Virtual laptop screens are virtually here
Apple and Sightful are making the world safe for giant virtual-screen laptops. As a big-screen loving nomad who lives out of a backpack, I can't wait.
I’m a nomad, with no permanent house or apartment. I travel the world, with all my gear in a single backpack. I’m also a big-screen freak — the bigger, the better. You can see why I’m super excited about the virtual screen trend.
The latest virtual-screen news hit today. Apple today rolled out its new visionOS 2.0 at WWDC 2024. Apple’s new spatial computing operating system can turn 2D pictures into 3D. It has better and smoother controls and other improvements. (The new OS rolls out to developers today, and non-developers in mid-to-late September.)
The best visionOS 2.0 addition is a radical upgrade for the virtual Mac display. The original version showed your Mac desktop at a resolution less than 4k — 2560x1440. The new version enables the equivalent of two 4k screens connected together into a single display that wraps around the user.
(Apple also announced that Apple Vision Pro will be available for a June 13 pre-order in China, Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore and on June 28 in Australia, Canada, France, Germany and the U.K.)
Meanwhile, a company called Sightful unveiled on May 30 its Spacetop G1 laptop. (I first told you about this product a when it came out of stealth mode a year ago.)
The device is sort of like a Chromebook, running online apps in a browser, but not Windows or Mac apps. In fact, its SpaceOS is built on Google’s ChromiumOS (the open source version of the operating system that powers Chromebooks).
Unlike a real Chromebook, the $1,700 Spacetop G1 has no screen. Instead, it comes with augmented reality glasses that show you virtual screens, which you can resize and place to your liking. It ships in Fall.
These products are perfect for my lifestyle, but I’m not going to buy either of them. Rather, the concept of a virtual big-screen display is perfect for a screen real estate whore like me who lives out of a backpack.
(My space constraints are so tight that I recently downsized my Peak Design Travel Backpack from the 45 liter size to the 30 liter, because the bigger one is too large for carry on maximums on many European regional carriers. And I almost traded in my MacBook Pro for a MacBook Air to reduce my daily carry load.)
I love the concept, but I’m too captured by the Apple ecosystem to use any desktop other than a macOS device, at this point. So the Spacetop is out. And Apple Vision Pro is way too expensive and bulky to wear for me to go down that road. So Apple Vision Pro is a nonstarter.
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(Why Mike is always traveling.)
