James Horn

Looking at the comments, people don't understand the role of bleeding edge products. The first Macintosh could have been seen as a disaster too. It even got Steve Jobs fired since it didn't sell well. But it set up decades of new products that followed that DID sell well. The Newton could be seen as a disaster too. But it paved the way for the iPhone and gave Apple credibility in the space to do such a thing. And a ton of learning about what people actually wanted in a small device they held in their hands. The Apple Vision Pro is in the same role. I tell my family and friends to go get the demo, because it is an amazing vision of the future, but it is way too expensive and way too heavy to really consider as a daily driving device for most of them. That said, if you ignore the price and weight and just look at the vision of the future it brings it is a dramatically important vision that will set Apple up for decades. Hugely important. And gives developers a platform to develop new apps that are just impossible to build on a phone or tablet or laptop or watch which sets up the ecosystem for when Vision Pro starts turning light and lower cost.

"Consumers don't want this," one of the repies to @markgurman said this morning in response to his post about Apple's glasses plans. Now this is something I've actually studied deeply, doing consumer research in many places around the world while writing two books about spatial computing that I did over the past decade. It is common bullshit that people say everytime there is a paradigm shift. They used to say it when cars were brand new too. "Horses are better." Or when personal computers come along. Woz told me his bosses at HP turned him down five times when he begged them to make a personal computer back in 1975/76. Why do they say it? Because they have no creativity. For instance, have you been to a Formula One track, or a NASCAR race? I have. I sat next to one guy who rented, for $80, a device to watch the race on a small screen that he held in his hands. Smaller than an iPad. He loved it because it let him see what was going on on the part of the race he couldn't see. It improved reality for him. He wasn't a glasses wearer, but I told him about what I was seeing in labs. That glasses someday would let him see the entire track in a much better way than the device he was holding. With screens that will be hundreds of times bigger than the device he is holding. Yeah, he didn't like the idea of wearing glasses at first either. But I sold him. He switched his mind. And that's without having a pair to demonstrate to him. This is what people never get going into a paradigm shift. People change their beliefs when a new product finally gets there that can do something dramatically better than the way we do things today. Same thing with autonomous cars. I did the research there too (wrote a whole chapter on Robotaxis seven years ago long before anyone really thought about Waymo or Tesla or Zoox). One guy in Kansas told me "I'm a narcisstic control freak and there's no f'ing way I'm letting a computer drive me around." Yet Google already had the data to show that even the most hardened resister changed after getting three rides in one. (The head of R&D who funded Waymo told me that. They discovered it when they threatened employees with being fired before giving them an early prototype. After three rides everyone stopped driving and paying attention to the road). It's why I don't get all excited for glasses. I see them as inevitable. They will give humans super powers they can't really understand today. So I'd rather go to a Hackathon where people are building the future. They are the creative ones who can see what's coming and are building for it. Off to @ycombinator to see the finals of the robot hackathon going on there in San Francisco today. And if you think you never are gonna wear glasses, well, I know you are wrong, and worse, will be at a severe disadvantage to someone who will wear them. Even if at a @NASCAR race. (It gets worse in the boardroom, by the way). I do have an advantage over the most hardened resisters. I have to wear glasses simply to see. Which is why I already have four pairs of AI-driven glasses from @getVITURE, @EvenRealities, Apple, @MentraGlass. The Mentra ones are quite nice, and open source, but don't yet have displays. Which is where the magic is locked up. The Even Realities has displays, but no cameras. Which keeps them from doing the magic too. You need glasses with both cameras and displays to do the Formula One/NASCAR track. Google brings theirs later this year I heard from @XREAL_Global who is a Google partner on theirs. Prepare your wallet. The glasses that are about to come are stunning. And consumers will want them.

@AstralHelios @EmpireEnemyy VR devs put the games out on the platforms that pay them to do it.

@EmpireEnemyy VR exclusives genuinely makes no sense to me. VR gaming is already a niche market, so why are you marketing your game to an even NICHER audience...? 🤨

I cannot fucking stand seeing new VR games make themselves Quest Exclusive because they think it’s the only VR platform left. THE QUEST PLAYERBASE DOES NOT CARE ABOUT NEW GAMES. THEYRE STUCK ON THE SAME 5 GAMES THAT CAME OUT HALF A DECADE AGO. DO NOT DOOM YOUR OWN GAME.

@punished_cobalt @EmpireEnemyy It’ll only change if Valve actually pay for ports.

@EmpireEnemyy I remember seeing clips of H3VR just to get immediately disappointed it’s Quest Exclusive. Not to mention Batman Arkham Shadow. Hopefully this changes with the Steam Frame.

@sosonosonosono Wow, the replies on this thread are… wow

its crazy how hard VR fell off there just isnt anything anymore

@SkarredGhost And nice to read an essay on it too

@Magnemar2000 Yeah, I'm not a big fan of that comparison, too, but still, he has some valid points

An interesting article that discusses the difficulty for cultural XR experiences in moving from important festivals (e.g. Venice, Tribeca, etc...) to commercial stores (e.g. Quest Store). Titles that have won super-important awards at festivals, then maybe have just a few downloads on the stores: how is it possible? It seems that the difference is all in the context and in how the experience is framed when you try it. One thing is an event where you try a short experience, and then you discuss it with the creator, and another thing is trying a 20-min experience at home and that's it. This is why probably LBE/LBVR can be a better distribution channel for these experiences than traditional stores. immersiveimpactreview.com/post/between-w… #VirtualReality #VR #Culture

@chris_kratovil Disgraced former prime minister

It’s not every day that one gets to listen to a former British Prime Minister recite from memory the opening passages of The Iliad in Ancient Greek, with no notes, in response to a random question from an undergraduate—and all while wearing what appear to be Thomas The Tank Engine socks. But today was one such day. My thanks to my good friend Brad LaMorgese for the opportunity to see the colorful and comic Boris Johnson speak tonight at the University of Dallas.

Amazing group of VR OG's hanging at the @Apple VIP party at @Official_GDC. We will find each other anywhere. love these people. 🙏 @hibbins

@Dilmerv Going to play these as soon as the update allows! - when are you going to let the rest of us release games on them is the next question….?

📢 BIG NEWS! 🕶️ We’re launching GOAT and 2048 on Meta Ray-Ban Displays, ambient games for the in-between moments. No controllers. No friction. Just intuitive EMG + gestures, layered into your day. This is the future of play: human, lightweight, and present!

An incredible retraction by the Daily Telegraph today. They have apologised for publishing an article last year headlined: “We earn £345k, but soaring private school fees mean we can’t afford to go on five holidays.” The entire story was fabricated; the family did not exist.

Anyone know when that @TheRSC /@iNKStories game is coming out? Feels like an age since it was shown to the press - when do we get to play?

Any #VR #XR get togethers planned for #GDC this year? I’d love to meet more devs and influencers - where are you all at this year? (That arcade one was fun last year)

@BeardoBenjoYT It does feel like this needs a custom tag

Man it's sad to see a group of people in the VR space pushing a completely fabricated narrative on the internet once again, we all love VR, what the fuck does it matter if you prefer one headset over another or use one more often?! They're all pretty shit, lets be honest 👍

Is @andoh_adjoa brilliant in everything because it appears that that is the case? One of our most skilled and charismatic actors.

@Dilmerv Would be great to say hi - I'll be around all week so let's find a time

If you are going to be around GDC, let me know. I would love to learn what you are working on, even if you aren’t working in VR/MR yet. 😉 Still love to meet & help you with any questions you may have related to XR development (tools, best practices, etc)

@NathieVR No - but heard good things about it

@Magnemar2000 Have you tried the new strap?

Can’t believe it’s been two years since Apple Vision Pro launched. I saved up for a long time to get it and I’ve used mine every single day since. Still haven’t tried a headset that beats visionOS. Apple’s clearly leading in spatial computing and they’re just getting started.

@PsvrFanatic @QuestWithMatt And zero funding

@QuestWithMatt Primarily support their platform with 3rd party games.

Meta has come around to the #PSVR2 model

In an attempt to be more positive about #VR after the grimness of this week, who is going to #GDC this year and shall we have an #XR get together somewhere?