But another reason I decided to wait is Apple would let me try it. Dropping $3500 on a product I'm not allowed to test isn't gonna happen.

I did the in-store demo, but it is totally scripted and 100% focused on consuming content. Going off-script is a big no-no.

The demo does not include using the AVP with a keyboard and mouse or integrating with a MacBook.

I also wanted to try using the AVP while reclining or lying down. Not allowed.

Well, I guess you ...could do what others did and basically put down a $3500 *deposit*, and try it for 30 days and return it for refund if you didn't like it.

I'm largely in the same boat as you are....and while that is not my style, to buy $$ things only to return them....I might consider doing it.

AVP looks like something I"d REALLY like to travel with...on a plane with the huge immersive screen and tuning out the world, I'd love that.

Having a large virtual desktop screen on a computer, especially when out on the road...I'd love that.

There's use cases I'd see I'd like it....but it's a lot of money not to really get to try it in the store...

>fine print at the bottom on TL;DR user agreement is what legally constitutes informed consent.

Exactly how is a consumer bound to a user agreement they haven't signed ("driving data had been shared ... despite not being enrolled in the program.")? And, what about someone who buys a used car? Do you think the manufacturer has some kind of hold over them?

And it's not a very well done thing, mostly due to the not so stellar resolution even in the middle of the field of view. Works for workload where one doesn't need super fine resolution (e.g.: video editing), but forget about using this with walls of tiny next (not usable for coding, for example).

Another use that some people have experimented and Apple has touted with their "spacial computing" moniker: leaving multiple windows and applet floating virtually around a large real-world space (e.g.: have various control apps for your widgets in the work area, have browser with receipe and cooking timer in your kitchen, etc.) so as you move between real-world space, you get the revelant stuff already open and floating wating for you.

The problem is that, at the price of that Apple asks for the Vision Pro, and at the price one finds electronics on, e.g., AliExpress: for the 3500 bucks that Apple asks for their "Spacial Computer", one can buy 35x sub 100 bucks no-name tablets, and leave actual tablets lying around the real world to have "already opened and ready to use apps" all-over. Meh.

My impression is that this is more like the Newton, when Apple utterly failed at making a succesful portable/pocket computer, to the point that they abandoned the form factor, and it took Palm to teach a lesson in how to actually make a success in that form factor before Apple made another somewhat less lackluster attempt with the iPhone and iPod Touch (after having seen a demo of the Handspring + modem Springboard).

Also Vision Pro doesn't have a killer app.
(The "extra screen while on the move" is very limited in practice due to resolution limitation of VR).
It's clearly more of an early prototype to start exploring the platform, that somehow marketing stumbled upon and decided to push through. As you said it:

Sadly, those pesky physics stand in the way.
(No controllable way to "project black", meaning you need some blocking/filtering;
No practical way to project a picture without at least some optics: all the alternative things - like waveguides - which were tried turned out rather crappy)

There are some attempts at making smaller headsets (e.g.: some like Bigscreen are trying to be as light as an immersive VR can be) or less isolating (e.g.: stuff like Lynx has roughly similar optic to the AVP, but the mask is optional it's also usable with peripheral vision unblocked), but all these are still somewhat clunky, and still cost a lot due to manufacturing scale (compared to, e.g., Quest).
Note that they still cost a fraction of Apple's turd and also weight a lot less.

I just assumed that OnStar was being used to track drivers. It's promising to see that after lawsuits that they stopped selling the data to insurance companies, because as life gets more modern and connected, tracking seems inevitable. I'm cynical and I expect, after some lobbying, that the government will mandate sharing of location info.

I'd hope that as part of any settlement, that GM be forced to offer to completely disconnect and disable OnStar upon demand, AND...provide literature on how to do it for yourself for those DIY folks that really want to make sure it is dead in person.

Trump wants to keep armed the .00001% of nutjobs who own firearms and who are willing to be violent and use them to attempt to overthrow the government to keep Trump in power (You DID see the Capital riots, I assume? It was kinda covered in the news).

Yep, I saw them.

I saw a protest that got out of hand with a some of the people being violent.

That that were violent, should be charged, but I do have a problem with those that merely went inside (especially those that video shows the cops LET in and welcomed in)...at worst they should have only gotten misdemeanor trespassing.

But back to your quote...are you seriously calling the riot an "armed insurrection"? If so, that was the WORST armed insurrection I have ever seen...especially given the number of guns we have in the hands of the people in this country.

And as for Trump...did you miss the parts of his speech telling folks to to peacefully protest?

No, maybe not...the mainstream news seems to conveniently leave that part out.

The only person shot there that day was a protesting lady by a Capitol guard....

I don't hold any delusions that Trump is much more than a narcissist....but, even so, I remember my life while he was president just before covid happened. Inflation was down, prices were reasonable, unemployment was down, and we weren't embroiled with wars all over the f'ing world.

He might not be the best person in the world, but things were running pretty well in spite of him you might say.

And given what we've seen with Biden...well, I'd vote for a small soap dish over that shell of a man....and even more scary for me, a vote for Biden is more than likely a vote for President Kamala, and that cackling bitch scares the fuck out of my more than any of them running.

Her in charge? Kiss the world goodbye....although the state of the union word salads would be amusing.

I was offered a job for pretty much a fortune in a country whose politics I disagree with and I declined. I'm sure someone else will get this job and consider me a moron for rejecting what's easy money.

Err...just out of curiosity, what country was this....and are they still taking resumes??

For how much again??

;)

All it would take is the U.N. declaring all of Israel to be a demilitarized zone, ordering the Israeli government and Hamas to both disarm, shooting anyone who refuses to comply, and then keeping those million or so troops in that region to help rebuild, slowly drawing down the number of troops over... say 200 years, so that by the time they are gone, no one alive still remembers the horrors of this day.

Look, while I admire your passion for what's happening over there, and your love for peace, your statement REALLY troubles me.

I mean, who the fuck is the UN to tell ANY sovereign power what to do, much less occupy any country?

I mean, the UN is a place for the world to talk, but they simply have no power nor jurisdiction to go into a country and force anyone to do shit....

I mean, let's move it to another country for an example....the UN has no power nor would they have any to come into the US with an armed force and demand us to do anything. I dont care what happens, they are not the world police and have no hold over any sovereign country.

The UN has no power nor authority to declare anything.

I'm curious where you got this idea that they did....?

And wow..that part where you have the UN "shooting anyone who refuses to comply"....

Seriously???

I have not bought or have been given a book in the last 15-20 years I enjoyed.

It doesn't matter to most people out there, sadly...

The two latest generations can't fucking read anyway...

And they didn't come upon this out of the blue...their parents apparently weren't all that literate and didn't teach their children to sit still, obey and have an attention span longer than a gnat.

>Disruptively protesting in the workplace is pretty much exactly what their cause demands in this scenario.

And firing employees who are disruptive to the workplace is exactly what is demanded in this scenario. That's what they're being fired for, not for protesting. They can protest all they want off-hours, away from the workplace.

The way they speak you can't understand a word they are saying, either.

Well, in all fairness...it wasn't always this way.

Before we started getting overrun by illegal immigrants over the boarder there you could count on most people being able to speak English to you.

Like the Fascist Orange man

I'm guessing you're talking about Trump?

A fascist??

You're calling a guy who cut citizens' taxes and allowed/helped them keep their 2A rights (guns) a fascists?

Wow...he's gotta be the worst one in the world at it...or perhaps he got the wrong dictionary definition of fascist.

At least by historical standards.

I still pay about $2500 a month

Wow....

Ok, I was about to ask how f'ing big is your house...but saw further down that it's about 3K square feet. Large, but not a mansion really.

Ok, a pool..etc.

But even with all that....$2500 a month for power???

Damn it must be expensive out there.

I live in New Orleans....where basically the AC clicks on in April and doesn't shut off till about the first week or so in November, and no I'm not exaggerating.

I do leveled billing, I don't turn off computers, or anything really to conserve power....I live in about 2000 sq ft I believe....and my bills monthly are in the $180 range...sometimes into the low $200's....

Again, I do not do anything to try to conserve energy....so, I'm guessing you either have an outrageous power draw somewhere, or it's just too damned expensive where you live for electricity...?

And you're saying that $2500/mo is even after you have solar running a lot of things?

wow...

A week or two of really hot weather during the summer is not a problem and you wouldn't install an AC just for that.

I would.

I'd at least have a few window units around for when I needed them....much like they do in older US homes built before central AC was a thing.