Coding without a laptop: Two weeks with AR glasses and Linux on Android

Glasses like these put the screen at a focal distance further than a monitor, closer to TV distance. Optics wise it’s basically the same as VR, if a VR headset is easier to try.

If your corrected vision needs stuff 6” away, don’t expect AR or VR to be a solution with current optics

Not an answer to your question, but re: monitor arms.. mine can be pulled out far enough it would touch my face. It mounts into a grommet drilled into my desk. I assume there's other reasons this isn't workable for you, but if it's for lack of finding a suitable arm, let me know and I'll find a link for you.

My other recommendation would be to consider a standing desk. Even if you prefer to use it sitting, you can tweak the desktop height to your liking and help mitigate the posture issue.

I have very high myopia (over -10) and share your concerns. I really wish these things were designed to cater to people for whom alternate display tech would actually simplify our lives.

So far I haven't seen anything that can deal with more than -8, and getting a custom prescription is usually prohibitively expensive. I can wear contacts to offset things somewhat, but they just cause added eyestrain.

You can use them just as a monitor/without AR - some require a special USB-C to DP cable if you don't have native USB-C video out (or Thunderbolt), but they are a bit blurry compared to normal screens for me. I'm not sure how well they'd work for you.

The other problem is they aren't quite up against your eyes the way VR headsets are. They project a screen that appears to be quite far away. I imagine you could lower the resolution though, and it might look closer.

Basically all XR devices put the focal plane at between 0.5 and 1m away. It’s a very very complicated reason why, but this is unlikely to change for a very long time.

if you are based in the USA, most stores have 30 day return policies. perhaps order them, try at home, and return if you they arent a fit for your situation

I bought this keyboard years ago and enjoyed using it for about a week. Then 3-5 keys stopped working entirely and nothing I did would fix them. Recall having a tough time getting a refund on Amazon.

Guess it's good to hear I must have had a dud.

> I have these same AR glasses and I really like them. The one downside is that they don't seem to handle heat too well--they'll crash if I run them in full sunlight for more than a few minutes.

Yup, I found laying my head on the left side where the cord comes it also causes them to overheat quick. My solution is to always lay on the right hand side of them and I actually put some stick on heatsinks on the left "leg" body that also really helps keep them more comfortably cool.

Also weird quirk with them and USB-C I've found.

If you plug them in to a macbook it's 50/50 if they work or just turn on the tint. If that happens, rotating the USB-C plug causes them to work.

You got them post-rebrand. If you shop by the old name "nReal" then you can find the non powered HDMI adapter. Also, the app is called nebula, but the motion control is just annoying and not worth it. I like mine, they work great, but the FOV is tiny, and all of the chirping about AR from influencers/media just doesn't help how underwhelming they are if you go in with those expectations rather than just a HMD.

https://www.amazon.com/Formerly-Connects-Lightning-Compatibl...

That's a great compliment; thank you.

As far as being outside, I imagine it's very dependent on personality. I often get restless and distracted working from home, and being outside or in a public space will help me feel a lot calmer and more focused. There's also a certain amount of intentionton it takes to "go to a specific place to do a specific thing" that helps me mentally.

It's not something I'm doing every day, but when the weather is beautiful and I'm feeling stuck behind a desk it's so nice to be able to work outside.

The exact same thing jumped out at me, for the opposite reason. I have unlimited data + tethering, so I can use my laptop with fast internet anywhere. That's the big breakthrough for me, not the glasses+phone combo.

Working in a park is amazing. You are still enjoying the ambience/vibe, but yeah, you're also writing a blog post or whatever. For me, that doesn't distract from the park or the productivity. They both enhance each other.

Same with a coffee shop -- this is why coffee shops have wifi passwords, because many people in there are on the internet, soaking up the ambience/vibe.

First thing I thought. If I go to a coffee shop or the park, it's because I want to enjoy that place, not do the same work I could do (better) at my desk. That's an aside, though, the OP's setup is really cool and intriguing.

I work in Quest 3 regularly and in a "normal" weather I like to work outside (in a safe environment aka backyard). It's just nice to have fresh air. But once I decided to work and sunbath on the balcony of the hotel in the Swiss Alps in a sunny spring day. It was lovely until sweating made the work really uncomfortable (but yet practically possible). :)

Can you explain why you don't think you would be productive outside?

So this is probably a silly question but… can’t you fool your eyes into focusing at any distance you want if you’ve got a stereo screen at a fixed distance (ie a headset)?

Isn’t this just a function of the parallax when rendering both screens?

IIRC: Like Google Glass and VR headsets, they use some optical tricks to focus at infinity.

So to your eyes you're focusing at an object 2-3+ meters away rather than 2-3 cm in reality.

Seriously. Why is using your own pocket computer so hostile to user intent these days?

> Tim Cook, I know what you know (and fear losing Mac sales to iPad and iPad sales to iPhone, so you want them nerfed), but this would make me upgrade my 2018 iPad Pro.

Can check out side-loading UTM using AltStore or a local dev account.

https://docs.getutm.app/installation/ios/

You do lose JIT support in newer iOS though.

I know this isn't what you're asking for - I wasn't either - but I found a used surface pro (arm or x86) is better for this use case than I imagined. They're so cheap used on eBay or FB marketplace that I think it's worth trying if you're already willing to buy a new iPad anyway.

I have two now - the SPX - they're ~$200 used, with LTE and 16GB of ram, and a SP8 - i5/16gb of ram ~$350 used from FB marketplace. The SP8 runs Fedora 40 and it's light enough that I just keep it in my backpack whether I'll need it that day or not.

Aren't there SSH clients for iOS? That should work for an emergency hotfix.

iSH sort of works as well as BlinkSSH for remote clients.