Adobe Firefly comes to the Apple Vision Pro – and it's a wild mashup of AI art and AR
Wrap-around panoramas and more are en route
The Apple Vision Pro blends virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), with the latter feature enabling it to superimpose digital elements on top of the real world. Now, Adobe has just revealed a great way to use its artificial intelligence (AI) image generator Firefly AI to spruce up your environment while wearing Apple’s headset.
According to an Adobe press release (via The Verge), Firefly AI is available as a native visionOS app, meaning it’s been custom-made for Apple’s device. When you install it on the Vision Pro, you’ll be able to enter a prompt for the image generator – such as “a set of ancient Greek ruins against a moonlit sky,” for example – and see the results in augmented reality.
Better yet, Firefly AI will let you pin the resulting images around your environment. That could be a great way to get some virtual wall art and perhaps see how an image might look in various locations around your home. That might make it a great tool to use before you start a spot of home improvement or to plan out how you should decorate your home.
Adobe also said that it is working on an upcoming feature that will be able to create “wrap-around panoramas, 360-degree environments and more” for the Vision Pro. While the company didn’t provide any more information, it sounds like an intriguing use case for Apple’s headset.
Adobe Lightroom on Vision Pro
Aside from Firefly AI, Adobe also revealed that its popular Lightroom image-editing app would also be coming to visionOS. Compared to the Mac version, the native visionOS app has a cleaner interface (much like Lightroom’s iPad edition), which should make it easier to use with the Vision Pro’s hand gestures.
These two apps from Adobe add to the growing list of native visionOS apps that are available on day one. Apple recently explained that there are over 600 native visionOS apps ready to go, and with the Vision Pro officially launching in the U.S. today, it’s likely that many more apps will follow over the coming weeks and months.
That said, we can imagine that image editing on the Vision Pro might take its toll, given that it can be quite an involved task that requires plenty of concentration. According to a recent study out of Stanford University (via AppleInsider), extended use of headsets like the Vision Pro could lead to notable real-world side effects, such as simulator sickness and depth-perception problems.
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So, while these new apps from Adobe could be a great way to while away the hours on the Vision Pro, it’s probably best not to spend too long using them. Then again, with the Vision Pro’s battery only lasting two hours at a time, perhaps the risk is low at the moment.
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Alex Blake has been fooling around with computers since the early 1990s, and since that time he's learned a thing or two about tech. No more than two things, though. That's all his brain can hold. As well as TechRadar, Alex writes for iMore, Digital Trends and Creative Bloq, among others. He was previously commissioning editor at MacFormat magazine. That means he mostly covers the world of Apple and its latest products, but also Windows, computer peripherals, mobile apps, and much more beyond. When not writing, you can find him hiking the English countryside and gaming on his PC.