Apple Details Vision Pro's Entertainment Capabilities as Launch Nears

The Vision Pro isn't expected to launch in India soon due to costs and limited manufacturing capacity. (Image credit: Apple)

Lots of new information about the Apple Vision Pro ‘spatial computing’ headset’s capabilities and software have emerged as the company gears up to launch it in the US on February 2, with pre-orders opening on January 29. Apple has announced a slate of specials that will be available in a new “Apple Immersive Video” format on the Apple TV+ service, as well as a tie-up with Disney, and details of how its existing services will work on the device. The Vision Pro is likely to be available only in limited quantities when it launches, although Apple is rumoured to be working to bring it to other countries in the first half of 2024.

The immersive video content available at launch will be ‘Prehistoric Planet Immersive’, a short film about dinosaur colonies; ‘Adventure’, a series about athletes challenging themselves; ‘Wildlife’, a series about animals in the wild; and ‘Alicia Keys: Rehearsal Room’, a short film about the artist’s creative process. Users will be able to experience these as 8K 3D recordings with a 180-degree field of vision as well as spatial audio.

Apple will also highlight “interactive narrative experience” apps in its App Store, such as ‘Encounter Dinosaurs’ which will let users get up close with lifelike models of dinosaurs in 3D space with spatial audio. Apps optimised for visionOS and ‘spatial computing’ will be marked as such, including Microsoft’s 365 apps, Slack, Zoom, and of course Apple’s own FaceTime and Freeform. More than a million apps are expected to be compatible with the Vision Pro at launch without any modification. Many Apple Arcade games will be compatible as well. 

Environments are landscape-like 3D spaces with realistic dynamic imagery and sounds that can change automatically depending on the time of day. Users can adjust the level of immersion within an Environment using the Vision Pro’s digital crown. Examples include the surface of the moon, a starry night sky, and a storm on a mountain. Apps and videos can be played within an environment, to create an immersive ambience. Apple TV+ content can play within a Cinema environment, allowing users to decide how big the screen is and where they are sitting relative to it.    

Disney will be partnering with Apple to bring its characters and experiences to Apple Vision Pro users, starting with its own Environments -  the historic El Capitan Theater in Hollywood, Marvel’s Avengers Tower, and the cockpit of a Star Wars Landspeeder, for example. 

Over 150 popular movies will be available for Vision Pro users to watch in 3D, including Dune, Avatar: The Way of Water, and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. All Apple TV+ original shows and movies, plus content in third-party streaming apps including Disney+, will be available in 3D. Other content providers set to be available at launch time include Amazon Prime Video, Paramount+, Mubi, TikTok, and various sports franchises.  

Apple is positioning its first headset as “the ultimate entertainment device”, thanks to its twin micro-OLED displays, each of which has a resolution higher than 4K, plus its onboard spatial audio system. The displays support Dolby Vision HDR as well as Dolby Atmos and lossless audio. The Vision Pro is powered by a version of Apple’s M2 SoC with an additional dedicated R1 display controller chip, both developed in-house by Apple. It runs a new operating system called visionOS and integrates with Apple’s iCloud ecosystem as well as other products, so users can access apps and games through the App Store as well as photos and videos they have in their iCloud storage. 

The Apple Vision Pro will be priced starting at $3,499 (approximately Rs. 2,90,735) in the US with 256GB of storage. Snap-in Zeiss lenses for those who need prescription glasses will be available for an additional $149 (Rs. 12,380).