Somehow I grew up with the expectation that coffee in US is exceptional everywhere. I guess from movies, pop culture - just how much coffee is part of American daily life.
Then later in life, when I traveled to US as an independent adult (after EU coffee culture upbringing), for work, and embraced the local coffee culture... I had a big disassociation between what my mind thought about how coffee in US should be and what it actually was.
I realized that majority of positive feedback about coffee drinks was based on all those other things people put into coffee...syrups, chocolate, marshmallows, cinnamon, milk, etc. Etc.
I feel like this tech always misses real life usecases. I mean yes sure we do watch movies... But are you really going to sit in the headset for 2 hours straight. It's physically... Biologically(?) Uncomfortable.
Then when they say - explore Google Maps - ok. Fun. But for what? 10 minutes? How prominent is that need/activity in our life?
All usecases that Apple and now Google/Samsung showcase are "imaginary", wishful thinking usecases. They don't stick. They are more like "party-tricks" than something that can integrate into our lives and fill in a certain gap.
I’ve been in XR for a decade and there’s a big gap between people that make the headsets and those that use them. The actual use cases are too niche for the big companies to care long term so they have to invent narratives that don’t manifest. IMO, Valve focusing a headset in the best possible gaming experience is the only one well positioned for an honest play in the space.
> But are you really going to sit in the headset for 2 hours straight. It's physically... Biologically(?) Uncomfortable.
TBF sitting still in a dark room fixating in the same direction for 2 hours straight is also uncomfortable. Either the movie captures your attention and you bear with it, or you take breaks.
Keeping an headset on for hours is fine if you fit it properly (get used to it), and for the movie use case in particular you don't need to be sitting, which can make it way more comfortable that the traditional experience.
Now it's clearly for people who lust for something they don't have right now. If you're 100% happy with doing everything on your phone for instance, it won't be for you. Same way you wouldn't even care for a laptop or desktop computer I guess.
Fair enough. Though standing and watching a move is also possible. But also in VR/AR you can't have a movie night with a group of people. Though I'm not sure such things even happen anymore (movie nights with friends).
I do feel a certain level of "bigger" commitment when you are in VR/AR. The content follows you. The current way of consuming content is a bit more transactional and has clear boundaries. You want to see a reel - you got to do physical activity (pick up the phone, unlock, launch an app, scroll.. Etc.).
When content "follows you", delivered to you directly as any moment in time - I just have this itchy feeling that we become more dedicated to the consumption of that content. It's an ads dream world!
Thinking of it in levels of commitment sounds right to me, and IMHO most people will want the minimum commitment. The phone thing was something I've been thinking about a lot as we're getting better folding phones.
For instance less and less people care to look at photos on other supports, printing or checking them on a bigger screens now requires some dedication or special motivation. In that regard the Vision Pro's 3D photos feature makes for nice demos, but the number of people that will see it as something missing in their lives right now must be ridiculously low.
> It's an ads dream world!
Nah, they don't need that. My bank statements now have ads inserted between some of the lines, inside the app. Not checking my statements isn't an option and the shitty website won't save me, so I'm already cooked.
My wife and I have actually spent a good deal of time in a couple of street view type apps for the Quest, in multiplayer. It’s fun to “go back” to places we’ve vacationed and try to trace our steps. It’d be better if street view cameras captured stereoscopic 3d, though.
It's quite obvious that these devices are a prototype for some eventual immersive AR glasses. Sure, they are currently bulky and heavy and have poor battery life and block your face. But these companies hope to eventually iterate all of that away.
This is the groundwork. But I don't know if they have a larger vision (pun intended) other than "oh shit, the smartphone industry has been conquered and now sees diminishing returns, we need something else to generate revenue".
That's actually true. You are absolutely right. Computers used to be a size of a bedroom. So yeah, this is not the end game at all.
I would think that the most ultimate end state would be (sci-fi mode ON) some kind of implants, retina projections... It's ridiculous to say this things, but best form factor is to get the value without any form:)
Exercise works well enough too. If shadow boxing in a stinky gym for 2h is grating to you, doing it in VR will have a better chance of success in the long run.
It's often frowned upon but yes. Porn is a very strong usecase where VR offers substantial improvement over existing tech. If it wasn't such a taboo these things would be flying off the shelves. It really feels like you are there especially when you get a toy that can synchronise to the video.
Flight and racing sims are another one but they are obviously a lot more niche.
The solar array is 4 km by 4 km. The whole Earth, with its 6400 km radius, only gets hit by a Prius-sized asteroid once per year. So the risks are much lower. I guess the array may be hit by many micro-asteroids though, but it should be possible to engineer some level of tolerance for that.
Yeah.. right after writing the comment I went on to get my frame of reference a bit adjusted about the sizes of everything...:) Risks are very small! So small that it's not even worth worrying about it too much. The whole cooling/heat transfer reality check is way more critical here than anything else indeed.
This article can be taken a little less seriously. It is just an opinion/experience of a person.
I think he has a lot of good points there. Yes he treads on the thin ice with the very big statements and generalisations, but those we don't have to "sign under with blood".
I do like the simple formula concept. It does make sense. It's not an ultimate representation of everything, but it's a nice idea of how to frame the differences between the logics we are dealing with.
I choose to not commit the whole message of the article to my core beliefs, but I'll borrow thoughts, ideas for the debates and work ahead.
Then later in life, when I traveled to US as an independent adult (after EU coffee culture upbringing), for work, and embraced the local coffee culture... I had a big disassociation between what my mind thought about how coffee in US should be and what it actually was.
I realized that majority of positive feedback about coffee drinks was based on all those other things people put into coffee...syrups, chocolate, marshmallows, cinnamon, milk, etc. Etc.
While the most basic espresso was... Vile:(
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