We asked and they listened, Apple is rolling out its latest beta version of iOS 17 and they’re finally bringing spatial video recording to the iPhone 15 Pro! Wait, what’s that? That isn’t something you’ve been asking for because no one has any Vision Pro devices yet in regular use?
Well, that’s fair. But, if you were ever wanting to capture spatial video footage from your iPhone device, Apple is ahead of the curve here. With Apple’s AR/VR Vision Pro headset set to launch here in 2024, this update aims to get this spatial video technology into its iPhone 15 Pro users hands here immediately.
Let’s take a look at this new recording feature, plus other updates coming with iOS 17.2 once it’s fully released here soon.
Record Spatial Video with the iPhone 15 Pro
So, the biggest news here is the rolling out of a new ability to record spatial videos on your iPhone 15 Pro, ostensibly for the purpose of shooting footage specifically for viewing on the Vision Pro mixed-reality headset in the future.
If you have access to this beta update, you can simply install iOS 17.2 beta 2 on your device and you’ll be able to start filming videos with a 3D effect perfect for this AR/VR headset. This technology is pretty cool actually as it makes use of the iPhone 15 Pro’s top two cameras, and can be used best when held sideways to sync the lenses up to record for your two eyes.
Details are a bit sketchy here at launch, but according to 9to5Mac this new spatial video capture will record in 1080p resolution at 30 frames per second. It also notes that a minute of spatial video footage could take up around 130MB of storage.
iOS Update 17.2
As mentioned above, with the official release of Apple’s Vision Pro only vaguely on the calendar for sometime in 2024, this update — if anything — could hint that the Vision Pro is coming out sooner rather than later. Also, it’s a bit odd for Apple, but this new beta update doesn’t appear to have too much else in it besides this spatial video capabilities.
If you do download the beta you’ll be able to start creating a library of spatial videos in anticipation of watching them later in actual 3D on the Vision Pro. However, for now all it’s really doing is recording 1080p 2D videos that are a giant size and probably not worth using for anything.
There’s also no official update as to when this beta will be pushed live, but we could expect the full version of iOS 17.2 to be ready for all iPhone owners here in the next month or two.
We're so close to everyone rocking the Vision Pro headsets!
The Future of 3D VR
At the end of the day, this should only really continue several of the on-going debates surrounding the Apple Vision Pro and its AR/VR and spatial video features. Who will actually use these things? Will the Apple Vision Pro save 3D movies? How the heck will the 3D keyboard actually work?
Hopefully we’ll be getting more answers here soon.
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- Apple Finally Releases Launch Date for its Vision Pro AR/VR Future ›
- Why Hasn’t The Apple Vision Pro Caught On With Filmmakers? | No Film School ›
