Don’t expect to get weeks of battery on the Boox Palma. In my experience so far, I get a couple of days. I’m using the Kindle app, Readwise Reader, and the Micro.blog apps. I’m sure it could be a bit better if you disabled Wi-Fi. It doesn’t compare to the Kindle regarding battery life, but has many other advantages.

I finally caved and purchased the Boox Palma. I’m going to try it for a few days and see how it goes. The plan is to use my phone much less and even rely on my Apple Watch a little more, so I can leave my phone in another room.

Spent last week near the beach.

I had the opportunity to demo the Apple Vision Pro yesterday. The following is a write-up of my experience.

The Demo

My store had a section blocked off with a couple of tables where a few people could do the demo simultaneously. Unfortunately, it was a sitting experience and quite loud in the room. It was not the ideal setup because of the noise and the other people in my “view,” but it didn’t deter the experience much.

The Hardware

Apple took my current glasses so they could add the appropriate lease to my demo device. While I waited, my guide told me what to expect and what her experience was with her first demo.

The device is very slick, made of high-quality materials, and looks very premium—precisely what you would expect from Apple.

I didn’t think much of the weight at first. I adjusted my straps, and while I could tell the weight was in the front, it didn’t seem significant or uncomfortable. A 20-minute demo is not enough to know.

One of the things I didn’t think about until after the demo was the audio. Nothing covers the ears, yet the audio sounded fairly good, even in a noisy room. It’s different from with good headphones or a living-room sound system, but it’s impressive, nonetheless.

The UI

After some adjustments, the demo started. When things booted up, I looked to the side, where my UI was “stuck.” So, as I waited, I looked elsewhere and didn’t even see the boot-up sequence, where you’re looking when your Home Screen loads, which is where it will stay until you move it.

I remember glancing to the side and noticing the Home Screen floating there, and then I realized what was happening. I adjusted.

The UI looks spectacular. It just floats there in front of you. It looks as if you can touch it. Everything has a “soft” look to it. The area you’re looking at is crisper than the surrounding area, as in real life. This also makes it possible to put more processing power into the area you’re looking at rather than what you’re not.

As I look around with my eyes, the icons light up. Your eyes are your primary navigation (without getting into the accessibility options).

Clicking a selected UI element is evident. Tap your fingers together. I initially held my hands up when I did this, but I realized that was not necessary. As long as my hands were not obstructed under the table, it worked fine while resting.

There are other gestures for scrolling and zooming.

The Environments

I was then guided through the UI and the “Environments” that could be enabled using your “Digital Crown” on the headset itself. You could fade the environment in and out. This allows you to sit in the Alaskan mountains or on a beach while you work or play.

Photos and Videos

Next, I took a tour of some photos taken on various iPhones. Initially, they were standard photos that looked great. I could easily resize and zoom in and out. Next were the spatial photos, which were taken from newer iPhones or the Vision Pro itself. These photos were much more realistic and had a depth that didn’t look “fake 3D” but more lifelike than any other photo I’ve seen.

I then experienced the video, in which I’m sitting at a table with the family watching the young girl blowing out her birthday cake candles. This was the first “oh wow” that came out of my mouth. Other than the limited field of view from the goggles, it felt like I was sitting in the room.

After experiencing this, I genuinely understand why we would want to record these moments so that we may watch them again whenever we want. It was remarkable. On the other hand, I don’t envision myself wanting to wear a Vision Pro during these moments. Maybe recording with a phone instead. There needs to be a better way to record these moments without being taken out of the moment itself.

Movies

Next, there was a quick demo of the Mario movie. During this, I was able to resize the window to “Movie Screen” size and experience what it is like to watch a movie with the Vision Pro. I could envision myself watching movies on this device. However, some movies are ideal for Vision Pro, while others may not. This video explains it well.

The Recap

Last was a 5-minute video that explored various landscapes, including mountain climbing, flying, interacting with rhinos, and a few other things.

I did back up when the Rhine came at me. I could feel things slightly that were not there, like the mist or the chilly rain. My mind was filling in the gaps. It was cool.

The demo ends

This concluded my demo. I was a bit disappointed it ended so quickly. I expected to see some dinosaurs, touch a butterfly, and experience the mindfulness features. Not only that, but I didn’t experience Personas or what it would be like to use a Mac or take a Zoom call—things I would expect to use in real life.

Motion Sickness

I’m someone who gets motion sickness quickly. I can’t ride in the back seat of a car on long trips or ride rollercoasters. Yet, I didn’t have any problems at all with the Vision Pro. I may have felt slightly unbalanced when I was suddenly on a high tightrope looking over a river. But that’s part of the experience.

Long Periods?

Could I use the Vision Pro for extended periods? Could I use it to work on my computer? Read a book? Watch movies? I don’t know for sure. While the device was comfortable during the 20 minutes I wore it, I did notice I was very sweaty when I took it off. I would imagine it would get uncomfortable to use it for more than a couple of hours at a time.

Antisocial?

A big issue with the Vision Pro is that it is primarily a solo experience. While you can optionally see other people in the room and interact with them, they won’t see what you see. What if I want to watch a show with my wife or a movie with my kids? I suspect Apple will resolve this over time. There will be more ways to have a shared experience, assuming each of you has a Vision Pro.

Will I buy a Vision Pro?

I react similarly to Vision Pro as most people do. It’s technically outstanding but too expensive, and I don’t think I would use it enough.

No, I won’t buy this first version of the Apple Vision Pro.

I will undoubtedly watch the following versions to see how Apple improves things. If they make it a little lighter, a lot cheaper, and more capable (especially in multi-player), then it will be much more interesting for me.

As it stands, I don’t know if there are many benefits to the Vision Pro as a “productivity” device. It could replace your expensive monitors. Then, you can easily take your setup with you, even to a coffee shop.

There are certainly some situations that sound wonderful with the Apple Vision Pro. I don’t think there’s a difference between comfort and battery life yet. I’m excited to see what it looks like in a few years.

It seems that perfection is attained not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing more to remove. — Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

I’m losing my ability to read deeply and understand what I’m reading, and I’m not the only one.

I used to read for hours, fully immersed. I’d put the book down and still think about it, processing and connecting it for a deeper understanding and recall.

Today, we’re consumed by digital email, chats, TikTok, social media, short blogs, video clips, and other quick consumption forms. The content is designed to keep us engaged.

There must be a connection between today’s consumption and the ability to read and think critically.

Today, I struggle to read a book with information I want to understand. My mind jumps to other things. I can’t focus enough to comprehend what I read. I even read the prior text and don’t recall it. I have to read a paragraph repeatedly to understand it.

The book is too difficult to read because it requires more direct attention, unlike other material I consume. My mind isn’t wired for the focus I need.

This is troubling.

Oddly enough, it doesn’t apply to everything. I often become fully engaged when writing code and building software solutions. It may take a few minutes to get going, but once I do, I’m so engrossed in my work that I need someone to shake my shoulder to get my attention.

Do the books need to be more attractive to grab my attention like coding? Is it because I’m creating and not consuming when I’m coding?

Today’s books are written differently. Old books are denser, with complicated words, paragraphs, and less fluff. Today’s books are straightforward, full of short stories, and skim the material’s surface to maintain reader interest.

If I had the abilities in the past and slowly lost them, they could be reversed. Right?

My next steps sound simple but will be challenging to execute. Reduce the short, mind-numbing consumption and replace it with more time with evergreen material that encourages me to slow down and think. This should help rebuild the muscle of deep reading and thinking.

What does this problem mean for my children? How will they solve the world’s problems if they can’t focus for more than 20 minutes?

Finished reading: How to ADHD by Jessica McCabe 📚

A solid book packed full of tips for those living with ADHD.

I’m starting to enjoy using the sidebar in Vivaldi. It’s been useful for showing email from Proton, notes from Reflect, RSS from Sublime Feed, Mastodon, Micro.blog, and more. I’m trying to get more familiar with the keyboard navigation and Quick Commands feature as well. Overall, I’m impressed.

📺 Fallout (2024) - ★★★★★

I enjoyed the show. it felt a lot like the game. It was pretty gory, which may put some people off, but I still found it fun to watch.

This is a test to see if I could use EchoFeed to automatically copy my posts from this Mastodon account to my blog hosted on Micro.blog.

Well, my Logitech mouse now has AI integration. Assign a mouse button to trigger it. Select some text, and trigger the button. It will open a dialog to help you build a custom prompt, and then you can send it to ChatGPT. At least it’s optional and doesn’t have AI Built in, it only creates a prompt.

I installed the Unhook extension in Vivaldi. Now YouTube only shows my subscriptions and search. No algorithm, no comments and no distractions.

I also uninstalled the YouTube app from my phone and subscribed to my favorite channels in Feedbin.

Proton now allows automatic backups of all your photos to Proton Drive. I gave it a try. It was extremely slow, which is fine. But then I saw there is a 500 GB cap on Proton Drive storage. I only uploaded a few photos and then turned it off.

I feel there are better backup solutions for my photos.

I’m slowly moving my domains from Cloudflare and Hover over to porkbun. My main domain was successful. Now for the rest. I’ve heard good things about porkbun. Simple and affordable. Hopefully, it’s worth it.

I’m seriously considering installing Linux on my Surface Laptop 3 to try it out again. If it sticks, I’d buy a new laptop.

Most of the apps I use already run on Linux, so I don’t think I would lose much on the software side.

My plans for this week’s vacation included a lot of reading. I wanted to finish a book and read at least one more.

In reality, we were so busy, I didn’t even have an opportunity to read anything at all. Oh, well.

🍿Not terrible. Not great.

Watched on Monday June 3, 2024.

🍿 A ridicules John Wick wannabe.

Watched on Tuesday June 4, 2024.