Vision Pro Content Can Be Mirrored to Mac, iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV Using AirPlay
Content that is displayed on the Apple Vision Pro display can be mirrored to an iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, or AirPlay-compatible smart TV using AirPlay, Apple confirmed today.
Apple's technical specifications page for the Vision Pro says that what's on your Vision Pro can be mirrored to any AirPlay-enabled device at up to 720p, which will allow you to show people what you're seeing on your headset.
iPhones and iPads were updated with the ability to receive content from the Vision Pro in iOS 17.2 and iPadOS 17.2, and to use the feature, the AirPlay Receiver toggle must be turned on under General > AirPlay & Handoff.
While the Vision Pro's display can be mirrored to an AirPlay device, the headset can also serve as a display for a Mac. With the Mac Virtual Display feature, AirPlay 2 connects the Vision Pro wirelessly to a Mac, and a virtual representation of the Mac's display can be placed anywhere in space. Used this way, the Vision Pro essentially serves as an enormous, portable 4K display, according to Apple.
Note: Apple's specifications page previously said that content could be AirPlayed at 1080p, but later updated it to say 720p.
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Top Rated Comments
However, if paired with a Mac (if throwing a Mac screen to Vpro), it certainly can. Look back at the example video from WWDC and look at the app they showed on that virtual big screen...
In that same video, they showed a few scenes of what appeared to be editing audio with Logic Pro... which is probably possible too either native or even more likely by air playing the Mac screen to it.
BOTH of those uses seem likely to be VERY DESIRABLE to on-the-go media editors, as the tiny 16" screen begs for lots of scrolling when doing that kind of work. If you can blow up the screen to huge size, maybe you can cut down the relative sizes of tracks so that you can get much more width on the super size screen but still see everything. If so, that will make on-the-go editing more efficient.
Does all that work? We can't know for sure... but we'll be able to find out with certainty in a few weeks when people can actually try such stuff... or even sooner if we get some direct confirmation between now and when people have access. We can be quite confident in air playing the Mac screen to a super-sized screen because beyond the demos, even the cheaper VR glasses can do that at much < 4K-per-eye resolution. Will the 4K in these make concepts like creating some extra wide layouts of these kinds of apps work well? TBD... but it seems a 4K view would HAVE to be better than a 1080p view.
And it's worth considering this simple 'reality': there must be SOME app to edit spatial videos shot on Vpro. With iMovie rumored to not be for Vpro, what else does Apple have for that task than FCPX? This makes me presume that FCPX for iPad (possibly with some adaptations for Vpro) will be a Vpro app... probably running on Vpro (vs. having to run on Mac and airplayed to Vpro). TBD, but something needs to be able to edit spatial video shot with Vpro cameras. If not FCPX, what else could it be?
Now that we're obviously beyond the "no one will buy" pessimism because there are tangible examples that more than none have purchased... the pessimists seem to be on other trains such as "This is ONLY for watching video/consumption." Obviously, it will offer a gigantic TV/movie screen one can summon when away from whatever they have anchored down at home... but I suspect it will also be a great, huge mobile computing monitor for Mac for tasks like editing media and other Mac apps that can benefit from bigger screen R.E. than the up to 16" one has with them. Mix in the ability to float other apps around that big screen and tasks where one also needs to see Safari, maybe mail & messages for collaborations, etc should approximate some multiple-monitor setups where productivity work will have some main project on one big monitor and then some supporting apps on another.
Again, does it all work like that? Besides the WWDC video, some of the new ones- like the new demo- clearly shows us a few seconds of throwing a Mac screen to it and sizing it huge. I HOPE the giant Mac screen is as clear in the actual Vpro as it looked in that marketing piece. I have seen some reviews of the cheapie VR options where there is praise for clarity of a Mac screen when viewing only 1080p lenses. So this is again where the big upgrade to 4K-per-eye has some strong, implied promise to impress.
We already know for sure that iPad apps can be positioned left, right, above and below the screen, so all that SEEMS to be a realistic and very good use scenario for people who would make good use of several screens when on the go without having to carry several big physical screens on the plane, to the hotel, on the train, etc. Of course, the editor wanting to actually do some of this work on the plane would have no way to set up several physical screens to emulate that potential in their relatively cramped airplane seat. But maybe using some virtual screens in this way does offer a useful virtual space to simulate exactly that: wash away the plane and use the range of vision to do some solid work in a space sometimes too small to fully open a MB in the usual way.
Anyone interested can see with their own eyes soon enough. I have fingers crossed that this particular thing works as well as it has looked in a few Apple demo videos... and am hopeful the 4K-per-eye vs. cheapie 1080p alternatives very clearly shows itself in this kind of use.
Side note: apple has not ported numbers, pages, iMovie, etc to Vision OS. So not going to be too critical of Netflix or Youtube.
If you want to show other people what you're doing - not in VR but in 'spatial computing' - then just use a regular screen - in 4k resolution.
The Vision Pro is not being promoted as a gaming device or a VR device. It's a media consumption device. So what, exactly, are people going to be sharing that couldn't have just been on a regular screen anyway?