Vision Pro? More Like Vision “No” (Bam! got 'em!)
Let’s talk about Apple’s latest headset, the Apple Vision Pro — the $3,500 flex that gave us a month of YouTubers bumping into lamp posts and looking like rejected Daft Punk extras in public.
And I’ll be honest: I’ve never seen a product from Apple miss the mark this hard. It’s a VR headset that doesn’t play VR games, an AR headset that can’t be worn outside, and a productivity device that promises 5 floating monitors when all we asked for was maybe one that doesn’t drift away every time we turn our head.
It’s sleek, it’s expensive, and it solves zero actual problems. I can’t remember the last time Apple launched something that was this technically impressive yet this emotionally empty.
And let me clarify: I’m not a tech executive, I don’t have a private jet, and I’ve never keynoted anything in my life. But I do have a very clear idea of what AR is actually for — and I’m telling you, it’s not floating FaceTime windows.
The Layer We’ve All Been Waiting For
Here’s the real pitch for AR: It’s the missing layer between the physical world and the internet. That's it.
Right now, we live in two parallel realities — the one we walk through, and the one we stare at on our screens. The goal of AR is to merge those. Not by replacing our world with a virtual cartoon — but by enhancing it with context.
If I’m walking through a neighborhood and want to know which houses are for sale, I shouldn’t have to go dig through four apps and five websites. I shouldn't even reach for my phone. With AR glasses, I just look around — and see.
If I want to find the closest Italian restaurant? I don’t want to unlock my phone, type “pasta,” and swipe past ads for Pizza Hut. I want to glance around and see a giant beacon directing me towards my destination.
The entire world is full of information we can’t see — but with AR, we can.
Street names painted on the sidewalk as you walk.
Crosswalks that glow green when it’s safe to go and red when it’s not.
Stray dogs that literally come with tooltips like “Friendly” or “Don’t Pet.”
Rain clouds you can see forming with countdown timers to your next soaking.
Trash bins, bus routes, WiFi signals, concert lines, public restrooms — if you can ask your phone for it, AR can just show you. Not by overwhelming us with pop-ups and flashing ads in our vision (nobody wants that dystopian Black Mirror nonsense), but by quietly giving us exactly what we need, when we need it.
That’s the revolution.
it’s not about showing everything all the time. It’s about showing only what you ask for, only when you ask for it. A guided, curated layer of reality that enhances what you're seeing, not replaces it.
And just like the iPhone unleashed an ecosystem of apps we couldn’t have dreamed of, AR glasses will do the same. Give this tech to the world and stand back. Someone’s going to build an app that changes everything — just like Uber, Instagram, or TikTok did — and it’ll feel inevitable in hindsight.
But First, Apple Needs to Stop Confusing AR With VR
So yes, Tim, invest in it. Invest hard. But please, before you ship another ski-goggles monstrosity and call it “reality,” take a second to understand what AR really is.
AR isn’t a toy. It’s not a productivity gimmick. It’s not a glorified Netflix helmet.
It’s a tool that lets us finally see the internet in our world, not just on a screen. It doesn’t isolate us — it enhances what’s already there. It’s subtle. Seamless. Quiet. Magical. You know… like the products Apple used to make.
That’s why Meta’s Ray-Ban glasses are winning hearts right now. They’re not there to impress tech nerds — they’re just useful. They do small things well. And even if they’re not full AR just yet, they get the assignment.
Apple can still lead this future. They have the resources. They have the design sense. They have the ecosystem. But they need to ditch the over-engineered showroom demos and start building something people actually want to wear.
We don’t need floating 3D keyboards and demos of our solar system in our living rooms. We just want to look up from our screens, we want to go back out to the world, only this time with a magical new layer on top of it.
