Apple's Vision Pro headset launches, raising questions about mixed reality's impact on public space and attention

Apple CEO Tim Cook appeared outside the company's Fifth Avenue flagship store in New York on 2 February for the launch of the Vision Pro, a mixed reality headset priced at $3,500. The device uses 14 cameras to overlay digital interfaces onto a video feed of the real world, offering a resolution of 3660 x 3200 pixels per retina and a 100hz refresh rate. Media scholar Paul Roquet's concept of 'perceptual enclosure' frames the headset as an insidious encroachment on public space, creating a 'one-person space' that degrades shared environments. Social media reactions have highlighted both the interior experience of users immersed in screens and the exterior spectacle of them interacting with thin air in public. The sleek, reflective design resembles ski goggles, masking technical complexity while making wearers conspicuous. References include Don DeLillo's novel Underworld (1997) and the TV show The Curse (2023), starring Emma Stone and Nathan Fielder as characters Whitney and Asher Siegel. Writer Lewis Gordon, based in the UK, critiques the device as a step toward corporeal colonization by tech companies, following biometric watches and headphones. The Vision Pro promises to professionalize daily life through constant digital immersion, intensifying the fight for user attention.