Apple Vision Pro update promises to fix two of its most glaring weaknesses
Leaving the uncanny valley
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TheApple Vision Prois shaping up to be one of thebest VR headsetsyou can buy, but it’s still come in for its fair share of criticism since launching last week. Now, though,Appleis working to fix two of its most glaring problems with an update to the device’s visionOSoperating system.
The first issue concerned the Vision Pro’s “Personas” feature for video calls. Instead of showing you with a giant VR headset wrapped around your face on the call, the Vision Pro did a bunch of clever processing to digitally remove the headset, making it look like you were just conducting a normal video call.
At least, that was the intention. In practice, lots of people found their Personas to be downright creepy, with the results veering into uncanny valley territory. Luckily, Apple’s update improves those Personas to make them a little less uncomfortable.
After installing the visionOS 1.1 beta update, you’ll be prompted to rescan your Persona to get the “latest appearance updates.” While the new scan looks fairly similar to old personas, plenty of people on social media have reported that their resultsfeel like an improvementover the old versions. Apple says that Personas are still in beta, so hopefully they’ll continue to improve over time.
Reset your passcode
That’s not the only way the visionOS 1.1 beta is improving Apple’s headset. Earlier this week, it was reported that you’d have to take your Vision Pro into an Apple Store if you did something as simple asforget its passcode. Fortunately, that won’t be necessary anymore once you update your headset.
News outlet 9to5Macspotted codein the visionOS 1.1 beta that will allow you to erase all content on the headset if you forget the passcode. That’s a drastic step, but it will at least let you create a new (and hopefully more memorable) passcode. Note that since the Vision Pro comes with Activation Lock enabled, you’ll need to enter your Apple ID password to reactivate it after the reset.
Previously, you could only reset your passcode in the Settings app, but the Settings app itself was inaccessible without a passcode, creating a situation that was impossible to resolve without Apple’s help. It was a strange oversight for Apple, a company that is usually so on the ball when it comes to small details.
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Regardless, these are two welcome changes coming to the Vision Pro. Hopefully they could be the start of Apple fixing a few of theheadset’s other issues and missing featuresto help make it an even better device.
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Alex Blake has been fooling around with computers since the early 1990s, and since that time he’s learned a thing or two about tech. No more than two things, though. That’s all his brain can hold. As well as TechRadar, Alex writes for iMore, Digital Trends and Creative Bloq, among others. He was previously commissioning editor at MacFormat magazine. That means he mostly covers the world of Apple and its latest products, but also Windows, computer peripherals, mobile apps, and much more beyond. When not writing, you can find him hiking the English countryside and gaming on his PC.
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