Shortly before The Verge published its review of the Apple Vision Pro, I put it on to sit for some photos. The review unit had been fitted for our editor-in-chief Nilay Patel, but I’d worn it a few times as a guest and had a surprisingly good experience. That afternoon, though, I foolishly decided to skip the typical guest setup, which involves about a minute of calibration for the Vision Pro’s eye-tracking cameras. I put the thing on, and it didn’t work at all.
Technology
Why does Apple make it so hard to share the Vision Pro?
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25255207/246965_vision_pro_VPavic_0081.jpg?ssl=1 "Why does Apple make it so hard to share the Vision Pro?")
The Vision Pro’s cameras, I quickly realized, were expecting somebody else’s eyes. The cursor darted around wildly or refused to move. It wasn’t an unexpected outcome, but it drove home an inconvenient fact: not only would I need to go through the setup again, I’d need to do it every time I wanted to use the headset.
As The Verge has covered the Vision Pro’s release, we’ve run into multiple ways that Apple hamstrings device sharing, from not supporting multiple accounts to making the process of buying extra parts a pain. This isn’t just a computer you use alone, it’s apparently one you own alone — for reasons that seem unnecessary at best and user-unfriendly at worst.
Despite its solitary reputation, the Vision Pro has obvious multiuser appeal
To set the stage here, I want to make a slightly counterintuitive claim: the Vision Pro, despite its solitary reputation, feels built for sharing. In its bulky, expensive first-generation form, it isn’t something most people will want to wear or carry around all day. Its clearest use is either as a special-purpose tool for tasks like 3D design, or as a personal entertainment device, like a virtual TV set-top box or game console. These are exactly the kinds of products that might often be used by one person at a time, but tend to be owned across a household — or workplace — and frequently passed around.
The Vision Pro’s hardware facilitates this surprisingly well. Unlike some VR headsets, the device’s Solo Knit Band is adjusted with a single simple-to-use dial; there’s no need to change the sizing by readjusting awkward velcro straps. Changing the bands is also easy, if needed. It requires a light seal that’s fitted to your face — and there are a whopping 17 possible sizes — but that’s attached with a simple-to-swap magnetic snap. There’s even a simple biometric login option: the face-tracking cameras mounted inside.
It’s easy to imagine a world where this translates into making the Vision Pro more valuable as a multiuser device. Like a lot of people, I tend to share electronics — my criteria for a good entertainment device include whether my husband will use it, too. I don’t see myself wearing the Vision Pro all day for work, but I could imagine putting one on for a couple of hours to play VR / AR games, then handing it off so he can watch TV on a virtual big screen after I fall asleep. Yet the Vision Pro feels designed to undermine that fantasy at every turn.
The most obvious problem is the lack of multiple accounts or profiles. The Vision Pro allows precisely one person to have a permanent account tied to their Apple ID. That’s similar to the iPad and iPhone, but unlike nearly every other computing device in my household, from my Android phone to my MacBook to my husband’s humble Nintendo Switch. Even the Meta Quest system, which tied hardware to personal Facebook or Meta logins a few years ago, lets you swap between up to four accounts!
On the iPhone, the single-user setup is annoying for privacy and customization reasons, but makes a good deal of sense. The lack of multiple user support on the iPad makes far less sense — we have complained about it for years — but at least some iPads are relatively inexpensive.
This headset is $3,499 and only one person in a household can use it fully
The Vision Pro is $3,499 and only one person in your household can ever use it fully, which makes no sense at all. The privacy issues are technically there on the Vision Pro — letting anyone else use it without setting restrictions in guest mode grants them access to everything you’ve got on the headset, including your messages. But as my experience demonstrates, they may not even be able to use it well enough to get that far. You can start a guest session by holding the Vision Pro’s left-side hardware button for four seconds, but you can’t store a second user’s information so they can log in quickly next time without calibration. Basically, imagine if every time you passed an iPad to somebody else in your family, they had to spend a minute poking colored dots.
Then there’s the matter of getting an extra light seal. As I mentioned, I felt fine using a Vision Pro not fitted for me, but others have had problems. Verge product manager Parker Ortolani, for instance, found the Vision Pro with Nilay’s seal size too small and said it leaked light into his eyes. An extra seal costs $199, and you can only buy it one of two ways: ordering online and scanning your face with a Face ID-equipped iOS device, or going in person to an Apple Store and getting a scan done there. Verge video director Owen Grove tried the latter, and his experience wasn’t great.
“I needed to set up an appointment for [a] demo I didn’t want to just buy an extra light seal,” Owen told me. He’d called beforehand to confirm the seals’ availability, only to discover after the half-hour demo that most were sold out, including his size, which the store told him to buy online instead. In general, not being able to simply buy a few different sizes and figure out what works best is inherently limiting for a single user — and makes it almost impossible to share with a few people in a family or workplace.
Things get even more complicated if one or more potential users wears glasses, although this feels like more of an inherent inconvenience than a deliberate roadblock. The Vision Pro uses Zeiss-made prescription lens inserts, which require initial pairing with a passcode stored in Apple’s Health app or a physical card. On the bright side, the interface lets you store multiple lens pairings, so it doesn’t seem like you have to do this every time.
Some of these annoyances might get ironed out over time, as Apple has removed other awkward Vision Pro design quirks with software updates. The company is clearly trying to familiarize people with a new class of computer, and right now that means controlling the experience as closely as possible. If the Vision Pro sees any level of success, things like the demo requirement could fade away. Apple may roll out more options specifically for business or education customers, too, like the Shared iPad feature that allows for some multiuser support.
But Apple has also held fast to the idea that its devices are made for just one person, and with the Vision Pro, it can enforce that idea in ways it couldn’t before. Even as the hardware gets cheaper and more streamlined, it could easily insist on a fundamentally single-user experience — and that’s a shame, when the Vision Pro seems built for so much more.
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Apple’s big developer conference is today, and protesters are using the occasion to call on the company to remove “nudify apps” from the App Store and pull “known” child sexual abuse material from iCloud.
Outside the visitors center at Apple’s Cupertino campus, protesters have put up a large sign saying “Apple is powered by child sexual abuse” and asking incoming CEO John Ternus, “What will you do?” The protesters come from UltraViolet, a women’s advocacy group, and Heat Initiative, a group that aims to “hold tech companies accountable for enabling and profiting from child sexual abuse.”
Apple and Google came under significant scrutiny earlier this year for continuing to keep apps like xAI’s Grok on their app stores even though users were able to make nonconsensual sexualized deepfakes. In pamphlets distributed at the protest, the organizations say that “at least 47 nudify apps have been found on Apple’s App Store” and that “Apple has made an estimated $117 million minimum from nudify apps,” including “an estimated $35+ million from Grok alone,” citing data from the Tech Transparency Project. UltraViolet also has a website dedicated to its protest today.
Apple previously scrapped plans to scan photos saved to iCloud for child sexual abuse imagery over privacy concerns.
Apple didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.
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You fire up your VPN, connect to a server and pull up the streaming service or website you were trying to reach. A few seconds later, you see the dreaded message: blocked. So you try again. Still blocked. Then you switch servers. Same result.
If this sounds familiar, you are not alone. VPN blocking has become much more aggressive over the past few years. The old VPN tricks that once worked reliably no longer always get the job done.
The good news is that there is usually one specific reason your VPN keeps failing. Even better, most people never think to address it.
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STUCK BEHIND A VPN WALL? LET’S FIND A WAY AROUND IT
A VPN with modern protocols, obfuscation and DNS leak protection can help users avoid blocked connections and protect privacy. (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)
Why your VPN keeps getting blocked by websites
Platforms block VPNs in a couple of main ways. The most common method is IP address detection. VPN providers use large pools of IP addresses. However, over time, those addresses get flagged and added to blocklists.
That creates a cat-and-mouse game. Cheaper VPNs often lose that fight because they do not have the resources to rotate and refresh their IP pools often enough.
Beyond IP detection, some websites and networks use deep packet inspection, also known as DPI. This technology can identify VPN traffic even when the IP address itself has not been flagged yet.
Corporate networks, schools and countries with heavy internet restrictions often rely on this method. It can even catch some respected VPN services off guard.
Premium VPN providers avoid many of these issues because the service is built around a more advanced protocol that addresses the problem closer to the source.
Quick checks before you blame your VPN
Before you assume your VPN has failed, try a few simple checks. First, close and reopen the app or browser you are using. Then, make sure your VPN app is updated because older versions may not handle blocked networks as well.
THIS CHROME VPN EXTENSION SECRETLY SPIES ON YOU
Also, check whether your browser has location permissions turned on. If a website can access your device location, it may still figure out where you are, even while your VPN is connected.
The VPN fix most people miss
Here is where most people go wrong. When their VPN gets blocked, they do the obvious thing. They switch servers. Sometimes that works for a little while. However, if the real issue is DPI rather than IP blacklisting, changing servers will not solve the problem. That is because the traffic pattern itself gives you away.
The fix is obfuscation. In other words, your VPN needs to disguise its traffic so it looks like regular web browsing instead of VPN activity. Surprisingly, many VPN users have never heard of obfuscation. Even some VPN providers do not make it easy to use.
Obfuscated servers make your VPN traffic look like ordinary HTTPS web traffic. To a network monitoring tool or a streaming platform’s detection system, your connection looks like a regular browser session. There is no obvious VPN fingerprint to flag.
Obfuscation can help VPN traffic look like ordinary web browsing, reducing the chances that websites or networks will block the connection. (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)
A premium VPN handles this automatically. Its Lightway protocol is built with obfuscation in mind and adapts depending on the network you are using. You do not have to dig through settings or manually turn anything on.
If a network is aggressively blocking VPN traffic, Lightway adjusts to help get around it without making you do the hard work.
IS YOUR VPN ENOUGH WITHOUT ANTIVIRUS PROTECTION?
Why DNS leaks can expose your real location
There is one more thing worth checking: your Domain Name System (DNS) settings. Even when your VPN connection is active, DNS leaks can reveal your real location. A DNS leak happens when your device sends domain name requests outside the encrypted VPN tunnel. That means websites may see your actual internet provider and location, even though your IP address appears to be somewhere else.
In other words, your VPN may look connected, but part of your browsing activity may still be pointing back to your real internet provider.
Here is the simple way to check:
- Connect to your VPN.
- Open a browser and go to a trusted DNS leak test site.
- Run the test.
- Look at the results. If you see your regular internet provider, your VPN may be leaking DNS requests. If you see your VPN provider’s servers or a location tied to the VPN server, that is what you want.
You may also want to run a WebRTC leak test, especially if you use Chrome, Edge or Firefox. WebRTC is a browser feature that can sometimes reveal your real IP address. To check, stay connected to your VPN, open a WebRTC leak test page and look for your real public IP address. If your real IP appears, your browser may be leaking identifying information.
A premium VPN routes DNS queries through its own encrypted servers and includes built-in DNS leak protection. As a result, most users do not need to troubleshoot this manually. Still, running a quick leak test gives you peace of mind that your VPN is doing what it should.
Why choosing the right VPN makes a difference
Free VPNs and many budget options often share server infrastructure. That means their IP addresses can get flagged and blacklisted quickly.
Their servers may also be overcrowded. Their protocols may be outdated. Many also lack meaningful obfuscation, which leaves your VPN traffic easier to detect.
A premium VPN maintains thousands of servers across 110+ countries and works to keep those servers accessible, even on networks that try hard to block VPN traffic. It also offers a 30-day money-back guarantee, so you can try it and see whether it solves the blocking issues you keep running into.
ROUTER VPNS VS DEVICE VPNS: WHICH PRIVACY SOLUTION IS BEST FOR YOU?
Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson types on a laptop while explaining how shared VPN IPs can trigger blocks by banks, email providers and streaming sites, and how a dedicated IP can prevent this. (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)
What this means to you
If your VPN keeps getting blocked, the problem may go deeper than the server you picked. The website, streaming platform or network may be detecting the way your VPN traffic looks.
That is why obfuscation can make such a big difference. It helps your connection blend in with regular web traffic, which can reduce the chances of being flagged.
DNS leak protection also helps because your location can still slip through if your device sends requests outside the VPN tunnel.
In other words, a stronger VPN can help you stay connected, private and secure with far less frustration.
For the best VPN software, see my expert review of the best VPNs for browsing the web privately on your Windows, Mac, Android and iOS devices at CyberGuy.com.
Kurt’s key takeaways
When your VPN keeps getting blocked, switching servers may feel like the easiest fix. Sometimes it works for a short time. However, it often acts more like a temporary patch than a real solution. The better answer is to use a VPN with modern protocols, obfuscation and strong DNS leak protection. That combination helps hide the telltale signs that make websites and networks block VPN traffic in the first place. With a premium VPN, that technology works behind the scenes. You connect through the app, and the VPN handles the harder technical work for you. The result is a simpler experience: a more private, secure and open internet without constantly fighting blocked connections.
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We’ve seen Axiom Space and Prada’s collaboration on the Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit (AxEMU) spacesuit. Now the company has revealed the Liquid Cooling and Ventilation Garment (LCVG) that astronauts will wear underneath it when Artemis IV returns humans to the Moon in 2028.
The LCVG is the all-important base layer that will keep the crew cool and comfortable while inside the AxEMU and on spacewalks. Cold water is circulated through tubes embedded in the suit to whisk heat away from astronauts’ bodies. And, should the primary system fail, there is a backup, unlike older cooling suits. The LCVG also houses the ventilation system that supplies fresh oxygen to the AxEMU helmet and directs exhaled CO2 to a scrubber for recirculation.
The collaboration between Axiom Space and Prada isn’t the first time NASA has gotten involved with a project that blended high-tech materials and manufacturing with high-fashion design. It also funded the BioSuit concept created by MIT professor Dava Newman with help from renowned architect Guillermo Trotti.
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