Steve Jobs Would Have Loved 'Vision Pro,' His Biographer Says

Walter Isaacson, biographer of the late Apple Inc AAPL CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs, firmly believes Jobs would have “loved” Apple’s newly announced Vision Pro AR headset.

“He would love it," Isaacson said in a CNBC interview earlier this week. "I think he always wanted to go into new fields ever since he decided to make the iPod in the early 2000s, which was an unusual thing for, you know, a computer company to do, and likewise with the iPhone.”

The biographer sees Vision Pro as an advancement of human-computer interfaces, something Jobs had always strived for, and he used Siri as an example, “When he [Jobs] saw Siri, that was a great leap in human-computer interface, and this is one of the next big leaps in that.”

Vision Pro, which debuted at Apple’s WWDC 2023 Conference, is a testament to the concept. Akin to a pair of high-end ski goggles, Vision Pro blends aesthetic appeal with almost magical technology.

Under its chassis, the headset houses 23 sensors, including 12 cameras, powered by Apple’s R1 chip to eliminate lag and offer fast visual experiences.

VisionOS, designed from scratch for spatial computing, powers Vision Pro. It provides a three-dimensional interface that breaks away from the constraints of traditional displays.

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The headset provides an immersive mixed-reality environment by tracking users’ eyes and hands, with LiDAR sensors identifying real-world objects. A unique feature, EyeSight, projects the wearer’s eyes on an external display, creating an illusion of transparency.

The Vision Pro also points to Apple’s innovative approach to real-world AI applications.

“AI is not just chatbots that do it with text," Isaacson said, "AI is things like these mixed-reality headsets that can process visual data from cameras and turn it into something intelligent you can interact with."

“Real-world AI, as opposed to just text chatbot AI, meaning robots that can navigate in the real world, which is what this headset will help us interact with… that’s the real future of AI,” Isaacson emphasized.

Launching in early 2024, the Vision Pro comes with a hefty $3,499 price tag. Yet, the excitement surrounding Apple's newest device since the Apple Watch in 2014 indicates that the Cupertino, California-based company has successfully stepped into a new era of human-computer interfaces that Jobs would have proudly endorsed.

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Photo: Apple and Shutterstock