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Posts tagged "taste"

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Vision Pro put me on the MLS playoffs field and it was so real I could almost smell the grass and taste the champagne
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Apple Vision Pro excels at something few other devices can do: deep immersion and hyper-realistic experiences that make you question your reality.

I've been using Vision Pro on and off for almost a year. First in a series of all-too-brief demos, but since February I've had one to keep and I use it often, sometimes for hours. 

I've worked in it. I've watched 3D movies. I've tried drawing with it. I've played games, taken photos, conducted eerie Persona-powered FaceTime calls, and rewatched moments in spatial videography. Last night, Vision Pro took me, for just five minutes, onto a professional football pitch (or soccer field for my fellow US fans).

This is not just virtual reality, it's Apple Immersive Video. It's 8K, 3D, 180-degree video, according to Apple, taking the mixed reality headset to the limits of its visual capabilities. In reality, Apple may shoot the video at 8K, but the maximum resolution of the headset is approximately 4K per eye.

Even so, it's a breathtaking, one-of-a-kind experience. Apple's first Immersive Video sports film.

Apple Vision Pro Immersive Video

I’d show you more, but you can’t screen capture any of the video. (Image credit: Future)

Over the years, I've worn multiple VR headsets, including Meta Quest Pro and HTC Vive, and I've watched immersive video shot with specialized 360-degree cameras. It's always good, but usually lacks the visual clarity to make the video feel real.

Apple Immersive Video promises something more. When the company told me they were sharing a short, five-minute video (2023 MLS Cup Highlights) featuring moments from the 2023 Major League Soccer Cup playoffs, I put on the headset at precisely 9 PM ET and launched Apple TV in the headset to be among the first to experience it.

In 2023, Apple partnered with the soccer league to offer MLS Pass on Apple TV, but this video is free on Apple TV and through the Vision Pro.

I've watched my share of sports season highlights reels, but this one hits different. The image quality is so real you want to touch and smell it. Your point of view as players walk onto the pitch feels like walking among them. When confetti blasts into the air after a goal, it rains down upon you.

You might think the 180-degree nature of the film cuts down on reality, but you have to strain to see the blackness beyond the edges of the immersive film.

Everything about the video is so real and unexpected, like being surprised by a woman clapping her hands right next to my right ear, or finding myself standing just behind the net as Columbus Crew and LAFC players scored a goal.

It's also, at its core, still a sports highlight reel, complete with MLS Season Pass broadcasters Taylor Twellman and Jake Zivin offering play-by-play. If there is one criticism, I didn’t always know where to look. Unlike a televised match where the camera follows the ball, I had to look around to find the action. It was a lot more like being at a real game and sitting in the stands or standing on the field.

Apple Vision Pro Immersive Video

The immersion is fairly complete and if you stand up and move around, the video instantly drops away so you can see your real world. (Image credit: Future)

The video also takes you inside the locker room celebration where I swear I was sprayed with champagne. At least, like the players, I was wearing protective eye gear, except mine cost $ 3,499.

I know Apple posted this video to attract new MLS Season Pass subscribers ($ 14.99 per month in the US, £14.99 in the UK) but I think this is much more than a sports video service commercial.

I saw it as an all-too-brief taste of the potential of Apple Immersive Video. I want to see an entire MLS game, or watch live baseball games from the vantage of first base and behind home plate. I would love to virtually sit in the audience at the next Oscars Telecast. Strap me to a skydiver, put me in the Tour de France, take me on a tour of the Colosseum in Rome.

For now, though, there are only a handful of Apple Immersive Video experiences, and none are longer than the 20-minute Alicia Keyes rehearsal experience. I'm not sure why there are still so few or what Apple is waiting for, but more videos like this will be sure to create the intense kind of FOMO Apple needs to inspire new Apple Vision Pro customers.

If there is a reason to spend almost $ 4,000 for a mixed-reality headset, this might be it, at least for experience junkies.

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Google’s Instrument Playground offers a taste of an AI-generated musical future
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Google has opened the gates to its latest experimental AI called Instrument Playground which allows people to generate 20-second music tracks with a single text prompt.

If that description sounds familiar to you, that’s because other companies have something similar like Meta with MusicGen. Google’s version adds two unique twists. First, it’s claimed to be capable of emulating over 100 instruments from around the world. This includes common ones like the piano to more obscure woodwinds like the dizi from China. 

Secondly, the company states you can “add an adjective” to the prompt to give it a certain mood. For example, putting in the word “Happy” will have Instrument Playground generate an upbeat track while “Merry” will create something more Christmassy. It’s even possible to implement sound effects by choosing one of three modes: Ambient, Beat, and Pitch. For the musically inclined, you can activate Advanced mode to launch a sequencer where you can pull together up to four different AI instruments into one song.

Live demo

The Instrument Playground is publicly available so we decided to take it for a spin.

Upon going to the website, you’ll be asked what you want to play. If you’re having a hard time deciding, there is a link below the prompt that opens a list of 65 different instruments. We said we wanted an upbeat electric guitar, and to our surprise, the AI added backup vocals to the riff – sort of. Most of the lyrics are incomprehensible gibberish although Chrome’s Live Caption apparently picked up the word “Satan” in there.

The generated song plays once (although you can replay it at any time by clicking the Help icon). Afterward, you can use the on-screen keyboard to work on the track. It’s not very expansive as users will only be given access to 12 keys centered around the C Major and C Minor scales. What you see on the page is directly tied to the numbers on a computer keyboard so you can use those instead of having to slowly click each one with a mouse.

Instrumental Playground example

(Image credit: Future)

You can use the three modes mentioned earlier to manipulate the file. Ambient lets you alter the track as a whole, Beat highlights what the AI considers to be the “most interesting peaks”, and Pitch can alter the length of a select portion. Users can even shift the octave higher or lower. Be aware the editing tools are pretty rudimentary. This isn’t GarageBand.

Upon finishing, you can record an audio snippet which you can then download as a .wav file to your computer. 

In the works

If you’re interested in trying out Instrument Playground, keep in mind this is an experimental technology that is far from perfect. We’re not musicians, but even we could tell there were several errors in the generated music. Our drum sample had a piano playing in the back and the xylophone sounded like someone hitting a bunch of PVC pipes. 

We reached out to Google with several questions like when will the AI support 100 instruments (If you remember, it’s only at 65 at the time of this writing) and what the company intends to do with it. Right now, Instrument Playground feels like little more than a digital toy, only capable of creating simple beats. It'd be great to see it do more. This story will be updated at a later time.

While we have you, be sure to check out TechRadar's list of the best free music-making software in 2023. 

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New Apple Vision Pro video gives us a taste of escaping to its virtual worlds
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The promise of Apple’s Vision Pro headset – or any of the best virtual reality headsets, for that matter – is that it can transport you to another world, at least for a while. Now, we’ve just gained a preview of how Apple’s device will do this in a whole new way.

That’s because the M1Astra account on X (formerly known as Twitter) has begun posting videos showing the Vision Pro’s Yosemite Environment in action, complete with sparkling snow drifts, imposing mountains and beautiful clear blue skies.

It looks like a gorgeous way to relax and shut out the world around you. You’ll be able to focus on the calm and tranquillity of one of the world’s most famous national parks, taking in the majestic surroundings as you move and tilt your head.

This is far from the only location that comes as part of the Vision Pro’s Environments feature – users will be able to experience environs from a sun-dappled beach and a crisp autumnal scene to the dusty plains of the Moon in outer space.

Immersive environments

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The Environments feature is designed to be a way for you to not only tune out the real world, but to add a level of calmness and focus to your workstation. That’s because the scenes they depict can be used as backgrounds for a large virtual movie screen, or as a backdrop to your apps, video calls and more.

But as shown in one video posted by M1Astra, you'll also be able to walk around in the environment. As the poster strolled through the area, sun glistened off the snow and clouds trailed across the sky, adding life and movement to the virtual world.

To activate an environment, you’ll just need to turn the Vision Pro’s Digital Crown. This toggles what you see between passthrough augmented reality and immersive virtual reality. That sounds like it should be quick and easy, but we’ll know more when we get to test out the device after it launches.

Speaking of which, Apple’s Vision Pro is still months away from hitting store shelves (the latest estimates are for a March 2024 release date), which means there’s plenty of time for more information about the Environments feature to leak out. What’s clear already, though, is that it could be a great thing to try once the headset is out in the wild.

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