Apple Vision Pro Launch Date Announced, New Vision Pro Details, What About Vision Pro Demos?
There is Vision Pro news to go over. We begin with Neil’s thoughts on Apple’s Vision Pro launch date. The discussion then goes over several new details disclosed about the device. We conclude with a look at Vision Pro demos at Apple Stores.
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Apple Demos More Vision Pro Spatial Videos, 3D Movie Icon Appears on Apple TV, Humane Ai Pin vs. Spatial Photos/Videos
Hello everyone. Welcome to a new week. We do have a few CY3Q23 earnings reports to go over. However, today’s update will take a spin through Vision Pro land.
Apple Demos More Vision Pro Spatial Videos
Over at Daring Fireball, here’s John Gruber:
“Yesterday Apple released developer beta 2 of iOS 17.2, the first version of iOS to include support for capturing spatial video with iPhone 15 Pro models. Today came the public beta, enabling the same feature. Apple invited me to New York yesterday, not merely to preview capturing spatial video using an iPhone, but to experience watching those spatial videos using a Vision Pro.
The experience was, like my first Vision Pro demo back at WWDC in June, astonishing…
My demo yesterday was expressly limited to photography in general, and spatial video in particular, and so my demo was, per Apple’s request, limited to the Photos app in VisionOS. It was tempting, at times, to see where else I could go and what else I could do. But there was so much to see and do in Photos alone that my demo — about 30 minutes in total wearing Vision Pro — raced by.”
The full post made for an interesting read, especially if you want the details regarding how Apple is implementing spatial videos via iPhone 15 Pro. For example, the iPhone 15 Pro needs to be held horizontally “to put the two capturing lenses on the same plane. The iPhone uses the main (1×) and ultra wide (0.5×) lenses for capture when shooting spatial video, and in fact, Apple changed the arrangement of the three lenses on the iPhone 15 Pro in part to support this feature.”
When Apple announced this past September that the iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max would be able to capture spatial video, my assumption was that iPhone videos
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Amazon Prime Video to Include Advertising, Apple TV+ and Advertising, Thursday Q&A
Happy Thursday. We will begin in paid streaming land and conclude with the latest installment of Thursday Q&A.
Let's jump right in.
Amazon Prime Video to Include Advertising
“Viewers of landmark series on Amazon Prime Video like ‘The Boys’ or ‘The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’ will soon be offered something never made available on the service before: TV commercials.
Amazon Prime Video, one of the last mainstream streaming services to eschew the injection of regular commercial breaks into its movies and shows, plans to start letting them run early next year. Amazon follows a host of other streaming hubs — including Disney+, Netflix, and Warner Bros. Discovery’s Max– that also offer ad-supported tiers, a move that suggests the world of streaming may just eventually mirror the world of traditional television in the not-too-distant future
‘The TV industry has really never been able to truly control itself when it comes to aggressive monetization,’ says Tim Hanlon, CEO of Vertere Group, a media-industry consultancy.
The company says it plans to run fewer ads on Amazon Prime Video than traditional broadcasters or broadband rivals. Four minutes per hour seems to be a benchmark for the lowest amount of ad time on a streaming platform. Commercials will first appear the U.S., U.K., Germany, and Canada in early 2024, followed by France, Italy, Spain, Mexico, and Australia later in the year. Those who want to keep Amazon Prime Video ad-free can still do so — for an additional $2.99 per month in the U.S. on top of the annual subscription to Amazon’s overall Prime service.”
There was a feeling in the air that this development was inevitable, especially given Amazon's focus on ramping up paid subscription revenue. According to Amazon, ads are being introduced on Prime Video “[t]o continue investing in compelling content and keep increasing that investment over a long period of time…”
In what has become something of a trademark in paid streaming, the addition of advertising is typically accompanied by a price increase for those who don’t want ads. In Amazon’s case, the $3/month add-on amounts to a 33% price increase to the standalone price for Prime Video.
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