Good afternoon! Yes, today I’m a bit late but for a good reason. Apple just announced that 3-D (aka “spatial”) video recording is coming soon to iPhone 15 Pro models. I got to try it earlier this week—along with another session inside the Vision Pro face computer. All that in the Big Thing. Then so many AI things, including OpenAI’s new tool for building your own ChatGPT. And if you’re a Spotify Premium subscriber, I hope you like “free” audiobooks.
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CREDIT: APPLE
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Remember in June when Apple announced the Vision Pro? Of course you do. The face computer, which blends mixed reality and virtual reality, was the biggest new Apple product announcement in years.
Remember in September when Apple announced that the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max will be able to record immersive 3-D spatial video that you can watch in the Vision Pro? Probably not.
Today the company is releasing iOS 17.2 beta, which includes the ability to record those spatial videos with new iPhones. (If you don’t run the beta—and I understand if you don’t—it will be available later this year.) The Vision Pro itself is due to arrive early next year.
The idea is that you’ll already have a stash of immersive memories to relive when your $3,500 headset arrives—or if and when you finally decide to buy one years down the road. On Thursday, at Apple’s demo space, I recorded some spatial videos with an iPhone 15 Pro and then watched it back in a Vision Pro. Some notes on the experience:
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A 3-D pocket cam
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In iOS 17.2, in the Settings menu, you can turn on spatial video capture. (It will be off by default.) Then, in the Camera app, you hit the little headset icon, then the record button and you’re capturing spatial video.
The iPhone 15 Pro’s ultrawide and wide cameras basically function like a stereoscopic recording system. It records two streams of 1080p video to mimic the perspective from our two eyes. (Yes, that means the file size will get big.) In fact, you have to hold the phone horizontally when recording for this to work. When you watch it back in the headset, each eye sees one stream, and your brain merges them for that 3-D feel.
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CREDIT: APPLE
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3-D home movies
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At the demo, I recorded a sushi chef holding a piece of sushi. When I watched it back in the Vision Pro, the sushi and the chopsticks really looked 3-D. They were clearly in the foreground, hovering closer to me than the rest of the imagery. Of course the lighting was perfect when recording—we’ll have to see how it does in imperfect conditions.
Apple showed me some other spatial videos. In one, a dad was telling his young kids a story in the back of an RV. It was so lifelike and cozy that it almost creeped me out. Why am I spying on this random family? That’s obviously the big appeal here: spatial videos create intimacy in ways 2-D photos and videos don’t.
You’ll also be able to record spatial video with the Vision Pro itself—but guess who isn’t wearing a clunky face computer to her two-year-old’s birthday party? THIS MOM!
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Natural to use
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Another thing struck me: I didn’t need a reminder on how to get around the Vision Pro interface. I just looked at the area I wanted to select and pinched my fingers. The entire demo was really quite smooth and intuitive but it was also short. And Apple employees have carefully controlled these demos. Like the one in June, they prohibited any photos or video of me wearing the headset. I guess we wait until “early next year” when the Vision Pro is due.
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CONTENT FROM: Deloitte
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OpenAI’s GPTs 👩🎨📄
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On Tuesday, I tuned into OpenAI’s first developers conference and watched Sam Altman give a very Apple-esque presentation. I was most excited about the announcement of “GPTs,” customized versions of ChatGPT that you can create yourself, no coding skills required. You can tell the bot to be what you want it to be (say, a smart and sassy tech-newsletter writer) and even feed it your own data for it to learn (say, copies of a smart and sassy tech newsletter). The feature is available now to $20-a-month ChatGPT Plus subscribers. The bot didn’t write this. I swear.
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Elon’s Grok 🤡🤖
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The first product of Elon Musk’s xAI artificial-intelligence startup is Grok, a snarky AI bot that can access real-time information via X (formerly known as Twitter), provide other info and offer coding assistance. Musk showed off the bot’s abilities in a series of social-media posts on Saturday, as it responded jokingly to prompts about FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried and how to make cocaine. The bot will be available to X’s Premium+ subscribers after beta testing with a limited group of users.
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AI & Politics 🇺🇸🤔
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Everyone is prepping for the upcoming presidential election with policies that help distinguish AI-produced content from human-made stuff. Microsoft announced on Tuesday that it’ll launch Content Credentials as a service. This gives users the ability to add a digital watermark showing how, when and by whom the content was created or edited—including if it was generated by AI. Then Meta on Wednesday announced that starting early next year, it will require advertisers to disclose when they run political ads with media altered by AI or other software.
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A Thing to Try: Listen to audiobooks for “free” 🎧📙
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If, like me, you’re a Spotify premium listener in the U.S., you no longer have to pay for every audiobook you come across on the service. Instead, we get access to more than 200,000 titles, including Walter Isaacson’s new Musk biography and Prince Harry’s “Spare.” Yes, there are lots of other examples, but those are two I’m excited to listen to.
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But it’s not unlimited listening. Individual and plan managers for Family and Duo accounts get 15 hours per month, which Spotify says equals about two average-length audiobooks. If you hit the limit, you can purchase 10 additional hours for $12.99.
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PHOTO: TOM METZGER
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👋 Joanna here! I’ll admit I had no idea what a multimeter (aka a volt-ohm meter) was before Mr. Metzger emailed this entry. According to ChatGPT—and confirmed by my human editor Wilson Rothman—it measures voltage, current and other electrical readings. 👋
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Tom Metzger from Yardley, Pa.
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This Viz WV-547B meter was my primary home volt-ohm meter from the late ’70s until it got replaced by a Fluke digital volt meter in the early ’90s. It guided me through many electronic design and construction projects. I still use this meter, mostly as a battery tester.
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📷 Got an idea for a throwback? Reply to this email with a photo of your old tech and tell us why you loved—or hated—it. 📷
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Reply to this email and share your feedback and suggestions.
Reader-submitted content has been edited for clarity and length. This week’s newsletter was curated and written by Joanna Stern and Cordilia James.
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