Todd Heberlein

Remnants, a 27-minute ghost story directed by Ti West, is coming to Apple Immersive Video next Friday (Oct. 16). FYI: Ti West directed an episode of Widow's Bay too.

3 Sept

One of the coolest features of the Apple Vision Pro is seeing panoramic photos wrapped around you. Suddenly, the panorama feature on iPhone's Camera app made sense. I've added the feature to the SceneScapes iPhone/iPad app Below are screenshots from the Apple Vision Pro and the iPad #applevisionpro

apps.apple.comSceneScapes App - App StoreDownload SceneScapes by NetSQ, LLC on the App Store. See screenshots, ratings and reviews, user tips, and more apps like SceneScapes.

3 Sept

The panorama feature is free. I've included some of my own panoramas, some panoramas from the Apollo landings, and one from Mars. And, of course, you can view any of your own panoramas from your photo library It's still cooler on the Vision Pro, but hope you enjoy it apps.apple.com/us/app/scene...

24 Aug

This opening sunset scene in Spatial Film's latest Apple Immersive Video is amazing! #AppleVisionPro

11 Aug

I have to create video tutorials, but I don't like my own voice. This week I used @elevenlabs.io voice changer to shift my voice performance. Here is a 40-second sample video shifting between my original voice and two Eleven Labs' voices. (enable audio)

toddheberlein.comChoose Your Voice — Todd HeberleinVoice changing services can give your recording a new voice. It is still your voice performance, but it sounds different. This post has a short tutorial for Ennetix xTend in three different voices.

11 Aug

For the full-length tutorial video (a short 2 1/2 minutes) in each of the voices, see my blog post: www.toddheberlein.com/blog/2026/8/...

spatialinsiders.comApple Is Bringing Live Immersive MLB Games to Vision ProFour Friday Night Baseball games will stream live in Apple Immersive on Vision Pro, beginning August 28 with Red Sox–Yankees.

10 Aug

Apple continues to lean into sports experiences for Apple Vision Pro. First game is in 2.5 weeks. Apple Is Bringing Live Immersive MLB Games to Vision Pro spatialinsiders.com/stories/frid...

5 Aug

Recent study of 16 surgeries using Apple Vision Pro in surgeries. Operative time was about 19% shorter with the AVP Surgeons reported improved comfort and a more neutral head and neck posture with AVP All five surgeons favored the AVP

sciencedirect.comApple Vision Pro as a wearable display for endoscopic dacryocystorhinostomy: Surgical experience, efficiency, and costTo evaluate the Apple Vision Pro (AVP), a wearable spatial computing headset, as the primary intraoperative display for endoscopic dacryocystorhinosto…

5 Aug

Source: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

gamesbeat.comElectronic Arts sold for $55B as Saudi-led coalition completes dealEnding a long era for gaming, Electronic Arts announced today it was acquired for $55 billion by a Saudi-led consortium.

4 Aug

Electronic Arts, Blizzard, Activision, Bethesda, Bungie, ... I feel so many gaming companies from ~20 years ago have been swallowed by giant corporations or private equity over the years. Feels kind of sad. gamesbeat.com/electronic-a...

toddheberlein.comTelling the Story of a DNS DDoS Attack — Todd HeberleinI want/need to change my voice for presentations and eventually immersive storytelling, but I still want to capture my own voice performance. This post describes the process I used for creating a vide...

20 July

Blog post that manages to combine ElevenLabs' voice changer, an explanation of a 20-year old cyberattack that is still extremely common, and plans for immersive storytelling. www.toddheberlein.com/blog/2026/7/...

bloomberg.comApple’s M6, M7 and M8 Chips Show How AI Is Reshaping the CompanyAlso: New Apple Pencils are coming.

12 July

Nice summary by Gurman: "The AI hardware effort originally intended to power a self-driving car is now shaping Macs and AI servers. In the end, one of Apple’s costliest failures may be seen as one of its most consequential technology investments."

Mark Gurman@markgurman.bsky.social

Power On: Apple’s Mac chip shake-up around the M6, M7, M7 Pro, M7 Max, M7 Ultra and M8 show how AI is continuing to reshape the company. New details on Apple’s chip plans. www.bloomberg.com/news/newslet...

9 June

When Apple announced the Apple Vision Pro, I started taking panoramic photos. Panos are great in the Photos app, but in visionOS 27 you can use them as your environment while using other apps. Video shows a photo from my Moroccan vacation while watching a trailer for Lawrence of Arabia in Apple TV.

7 June

Last immersive website environment for Safari in Apple Vision Pro before WWDC - a ship (that may look vaguely familiar) approaches Mars. If you have a Vision Pro, link to the website to experience this is below.

toddheberlein.comship approaches mars — Todd HeberleinShip approaches Mars

7 June

Website with the immersive environment for Apple Vision Pro: www.toddheberlein.com/scenes/shipa...

Less than a week before WWDC, and Ming-Chi Kuo drops this on the Apple Vision Pro line. I hope Apple provides encouragement at WWDC that visionOS is still a major part of their roadmap.

Source: x.com/mingchikuo/s...

TIL if you have your Mac file system synced to iCloud and you create a directory named "tmp" or "Tmp" anywhere under ~/Documents, neither it nor any content below it will be synced to iCloud.

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For the technical geeks, you can also validate this programmatically by getting the path's URLResourceValues and check its ubiquitousItemIsExcludedFromSync value. You can also programmatically set a directory not to be synced by setting its ubiquitousItemIsExcludedFromSync property to true.

Relatedly, you can set isExcludedFromBackup property to true to prevent files from being backed up by Time Machine. Although, Apple's docs says the "value exists only to provide guidance to the system", so like the Pirate Code, "It's more of a guideline than a rule."

TIL if you have your Mac file system synced to iCloud and you create a directory named "tmp" or "Tmp" anywhere under ~/Documents, neither it nor any content below it will be synced to iCloud.

That could come as a bad surprise if you set up a new machine and just assume it can access all the files you've placed in ~/Documents.

2 June

This was an incredibly touching and informative conversation. Certainly if you are in the AR/VR space I encourage you to listen. But even if you are an entrepreneur or an aspiring entrepreneur, you should check it out. The story of Rec Room as a business is fascinating all by itself.

Kent Bye (Voices of VR)@kentbye.com

RIP Rec Room. 2016-2026. A bit of a shame to see another UGC-driven social VR app shut down. Export tools were recently provided to makers, but hoping to see more open source / open standards in XR in the future. My chat with Shawn Whiting reflecting on what happened: voicesofvr.com/1719-rip-rec...

27 May

Created another website environment for Safari in Apple Vision Pro. Video shows the environment with me watching the trailer for the Dungeons & Dragons movie on YouTube. If you have a Vision Pro, link to the page is below.

toddheberlein.comDungeon 1 — Todd HeberleinDungeon website environment

27 May

Web page with the environment and instructions on how to use it. www.toddheberlein.com/scenes/dunge...

16 May

Looking forward to this book next week. NeXT computers (And NextStep) were just as advanced as the Apple Vision Pro (and visionOS) is today. I loved my NeXTStation like I love my Apple Vision Pro today. 30+ years later, NextStep lives on in macOS, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS.

6 May

Walking into the house today after 2+ weeks of vacation/adventure, and all our Apple devices joining the Wi-Fi like they are new devices. Welcome home Apple devices.

15 Apr

First attempt to simulate orbiting the Moon (I might have been inspired by Artemis II 😃) in a website environment for the Apple Vision Pro. #AppleVisionPro

toddheberlein.commoon — Todd HeberleinMoon website environment

15 Apr

For those wanting to give it a try in their Apple Vision Pro headset, here is the web page with the environment. It takes about 3 minutes to complete the orbit. www.toddheberlein.com/scenes/moon

blackmagicdesign.comBlackmagic URSA Cine Immersive | Blackmagic Design

14 Apr

With 3rd party Apple Immersive Videos coming out, and Blackmagic now shipping a live version of their camera (used for the Lakers games), I expect Apple to give this a some time at WWDC. www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/bla...

Todd Heberlein reposted

John Scalzi

@scalzi.com

13 Apr

GenX, pour one out for one of the architects of our childhood www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/s...

hollywoodreporter.comSid Krofft, Co-Creator of Mind-Blowing Kids TV Shows, Dies at 96The puppeteer and his late brother Marty partnered on 'The Banana Splits Adventure Hour,' 'H.R. Pufnstuf,' 'Land of the Lost' and much more.

6 Apr

YouTube in Safari in full screen mode in Apple Vision Pro is great! And since it is Safari, you can create your own environments to watch YouTube in. This weekend's environment is an empty cafe in a starfield. #AppleVisionPro

26 Mar

First symphony performance in Apple Immersive Video drops this Friday (which often means Thursday night PT). #AppleVisionPro

25 Mar

With visionOS 26.4, Safari has a new advanced feature flag called Immersive <model> API Anyone know what it is for?

25 Mar

FYI on website environments for Apple Vision Pro 1) Updating to visionOS 26.4 will disable the feature. You need to reenable it in Settings > Apps > Safari > Advanced > Feature Flags 2) The "Website environments" switch has moved from the top and into the long list of switches below.

20 Mar

Trench Cafe - website environment for Apple Vision Pro. Website environments is an amazing feature in visionOS 26

toddheberlein.comTrench Cafe — Todd HeberleinTrench cafe website environment

20 Mar

If you have an Apple Vision Pro, you can experience the scene here: www.toddheberlein.com/scenes/trenc...

apple.comiPhone and iPad approved to handle classified NATO informationToday, Apple announced iPhone and iPad are the first and only consumer devices in compliance with information assurance requirements of NATO nations.

26 Feb

iPhone and iPad approved to handle classified NATO information without requiring special software or settings. #cybersecurity www.apple.com/newsroom/202...

9 Feb

Wrapping up the weekend Apple Vision Pro project. Still very much a work in progress, but it was fun to see the TIE fighters at full scale. The video is just YouTube.

9 Feb

If you have website environments enabled in Safari in visionOS, you can check out this initial draft here: www.toddheberlein.com/trench-cafe

toddheberlein.comSurely, someone else will report that terrible bug — Todd HeberleinI thought, “Surely, someone else will report these terrible bugs. I’ll just wait for a future macOS update.” I’m still waiting.

4 Feb

I expected someone else to file the bug reports and for Apple to fix them. That didn't happen. www.toddheberlein.com/blog/2026/2/...

3 Feb

Moon through the fog this morning.

arstechnica.comHere's why Blue Origin just ended its suborbital space tourism programThis program has laid the groundwork for our company's future success."

30 Jan

I remember the excitement around the 1996 launch of original X Prize (later renamed the Ansari X Prize) and when it was won in 2004. Space tourism for the masses seemed right around the corner. 21 years later, it seems that dream has died. arstechnica.com/space/2026/0...

21 Jan

Wow, Apple has a lot of network service outages right now (6:56 pm PT). I don't think I've seen this much color on their system status page before.

19 Jan

At WWDC this June, Apple should introduce their visionOS section with, "We are continuing to invest heavily in spatial computing, and we are inspired by the all the creative ways people are using our platforms."

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24 Dec 2025

Alex Lindsay announced on MacBreak Weekly that he is going to work for Apple's Developer Relations. He will be the Partnership Manager for the 3D ecosystem. This is good news for those of us in the visionOS & RealityKit space but sad news for those of us who watch/listen to MacBreak Weekly.

20 Dec 2025

On this day in history: Hitler released from prison for conspiracy to overthrow the government. A "tamed" Hitler looked "sadder and wiser". Authorities believed Hitler "was no longer to be feared" and "he will retire to private life."

7 Dec 2025

Die Hard - officially a Christmas movie 😄

Merriam-Webster@merriam-webster.com

die-hard | adjective | strongly or fanatically determined or devoted Die Hard | noun | a Christmas movie

5 Dec 2025

So Santa has reindeer named “Thunder” and “Lightning”, along with “Cupid”, the Roman god of erotic love, and “Vixen”, a sexually attractive woman. Santa, I’m seeing you in a whole new light.

Merriam-Webster@merriam-webster.com

Lastly, we get to ‘Donner’ and ‘Blitzen.’ ‘Donner’ was originally ‘Donder,’ which is Standard Dutch meaning “thunder.” ‘Blitzen’ comes from the Standard Dutch ‘bliksem,’ which means “lightning.” We've always thought these two were the bad boys of the sleigh.

5 Dec 2025

New Apple Immersive Video has dropped. World of Red Bull. The videography is amazing - so crisp and clear with great slow motion. The scenery is amazing. It is the perfect example of taking you to a place you may never go. The skiers are fricken crazy.