Slightly weird to extreme cringe: The first Apple Vision Pro users appear in public

Extreme cringe: Apple Store ritual for first Vision Pro buyer 

Giving a round of applause to the first buyer of a new product as they leave the store has been a long tradition at Apple stores in the US, yet the video below outside the Apple store on 5th Avenue in New York City is considered to be an extreme case of cringe by most observers.

24 hours later: Vision Pro has arrived in public spaces

Mixed reality headsets are of course nothing new in the world of tech, but so far they have mostly been confined to private spaces with the exception of the brief Google Glass episodes a decade ago or the isolated cases of people wearing Meta's Ray-Ban glasses, both of which appear much more discreet than Apple's comparatively monumental and heavy spatial computing headgear. Nevertheless, we will apparently have to get used to proud Vision Pro users in public spaces, if the first 24 hours after the release in the US are any sign of things to come.

$3,500 headset in the New York subway

Like this man who used Apple's Vision Pro on the New York subway and apparently wasn't worried at all that his fancy new gadget might get stolen. As tech analyst and Vision Pro owner Max Weinbach pointed out on X (formally twitter) however, it would pretty much be worthless to the thief as he would first have to overcome Apple's iris recognition to gain access.

Wearing the Vision Pro in the park or gym: "The future is here"

In the USA at least, early Vision Pro users are definitely not shying away from appearing in public. These proud techies showing off their new toy can be seen in the park or at the gym already.

Early adopter gets arrested wearing Vision Pro while driving

An then there are those cases where wearing a VR-headset in public raises safety concerns. Apple explicitly advises against using the Vision Pro in situations where a failure of the device could lead to injury. Although cameras and seemingly very low latencies ensure an almost real-time view of the surroundings, device failure, brief interruptions or simply distraction could still lead to dangerous situations quickly.

Despite this, one pedestrian was already observed crossing a road in San Jose, clearly busy getting stuff done in virtual space. A pretty extreme case is the viral video below showing a Tesla driver operating his new spatial computing device while driving on the highway. This is obviously illegal in all US states and led to an arrest less than 24 hours after the Vision Pro was released to the public. A cybertruck driver was also spotted wearing the headset while driving (last video)

Kate Kozuch, Dante, @dalibali2, @haig98, MilesaboveTech via Max Weinbach, @0xSigil, Apple Support, Vanity Fair, @blakestonks

Image: @imPatrickT