Unpacking, Photographing, Setup, and First Impressions

Yesterday (Friday) after I arrived home was a flurry of Apple Vision Pro activity so I’m writing this post the day following, and it will cover the unpacking, photographing, setup, and first experiences using the device at home. I somewhat unexpectedly logged about 5 hours on the device on Friday night, including a few FaceTime calls after setting up my Persona.

My first home experience with the Apple Vision Pro included unpacking it and photographing all the individual parts, of which there are many. First up were my ZEISS Optical Inserts Prescription.

Photographing the ZEISS Optical Inserts Prescription Package

Although I was a bit disappointed that Apple did not ship my specific prescription lenses at least a day in advance of the Apple Vision Pro store pickup, it became a non-issue when Apple provided a set of prescription lenses for the store demo. The ZEISS Optical Inserts Prescription package arrived at my home at about 2 PM in a small, white, folded cardboard package reminiscent of an Apple Watch band. After tearing off the brown cardboard shipping box zip-tab and then the white package zip-tab, the internal package slid out and unfolded into three sections with the middle section holding the lenses. The top section includes a card with a custom-printed App Clip. This App Clip is used as a part of the setup process to pair my prescription lenses to my Apple Vision Pro device.

Photographing the Vision Pro Travel Case

Next I unpacked and photographed the Vision Pro Travel Case. Uncharacteristically, this item had no external packaging (plastic bag or box)—only a cardboard wrap over the elastic handle of the bag. Apple’s promise to reduce their carbon footprint is in action here with a complete lack of disposable material (except for a the very small recyclable cardboard strip). This case has a very puffy exterior and is lined with the same material used for the polishing cloth. (I have also seen this lining material used in Apple Watch Edition and Apple Watch Hèrmes packaging.) The inside of the Travel Case has a place for the lens area to rest, a strap to hold the battery and cable, and a drawstring accessory case that rests in the center opening of the headset. The entire case zips closed and has an elastic-snug exterior handle.

 

Photographing the Apple Vision Pro Packaging and Device

To my eye, the Apple Vision Pro box is unexpectedly large—and it has many internal components. Back in 2007 I was able to see a fascinating presentation by one of Apple’s packaging designers. Among many interesting takeaways, the designer described packaging as [paraphrased], “Apple’s last conversation with the customer before they use the device.” The Apple Vision Pro definitely follows this description. First, the box was carried out of the store in a bag specifically designed to fit the Apple Vision Pro box. The entire bag, including the handle, is made of high-quality recyclable paper and matches Apple’s typical store bags. The sides of the Apple Vision Pro box use the zip tabs now standard on all Apple packaging to clearly convey the package is unopened, avoids a plastic shrink wrap, and allows the customer to interact with the box to open it. Once unzipped, the box is laid on its side, and the top lifts off to reveal the Apple Vision Pro sitting on a pure white “stage,” held in place with custom paper barriers and white cardboard tabs. The Apple Vision Pro ships standard with a padded knit protective lens cover that is already installed over the front glass. The Apple Vision Pro device lifts off to reveal several packages within the package:

• The custom Polishing Cloth is contained within a white tabbed cardboard envelope.
• An additional Light Seal Cushion is located in a white tabbed cardboard envelope under the Polishing Cloth.
• A rounded-edge-square white tabbed cardboard envelope contains a high-quality Getting Started book for the Apple Vision Pro with full-color photos and directions for using all the various parts contained in the box.
• Under the book is a white tabbed cardboard envelope with a Dual Loop Band, a replacement to the adjustable Apple Vision Pro Solo Knit Band that is attached by default to the Apple Vision Pro device.
• Under the Dual Loop Band, the box is formed to hold the battery, a power brick, and a USB-C charging cable. The silver metal battery has an attached white braided USB-C cable, and the charing cable uses the same white braided material.

 

Capturing all of these photos took nearly two hours, but allowed me to become very familiar with each part and reflect on whether or not I might need to use them. During the photo session, I made the decision to use the default setup unless some unforeseen situation suggested otherwise.

The next stop was to take the items I planned to use downstairs and commence the Apple Vision Pro setup.

Apple Vision Pro Setup

Although the store demo was not required, I felt that the experience greatly increased my confidence during the setup process, even though the setup had many differences. I started by magnetically attaching my ZEISS Optical Inserts Prescription. They attached effortlessly and I kept the App Clip card at the ready. I then used the suggested store grip, slid the Apple Vision Pro over my head and in seconds, I was greeted by Apple’s cursive greetings.

The setup process was flawless and guided every step of the way. The store demo setups were repeated, but the prescription lens pairing, Persona setup, and several other Apple ID privacy settings were new to the personal device setup.

At home, I repeated many of the store demo activities. I then went to the App Store and downloaded several often-used iPhone apps and a few visionOS versions of some of my streaming service apps. I then went on to open every app to get a feel for the visionOS interface. Many, many tangents followed as I explored visionOS-specific features, especially the custom Environment choices added by the streaming services. Without giving too much away, one example is that you can watch Disney+ content in a variety of virtual locations, including Luke Skywalker’s home planet Tatooine, surrounded by parked land speeders and other Star Wars visual candy.

I also got the chance to delve far more deeply into the Keynote app. While it functions very similarly to the iPadOS version of the app, the visionOS interface elements are exceptionally well conceived and, to my sensibilities, work exactly as I expected them to work. One standout feature is the ability to rehearse a presentation in an empty theatre and/or conference room—specifically the Steve Jobs Theatre and a “standard” Apple Conference Room using Apple’s room layout that can be found in flagship Apple Stores and in Briefing Centers. Having presented on many stages and in Apple’s Conference Rooms, the experience did not feel like a simulation, it felt entirely real.

Without really thinking about it, I also realized that I stood up—because that’s what one does when on a theatre stage ready to release a presentation.

In the theatre, the vast sea of empty chairs made me feel the same as when I stand on any theatre stage for a rehearsal—and I also found myself feeling the awe and anticipation I usually feel when on a large stage in an empty theatre. Keynote provides a heads-up display that you can easily customize that is essentially the same experience provided in my “real” living room so my attention by this time was devoted to the theatre space itself. Of course, when you glance behind your shoulder, you see the giant screen of your presentation behind you where you would expect it. You advance the slides with the pinch gesture, a movement I just did without much thought because by now, it just seemed like the appropriate thing to do. As a bonus control, the heads-up display also allows you to bring up the house lights. Even that experience was awe-inspiring.

These explorations continued for a while, but I also wanted to take the opportunity to place one of the FaceTime calls I promised some of my friends and family members who knew about today’s pickup. As is customary for me, my first point of contact when spinning up new Apple devices that require conversations or allow device-level interactions is my friend Sid. I navigated to the People tab on the Vision Pro, added Sid to the Contact list, and sent the FaceTime request. Sid answered and he was at the home of a mutual friend—where I normally would have been had it not been for today’s Apple Vision Pro release.

Upon answering the FaceTime, the initial shock of the moment was that Sid—and my other friends at Sid’s location—were forced to react to my synthetic Persona created by the Apple Vision Pro during setup. For the uninitiated, this feature allows me, who is essentially wearing high-tech ski googles over the majority of my head, to appear as a “regular” version of myself to those with whom I communicate. Thus, The Apple Vision Pro needs to create a synthetic version of my face and head that tracks my mouth, eye, and head movements in real time to make the receiver of my FaceTime feel like they are talking to me.

This feature is very rightly emblazoned by the term BETA, and I have seldom encountered an Apple technology more appropriately described as such. In my opinion, my Persona looked terrible. Everything about it was wrong—the shape of my face, the skin tone, the simulated expressions—just everything.

However, Sid and friends reported after a few minutes that they became accustomed to my Persona, and were, in fact, impressed with how well the real-time movements tracked to my voice. To add a bit of frustration to the situation, unlike all of Apple’s other FaceTime implementations, visionOS does not include the tiny little window that I can see myself to verify that my “camera” is on and that I’m broadcasting. Perhaps Apple knows that making me see my own Persona would create a level of distraction that would cause significant disruption.

After some exploration on both our ends of the FaceTime calls, I was able to broadcast the Apple Vision Pro visionOS interface to Sid, and Sid was able to AirPlay the full experience I was having on the TV in the room where he was located. This worked fairly well to allow the other side of the conversation to get an understanding of what the Vision Pro is meant to do.

However, a later FaceTime conversation did not go as well. When I sent a FaceTime to my parents who have an extremely slow Internet connection, they were only able to see my choppy Persona. To mom and dad, the Apple Vision Pro is still a complete mystery with no visual to explain what it’s about. They knew I was very excited to get this device and they saw some news items about it, but to them the experience is that I have this cool new thing and the only thing it does it make me look weird on a video call.

By now in my initial setup and use story, several unusual things had also occurred that are notable. The version of visionOS that shipped was 1.01, but during the process I saw that a 1.02 version was available. This minor update may be the reason for some of my issues. Here are a few of the software problems I encountered:

• At one point, I was using the Environments feature in Hawaii. No matter what  did, I was unable to change this Environment. Eventually, I would select an Environment and nothing would happen, just a pass-though video background of my living room even though I was clearly selecting different Environment options. This required a full restart of the device.
• I had several problems with apps not responding, the first being when Photos locked up while it was displaying a panoramic photo. Again, the display went from showing a panorama to the pass-through video of my living room. This was corrected with a Force Quit of the Photos app.
• I also had a few similar non-response problems with some of the streaming apps, especially when I was viewing the different Environments. All were corrected with a Force Quit.

Eventually when I felt I needed a break, I ran the 1.02 update and these issues stopped. Since the 1.02 update, I do not remember a single Force Quit or restart.

This concluded my Friday Apple Vision Pro Activities.