User Report - Apple Vision Pro with Devonthink

For those who like myself periodically travel and use Devonthink on a laptop for substantial document review - let me give a big +1 for Apple Vision Pro. I am finishing a 5-day business trip and the AVP was a huge help.

Initially I did not buy the AVP because it seemed focused mostly on video consumption but was not particularly useful for other types of work. The gamechanger was late last year when Apple introduced the Virtual Widescreen feature.

The AVP now functions as a monitor for my laptop; it projects an enormous widescreen monitor larger even than my field of view; all MacOS apps work directly on that projected virtual widescreen. Devonthink in particular is stunning because DT3/DT4 let you set up a window of any width and add as many columns as you wish.

The botttom line is that my laptop witih AVP is as useful/productive for me in a hotel as my 5-screen multi-monitor setup is at home. Admittedly at home I still prefer the actual monitors as I would prefer to not wear the AVP full-time; but when working in a hotel for a few days it is fine.

Note that DTTG does also work on the AVP; however if I have the option to use the full DT3/DT4 app I don’t see a need to use DTTG.

Note as well - there appear to be a good number of consumers who buy the AVP, decide it is not for them, and wind up selling them with very little wear. I was able to buy a used AVP on Ebay which included transfer of AppleCare, which made it basically minimal risk to buy it used but saved a considerable amount of money.

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Similar experience here; I also took the plunge after the Ultrawide option came in, and mainly use the AVP as an extended laptop monitor (extended further with SplitScreen and Universal Desktop, though both are a bit flaky), almost entirely with DT. There’s been so little action in the AVP space this year that second-hand prices are now extremely attractive, and continue to tumble.

The big limitation for me has been Apple’s fixation with width over height in the MacBook virtual display; when not on the road I’m used to a three-monitor setup in portrait orientation, which as yet the AVP options can’t match. But that’s partly solved by having DTTG open as well, in portrait orientation and maximum size, for those documents I really need the height on; this gives me the same basic view as a single portrait monitor.

I also make a lot of use of DT Server windows in browsers, though here again the AVP options tend to be a bit frugal in their window size limits; Lens is more generous than Safari here, but it insists on displaying Markdown in dark mode, which is a dealbreaker for me. If I don’t need DTTG open as well I work mostly in Passage, which has a basic browser that runs multiple DT Server windows well and can also host a MacBook virtual display once you’ve gone through the slightly fiddly setup. (This is your monthly reminder that DT Server functionality, which is massively improved in DT4, is fully unlocked in the DT4 betas until and unless you pay for a licence for a lower v4 version.)

My own experience with the AVP was that it took some experimentation, and additional outlay on third-party solutions, to find a comfortable weight distribution. I found this in the combination of a ResMed Kontor headstrap with an InfinityOne Air Cover 2.0 faceplate, which places no weight at all on the face below the forehead, and the InfinityOne significantly expands the field of view compared to the Apple lightshield (to which I’d never now go back). It’s possible InfinityOne (with whom I have no affiliation) may still be running their Reddit anniversary promo from a few weeks ago if you enter the code REDDIT at checkout.

The other big discovery from using the InfinityOne (to fit which you remove the side plates from the AVP using a SIM card removal tool, aka posh paperclip) is how portable the AVP is when dismantled; it literally slips in a pocket, though the 3D-printed Air Cover itself is a bit too awkwardly shaped for that even without its removable side shades. I’ve also ditched the Apple cover for a cheap silicone slip-over screen protector, which stays on all the time.

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