The Metaverse is back!

I got the Apple Vision Pro.

I know you're curious, so I thought it warranted a special edition of a Futureproof Project newsletter.

Here are my first impressions.

1. Immersive Video is shockingly amazing.

I just spent a half hour in the studio with Alicia Keys. How do I say this? I feel like we know each other. There were a few moments when she broke the 4th wall... I felt like we were genuinely making eye contact. Like, if I bumped into her in a coffee shop and she didn't say hello, my feelings would be hurt because we just hung out.

In their immersive show, Adventure, my breath was taken away. You can't imagine what it would be like to walk a tightrope over a 3,000 foot ravine? Now you can. From the moment this show starts and your entire field of view is filled with a video and this incredible athlete's face is as close to you as if you were on the barstools next to each other—it looks real!

Not all videos or experiences on the Apple Vision Pro are immersive. Most are on a rectangular screen. Being in immersive mode definitely cuts you off from the world around you. But turn one of those on, put in your AirPods, and get ready to have your mind blown.

2. The entertainment possibilities are insane.

They have a demo called Experience Dinosaurs that is insane that probably be one of the first things you'll check out when you put on a headset for the first time. They walk right up to you. They SEE you. They react to your movements.?You can practically feel their breath on you. If you imagine the difference between 3D movies when Jaws 3D came?out?in the 80s to what you see in theaters today... It feels that big an evolutionary step forward.

Even "regular 3D" is fantastic. I bought Spiderman: Across the Spider-Verse and it is insane.

Entertainment is amazing, but watching stuff is a social activity and I definitely feel detached from the people around me when I watch videos on it. However, if I'm just wearing it, I can still see people in the room with me. There are just boxes floating around for the apps I have open.

3. Navigate with your eyeballs.

With Apple Vision, you navigate by just looking at something and pinching your fingers to "click." It uses eye tracking to see what you're looking at and then it has cameras in it that see your fingers tapping. Or it uses magic. I'm not sure which. Either way, brilliant wizards made this happen.

It doesn't work perfect all the time. Sometimes links at the very top of the screen are hard to focus on. Typing on the Vision is akin to typing with one finger, or when you have to type in your password on Netflix one letter at a time using the remote control. That is a challenge when it comes to getting work done. I haven't tried connecting my wireless keyboard and mouse yet, but plan to do that. It will be necessary to really get work done.

Siri works great though. I think I will wind up using Siri way more for little things like opening apps and closing windows—things I never use it for on my laptop.

4. Reimagine e-commerce.

A few retailers like Lowe’s, Alo and Decathlon are already in Apple Vision. Most of them work simply like a floating 3D website. You browse, you select, you add to cart, you check out with Apple Pay by double tapping a button the top of your headset.

Lowe's Style Studio, however, is next level. They describe it as, "a breakthrough experience for the home improvement industry." It pretty much hits that bar. It puts you in immersive mode in a kitchen that you get to decorate. You can change out every element—cabinets, refrigerators, swap the flowers on the counter for a bowl of apples. This image from their website doesn't even do it justice—the fidelity is much higher.

I think we should create a Futureproof app to showcase our content!

5. Vision and iPad apps work here.

I’m still just starting to explore, but there are a relatively decent number of Vision apps available in the App Store. I downloaded Zoom and it works great for attending calls. Except one thing... Apple creates an avatar of you using your real face and my eyeballs always look upward. It's a bit weird.

You can also use iPad apps, so that’s pretty neat and dramatically expands the possibilities of what you can do.

6. Augmented living is pretty neat.

I really started to understand the potential for this when it was time to cook dinner.?I’d?look down and chop vegetables, and just lift my head and have three screens where I’m texting, watching the Warriors game, and reading a recipe on floating screens I positioned around the room. Is that what the future looks like?

7. The killer app?

I don’t know what the killer app is yet.

On my Apple Watch, for example, the three things I use that I “can’t live without” are the make-my-phone-ring button (I can’t find my phone a lot), the step tracker for exercise, and the August electric door lock opener app.

Although capturing memories might just be it. As I captured a video memory of my nine-month old golden retriever, Dipper, I immediately wished that I had this with me when he was a tiny puppy six months ago. Or when my kids were young.

When you think about how precious and fleeting moments like having a newborn, and watching you child (or puppy) grow are, the $3500 price tag to be able to revisit them suddenly seems like a bargain to me.

It's not perfect yet—it does not like low light situations. You have to keep your head still when you're capturing video which is harder to do than you'd imagine.

I still haven't fully grasped the concept of being able to share memories as you experienced them with someone else.

9. Outsmarting my cat.

My cat, Satchmo, can’t worn his way in between me and my screen like he does with my laptop in the couch. I’ve finally outsmarted him!

Apple Vision is going to change things.

When the iPhone first came out, not everybody had one. Some people thought it was too expensive. Some PC people thought it was just for Mac users. Some just didn't get how essential a smart-phone would become in their lives.

Apple Vision is more expensive. It carries some baggage from other VR experiences from other companies that weren't all that great. They look like you're wearing a big set of ski googles with a wire to a battery you have to shlep around. But of course, the price will come down. The physical footprint will get smaller and smaller in future versions. Battery life will only get better.

So, you'll eventually have this technology in your life. And it's going to be amazing.

-- Adam Kleinberg

A few spots still available for dinner in San Francisco Thursday...

The Futureproof Project will continue its dinner series this Thursday night with Shiv Singh , author, CMO and board member. His Savvy AI newsletter is one of the best sources of insight on the rapidly changing AI landscape. We have just a couple of seats available, so if you're a senior brand leader and would like to join us, drop us a line at [email protected].