Recreating a 90s Screen Saver (Flying Toasters) for the Vision Pro

Re:Recreating a 90s Screen Saver (Flying Toasters) for the V... by eddieroger on Tuesday April 02, 2024 @03:27PM (#39909868)

I agree that the iPod was adopted faster, but that definitely wasn't version 1, and the early versions were heavily mocked before they were adopted. It was too expensive, it was Mac only, it used FireWire, which was not widely available, things like that. Not the challenges that the Vision Pro (and VR) will face, but still challenges. Apple figured out how to get Windows support, then how to shrink the form factor when it made sense. I imagine they'll do that again.

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Re:Recreating a 90s Screen Saver (Flying Toasters) for the V... by threeseed on Tuesday April 02, 2024 @04:15PM (#39910394)

I knew a lot of people who bought the original iPod.

And every single one justified it with it being a high-quality 5GB hard drive that just happened to play music.

It definitely wasn’t this breakout music player hit.

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Re:Recreating a 90s Screen Saver (Flying Toasters) for the V... by Alupis on Tuesday April 02, 2024 @06:45PM (#39911662)

People who spent the money on a Vision Pro are the most likely people to try to convince others it's some amazing future device...

VR has been around for years and years, and still has not become mainstream. The core issues remain, and Apple did nothing to resolve them - nor do I suspect they are capable of resolving them.

Untold fortunes have been thrown down the VR rabbit hole by some of the most heavily invested companies, and still today it's a mediocre experience after the novelty wears off.

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Re:Recreating a 90s Screen Saver (Flying Toasters) for the V... by oivey on Wednesday April 03, 2024 @02:07AM (#39914136)

Have you tried it? The claim that they haven’t fixed any of the core issues is legitimately strange.

The screens inside as a significant jump in image quality, to the point that for a single TV/movie watcher, the Vision Pro is probably going to be the best device for that media. As the price comes down and the inevitable screen sharing becomes possible, it will be the best for multiple people, too.

Eye tracking and pinch to click is also a big jump in usability. That, along with the excellent pass through, makes it way more comfortable to use in public.

There are a lot of features that will make it better in the future, like less weight, even better screens, better battery life, etc., but to claim Apple didn’t fix any core problems with the current device is uninformed.

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Re:Recreating a 90s Screen Saver (Flying Toasters) for the V... by voidUpdate on Wednesday April 03, 2024 @04:08AM (#39914747)

At my work, I've had the opportunity to work with several headsets of different flavours, and eye tracking and pinch to click is not an Apple innovation. It was definitely in the Quest Pro, and possibly some others (its been a while since I worked in that department). When I first got to mess with it, I very quickly knocked up a demo of a huge pair of eyes looking at you that matched the rotation of your actual eyes, which is a surprisingly creepy effect

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Re:Recreating a 90s Screen Saver (Flying Toasters) for the V... by Alupis on Wednesday April 03, 2024 @07:35PM (#39924741)

Yes, it's strange hearing Vision Pro proponents claim it's miles better than the competition. It's like they haven't actually used the competition...

And no, Apple has not solved the main issues with VR. Motion sickness, and clumsiness of having a weight hang off the front of your face.

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Re:Recreating a 90s Screen Saver (Flying Toasters) for the V... by voidUpdate on Friday April 05, 2024 @03:28AM (#39939605)

I can't comment on whether the quality of the features (display, interaction, tracking etc) are any better than the competitors, but the existence of those features is not innovative in itself. They're an iteration, and from what I hear, not necessarily a large one

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Re:Recreating a 90s Screen Saver (Flying Toasters) for the V... by mattl on Tuesday April 02, 2024 @04:03PM (#39910264)

FireWire was very widely available on Macs of the era, which is why it made sense amongst other things. (USB 1.1 is very slow, FireWire could also provide power, Apple invented FireWire)

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Re:Recreating a 90s Screen Saver (Flying Toasters) for the V... by FabHK on Tuesday April 02, 2024 @09:32PM (#39912708)

Also worth noting: when the iPod came out, iTunes had been around for a while. Many people had a decent music library on the Mac (from ripping CDs or Napster), and with the iPod, you just plugged it in, and within minutes you had the entire library in your pocket to go, including metadata (playlists, play counts, etc.).

It was pretty convenient, and very well executed.

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Re:Recreating a 90s Screen Saver (Flying Toasters) for the V... by mattl on Tuesday April 02, 2024 @11:16PM (#39913273)

My Mac keyboard had broken the day I got my iPod. I was able to dock my iPod, sync up my huge collection of music in a few minutes and then head out with my new iPod to buy a cheap replacement keyboard.

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Re:Recreating a 90s Screen Saver (Flying Toasters) for the V... by sandspar on Thursday April 04, 2024 @03:07AM (#39927406)

That's a great story! Very "modern living".

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Re:Recreating a 90s Screen Saver (Flying Toasters) for the V... by eddieroger on Wednesday April 03, 2024 @08:38AM (#39916656)

iTunes had been around for a while if you consider SoundJam MP as part of the iTunes legacy. It memory and a quick Google search serve, iTunes was about a year and a half old when the iPod came out. I guess that's old for CD-distribution days.

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Re:Recreating a 90s Screen Saver (Flying Toasters) for the V... by goosedragons on Wednesday April 03, 2024 @10:59AM (#39918364)

Yeah but Macs were pretty close to the bottom of their popularity in 2001 and Firewire was near non-existant on PC. It was really only a high-end PC thing or maybe an add-on for those FW capable camcorders. When the iPod launched USB 2.0 was already out, available on okayish PCs (not Macs yet though) and was pretty much fast enough as was seen with later USB 2.0 capable iPods.

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Re:Recreating a 90s Screen Saver (Flying Toasters) for the V... by devilbunny on Wednesday April 03, 2024 @05:22PM (#39923343)

The best part about FireWire (from the perspective of someone who never actually used it) was that it was very tolerant of uneven voltages; thus, all iPods that could use it (which went at least through the first Nanos) had very, very inexpensive car power adapters - they could just use the "12V" that's really more like 13.4 V. No real circuitry inside, just a cord to plug into the iPod.

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Re:Recreating a 90s Screen Saver (Flying Toasters) for the V... by joshstrange on Wednesday April 03, 2024 @09:41AM (#39917348)

> I agree that the iPod was adopted faster, but that definitely wasn't version 1, and the early versions were heavily mocked before they were adopted.

"No Wireless. Less Space than a Nomad. Lame." [0]

[0] https://slashdot.org/story/01/10/23/1816257/apple-releases-i...

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Re:Recreating a 90s Screen Saver (Flying Toasters) for the V... by sandspar on Thursday April 04, 2024 @03:04AM (#39927390)

The iPod weighed a pound and fit in your pocket. The Vision Pro is worn on your face and covers your eyes. Humans are one of the species of animal that hates things covering their faces and eyes.

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