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adminSeeing is believing? — What I learned from the Apple Stores 30-minute Vision Pro demo Despite some awe-inspiring moments, the $3,500 headset is a big lift for retail.
Kyle Orland – Feb 7, 2024 9:46 pm UTC Enlarge / These mounted displays near the entrance let visitors touch, but not use, a Vision Pro.Kyle Orland reader comments 310
For decades now, potential Apple customers have been able to wander in to any Apple Store and get some instant eyes-on and hands-on experience with most of the company’s products. The Apple Vision Pro is an exception to this simple process; the “mixed-reality curious” need to book aheadfor a guided, half-hour Vision Pro experience led by an Apple Store employee.
Further ReadingVirtual realitys time to shine: Hands-on with the Oculus RiftAs a long-time veteran of both trade show and retail virtual-reality demos, I was interested to see how Apple would sell the concept of “spatial computing” to members of the public, many of whom have minimal experience with existing VR systems. And as someone who’s been following news and hands-on reports of the Vision Pro’s unique features for months now, I was eager to get a brief glimpse into what all the fuss was about without plunking down at least $3,499 for a unit of my own.
After going through the guided Vision Pro demo at a nearby Apple Store this week, I came away with mixed feelings about how Apple is positioning its new computer interface to the public. While the short demo contained some definite “oh, wow” moments, the device didn’t come with a cohesive story pitching it as Apple’s next big general-use computing platform.
Editor’s Note: This article precedes a series of of in-depth looks at the Apple Vision Pro. We started with the Apple Store experience because that’s where most people will experience it first. Over the coming days, Samuel Axon will be covering long term usage and experience with the device, as he has spent more than a week living and working in the Vision Pro. Stay tuned. Setup snafus
After arriving a few minutes early for my morning appointment in a sparsely attended Apple Store, I was told to wait by a display of Vision Pro units set on a table near the front. These headsets were secured tightly to their stands, meaning I couldn’t try a unit on or even hold it in my hands while I waited. But I could fondle the Vision Pro’s various buttons and straps while getting a closer look at the hardware (and at a few promotional videos running on nearby iPads). Two Vision Pro headsets let you see it from multiple angles at once. Kyle Orland Nearby iPads let you scroll through videos and information about the Vision Pro. Kyle Orland The outward-facing display is very subtle in person. Kyle Orland Without an appointment you can feel the headstrap with your hands but not with your skull. Kyle Orland To Apple’s credit, it did not even try to hide the external battery in these store displays. Kyle Orland
After a few minutes, an Apple Store employee, who we’ll call Craig, walked over and said with genuine enthusiasm that he was “super excited” to show off the Vision Pro. He guided me to another table, where I sat in a low-backed swivel chair across from another customer who looked a little zoned out as he ran through his own Vision Pro demo. Advertisement
Craig told me that the Vision Pro was the first time Apple Store employees like him had gotten early hands-on access to a new Apple device well before the public, in order to facilitate the training needed to guide these in-store demos. He said that interest had been steady for the first few days of demos and that, after some initial problems, the store now mostly managed to stay on schedule.
Unfortunately, some of those demo kinks were still present. First, Craig had trouble tracking down the dedicated iPhone used to scan my face and determine the precise Vision Pro light seal fit for my head. After consulting with a fellow employee, they decided to have me download the Apple Store app and use a QR code to reach the face-scanning tool on my own iPhone. (I was a bit surprised this fit scanning hadn’t been offered as part of the process when I signed up for my appointment days earlier.)
It took three full attempts, scanning my face from four angles, before the app managed to spit out the code that Craig needed to send my fit information to the back room. Craig told me that the store had 38 different light seals and 900 corrective lens options sitting back there, ready to be swapped in to ensure maximum comfort for each specific demo. Sorry, I think I ordered the edamame… Kyle Orland Shhh… the Vision Pro is napping.
After a short wait, another employee brought my demo unit out on a round wooden platter that made me feel like I was at a Japanese restaurant. The platter was artistically arranged, from the Solo Knit Band and fuzzy front cover to the gently coiled cord leading to the battery pack sitting in the center. (I never even touched or really noticed the battery pack for the rest of the demo.)
At this point, Craig told me that he would be able to see everything I saw in the Vision Pro, which would stream directly to his iPad. Unfortunately, getting that wireless connection to work took a good five minutes of tapping and tinkering, including removing the Vision Pro’s external battery cord several times.
Once everything was set, Craig gave me a brief primer on the glances and thumb/forefinger taps I would use to select, move, and zoom in on things in the VisionOS interface. “You’re gonna pretend like you’re pulling on a piece of string and then releasing,” he said by way of analogy. “The faster you go, the faster it will scroll, so be mindfl of that. Nice and gentle, nice and easy, and things will go smoothly for you.” Advertisement
Fifteen minutes after my appointed start time, I was finally ready to don the Vision Pro. A scripted experience
After putting the headset on, my first impression was how heavy and pinchy the Vision Pro was on the bridge of my nose. Thankfully, Craig quickly explained how to tighten the fit with a dial behind my right ear, which helped immediately and immensely. After that, it only took a minute or two to run through some quick calibration of the impressively snappy eye and hand tracking. (“Keep your head nice and still as you do this,” Craig warned me during the process.) Enlarge / Imagine this but with an Apple Store in the background.Kyle Orland
As we dove into the demo proper, it quickly became clear that Craig was reading from a prepared script on his iPhone. This was a bit disappointing, as the genuine enthusiasm he had shown in our earlier, informal chat gave way to a dry monotone when delivering obvious marketing lines. “With Apple Vision Pro, you can experience your entire photo library in a brand new way,” he droned. “Right here, we have some beautiful shots, right from iPhone.”
Craig soldiered through the script as I glanced at a few prepared photos and panoramas. “Here we have a beautiful panorama, but we’re going to experience it in a whole new way… as if you were in the exact spot in which it was taken,” Craig said. Then we switched to some spatial photos and videos of a happy family celebrating a birthday and blowing bubbles in the backyard. The actors in the video felt a little stilted, but the sense of three-dimensional “presence” in the high-fidelity video was impressive.
After that, Craig informed me that “with spatial computing, your apps can exist anywhere in your space.” He asked me to turn the digital crown to replace my view of the store around me with a virtual environment of mountains bathed in cool blue twilight. Craig’s script seemed tuned for newcomers who might be freaked out by not seeing the “real world” anymore. “Remember, you’re always in control,” Craig assured me. “You can change it at any time.”
From inside the environment, Craig’s disembodied voice guided me as I opened a few flat app windows, placing them around my space and resizing them as I liked. Rather than letting these sell themselves, though, Craig pointed out how webpages are “super beautiful [and] easy to navigate” on Vision Pro. “As you can also see… text is super sharp, super easy to read. The pictures on the website look stunning.” Craig also really wanted me to know that “over one million iPhone/iPad apps” will work like this on the Vision Pro on day one. Page: 1 2 Next → reader comments 310 Kyle Orland Kyle Orland has been the Senior Gaming Editor at Ars Technica since 2012, writing primarily about the business, tech, and culture behind video games. He has journalism and computer science degrees from University of Maryland. He once wrote a whole book about Minesweeper. Advertisement Promoted Comments rmohns And this is why you shouldn’t expect non-actors to work from a script. No matter how enthusiastic someone is, put a script in front of them and they lose all spontaneity and joy.
I’m a little disappointed in Apple that they expect their employees to read a script. Checklist of features to show, sure, why not but dialogue? For a company that prides itself on the user experience and human factors, that’s a big thing to miss. February 7, 2024 at 10:07 pm lithven My one thought on this is the demos, per design, are always better than reality. Specifically I’m saying this with regard to the 180 deg 8k video that you indicated was the highlight for you. When such things are generated for a demo like this they are designed to show capability of the device not necessarily be a realistic representation of what other media will look like in the same device. If you’re demoing a piece of equipment you can tune everything from the motion to avoid blur, to the color of the video for the displays used, to the amount of contrast in the scene.
Not to tear the company or device down, everyone with any sort of demo does the same thing, I just find it interesting that the one thing you spoke most highly of would be the thing I would take with the largest grain of salt. February 7, 2024 at 10:11 pm TimeWinder I’m left finished the article still not sure what the Apple Vision actually brings.Having been using one fairly regularly now for a few days — software.
I DO NOT mean apps; if you asked me "Why shouldn’t I buy a Vision Pro right now?", my first answer would be "Apple and Unity managed to catastrophically bungle the availability of software at launch." There may actually be "more than 600 apps available at launch," but it sure doesn’t look that way while browsing the single-page (and sometimes single-item) App Store categories. A lot of it’s repetitive: every sport/entertainment company/niche apparently feels the need to have its own custom cinema app even though they’re all basically the same. And a lot of it’s just dumb; there’s a "game" in there that’s just a ball bouncing in AR space. So lack of software would come first on my list of negatives right now; ahead of cost, comfort, the possibility it might mess up your hair or eyebrows, and apparently the lack of porn.
That software selection will improve, but Apple’s tools are new, a little buggy, and abstracted to the point of being extremely hard to learn, even for existing iOS devs. Unity’s are new, a lot buggy, and inaccessible to most of the hobby/indie devs that make up the bulk of Apple platform developers because of the $2000/person/year barrier of entry. So I think it’s going to be slow, and "I’ll wait until there are actually a decent amount of apps to buy" seems a quite reasonable position for someone to take.
But it’s hard to complain about visionOS itself. A lot of the hyperbolic statements in the demo aren’t actually all that hyperbolic. Things are clearer, sharper, and easier to read than any AR/VR system I’ve ever used–even ones with "on paper" better specs–and I’ve used many of them. Most of the extensive set of "flat" iPad apps actually work well, and can "cover" a bit for not having a decent software selection; being able to scatter them around you in space makes for an upgraded experience even though they’re not actually any better than their on-tablet forms.
A lot of folks (including me) complained about the eye tracking and gestures being uncomfortable. That lasts about two days; at this point interating with this thing is completely natural, fast, and easy. As with the iPhone and the Apple Watch, there are some new metaphors that you need to learn, and some old ones that you can’t do. Your eyes aren’t a mouse, and a lot of that early adjustment is learning that. It does some things better and some things worse, but on the balance, it’s an Apple product: it’s designed for what it is, and it’s good at it. I’m flinging things about with wild abandon at this point; I look like one of those Hollywood hackers with a half dozen windows appearing and disappearing in a flash onscreen.
[Edit: Hint to new users: Move your eyes, NOT your head. It feels wrong at first, but not actually moving your neck muscles (or not as much) dramatically improves the comfort and wear-duration of the headset.]
There’s a lot of whining about not having controllers, but for most day to day non-game stuff you don’t need them, and not having those extra parts around (with their separate batteries, usually) is a win. For games, it supports any bluetooth gamepad that works in iOS just fine (effectively all of them); although there are a few rough edges in that, still — Steam Link, for example, can’t see my controller, even though it works fine in the app on iPad, and works fine in every other app on the Vision Pro. No idea.
The Mac Virtual screen is either wonderful (if the virtual screen is better than your real one(s)), or an OK gimmick (if not). It has some annoying quirks, but works well enough for actual use at full resolution and any reasonable size. As a dev; I’ve been using it to avoid having to take the headset off and on while testing VP apps. It’s a tradeoff — I gain the ability to transition between device and code trivally, but I lose the multi-monitor setup that I use when developing flatter apps. I’m hoping for some improvement here, but it’s enough for now.
Overall, I’d say that Apple released it a few months before the software environment could support it, and they made a massive mistake in trusting Unity (though I suppose they couldn’t have known at the time), but this is going to be a stable, well-liked platform sooner rather than later. There’s nothing broken here that can’t be fixed, and plenty that works well enough to use now. February 7, 2024 at 10:53 pm brlljotic7232 That script is so cheesy. If you’re gonna have people help demo the device, why have them talk to customers like cold machines? Is that really how they expect to sell their $3,500 device?
I think no human being has ever uttered the sequence of words "right from iPhone" outside of an Apple ad.Well, I’ll give credit to my Apple Store employee who ran my demo this past Saturday here in NYC he was really smooth and not reading from a script. And didn’t read any of those corny lines. But I was forthright with him, I told him from the start that I was unlikely to purchase a first-generation model of anything, especially something so different and which I very well might not find much use for after the sense of novelty passes.
I also asked plenty of questions about Airplaying my laptop screen to the AVP to use it as a large movable monitor. They did not have a demo module set up for that, which I agree is an oversightbut they probably are promoting the aspects which they believe will be the most popular with the largest number of people.
I don’t know whether I could (honestly) wear this or any headset for 8 hours to work from my laptop or desktop.
I will say that the entertainment aspect is stunning. I didn’t expect the verisimilitude and real sense of depth and height which the spatial video (360 degree) allowed. I actually felt a sense of ‘movement’ as if I were flying over a broad river in one of the spatial video landscape scenarios. My body responded as if I were moving.
Oh – and the audio is great, even without airpods/pro. Very nice.
I’ll be interested to see whatever short films or music videos people may create expressly for the AVP. There was a clip of Alicia Keys singing up close and filmed in spatial, and there was almost the sense that I was actually in front of her in that lounge.
But, I’m not going to drop $3.5K + tax on something even as fascinating as this. I think the device has great potential as a platform and as an entertainment device, but I don’t know that I would actually want to use it very much until it is lighter. February 8, 2024 at 7:16 am Channel Ars Technica ← Previous story Next story → Related Stories Today on Ars

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US
Woman missing for more than 60 years found ‘alive and well’
Published
1 hour agoon
May 4, 2025By
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A woman in the US who has been missing since 1962 has been found “alive and well”, authorities have said.
Audrey Backeberg left her home in Reedsburg, Wisconsin, in July that year when she was 20 years old, Sauk County Sheriff’s Office said.
Investigators pursued numerous leads over the years but the case eventually went cold.
However, during a review of cold cases earlier this year, a detective reassessed all the case files and evidence, and re-interviewed several witnesses – and found Ms Backeberg.
The 82-year-old was “alive and well” – living outside of the state of Wisconsin, the sheriff’s office said.
Ms Backeberg was married and had two children when she disappeared on 7 July 1962, according to the Wisconsin Missing Persons Advocacy organisation.
She left her home to pick up her salary but never returned, causing her husband to ask family members where she was.
Shortly afterwards their 14-year-old babysitter claimed she and Ms Backeberg had hitchhiked to Wisconsin’s capital city Madison and then caught a bus to Indianapolis, Indiana.
The teenager said when she arrived she became nervous and wanted to go home, while Ms Backeberg refused to return and was last seen walking near a bus stop.
Ms Backeberg’s marriage was troubled and there were allegations of abuse, the Wisconsin Missing Persons Advocacy organisation said, with a criminal complaint having been filed days before she went missing.
Her relatives insisted she would never abandon her children, the organisation added, and her husband passed a polygraph test and maintained his innocence.
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‘We talked for 45 minutes’ – detective
Detective Isaac Hanson, who found Ms Backeberg, said her sister’s Ancestry.com account was vital in helping him locate her address.
“That was pretty key in locating death records, census reports, all kinds of data,” he told local news station WISN.
“So I called the local sheriff’s department, said, ‘Hey, there’s this lady living at this address. Do you guys have somebody, you can just go pop in?’
“Ten minutes later, she called me, and we talked for 45 minutes.”

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‘She sounded happy’
Mr Hanson said Ms Backeberg may have left home due to marital issues, but it was unclear why she had stayed away for so long.
He said he had promised to keep their conversation private.
“I think she just was removed and, you know, moved on from things and kind of did her own thing and led her life,” he said.
“She sounded happy. Confident in her decision. No regrets.”
Sauk County Sheriff’s Office said Ms Backeberg made the choice to leave and her disappearance “was not the result of any criminal activity or foul play”.
Sports
Jets-Blues Game 7 preview: Key players to watch, final score predictions
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1 hour agoon
May 4, 2025By
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May 4, 2025, 07:00 AM ET
It all comes down to this. The Presidents’ Trophy-winning Winnipeg Jets host the St. Louis Blues in the 200th Game 7 in Stanley Cup playoffs history Sunday (7 p.m. ET, TBS).
One team will advance to the second round, while the other will get an early start to the offseason — and try to fix what went wrong.
For the Blues, this is the club’s 19th all-time Game 7, the most of any non-Original Six team. They have gone 10-8 in Games 7s, with the most recent one being the 2019 Stanley Cup Final against the Boston Bruins, which they won 4-1.
This version of the Jets has much less Game 7 history on which to draw; their only Game 7 was a second-round victory over the Nashville Predators in 2018.
Who wins this one? We’ve gathered the ESPN hockey family to identify the key players to watch in the contest — as well as their final score predictions.
Who is the one key player you’ll be watching in Jets-Blues?
Ryan S. Clark, NHL reporter: If he plays, it’s Mark Scheifele. The hit in Game 5 from Brayden Schenn and/or Radek Faksa generated quite a bit of conversation about what is arguably the most physically demanding series in the first round. Scheifele’s play this season and this series prior to the hit reinforces what makes him a legit top-line center in this league. We saw how the Jets maneuvered around his absence for the final two periods of Game 5, while Game 6 proved why they need contributions from everyone if he can’t go.
But again, that’s if Scheifele plays. He skated Saturday in a tracksuit, with Scott Arniel saying the center will be a game-time decision Sunday.
Arda Öcal, NHL broadcaster: Connor Hellebuyck is the obvious answer here for me because he’s been “Vezina” at home (especially Game 2) and “Vezina from Temu” on the road.
Hellebuyck has allowed four or more goals in seven straight road playoff games, which ties the second longest such streak in Stanley Cup playoff history. But Game 7 is at home. The pressure is on but he’s in comfortable confines, surrounded by a “Whiteout.” Which version of Hellebuyck do we get Sunday night?
Kristen Shilton, NHL reporter: Connor Hellebuyck, of course. Has there been a Jekyll/Hyde performance like this in recent years?
The Vezina finalist can play lights-out at home and like a fish out of water on the road. Does that trend continue in Game 7? What version of the goalie shows up for this one?
But as a bonus, I’ll toss Pavel Buchnevich into this equation. He’s been driving the Blues’ offense, and if Hellebuyck is on his A-game then St. Louis is going to need Buchnevich to channel his hat trick energy from Game 3 to help the Blues pull off a stunning road win.
Greg Wyshynski, NHL reporter: Jordan Binnington renewed his title as one of the NHL’s most clutch goaltenders with his 31-save performance in Team Canada’s 4 Nations Face-Off championship win over the U.S. — including six saves in overtime. He first earned it in 2019, backstopping the Blues to the Stanley Cup with Game 7 wins over Dallas and Boston.
Now he’s got a chance to reestablish those credentials.
Binnington had a 0.82 goals-against average and a .968 save percentage in those prior Game 7s. While Hellebuyck has been terrible in St. Louis, Binnington hasn’t been much better in Winnipeg, generating an .861 save percentage and a 3.44 goals-against average and giving up four goals in two of the three games. But as 4 Nations showed, Binnington can meet the moment. (Although this time, Kyle Connor will actually be in the lineup for the opposition. Not that we’re bitter or anything.)
The final score will be _____.
Clark: 4-3 Jets. There have been a few themes in this series. The first being that offense hasn’t been an issue — the teams have combined to score more than six goals in all but one game. The second is that the home team has won every game; I say that continues, and the Jets advance.
Öcal: 6-5 Jets. Hellebyuck doesn’t have his best game, but the Jets outscore that challenge, and Kyle Connor scores another third-period goal in this series to win it.
Shilton: 5-4 Jets. The Jets have been too good on home ice to let this one slip away. That’s not to say a St. Louis win would be surprising, but even if Hellebuyck is off, Winnipeg’s offense should be able to provide enough buffer that the Jets can squeak through with a narrow victory to advance.
Wyshynski: 5-3 Jets. The Jets would be toast if this game were played in St. Louis because it’s a demonstrable fact that Hellebuyck is a disaster on the road in the playoffs. He’s slightly below replacement at home in the postseason, but Winnipeg will take that considering his three removals on the road.
The Blues are first in the playoffs in 5-on-5 offense and goals-for percentage at home. But Winnipeg is second in both categories. Hellebuyck calms down, and the offense gets ratcheted up at home, especially now that Nikolaj Ehlers has a game under his belt, having not played since April 12 due to a foot injury.
Environment
Meet Bodo – the 35 mph electric golf cart that thinks it’s a G-Wagen
Published
3 hours agoon
May 4, 2025By
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With a fully-enclosed, G-Wagen-inspired body and an 80 mile electric range, the Bodo G-Wagon golf cart is the NEV you need when you decide it’s time to get serous one-upping the rest of the Palm Beach country clubbers.
If you love the look of the $230,000 Mercedes-Benz G580 off-roader, but think the 579 hp, 6,800 lb. electric 4×4 is probably overkill for occasional trips to the golf course and country club, this G-Wagen-inspired golf cart might be just what you’re looking for.
The shiny black 2024 Bodo G-Wagon sold at Mecum Auctions last month for $31,900, which seems like it might not be a lot of money to the sort of person who decides to take a flyer on a goofy, limited-use EV that ships with real, metal doors, power windows, heating and air conditioning, fully digital instrument cluster and infotainment, and a “posh,” caramel leather interior.
It even has windshield wipers, power steering, and a rear-seat entertainment system that’s built into the front headrests!
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It’s really nice in there
Under the hood, the Bodo packs a 15 kW (20 hp) electric motor drawing power from a 10 kWh li-ion battery that won’t deliver a scorching 0-60 mph time (it only goes 35), but will deliver you and your buddies from one end of any golf course in North America and back several times over, thanks to the G-Wagon’s 80 mile range.
The official Mecum Auctions listing goes into a bit more detail, and I’ve included it here, in case it gets deleted after a while and you’re just finding this for the first time in 2027:
Be the envy of any country club or golf community showing up with this 2024 Bodo G-Wagon Golf Cart. Perhaps more appropriately known as an E-Wagon, this baby G-Wagon is powered by a 15kW motor with a 10kWh lithium battery. Boasting an 80-mile range and a 35 MPH top speed, the Bodo is an enclosed, luxury golf cart that pampers occupants with heating and air conditioning, rear-seat entertainment, power windows, power locks and a posh, caramel-colored interior. With the Bodo fitted with power steering and 4-wheel power disc brakes with brake boost, drivers will think they’re in a full-size G-Wagon, thanks to the multiscreen entertainment cluster, the rearview camera, windshield wipers, turn signals, running lights and so much more.
Finished in black with the right amount of brightwork, the overall vibe is one of jaw-dropping, smile-inducing fun. While the Bodo would be an excellent choice for any golf community, it should also prove to be hugely popular around a race track or car condo community as well, or maybe even a neighborhood with its own airplane runways. Over the past decade in particular, the demand for unique, luxury golf carts has been on the rise, and understandably so. The number of luxury communities with specific interests in sports, aero and auto has also been on the rise, with people buying homes in these exclusive locations to better engage with like-minded people. All too often a golf cart is the perfect way to get around these gated neighborhoods, and this one is enclosed, comes with the amenities of a full-size car and is infinitely more stylish.
You can check out a few more photos of the 2024 Bodo G-Wagon golf cart that sold at Mecum, below – and if you want one for yourself, you’re in luck! I found this brand-new 2025 “G600 E-Wagon” (in white) for $23,900 at Gulf Carts in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida. Head on down to the comments and let us know if you buy it.
G-Wagon golf cart gallery


SOURCE | LOTS MORE PHOTOS: Mecum Auctions.

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