Apple, Samsung, and Huawei

Instruction Set, 2024/1/22

Welcome back to Multicore. This is Instruction Set for the week of Monday, January 22nd.

Tech is so back. Let’s get into it.

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Apple has fully begun its PR blitz for the Vision Pro, which went on sale a few days ago and starts shipping February 2nd. It’s US-only for now, so the Multicore review will have to wait for a minute.

(Unless you’re reading and want to hook me up, of course.)

Part of this latest media offensive involved a new round of demonstrations for journalists. Notably, it was the first time Apple allowed anyone to be photographed while actually wearing the headset — although Apple captured and distributed the photos itself. (Shot on iPhone, of course.)

Here’s a composite from Brian Stelter:

Everyone seems to be having fun! Stelter included. “Any snark in my mind melted away once I put on the headset,” he wrote. “I was awestruck. Wearing Vision Pro feels like living ten years in the future; the eye tracking feels like magic. I'm preordering.”

Nonetheless, I am not sure this is how I’d handle the media rollout of a product that I honestly thought looked cool.

The more salient Vision Pro news this week came from outside Apple. First, Netflix said it wouldn’t be releasing an app for visionOS, not even by allowing its iPad app to run in compatibility mode (as all iPad apps theoretically can).

Here’s a statement to Bloomberg:

“Our members will be able to enjoy Netflix on the web browser on the Vision Pro, similar to how our members can enjoy Netflix on Macs,” Los Gatos, California-based Netflix said in the statement. Apple declined to comment.

Bloomberg later followed up to report that Spotify isn’t planning to support the headset with a new or native app, and YouTube confirmed the same. Web apps appear to be the order of the day for many popular streaming services.

I haven’t yet used the Vision Pro, so maybe there’s some kind of software mitigation to make web apps more convenient. After all, Netflix and YouTube don’t have native Mac apps, either. But according to MacRumors’ Steve Moser, visionOS currently has no support for Progressive Web Apps, or even the ability to add a website to the home screen.

I think this is a big problem for Apple.