Issue 48 ☞ Apple VR Goes Viral – Again
And - Certified Recs
Last week, Apple unveiled its latest device, the Vision Pro, a VR headset that “blends digital content with your physical space,” according to the organisation, and which costs $3,499. An estimated 180,000 units were sold during the pre-order period, and over the past few days footage of people using the device has been going viral on the internet. In one video, originally uploaded to X and later published across news sites, a man rides the New York subway wearing a headset, seeming to be using a virtual interface. (The video has been seen 85 million times; the user was later identified as Nikias Molina, who either straight up works for Apple or is instead a huge fanboy of the organisation – it’s hard to tell.) In another video, a man in a headset drives along an American highway, his hands engaged in some digital activity, and not set on the steering wheel.
This sort of thing happens a lot when Apple releases a new product, particularly when the product is something as futuristic-seeming as the Vision Pro: footage of early adopters appears online – people wearing the tech while crossing the street, or grocery shopping, or at the gym, or driving (usually the videos capture people in America) – and the internet delivers its collective opinion. Whether or not the tech is good or helpful does not seem to be the point. Instead, judgement is made on the people using the tech, and usually that judgement is not particularly kind. An average response to footage on X goes something like, “What the fuck are they doing?”
Sometimes, though, things escalate in odd ways. Earlier this week, the Guardian published several pieces of footage of Vision Pro users alongside reports of "safety concerns" and a warning made on X by Pete Buttigieg, the current US Secretary of Transportation. “Reminder,” Buttigieg wrote, in response to a video of a man using a headset while driving what looks like a Tesla Cybertruck. “ALL advanced driver assistance systems available today require the human driver to be in control and fully engaged in the driving task at all times.” Otherwise, you know, you might crash.
All this is good news for Apple. Reviews of the Vision Pro have been lukewarm at best. The New York Times wrote, “Apple’s first headset lacks polish and purpose.” But perhaps reviews don't matter once the product has entered the internet and now flows freely through it. Every time footage of a headset user is shared, and a joke is made, a judgement delivered, Apple generates attention. And attention feeds sales.
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