Here’s a little update on Vision Pro use that I haven’t mentioned before and didn’t include in my TidBITS article.
For the first few weeks I only used Vision Pro while stationery. This just felt best, there was so much to explore, and I didn’t feel a particular need to walk around with it. However, for the last few days I’ve been experimenting with using it in a more portable sense.
My main motivation is that the new season of Major League Soccer just started this weekend, and I found myself watching some games in the Vision Pro (a terrific experience). But I also felt rather trapped in one location. I needed to cook dinner, but didn’t want to pause the game. I’d seen some videos of people cooking while wearing Vision Pro and I decided to try it.
So I “dragged” a soccer game video screen with me into the kitchen (Vision Pro windows stay where you put them, so since the game was in my living room, I had to grab the window and take it with me with a pinch gesture). I set up a giant 20-foot screen to one side of the kitchen. Then I set about making some dinner. I could see everything just fine – no issues with cooking at all. (The clock on the microwave flickers when seen through Vision Pro, and occasionally you’ll get warnings about being “too close,” like when I was leaning forward to chop tomatoes and make sure I didn’t cut off any fingers, but it didn’t feel at all like there any risk involved.)
I could hear the soccer game in my ears and could easily just turn and see this giant TV in my kitchen whenever there was something interesting going on. It was FANTASTIC. I’ve always wanted at TV in my kitchen, but couldn’t figure out a way to get the signal from the living room to there. This is way better than any TV. You can make it as big as you want and put it anywhere. I don’t know that I ever want to cook again without it!
One wild thing I didn’t know because I hadn’t tried this and I haven’t heard anyone mention, is that even when a TV screen is set up in another room, you can still see it from a different room! It’s the strangest thing: it’s like you can see through walls.
Once while I was prepping dinner I needed something from the pantry in the garage, so I wandered out there. I got low-light warnings until I turned on the garage light, but I could still see fine – no danger of tripping or anything. Then I turned and looked through the wall toward the kitchen and like 20 feet away I could see my floating screen showing the soccer game! Obviously the sound was with me on the headset, but with the screen so big I could still see it just fine even though it seemed to be back in the kitchen where I’d left it.
This even worked when I went back into the living room. It was an amazing experience – terrifically useful. You can basically do chores and wander around the house while still keeping an eye on a giant TV in another room! I had no idea it worked this way. I assumed if the TV window was in another room, I had to be in that room to see it. This is revolutionary.
I’ve done a couple of meals this way so far and I can’t believe how useful this is. It makes the drudgery of meal prep or chores a joy. With your hands completely free you can do any task you need and not worry about the computer on your face.