If anything, it was the VisionOS 1.1 update that showed me that I still have the capacity to grow.
I can tell you agree from the fact that you’re carrying on a normal FaceTime call without stopping every few seconds to tell me how weird my Apple Vision Pro Persona looks.
The headset made me re-enroll my face to get this new persona – and frankly, it’s for the best.
I’m not saying my new face definitely won’t frighten children, but I don’t think they’re going to lose much sleep over it.
I should mention that even in its 1.1 iteration, the Persona feature is still technically in beta – albeit a beta open to anyone with a Vision Pro.
Apple released VisionOS 1.1 on Thursday with the most notable feature being improved personas of users.
Additionally, users can also now set up their personas without holding the device through Settings>Persona and selecting “Hands-free Capture” mode after initial steps for setup.
The new version of VisionOS also introduces Mobile Device Management (MDM), for enterprises to manage their devices.
This enables admins to set up devices for custom configuration, install apps at scale, and perform a remote erase of the device.
“We know that in order to unlock all of [the power of the Apple Vision Pro], businesses are going to want to manage these devices at scale.
Out of the box, Apple’s Vision Pro doubles as a 4K Mac virtual display, allowing you to extend an existing Mac desktop to the device’s spatial computing environment.
A new app called Splitscreen takes things a step further, by allowing you to add a second macOS display to your Vision Pro — even if it uses a different Apple ID.
Such an app could prove valuable for multitaskers who want to use more than one Mac computer with their Mac Virtual Display in the Vision Pro — for instance, one for work and one for personal use.
With Splitscreen, you can effectively create the feeling of having a multiple monitor setup, but inside the VR/AR environment.
However, the approach the app takes will allow the team behind Splitscreen to add more displays, settings, and other features soon after launching.
Nvidia currently dominates the AI chip market with its GPU chips.
OpenAI chief Sam Altman is reportedly also in talks with investors in the United Arab Emirates to raise an eye-watering $5 trillion to $7 trillion for a new AI chip project.
Altman has reportedly met with a number of potential investors, chip industry experts and others across the globe, including SoftBank’s Son, for the new AI chip initiative.
Shift focus (from Alibaba) to AIA new chip project would be line with the company’s new focus on AI.
Shares of SoftBank closed 2.8% higher on Monday after Son’s AI chip project news broke on Saturday.
On the agenda for this edition is Disney’s innovative VR treadmill, OpenAI fixing its “lazy” AI and MIT’s high-capacity, fast-charging organic battery tech.
We also cover Apple’s new stolen device protection feature, AI startup Rabbit’s nifty hardware and app makers debating launching apps tailor-made for Apple’s Vision Pro headset.
Apple’s new device protection: Romain writes about Apple’s new stolen device protection feature, which, when turned on, requires Face ID or Touch ID biometric authentication for some actions, like accessing stored passwords and credit cards.
Vision Pro apps a maybe: After Netflix said it wouldn’t release a dedicated app for the Apple Vision Pro, other app makers, including YouTube, are following in its footsteps.
Bonus roundLamborghini licenses MIT battery tech: Writing for TechCrunch+, Tim reports that Lamborghini has licensed new battery tech from MIT that could overcome the limitations of the lithium-ion batteries in wide use today.
Apple’s Vision Pro launch resembles its Apple Watch debut in more ways than one, but to me the most telling similarity is in the marketing approach.
The company took the same approach with the Apple Watch, which like its face computer cousin, was more or less a solution in search of a problem when it originally debuted.
But the iPhone debuted with a much more focused, and much more accurate idea of what it would become for users than the Apple Watch did.
The Vision Pro, I’d argue, is even more adrift from how and why people will come to appreciate it.
It’s terrible at a lot of other things – chief among them being the next big thing in the vein of personal computing or mobile.
It’s not just Netflix, Spotify, and YouTube that don’t have apps for Apple’s Vision Pro at launch.
New App Store data indicates the new mixed reality headset and Apple’s foray into virtual reality has so far seen only a tepid response from app developers.
The Vision Pro is theoretically compatible with iOS and iPad apps, unless a developer opts out.
Meta, which makes its own VR headset, has also unsurprisingly opted not to specifically build native apps for the Vision Pro, Appfigures’ list reveals.
That’s not to say there’s nothing for Vision Pro users to do with their new headset at launch.
Will AI automate human jobs, and — if so — which jobs and when?
“Like much of the recent research, we find significant potential for AI to automate tasks,” Thompson told TechCrunch in an email interview.
In conducting this study, the researchers surveyed workers to understand what an AI system would have to accomplish, task-wise, to fully replace their jobs.
maintaining an AI system) that didn’t exist before.
For AI researchers and developers, this work points to the importance of decreasing the costs of AI deployments and of increasing the scope of how they can be deployed.
Welcome, folks, to TechCrunch Week in Review (WiR), a digest of the past few days in tech happenings.
As I write this, snow’s gracing New York City — an increasingly rare treat thanks to our changing climate.
Notion launches a calendar app: Notion, the incredibly popular note-taking and project management service, has launched a stand-alone calendar service.
AnalysisCES chases off sex tech: Despite being an industry that caters to a universal human experience, sex tech has always had an uneasy association with CES, Haje writes.
And this year, the conference effectively managed to chase the sex tech industry off its show floors — for better or worse.
It’s also unclear if YouTube plans to support Vision Pro in the future.
However, this could change by the time Vision Pro launches on February 2.
The music streaming service isn’t making its iPad app available on the Vision Pro store either.
Spotify told us it couldn’t confirm the speculation about its app plans for the Vision Pro.
Apple explains that unless developers say they don’t want to participate, their iPad apps in the App Store will automatically appear in the Vision Pro store by default.
