A Vision for Learning

Jethro Jones: Welcome to a Vision for
Learning on the Be Podcast Network.

I am your host, Jethro Jones.

You can learn more about all the
great shows on the Be Podcast

network@bepodcast.network.

And if you'd like to, you can download
the top 10 learning apps for Apple

Vision Pro at a vision for learning.com.

Thanks for tuning in.

Today we're gonna discuss my experience of
using the Apple Vision Pro after one week.

So let's go.

There are a few things that I
want to go over in this episode.

So if you look in your podcast
player, I've got some chapters

in there to help you navigate.

So first we're gonna talk
about comfort number one.

I.

It's surprisingly not uncomfortable.

Having a pound and a half on
your face I thought would be more

uncomfortable, but I have found that
it's actually not that uncomfortable.

A lot of people are gonna have
different issues with the comfort,

and so your mileage may vary.

I will say, as I mentioned in one
of my previous episodes, that.

This is not designed for
people with small heads.

So if your head is small, it's,
there's a limit to how tight you

can make the tightening strap on it.

So be aware of that.

This is somewhat related to comfort.

My eyes got tired after watching
videos, and so I didn't really

notice, Fatigue or anything except
when I was watching videos and that's

where I started to experience that.

I'm not sure exactly what's going on.

Somebody mentioned something online
about the focal depth being 1.3 meters or

something like that, which is about four
feet or so, and that if something is not

in that right range, then it might be.

Fatiguing to your eyes.

So I'm not totally sure about that.

but that's something else.

Number three.

Sometimes it feels like there were
suction cups on my face, around

my eyes, after I take it off.

and sometimes it looks like
I've got really bad bags under

my eyes after wearing it.

That is definitely a concern.

And again, your mileage may vary.

Maybe I'm putting it on too
tight, I don't know, but that's

something that I have noticed.

So those are a couple
pieces around comfort.

LLL

Next, I wanna talk about productivity.

The productivity aspect
of this is incredible.

I talked about it in the productivity
episode that I did, but I'll also just

reiterate here, this idea of locking in.

Is really powerful.

I'm really appreciating that because
when I put it on, I know that I'm going

into work mode and that just makes it
easier to stay focused and harder to be

distracted, which is really powerful.

The other part about this is having the
Mac virtual display is really incredible.

I love that.

I took the Apple Vision
Pro with my laptop to.

The library this week, and that
was just great because I could

have my whole home set up at the
library instead of just at my home.

So I had a huge monitor.

I had windows around.

I had a Pomodoro timer.

All kinds of great stuff
that really helped make it

a better working experience.

One funny little challenge with that
is that, I was sitting across the table

from someone and because I had the
sensing people thing turned on, that

person's face was sticking through
my display, and that made it a little

difficult to get work done 'cause there
was a big face in the middle of it.

So be thinking about
those kinds of things.

One of the things that people complain
about is the guest mode, and I think

the issue there is that people thought
that having a guest mode meant that

this could be a multi-user device.

I've never seen it as a multi-user device.

I've seen it as a person's device that if
you're lucky, other people could use now.

Having that perspective in a school
setting, I think this is actually

really good because you don't have
to set up an individual profile for

each student who might be using it.

You can say, here's the
app I want you to use.

This is all you can do.

And then boom, you give it to 'em, and
then the next kid comes and you have

to set up something different for them.

I don't think that is a drawback.

I think that is actually really nice.

I like that idea.

Would I like more users?

Yeah, I would love it if I could
have my wife on there and she could

say, all right, I'm gonna use Apple
Vision Pro and have it connect

to her Mac and be able to do the
things that she wants to do with it.

I think that would be really great, but
I didn't expect that would be the case.

So the guess mode seems very nice to
me to be able to use it in that way.

I can also say, I don't need to
worry about somebody else using this.

I just know that this is mine.

They can try out the apps that
I give them permission to try

when I give them the guest mode.

And to me, this is a feature, not a bug.

And being able to set it up individually
for each kid that needs to use it.

That makes sense.

Sometimes I think having a non.

User account would be even better
because then somebody can just

put it on and start using it.

But I think the way the Apple is
designing this is for everybody

to have a personalized experience,
which that was the other piece

that I talked about, the ecosystem.

If you already have all these
iPad apps, they're already there.

You already have access to these things
that you've already been using and

know how to use, and that is really
powerful and I don't really know of

a good way to do that, that isn't
tying it to your Apple ID account.

So I think that this guest mode is
pretty good and considering what it is, I

think it's pretty well thought out also.

So the next piece I think is funny.

This ties into the MAC Virtual display.

The Apple Studio display came out
a while ago and it was a super

expensive monitor, $1,500 and
really nice, certainly high quality.

Definitely a beautiful display.

However, I and many others said,
that's too much to pay for a monitor.

the joke's on me because I've paid
$3,500 for another monitor, which

is the Apple Vision Pro, and that is
the way that I have used it the most

as another monitor for my computer.

And that doesn't mean that it's terrible.

it is amazing.

I get a big, huge display and
then I can have multiple Apple

Vision apps running around that
display and that is really nice.

I think there's a lot of
good things about that.

I just think that it's funny that I
thought that one was too expensive

and I paid a lot more for this one,
and that's how I've used it the most..

The tapping your two fingers together and
touching things that are on the screen.

I say screen, but it's like a heads
up display is what I should say.

Tapping things that are
on the heads up display.

When I say heads up display, I'm
thinking about the things that

pop up that you can literally.

not literally, but figuratively touch
that are right in front of you as

opposed to tapping your two fingers
together to cause interaction.

if you're responding to a text message, a
keyboard pops up close to you that you can

reach out and touch, which looks strange
if you're not wearing the Vision Pro.

But if you are feels and looks
very natural and very comfortable,

except typing is not that great.

Some VR headsets use controllers
to help navigate where your hands

are and what you want them to do.

In my experience using those, they're
still not that great and I find

that my experience using the hands.

Just my hands is most of
the time perfectly suitable.

There are a couple things I've mista
unintentionally because I don't

usually think about what my fingers
are doing, and so for example, I was

watching a YouTube video while I was
folding laundry the other day, which

was awesome because my whole wall was
this YouTube video and my laundry.

I could still see it.

It was there in front of me.

Really cool that I could do that, but
every time I'd bring my fingers together

to fold a piece of laundry, then I would
have a tap happen, and so it was causing

me to sometimes jump around the video.

It was causing me to skip forward,
pause or hit the share button.

Those kinds of things
are definitely annoying.

Again, some of that is user error.

Some of that is.

How it's designed.

Some of that is, is just the nature
of using your fingers to control

it instead of using controllers.

If I were using controllers in that
situation, I could set the controllers

down and then I could fold my laundry
and it wouldn't never do anything because

my fingers are not an input device.

But in this, they are.

That being said, I do believe
that multi-touch is going

to come to it because the.

Vision Pro does such a good
job at looking at your fingers

and knowing where they're at.

Even in immersive environments, I
can be typing on my keyboard and

not see any of the keys below my
fingers, but see all 10 of my fingers,

which is really amazing as well.

So there have been a lot of times
where I've unintentionally tapped

again, I need to learn how to
interact better and it will get

better over time at managing that.

I'm looking forward to
multi-touch with 10 Fingers.

I think that it's gonna happen eventually.

I think it has to happen eventually,
and I think that it's gonna be

pretty cool when it finally does.

That ties into the lack of apps
that are specifically designed.

For the Apple Vision Pro, that
is definitely an early adopter

problem that those who are buying
this early on are gonna face.

There's a lot of iPad apps that do work.

There's a lot of iPad
apps that don't work.

For example, I use an
app called, Hey Calendar.

And that one is not available, at all,
and that's a bummer, that's all right.

It is an iPad app, but it's not
available for the Apple Vision Pro.

one of the things that I, about
the apps is, it is relatively weak.

So let's talk about the apps for a moment.

Immersive virtual reality
apps are really neat.

However, sometimes those are not the best
thing and you don't necessarily want that.

So if you want to watch a
movie in a side window, being

immersive in that is not really.

Effective thing because when
you're immersive, that is the

only thing that is a single focus.

That's all you can do.

You can't have multiple windows
open because the immersion

takes over everything.

I'm sure that is how it's
designed and that's the point.

But as developers are making apps,
they need to be thinking about, is

this an app that we want to take over
the whole entire screen, or is it not?

for example, with Microsoft Word, so does
that really need to be a Vision Pro app?

it's great that it is because
the tap targets are better.

It's designed better for the
Vision Pro, and that's all great.

So it's certainly better than an iPad
app, but it is not bringing very much new.

To the table.

I don't know that there is anything new.

I'm not a big user of
Microsoft Word myself.

Keynote, for example, gives you an
opportunity to present and practice your

presentation in an immersive environment.

In that situation, that's more beneficial.

That's cool, but just editing a regular
keynote, you don't want that to be an

immersive experience because you're
probably gonna have other windows that

you're gonna wanna have open to be able
to access the things that you're doing.

I.

Something like MindNode, for example,
seems like a great app for an

immersive experience because you have

these mind maps that are can be
huge, and it would be great to

see those things all in one place.

However, the way that it's implemented
right now is that it is stuck

inside an iPad window, basically.

That window can be big, so you can
zoom in and everything, and that's

great, but it's not as good as a
fully immersive app, in my opinion.

That would allow you to see the
whole entire mind map all at once.

I would love to see something like that.

Here's an example of an app
that has worked really great.

It's called Timer Pomodoro, and it puts
a timer in your physical space around you

and it counts down and you can put it in
front of you, you can move it behind you

so that you have turn around to look.

This is really nice.

You don't want that to be an immersive
app because you don't wanna take

up all of your real estate and have
it be taken by this immersive app.

There are some like mindfulness things
where you do want that immersive

experience so that you can stay focused
and not be distracted by other things.

And so looking through the apps
that are available for Apple Vision

Pro, you can see how many are.

Are immersive and how many
are just iPad windows.

And being able to discern which is
going to be best for each of those

situations, is definitely something
that developers are gonna have to do.

One tool that I really
like is called Crouton.

It's an app that I use every week
to plan meals and use recipes, and

I really like it a lot and it's
beautifully designed for the Apple

Vision Pro and really just a great app.

Looks wonderful, has lots of
customization that you can do.

but do I want that to be immersive?

No, I don't think I do.

If I'm gonna use it
while I'm cooking, which.

I, I tried just for fun, but I don't
think that's really a great experience.

that's not, you don't want that to
be immersive 'cause you need to be

able to see your surroundings and
be involved in your surroundings.

That one's definitely better as a window,
especially because you can create timers

for each individual dish that you're
cooking and put those on top of where

those dishes are, which is really cool.

So this is a question that developers
need to take time thinking about

and answering about what is going
to be best for their particular app.

Is it going to be better as an
immersive app or is it going to

be better as a, as a windowed app?

Which I think this is a really
exciting question to be asking

and a really exciting place to go.

Right now.

So I'm really excited about the
opportunities that are available there

as I've been talking about some of these
apps, if you wanna see the 10 best.

Apps for the Vision Pro.

Go to a vision for learning.com.

Put in your email address and I'll send
you a PDF with those apps, with links

to the apps that I think are great.

If you think there are some apps that
are wonderful and you want to, share them

with me, please feel free to get that
email and then reply and say, Jethro.

Here's one that I think is really great.

You should check out.

I'm at Jethro, Jones on all the
socials, and while you're in there.

Why don't you take a moment and go
leave a five star rating and review.

If you're enjoying this show,
remember, if you can't say anything

nice, don't say anything at all.

I would, but I would love some five
star ratings, some positive reviews.

Let me just read a couple real quick.

a Hurston said I'd give more than
five stars if that were possible.

Thank you, aters, and I appreciate it.

Dumont said Jethro has really
nailed it with this podcast.

His description of the practical use
of the Apple Vision Pro is insightful.

I'm excited to hear his thoughts
for the application and personal

learning and education in general.

So thank you Katie Mont for that
one and for everybody else who has

left ratings and reviews, I really
appreciate it and it helps this show

get seen by other people as well.

And in the short time that I've been
doing this, according to listen notes,

this show is already in the top 10%.

So thank you to everyone who has shared
it, who has appreciated it, who has left

ratings and reviews and downloaded it.

Thank you so much.

That means the world to me.

Thank you for listening to a Vision
for Learning on the B Podcast Network.