Bart Y

ralphie said:

Seems like great use of taxpayer money /s

It’s a gift from the Police Foundation to explore the use cases and see if it could help.  Taxpayer money would fund the evaluation time.

apple4thewin said:

20k so, about 5 VPs?

People keep harping on the price without factoring in the millions spent developing the product. Zero profit for Apple so far, most likely. 

It's a super-advanced computer in a headset, and worth every dollar. I just wish I had the $5000 CAD to buy one. haha

My guess is the harping is due to them wanting one while not being able to afford it. 

But just pointing out the obvious that the 20k investment is basically just 5 headsets  the money amount sounds like it is a bunch of headsets but it really is just a few 

The number of headsets would be enough for a pilot program, a lot like developers buying a few to test try apps and see how they look and function.  This is not where the departments are considering actual deployment to select groups of officers.  Just like the battlefield, information can be useful and vital.  Considering what we see in movies and television where data, info, and web scouting may yield clues, maybe it really can work in real time in the field or faster in the office / precincts.  Also, connecting in real time via Facebook, datalinks, and written or visual comms could be very helpful in interdepartmental or interagency collaboration.

an interesting and imaginative application of the Vision Pro.

Very distressing for the entire Taiwan island and people.  The death toll and destruction is sure to go up in areas where buildings collapsed and landslides occurred.  Praying and hoping the numbers are limited and there is hopeful rescues and recoveries.

absolutely mind bending there are over 100 aftershocks so far with most being over 4.0 in magnitude, the highest I saw was 6.2 which itself is a major quake.  Being on the Ring of Fire seismic activity region is no joke.

Title says price target cut to $170, but the article says cut from $185 to $175.  

sflocal said:

Xed said:

That's not entirely true. Huawei and Samsung can do it... after they get ahold of Apple's designs and tech specs.

If there's one certainty in life is that iKnockoff companies like Samsung, Xiaomi, and Huawei bought the VisionPro and reverse-engineering it.  Without Apple's top-quality software to go with it, they will fail.

Samsung already took their iteration of a VR/XR headset and sent it back to the lab for more tweaks when Vision Pro was announced at WWDC 2023.  Like original Android, once they saw what Apple had designed, Samsung knew theirs was inferior.  Given 18 months and a late 2024 intro, Samsung gets a 2nd generation Qualcomm VR chip, more time to make better displays, and Google has more time to build a better XR-OS, if they can.

Now that Samsung can get their hands on a few Vision Pro’s and send them back to Korea for study and reverse engineering, Samsung will wonder how to do it better, and cheaper while being profitable. It can get to any two of the three choices.  And the early projections are Samsung only plans a limited run of 50K units for the whole year, probably to gauge the Android VR market for a likely $2K to $2.5K or more device.  Otherwise, it won’t ever be profitable unless they want to subsidize it and somehow make it up on content like consoles do.

Curiouserandcurious said:

Apple's problem is that everyone who wants an Apple Watch already has one. And their incremental changes aren't going to drive upgrade cycles. The Ultra was new and different, but the buy-in was a big deterrent for the mass market. Things like Micro-LED screens won't do it. A total rethink is what it will take. I can't think of anything the Apple Watch 9 I’m way too old for this, and I can’t believe I’m admitting it, as I’m one of these guys that wear AW for fitness functionality and could care less about appearance or watch face or even access or functionality. Just give me some basic information that I want on the watch face and let me run Map my Fitness or Map my run on it and stay out of my way. I can’t even remember how to use Apple Pay on the thing and use my phone instead. But the new Snoopy watch face has sucked me in somehow, and I’m totally hooked. I look at my watch throughout the day, just to see the snoopy watch face. I’ve given up all watch face information and functionality that I ever cared about.  If Apple had managed to instead make this snoopy watch face a fashion statement and connected to an upgrade dependency, there could’ve been something impactful here in terms of sales.  Rest of us would’ve grumbled sure. But this once again makes me wonder, is Apple Watch really a product line for Apple, or does this just enrich the iPhone apple ecosystem and customer loyalty? They don’t seem to be all that concerned about upgrade cycles or sales volume.  Personally, that makes me like AW and also apple better. 

Glad you love the new Snoopy watch face and that helps you to consider an upgrade.   As you’ve surmised, Apple is providing new models for everyone who wants one.  They aren’t forcing anyone to upgrade and those who feel there isn’t enough change to upgrade, they’re fine with folks continuing to happily use their Apple Watch, whatever the model and series.  These folks will know the Apple Watch has great longevity, strength, and functionality for years.

As for using Apple Pay on Apple Watch, it’s very simple once you’ve set up your credit card into Apple Wallet, and you’re synced with your iPhone, your card is loaded onto Wallet App on Apple Watch.  Check you iPhone’s Watch App to confirm and settings for other card info and notifications.

If all that is good, then simply double press the Watch side button and your Apple Pay credit card appears.  Then simply place your watch face over the card reader terminal’s Tap sign ))> and wait for the confirmation beep and or haptic.  The terminal should say “transaction complete” or “transaction approved”, and you’re done!  No muss, no fuss, no touching the terminal, no need to pull your iPhone out, no need for your iPhone or even wallet to be on your person if you forgot it/them at home or in your car.  Watch can do Apple Pay without anything so long as you’ve properly unlocked it.

it really is that simple and that convenient for the merchants who will take Apple Pay.  Notably WalMart, Home Depot, Lowe’s, and a few others won’t take NFC payments like Apple Pay and Google Pay, preferring for you to use their proprietary pay services so they can gather your info, tie in to your bank debit or credit card info, and track your purchases and buying behaviors so they can sell that info, share it, or target ads to you.  Apple does none of that except give you a summary of your transactions for your own records or analysis, plus makes the transactions tokenized so the merchant and CC system NEVER sees your CV numbers.

Just another way Apple protects your privacy and provides another “just works brilliantly” service to your Apple devices ecosystem.