MacStories Weekly: Issue 403
Wallpaper Interviews Apple’s Alan Dye and Richard Howarth→
Today, Wallpaper published an interview with Alan Dye, Apple’s Vice President of Human Interface Design, and Richard Howarth, Vice President of Industrial Design. It’s a fantastic read with some great images, including an exploded view of the Vision Pro’s components.
Something I noticed as soon as I unboxed the Apple Vision Pro was how approachable it was. The setup process was easy, well-paced, and felt natural. That carries through to the hardware itself, too, which Dye explained to Wallpaper:
We wanted people around you to also feel comfortable with you wearing it, and for you to feel comfortable wearing it around other people. That’s why we spent years designing a set of very natural, comfortable gestures that you can use without waving your hands in the air. That’s also why we developed EyeSight, because we knew more than anything, if we were going to cover your eyes, that takes away much of what is possible when you connect with people. Getting that right was at the core of the concept of the product because we wanted people to retain those connections in their actual world.
My very early impression is that Apple’s design team accomplished its goal. Howarth puts a slightly different spin on the same message:
There’s a hardness and precision to the front of the product that is completely technical and feels like it’s been sent from the future, but then everything else that connects the product to you is soft and really approachable, so you feel cushioned and there’s not a barrier to putting it on or taking it off. And in fact, it should be a pleasure.’
Nobody is going to confuse the Vision Pro for something that it’s not. Still, the care that has been taken in its design goes a long way toward taking a device that is completely foreign to many people and making it one that isn’t intimidating. That’s something very uniquely Apple and why I’m optimistic about Vision Pro’s long-term prospects.
Apple Offers USB-C Enabled Vision Pro Strap to Registered Developers
Apple is offering a new Vision Pro accessory to registered developers: a head strap with a USB-C connector for $299. There aren’t a lot of details about the strap, which is designed to be connected to a Mac to accelerate development and testing for the Vision Pro, other than this description that is behind a developer account login:
Overview
The Developer Strap is an optional accessory that provides a USB-C connection between Apple Vision Pro and Mac and is helpful for accelerating the development of graphics-intensive apps and games. The Developer Strap provides the same audio experience as the in-box Right Audio Strap, so developers can keep the Developer Strap attached for both development and testing.
Tech specs
- USB-C data connection
- Individually amplified dual driver audio pods
- Compatible with Mac
Although we haven’t been able to confirm the capabilities of the Developer Strap, USB-C may allow developers to connect the Vision Pro to their network over Ethernet or access external storage, for example.
Why is a USB-C dongle $299? It’s expensive, but as the description makes clear, it incorporates the speaker found in Vision Pro’s right strap, which it replaces, explaining at least part of the cost.
Tucked Away Nearby: A Refinement of my Desk Setup
When Federico and I published our setups last November, I was happy with mine, but there was still something that bothered me. Every day, I wound up with too much stuff strewn across my desk. At the same time, some of the things I use most days felt annoyingly out of reach. These weren’t monumental annoyances, but they were daily distractions that led me to leave things on my desk for long stretches of time where they were in the way. So, I started thinking about ways to improve my setup again.
What I realized is that I had nowhere to put any of the little things I use each day, so they’d end up all over my desk, which then snowballed into a bigger mess. The solution was to bring those little things closer but create places for them that are out of the way. At the same time, I made a greater effort to tuck cables and wires out of the way where I can’t see them, which has also helped cut down on clutter.
The centerpiece of this revised setup is a Balolo Setup Cockpit. There are a lot of companies that make desk shelves, but they never appealed to me because I’ve always been able to adjust my Studio Display to a comfortable height without one. I could tuck things under the shelf, but I needed more than that.
What I like about the Balolo shelf is that it has a system of attachment points on the underside of the shelf for adding accessories that have allowed me to get more off my desk and out of the way. It’s turned out to be the perfect floating, modular extension of my old setup that makes a long list of small adjustments that add up to a big difference overall.
MacStories Unwind: John’s Surprise Payback
This week on MacStories Unwind, John turns the tables, surprising Federico with a more flexible, modular desk setup.
Sponsored By:
- Kolide – It ensures that if a device isn’t secure it can’t access your apps. It’s Device Trust for Okta. Watch the demo now.
John’s New Modular, Flexible Desk Setup
- Balolo Setup Cockpit
- KU XIU Magnetic Foldable Arm
- Right-angle USB-C adapters
- Anker Prime 27,650mAh 250W power bank and magnetic base
- Belkin SoundForm Connect
- BenQ ScreenBar Halo
- Meross HomeKit power strip
- Elastic loop cable stays
- Samsung T9 4TB SSD
- Trendnet 2.5Gbps switch
- Satechi 2.5 Gbps dongle
- Kiloview N40 NDI HDMI encoder
- For more be sure to check out John’s updated Desk Setup and related story.
- Club MacStories+ and Club Premier members can get a 10% discount on the Balolo Setup Cockpit by visiting the Club Discounts Page.
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Apple Reports Quarterly Revenue of $119.6 Billion for Q1 2024
Last quarter, Apple reported that its revenue came in at $89.5 billion, which was down year-over-year but slightly more than expected. Today, the company reported $119.6 billion in revenue for the first quarter of 2024, which include the holiday season and the first full quarter of iPhone 15 sales.
According to Apple CEO Tim Cook:
Today Apple is reporting revenue growth for the December quarter fueled by iPhone sales, and an all-time revenue record in Services. We are pleased to announce that our installed base of active devices has now surpassed 2.2 billion, reaching an all-time high across all products and geographic segments. And as customers begin to experience the incredible Apple Vision Pro tomorrow, we are committed as ever to the pursuit of groundbreaking innovation — in line with our values and on behalf of our customers.
Going into today’s earnings call, the consensus among Wall Street analysts was that Apple would earn $117.97 billion. Apple beat those expectations by a healthy margin of nearly $2 billion. And, with 2.2 billion installed devices, an all-time high, the opportunity for continued growth of service revenue is significant.
Once again, though, the iPhone was the star of the show with a sizable 58% of Apple’s revenue for the quarter, making up for concerns about consumer demand in China, regulatory pressures in Europe, and questions about whether consumers will embrace Apple Vision Pro.
The Browser Company Announces Act II for Arc: ‘The Browser That Browses For You’
Today, The Browser Company announced a selection of new features coming to their Arc browser for Mac as part of what they are billing ’Act II’ of their increasingly popular app. There are four features in total, centered around the theme of ‘the browser that browses for you.’
For those unfamiliar, Arc started as a Mac browser built around the Chromium code base with eye-catching features like tabs listed down the side, Split View, built-in ‘easels’ and notes, and the ability to adjust the visual look of webpages. Arc is now targeting what CEO Josh Miller has called ‘a post-Google Internet’ by implementing AI within the browsing experience, amongst other strategies.
Current ‘Arc Max’ AI features like ‘Ask On Page,’ which answers questions about the contents of webpages, and ‘5 Second Previews’, which summarises a webpage at the other end of a link, have all proved to be hits with users.
It’s no secret I’m a fan of Arc. I would even call their ‘Shared Quotes’ feature my favorite ‘little’ feature in any browser right now. The Browser Company has big ambitions for 2024, including an imminent launch on Windows, and Miller had this to say about Arc’s next step:
“Here is our vision. It’s really simple. You tell Arc what to do, and Arc will go and do it for you.”
It’s a very broad statement, but with the new features announced today, the context of what he is saying comes more into focus. Two of these new features are available today, with the other two coming soon. Let’s take a look at them in detail.
Magic Rays of Light: Argylle and Imagining Spatial Computing with Swan Song→
This week on Magic Rays of Light, Sigmund and Devon discuss Apple Original Film Argylle ahead of its theatrical debut, our first look at changes coming in tvOS 17.4, the potential of game streaming on Apple TV, hints of our spatial computing future in Apple Original Film Swan Song, and the latest additions to Apple Arcade.
Show Notes
- Highlight
- Apple’s Response to the Digital Markets Act
- News
- Releases
- Extras
- Recap
- Up Next
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.
On Vision Pro’s Spatial Computing→
There’s no tech commentator better equipped to talk about the history of spatial interfaces in Apple operating systems than John Siracusa, and I enjoyed his latest, thought-provoking column on where visionOS and the Vision Pro’s gesture system fit in the spatial computing world:
Where Vision Pro may stumble is in its interface to the deep, spatial world it provides. We all know how to reach out and “directly manipulate” objects in the real world, but that’s not what Vision Pro asks us to do. Instead, Vision Pro requires us to first look at the thing we want to manipulate, and then perform an “indirect” gesture with our hands to operate on it.
Is this look-then-gesture interaction any different than using a mouse to “indirectly” manipulate a pointer? Does it leverage our innate spatial abilities to the same extent? Time will tell. But I feel comfortable saying that, in some ways, this kind of Vision Pro interaction is less “direct” than the iPhone’s touch interface, where we see a thing on a screen and then literally place our fingers on it. Will there be any interaction on the Vision Pro that’s as intuitive, efficient, and satisfying as flick-scrolling on an iPhone screen? It’s a high bar to clear, that’s for sure.
In yesterday’s review on The Verge, Nilay Patel shared a similar idea: it’s a strange feeling to use a computer that requires you to look at what you want to control at all times. I don’t know what to think about this yet since I don’t have a Vision Pro, but I’m curious to learn how this interaction method will scale over time as we start using this new platform on a daily basis. It’s quite fitting, however, that visionOS is based on the one Apple platform that supports both kinds of manipulation with a pointer and touch.