Today is the day!

Today is the day.

I woke up this morning around 6:30 AM to be ready for work, and it occurred to me to visit the Apple website to see if Apple had customized their design to commemorate the beginning of the era of spatial computing. I was greeted at apple.com with the countdown Apple had been using for a few days, but it was down to just a few minutes. Like a New Years Eve celebration, I planned my routine to be able to see the end of the countdown and anything Apple might have to mark this auspicious moment.

Sadly, the moment was quite underwhelming. The countdown simply flipped from the timer to the words, “Welcome to the era of spatial computing.” No confetti, balloons, or lasers.

At 7 AM, my Deer Park (IL) Apple Store appointment wasn’t for another 5 hours and 30 minutes. I had a couple of morning meetings at work, and then I had a one-half vacation day scheduled. I got to my office, attended my meetings, and left right on time a few minutes after noon.

I was definitely not expecting the experience I had at the Apple Store. I had suspected that the Apple experience would be good, but far more was in store for me than I could have predicted. First, I arrived as one of my school district’s Tech Support team members was arriving. Jake had previously worked at this Apple Store and had a demo appointment with his former co-workers as I was having my pick-up appointment. Then when I walked in to the Apple Store, my long-time friend Charlene was also in the store. She is a fellow Apple Distinguished Educator who recently retired from public education, and one of her post-retirement gigs was to work at this Apple Store as a Creative.

Char had just completed her in-store demo and was chatting with her former co-workers. I greeted her excitedly and she was kind enough to volunteer to take some photos and video of my Apple Vision Pro demo and pickup experience.

I completed my check-in, met some of Char’s Apple Store friends, and waited. At the appointed time, I met Sean who would handle my demo. He greeted me, noted that he already had my sizing information from my order, and asked me about my glasses. Since they were prescription, he borrowed them and put them in a machine that looked like a Mr. Coffee from the 1990s, but was a contraption with a robotic assembly that measured my prescription and reported it back to the Apple Store employees. With all this information, a custom demo rig was built in the back of the store—out of sight—while Sean asked me about my interest in the Apple Vision Pro.

I explained that my interest was mostly in the creation and potential education uses of the device, and while I would be interested in some of the entertainment options, I’d like to focus on creation instead of consumption. I also asked Sean if any other customer had shared similar preferences today, and he verified that no one else had. However, I was only his sixth demo ever, in addition to the 10–12 practice sessions he had run with Apple employees and his own four experiences.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Sean was well prepared for my answer. Based on my interests, Sean had been trained to change the demo focus, and he had a path to follow. Somewhat humorously to me, Sean politely asked if I had ever heard of Apple’s Keynote app—a perfectly legitimate question. At this point my friend Charlene, who had been taking photos and video, chimed in and said that I was well known for my Keynote use among the education crowd. I elaborated that I had been using the app since January 2003—quite possibly before Sean was born. I was thrilled to be able to experience his customized demo. 

Overall, the Apple Store demo was quite well crafted. It focused on just 4 or 5 apps and covered a brief setup that included a pairing with my borrowed prescription lenses, some tap-and-pinch training, an eye tracking exercise, an intro to the interface, and then I used my first visionOS apps.

I need to also mention yet another unexpected surprise at this time when my good friend Sid arrived to help me document this experience. I had let him know in advance of my start time, but he had not told me he might be joining me. So having started my very first Apple Vision Pro experience on the day of its release, I am now literally surrounded by friends and colleagues (Jake was sitting behind me by now), and I have an ad hoc social media team photographing and recording video of this experience. Although unplanned by me, I felt truly honored to have this experience documented by friends who understand me.

Initially, I had the impression that this Apple Store demo would include my own device that I had ordered, but I’m quite a bit happier that it did not. It used a store demo unit, and at the end I got my unopened Apple Vision Pro unit to take home. In somewhat true Apple fashion, Apple provided a special bag in the exact size to fit the Apple Vision Pro box. Based upon my personal collection of Apple Store bags, this bag is definitely the largest all-paper design they have ever made. Looking back, my collection of Apple memorabilia includes the custom bags for the original iPhone, the iPhone 3G (the second iPhone), and the Apple Watch. All of these bags were custom printed with the image and/or name of the device, but the Apple Vision Pro used the standard gray Apple logo and no Vision-specific design. 

With my gear in hand, my friends and I shared our reactions after the demo for a while in the store. It also occurred to me to check my UPS delivery info and found that my prescription lenses were not yet delivered to my home. This gave me a perfect excuse to go to lunch with Sid and continue our conversation.

After our lunch, I got the notification that my ZEISS prescription lenses had arrived and I was off to my home to unpack and assemble my personal Apple Vision Pro setup.