Issue 25: diff visionOS - One more thing... Vision Pro is dead, Not?!

Rumors of my death were greatly exaggerated - Mark Twain

It's been a minute since the last newsletter, and a lot has happened since then. Apple celebrated its 50th anniversary, in September Tim Cook is moving up to Chairman of the Board, and John Ternus is stepping in as the new CEO. WWDC 2026 is just around the corner, and that means we may or may not see Apple Smart Glasses, along with improvements to visionOS. Swift Rockies 2026 is coming up in July. The Shared Visions project is well underway, and yet we’re wading through rumours of the death of Vision Pro. Those of us who have spent time with Vision Pro know that its a vision of the future, and that this is certainly not the final form.

I often turn back to my own experiences with technology, and also was an Apple fanboy during the early death of Apple in the 90s. Been there, done that, and got the t-shirt! People also forget that the iPhone didn't hit the mainstream until the iPhone 4, and that model had one of the worst introduction demos at WWDC, not to mention Antenna-gate. The first version of the Apple Watch was horrible to develop for, until apps could run natively and we discovered health. I mean you couldn’t even copy and paste until iPhone OS 3, the original iPad and no camera, VoiceOver also came to the iPhone in iPhone OS 3 - and it only got a few minutes mention in the keynote.

I could go on but I can tell you that those of us are working on visionOS everyday, know that the Apple Vision Pro and the community is alive and well. It was never meant to be a mass market device, it gets blasted for being expensive. The first Mac was barely usable and would have cost you $7,500 in 2026. That didn’t stop people from buying it. The Vision Pro is a computer you wear on your face. Personally, have made 3 or 4 times the cost of two Vision Pros, through development work for the Vision Pro. I use mine every day, and have no plans to give it up.

My spatial video of Stonehenge, shot Sept 1, 2025, converted with MVTube.

Matthew Fisher's New Spatial Apps: MVTube and SpatialLapse

I've been using Matthew Fisher's MVTube to convert my spatial videos to the format that YouTube supports. You can check out my spatial videos on the YouTube app on Vision Pro. The app supports YouTube 3D, VR 180, and 360 with full HDR and spatial audio.
My Spatial Playlist on YouTube

SpatialLapse creates spatial timelapse videos, and also converts to side by side 3D images to MV-HEVC. We've been using the app for all kinds of spatial videos on the Shared Vision project.

SpatialLapse on the App Store

MVTube on the App Store

Paul Hudson's Kickstarter app for Indie Developers.

Paul Hudson strikes again with the app Kickstarter for Indie Developers. (Not to be confused with crowd funding site.) The app has all kinds of features, designed to help you with marketing, creating press kits, making a web site for your app, and tips to help you more income from your app. Most of us just blindly push up our apps and wonder how or why we're going to make any money from our efforts. Paul has published a video on how Kickstarter will help you optimize your efforts. A lot of features are free, but you can also subscribe for some of the Pro features.

How to make more money on the App Store

Step Into Vision at WWDC 26

The fine folks at Step Into Vision are hosting a few events at WWDC 2026. Come out and meet some of the developers of the "dead" Vision Pro. Don't forget to wear your official Step Into Vision t-shirt!
Step Into Coffee Sunday, June 7 from 9:00 AM to 11:00 AM PDT.
Step Into Vision – @CommunityKit Tuesday, June 9 from 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM PDT.
official Step Into Vision shirts (Find Paolo V for pins. ;-)

Apple: 50 Years of Surprise & Delight

In case you missed it, on the 400th episode of the More Than Just Code podcast, Peter Whitham, Evan K Stone and I talked about the history of Apple. We covered many areas and talked about David Pogue’s book, "Apple: The First 50 Years".
Apple: 50 Years of Surprise & Delight
Apple: The First 50 Years

Elevated: New York City - Episode 4

Apple released a new episode of Elevated: New York City on April 17, 2026. I've been to New York City a few times, and I could watch this many times. Every time I do, I see even more details than before. You owe it to yourself to watch it if you haven’t already.
Elevated: New York City - Episode 4

Hey! I’m a Vision Pro developer!

When I got my hands on the beta version of visionOS, the first thing I did try to build my 16-year old app, Device Tracker. To my delight, it worked, thanks to the Vision Pro's support of iPad compatibility. I soon posted to LinkedIn "Hey! I’m a Vision Pro developer!"

Device Tracker had always been the app I test new Apple features with. Originally, written in Objective-C, over the years I ported it to a Split-View app, added Large Titles, Accessibility features, Dynamic Type, DarkMode Localization, ARC, and more. New features would introduce Swift and SwiftUI views. However, the foundation was Objective-C.

I recently was able to refactor Device Tracker in SwiftUI, an effort I wanted to do since 2019. With the help of agentic AI, I refactored Device Tracker in SwiftUI in a few days. The also meant that I could build a version for Vision Pro. This month that happened.
Hey! I’m a Vision Pro developer!
Refactoring Legacy Apps With Agents: Practical Migration Stories
iT Device Tracker on the App Store

Blue Frog Immersive - Immersive Live Concerts

Check out Blue Frog Immersive's new app for the Vision Pro. They have recorded some live performances in Apple Immersive 3D. Very cool! I'm a long time fan of Steely Dan, so I really enjoyed the app's content. It seems to be free for now?

Blue Frog Immersive - Immersive Live Concerts

Swift Rockies - July 23-24 2026, Calgary AB

I will be giving a workshop and a talk at the Swift Rockies conference in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. My workshop takes place on July 21, 2026 before the conference. Check out the Swift Rockies website for more information.

Swift Rockies 2026
Hands on With visionOS Workshop

VisionOS Resources and Updates

Check out the updated VisionOS resources page on GitHub, featuring new apps from Raven.vision and information on upcoming conferences like Let's Vision in March. We've also added a section on Blender tools for your creative projects.

Awesome visionOS Resources

See you in the future!

Here are some of the best picks: