenses, and cover, along with ‘other accessories.’ The case looks nice, but I took a pass, figuring I can always pick one up in advance of my next trip if I decide to take the Vision Pro on the road with me.

I did, however, buy a spare battery. I expect that I’ll connect the battery that comes with the Vision Pro to power a lot of the time to get more than two hours of use out of it, but a spare battery will allow for greater portability.

A Survey of Popular Apps Currently Compatible With Apple Vision Pro

Source: Apple.

Source: Apple.

We’re excited about the Apple Vision Pro. In planning our coverage at MacStories, we’ve already collected a list of over 50 apps from some of our favorite developers who have been hard at work on visionOS versions of their apps. Soon after the Vision Pro ships, you’ll start seeing reviews of the best of those apps on MacStories.

However, as we surveyed the App Store, looking for the best examples of upcoming Vision Pro apps and heard the news that Netflix won’t be building a visionOS app or making its iPad app available on the new device, it got us thinking. What other popular apps aren’t coming to visionOS yet, and of those that are, which have gone to the trouble of creating native experiences?

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What’s Next for Apple and Epic’s Legal Disputes?

Yesterday, the US Supreme Court told Epic Games and Apple, “No, thank you,” and Apple served up an ugly alert to developers who can now offer payment options outside the App Store. If you’re thinking, “Wait, didn’t this all get resolved ages ago?” I feel you. The legal system moves at its own pace, which is an order of magnitude slower than technology. However, what might feel like a lifetime ago to many MacStories readers is pretty typical. It also means that it’s time to put on my ‘former lawyer’ hat for a moment to revisit where things stand with Epic and Apple and consider what’s next.

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New Apple Vision Pro Hands-On Accounts From Engadget and The Verge

Today’s announcement by Apple about the entertainment aspects of the Vision Pro was followed up by new hands-on stories from Engadget and The Verge. A lot of what they saw was similar to the WWDC demos, but there were some new highlights, including additional Environments, a beta of the Disney+ app, Apple’s Encounter Dinosaurs app, and the Vision Pro’s floating keyboard.

One of the big open questions about the Apple Vision Pro is how well its virtual keyboard works. Interestingly, Engadget’s Cherlynn Low and Dana Wollman had very different experiences with it:

Cherlynn: It’s not as easy as typing on an actual keyboard would be, but I was quite tickled by the fact that it worked. Kudos to Apple’s eye- and hand-tracking systems, because they were able to detect what I was looking at or aiming for most of the time. My main issue with the keyboard was that it felt a little too far away and I needed to stretch if I wanted to press the buttons myself….

Dana: This was one of the more frustrating aspects of the demo for me. Although there were several typing options – hunting and pecking with your fingers, using eye control to select keys, or just using Siri – none of them felt adequate for anything resembling extended use. It took several tries for me to even spell Engadget correctly in the Safari demo.

Engadget’s editors were also impressed with the Disney+ Avengers and Star Wars-themed environments.

The Verge’s Victoria Song and Editor-in-Chief Nilay Patel also spent some time with the Apple Vision Pro. According to Song’s story:

Nilay had shot some spatial videos where he’d intentionally moved the camera to follow his kid around the zoo and felt some familiar VR motion queasiness. Apple says it’s doing everything it can to reduce that, but it’s clear some shots will work better in spatial than others — like any other camera system, really.

Song describes the experience of seeing EyeSight demoed, too:

So we got to see a demo of EyeSight — what an onlooker would see on that front display when looking at someone wearing the Vision Pro. It’s a bit goofy, but you can see the wearer’s eyes, part of what Apple calls a “persona.” (We were not able to set up our own personas, sadly.) When Apple’s Vision Pro demo person blinked, we saw a virtual version of their eyes blink. When they were looking at an app, a bluish light appeared to indicate their attention was elsewhere. And when they went into a full virtual environment, the screen turned into an opaque shimmer. If you started talking to them while they were watching a movie, their virtual ghost eyes would appear before you. And when they took a spatial photo, you’d see the screen flash like a shutter.

What’s clear is that it’s one thing to read about these experiences with the Vision Pro and a completely different thing to live them. After reading several accounts, I still don’t know what to expect myself, except in the broadest sense. That’s both a little frustrating but also very exciting.

Apple Details Vision Pro’s Launch Day Entertainment Options

Source: Apple.

Source: Apple.

Apple has revealed new information about the entertainment that will be available when Vision Pro launches on February 2nd.

One of the highlights will be 3D movies. There will be more than 150 3D movies available, including Avatar: The Way of Water, Dune, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, and The Super Mario Bros. Movie, all of which can be watched from a simulated personal theater environment or immersive Environments, including Yosemite, Haleakalā, and Mount Hood. Also, Apple Vision Pro users who already own a movie for which a 3D version becomes available will have access to it at no additional cost. Apple says streamers like Disney+ will offer 3D movies as part of their services, too.

Source: Apple.

Source: Apple.

Those same streaming services will also offer other unique experiences. For example:

With Disney+, subscribers can watch thousands of TV shows and films from four iconic environments with vivid details: the Disney+ Theater, inspired by the historic El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood; the Scare Floor from Pixar’s Monsters Inc.; Marvel’s Avengers Tower overlooking downtown Manhattan; and the cockpit of Luke Skywalker’s landspeeder, facing a binary sunset on the planet Tatooine from the Star Wars galaxy.

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We Are Bringing Magic Rays of Light, Our Podcast about Apple TV, to MacStories

Today is an exciting day for Magic Rays of Light. We couldn’t be happier that our show is joining the MacStories family of podcasts. Before the first episode of this new era releases on Wednesday, we thought we’d take a moment to introduce ourselves and the show to you.

You can subscribe to Magic Rays of Light using the buttons below:

Magic Rays of Light is a weekly podcast exploring the world of Apple TV hosted by Sigmund Judge and me, Devon Dundee. You may remember Sigmund from his tvOS 17 review last fall. He’s the founder of Apple TV-centric website Screen Times and has been covering the platform since 2015.

In July of 2020, Sigmund launched Magic Rays of Light as a biweekly podcast discussing Apple TV news and everything happening with the upstart Apple TV+ streaming service. Each episode featured a special guest co-host, with guests ranging from journalists to developers to Danny Rojas himself, Ted Lasso star Cristo Fernández.

As for me, I came across the podcast when it debuted and was immediately hooked. I’ve been a dedicated Apple TV user since I picked up a third-generation model in 2012 and have been blogging about my favorite shows and movies ever since.

I came aboard as co-host in May 2021, and since then, Sigmund and I have been covering everything Apple TV on a weekly basis together. Over the past 104 episodes, we’ve discussed updates to the Apple TV hardware line, software updates and new features, our favorite Apple Originals, and much more. We’ve brought on a wide array of guests to share their perspectives on Apple TV and had the opportunity to interview creative voices behind Apple Originals including Servant, Little America, and Severance.

It’s been a great run so far, and we’re thrilled to be taking this next step. MacStories is the perfect home for Magic Rays of Light and the topics that we discuss. We hope that our show will be an enjoyable supplement to the coverage you’ve already come to expect from the MacStories team.

The world of Apple TV is vast, and there’s so much to talk about:

  • Hardware: The Apple TV isn’t on a regular update cycle, but Apple does love to surprise their TV fans with new hardware out of the blue. When each new iteration does come, we test it thoroughly and share every detail and addition, as well as our ideas of what we’d like to see come next. And of course, we have strong opinions on every single version of the Siri remote.
  • Software: tvOS is a constantly-evolving platform with changes big and small coming year-round. We keep an eye on updates to share what’s coming next for Apple TV users. We also routinely share our own vision for the future of tvOS and highlight great third-party apps from the App Store.
  • Apple Originals: Apple has become a major player in the worlds of streaming and TV/film production. Each week, we dive into new releases and round up all of the latest Apple Original news including production, development, casting, and awards.
  • Games: We love to play games on the biggest screen in our homes, and Apple Arcade provides a continuous stream of new games to play. We highlight each new title as it arrives on the service and share what we’re playing in our downtime. With Apple’s continued push to bring top-tier games to its platforms, we’re always keeping an eye on new non-Arcade titles coming to the App Store, too.
  • Apple Home: The Apple TV continues to play a central part in Apple’s smart home offering. In that vein, we keep up with the latest updates to the Home app and share our own smart home strategies with listeners. We also cover updates to the HomePod line and its integrations with Apple TV.

With so much going on, it’s an exciting time to be an Apple TV fan. We love exploring everything about it each week, and we’d be thrilled for you to join us! Magic Rays of Light makes its debut on MacStories this Wednesday. We can’t wait to talk to you then.