For James Hustler, recording immersive nature videos began as a passion project. He spent three years experimenting with custom camera rigs before figuring out the optimal way to capture the 180-degree, 16K video that his app, Explore POV, is known for.

The problem was, when Hustler first started recording, there wasn’t an easy way for people to view his videos.

The launch of Apple Vision Pro changed that. Hustler began coding Explore POV from scratch as a way to showcase his films. Nearly two years later, Hustler is now traveling the world to bring far-flung destinations a little closer for everyone in the Apple Vision Pro community.

Our earliest memory with Explore POV was escaping to a New Zealand beach for a few moments of serenity. The magic of the experience was about more than the shockingly vivid visuals and all-encompassing Spatial Audio—Explore POV somehow tricked our brain into believing we were really there. As we walked along the shore, waves splashing to our left, white sand to our right, we could almost feel the water under our feet and smell the salty air. When the video was over, it was our living room that felt foreign.

Over the past year, Explore POV had us hiking an alpine trail, drifting down the canals of Venice, and approaching the sika deer in Japan’s Nara Park. After taking dozens of globe-spanning excursions, our wanderlust has only grown.

What most surprised us is how Explore POV has sparked newfound curiosities. We found ourselves comparing Moroccan desert architecture to the stone houses on the English countryside, and we admired the differences between wildflowers from Switzerland and those in Indonesia. By letting us browse videos by landscape, country, and mood, Explore POV made it easy to zip around the world to follow our interests and, just as delightfully, discover new ones.

With new videos added throughout the month, Explore POV continued to expand its storytelling this year. The documentary Guardians of Tamatea tells a moving tale of conservationists in New Zealand. And we especially enjoyed Hustler’s behind-the-scenes (and envy-inducing) look at how he filmed a beach video in French Polynesia.

Most often, though, we fired up the app to journey to places we may never see in person. With incredible ease, Explore POV opened a portal to the world’s wonders, one breathtaking video at a time.

To get the most out of Explore POV’s videos, be sure to download them first. This maximizes the visual fidelity of the experience and allows you to watch when you’re offline.

The video Hustler recorded in French Polynesia was filmed with the Blackmagic URSA Cine, a groundbreaking camera built specifically for Apple Immersive Video. It allows video to be streamed over Wi-Fi at a higher resolution than previously possible.

Hustler, who had been traveling around New Zealand in a motor home, had no previous coding experience before launching Explore POV. After getting his Apple Vision Pro, he downloaded Xcode and taught himself Swift—and in six weeks he had a working app.