Yeah,

that's a good way to put it. And, you know, we've covered it on Mac Power Users a bit, but not enough. And when I heard, you know, how much you're using Vision Pro, I'm like, that's what I want on the show. I want somebody who's like really in the weeds with it, who can tell us where it's helping and where it's not helping. And we'll talk some apps, we'll talk some AI, we got a whole bunch of stuff in the outline today, but we're going to focus on the Vision Pro and how you're using it. So let's start there, Alex. Actually, I got ahead of myself, Alex. Tell folks who you are, for those who don't know you. I just assumed everybody knew Alex Cox of the internet.

If so, thank you. And if not, sorry in advance. I'm Alex Cox. I'm a producer in Chicago, and I use the title producer because that means whatever you need done, usually in a tech way or an events way, I can do it for you. But now I'm a full-time independent podcaster mostly, which is why I'm here and why I spend a lot of my time spatial computing, because I think that's the new way we're going to do events. It may be podcasting, but we'll get to that later.

Yeah, I mean, there's a lot going on, especially for someone who's doing Vision Pro, right? And what is your current Apple gear? I'm

kind of in flux right now because I went down hard on a fall and my beloved M1 MacBook Pro with, oh, I should say it had an M1 Max chip in it. It basically broke in half.

Wait a second. It broke in half?

I was walking with it open and fell. And so it landed face down. And then I was, you know, so then I fell on it and then it was in two pieces. So AppleCare was apparently doesn't cover. It's been this whole saga. It doesn't cover like a certain extent of damage. And I'm trying to figure it out. But in the meantime, I don't technically have my own Mac. I am using my spouses occasionally an M1 or I'm sorry, an M2 MacBook Air, which you guys have talked about this at length. One wonderful computer, just fantastic, excited and love Apple Silicon. But when I fell down, I also totally destroyed my iPhone 15 Pro, which was more of a bummer because that's how I take all of my videos, especially. It's your camera. Yeah. Especially with spatial video. You know, I really want those two lenses. So now I'm actually using a Pixel 3 because it's the only phone I had lying around. That's one of the it was it's the pink one with the little orange button. It's the smallest phone I've had in a while, but it still works really well. So while I'm in this period of saving up for a new laptop and or to fix my laptop and to fix or get a new phone, I'm just chilling with my Vision Pro and a Magic keyboard and trackpad. And that's kind of the main way that I get things done. And when I told you at the beginning, you're like, oh, wow, wow, you're deep in. And I should say that I do use a lot of web-based software. So I've been editing in Riverside, which is a sort of decent app that allows you a service. Really, it's a podcasting service that you can record podcast. And if you want, like, screen sharing, it does the whole shebang. And it's it's fine, but you can also edit it online. And for audio, it's not too bad. However, you need to use a Chromium browser. So can't do it in my Vision Pro. And I need to either do that at a library or borrow a Mac. But that's kind of all I have in terms of hardware. Either, oh, I should say, no, I have my Neumann microphone that I always forget the number of, but I'll give

that. I've never seen it and I can tell you what it is because it's the

microphone like the german one yeah the german mic and a little scarlet two by two that i don't even know how long i've had these guys but i love them okay

so we have to back up a minute here because you had a fall yeah that your computer landed on the wrong side and then you landed on it breaking it in two pieces and you destroyed your phone yeah

are you okay are you oh yeah i'm fine yeah my stuff broke the fall yeah

that's good i mean it served its purpose and because i i talk on the show frequently how I think this Apple Silicon is going to last forever. But I will say that if you drop your laptop on the wrong side and then you fall breaking into two pieces, the Apple Silicon still may not work. That may be a thing that causes the break. But at the same time, I was thinking there's so many people running headless laptops. Federico Vittici did that weird thing where he connected an iPad to a headless M1 does your computer do you have any idea if your computer is capable of that at this point or is it just really in bad shape it

did that for it worked with that for a while and with the um old or no the less expensive studio i think it's just called the studio display right um the one that doesn't have xdr and uh that worked for a couple weeks and then it just went kaput

is it is it make more sense to just buy a new i mean a new one or a used m1 as opposed to getting it fixed i would think that it's probably cheaper david

i'm an independent podcaster in no

but i mean like an m1 used is not that expensive i mean as opposed to getting it fixed i think it would probably be here's

the problem you're right they last forever so there's a lot of yeah yeah there's a lot of Intel Macs out there. For some reason, you need an Intel Mac. Best time to get it. Stock up on it. It's wild. But I mean, I've been able to go all in on my Vision Pro. The story of my Apple Vision Pro, try really hard not to say the vision pro because i know that people at apple really didn't want an article in front of it for some reason but that's okay we

can do it here the mac power user rules are that it is acceptable either way so you're good

yeah i i say avp and people are like alien versus predator. I'm like, oh, no, sorry, sorry. But I have been kind of a diehard fan of ambient computing, spatial computing and just pass through technology in general. vr but to a bigger extent kind of the concept of being surrounded by a computer in whatever way that may be yeah

because you and i talked about it before they released it and i know you were very excited about it and this idea of of spatial computing. So maybe the thought is your computer got wrecked, but you're really not that bent out of shape about it because you just want to do the Vision Pro stuff anyway. Oh,

yeah. Unlike my laptop, I am not bent out of shape. And I do not recommend this to anyone. My, the only reason I have a vision pro is because I made a joke online and about, hey, you guys out there, you're all investing millions in this, the metaverse stuff. Why not just invest in one person? And I might make something. And then a bunch of people on formerly Twitter now X the everything app and Mastodon basically bought me a Vision Pro, which is just the ultimate privilege ever. this overnight joke and so i felt a sort of duty to the kind para pals to really explore this hardware not because of any actual sense of a true like responsibility or stress just so people know but i am really really passionate about this space and not many folks are talking about it, but there's a reason for that. I don't think people should buy the Vision Pro right now. Don't do what I'm doing. It is not recommended, but it works.

and i'm sure that even there's a lot of people listening that aren't going to buy vision pro but they're curious about how you're using it and and that's going to be a big focus today is yeah you can actually get your work done with one of these things and a lot of the work not everything i guess it depends on what you do but but before we get into the the nitty-gritty um what is your vision Pro setup and what straps are you using? Do you have keyboard? Give us the skinny here. I

am using the Solo Top 3D printed dingus, if you will. It's an adapter that allows you to use the solo knit band on the or sorry, you can use the solo knit band with your Vision Pro and then put a second one on the top. So instead of using the dual strap, which is fine, I guess, but it doesn't look very nice. It just looks the same as like a any other headset. And the just God, the the amazing stitching on this band. I'm looking at my solo bands right now, and it's just gorgeous. And I really was like, OK, there's if I'm going to Apple something, I need to really, really Apple it. So I got the got this thing that allows you to wear two and it just lifts it off your head more. And it's much, much more it's much more comfortable. And I found that it is more comfortable for me than even the dual strap. But that's not true of everyone. And I think one of the failings actually of Vision Pro is aside from the things that all of you folks about in terms of price, like if you're going to have something this expensive, it should be the most personal thing you own because it's literally on your face. And headsets are, you know, really, really hard. Like people, there's not like one pair of glasses that people wear. Well, the meta Ray-Bans, I suppose. So in terms of the most important hardware that i have it's this solo top uh adapter and i use my hand i've tried to use my hands more and more let me just go ahead

because because i also have the solo top adapter on steven's recommendation and this thing is really a game changer. I mean, if you're going to spend the kind of money that you spend on a vision pro, there's two straps that comes with. The one goes around the back of your head. And it's like you said, it's a very well-made strap. It's got a dial on it. You spin it to kind of like tighten it up. But you're the way you're holding on your face at that point is uh by pressing it into your face hard enough that it doesn't fall off that and you know you've got to like press it pretty hard and you feel that after a while and then they've got the um kind of the orthodontics retainer strap thing that goes across the top and the back which is okay but it clearly didn't get the design attention. It almost feels to me like that one was added at the last minute because they realize as good as that knit band is that strapping this thing to your face for an extended period of time isn't very comfortable. And so the second one they make, I think, doesn't fit very well. It's very fiddly, and I can never really get it quite to fit me right. And Steven said, you got to try the solo top thing. I think it was like 15 bucks or something. It's 3d printed. There's not a whole lot to it, but then you've got to buy a second knit band, which is like a hundred bucks. But like I said, at this point, you're already in for the cost of a vision pro. So spend the extra $115 because then it is like uh it is just a very comfortable experience because you've got this knit band across the top of your head in the back both of which have independent dials so you just twist the knob to get it to go up and down and forward and backward and you get a you just get such a better fit. And getting this and doing this makes me think that there was a fail at Apple. Like the native band should have been this comfortable and easy. And I don't know what it would have looked like, but I feel like for the price point of this product, that something went wrong there. Like they didn't get the band right i

so wish that we had the ability to buy what the initial reviewer i mean everyone who got a press demo when it was announced it had the amazing knit band and then a second one at the top. It was kind of the hybrid of the dual loop and the solo loop. But yes, I hope I don't you know, I don't want anyone to get fired at Apple, but something catastrophic had to have happened. Like mine pushes so hard into my face. It leaves like little indents. And I mean, come on, how many people wore this in advance? Like 10? It's a bummer. And there are folks who instead of fiddling with the straps, just have separate light seals, which would be more expensive than another band. So it's, it's, uh, it's gonna also allow you to use your vision pro more and become a weirdo like me. Go for it.

If you own a vision pro and you're listening, uh, I, I have just officially cost you money. I put the link in the notes, but I give this a wholehearted endorsement. I thought it was silly and it looks a little silly, but, um, man, it is so comfortable. And I watch movies. I like you. I spent a lot of time in Apple vision pro and fit has never been an issue since I purchased this. It's just like, it's, it's like a solved problem. Now it's unfortunate that it didn't come with the product, but you can solve the problem. You

say it looks silly, but like you said, if you're in with the money, you're also in with looking kind of weird. So might as well. Sure.

All right. What about a keyboard or trackpad? You use any of that stuff?

Yep. magic keyboard uh magic trackpad and that's kind of my only keyboard and mouse ever now even when i'm using a real mac if you will just because with the changes in con in the sort of context of each way i'm computing i still don't want extra friction as much as i've loved mechanical keyboard keyboards in the past uh this is the way to go still lightning but as of this week maybe that'll change yeah

yeah apple released and we we didn't mention it but as we're recording the show apple is having this week of M4, and they're releasing a bunch of new hardware, and including this week they released the USB-C versions of the keyboard, mouse, and trackpad. I wonder how many people will just buy that because they just are sick of the lightning. I'm going to hang in there. I'm okay. I can keep a lightning cable to charge my mouse keyboard and trackpad. I also use the Apple stuff, but I don't mind. But I'm sure at some point, whenever I upgrade these, I'll be happy to get rid of that cable. So you're using the same keyboard for Apple Vision Pro Plus, using it with Macs and other devices? Or is it just solely dedicated to the Apple Vision Pro hardware?

It's solely dedicated to the Apple Vision Pro or Apple Vision Pro. um when i still had a mac and presumably in the hopefully near future with a macbook um i would just use the vision pro as the best monitor possible and yeah i the the other reason i use the magic keyboard is it's the same on all of the, well, as similar to an Apple laptop as you can get. So as little friction as possible.

That totally makes sense. And any other special hardware for your vision pro setup?

I thought that there would be more accessories. And I think Apple hoped that there would be more accessories, but I just keep the battery pack in my pocket. I had a little clip-on thing that it was, you know, it turned it into one of those like cool dad clip-ons but it ended up straight into the 90s yeah yeah yeah but it just ended up being easier to sit in my pocket or on my desk plugged in do

you have a your keyboard and mouse do you have them attached to each other or are you using either?

No. Okay. I tried that, but it felt like, okay, if I'm going to be moving all of the virtual stuff around, I'm okay with moving the physical stuff around too.

Makes sense. Yeah. With the battery for me, like you, I actually slide the battery down my shirt. So the cable, because I do walk around, I'll let the dog out and stuff while I'm wearing it. And I don't want the cable snagging on like a door handle or something. So I'll slide the battery down my shirt and into my pocket. And that's just fine. I have yet to talk to a two battery Vision Pro owner. Are you one? Do you have multiple batteries or are you just good with one? No,

I thought, well, okay. I suppose maybe I am. If you count the, uh, the portable battery that sometimes I plug into it, I do the same thing where I put the cable down. Actually, I put it like down the back of my shirt, kind of like a lav mic. Sure. And I pretty much wear the same thing every day. So the the battery, the Vision Pro battery, left pocket, third party, just generic usb charger right side so and then iphone or well and now my pixel front right pocket because so much of vision pro is with muscle memory that's also how my hardware is too now i'm just realizing that huh oh weird That's cool though, I guess. Yeah.