Ask HN: How can Apple reduce the weight of Vision Pro?
Given the amount of hardware involved and battery pack already separate, how can Apple make a meaningful difference in the weight of this device other than switching to cheaper materials or moving anything that isn't a sensor to the battery-hip-pack?
Genuinely curious if large weight reductions are feasible going forward, of if this is just a wishful talking point. It is not the weight but how the weight is distributed. The Meta Quest 3 with the original strap causes uncomfortable pressure in my face if I wear it for more than 30 minutes but I can use it for 5+ hours a day with the Elite strap. See https://kguttag.com/2024/01/24/ces-pt-2-sony-xr-digilens-vuz... XReal has some very good displays which "look like Ray Bans" and are pretty affordable that lean heavily on the "headset with a tail" idea insofar as you might just plug one into a Blu Ray player or Nintendo Switch. If you want spatial computing they have something you can plug in for that which is Android based like the Meta Quest. Personally I don't like the tail because it can get in the way. You can play fitness games (Supernatural, Beat Saber) on the MQ3 where you move around vigorously in a small space (my VR lab is half of a spare bedroom with a lot of bookshelves when I push the couch all the way to the back) and I think if you had a big enough space you could play full-scale tennis or receive NFL passes. Last night I put this https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/m2020-zcam-bettys-rock-sol-4... Mars rock in my living room with WebXR and I crawled down on the floor to look up at it. My son dodged bullets in the game Superhot VR by fancy slithering all over the "VR lab". It would be awkward enough to unstow and stow an AVP on an airplane seat, who needs another cable to get tangled? I've tried a bunch of headsets/straps... and this is just me, but I could not possibly imagine using any for 5+ hours. I am curious about Visor from Immersed (at least once it's a real thing that people can try). After 5 hours isn't that a relief to remove? The AVP pitch is really one that is more integrated into your life/work... and I think as a first gen they can make a pretty good case for it. But I cannot get over the weight and suspect that it's really going to be the impediment to any sort of real societal adoption. Or maybe 15 years on we'll all have veiny muscle-necks. Leave off or reduce the housing, the metal clips, the plastics around the wires within die VP and use a rubber belt for the head strip fastening. anyway, the plastics around the wires that are within is not needed. It should be possible to leave it off, because opening of the devices is not a feature and shorts are then not the thing to be afraid off.. Other things like design of the interior, like fastening the lenses or distance holders, nose bump.. here an extreme reduction is may not be possible, but utilizing grids joins and locks and using porous plastics may also have a reduction. The other thing is,why reduce at all? The problem is, it's to heavy in the front. so pull it back to achieve equilibrium xD From my perspective (having tried headsets since DK1) the weight is the pivotal barrier that prevents mass adoption. I have never found any combination of strap/headset that I'd want to wear as an all-day or even half-day device. I wonder how much weight could conceivably even be reduced. I look forward to someone doing a teardown in the future. But hey - maybe this is finally my old-man moment in tech? Aaand your prayers are heard: