Meta is holding its annual Connect developers conference next week, and it’s going to showcase a bunch of expected and perhaps some surprise new VR and AR hardware — alongside what might be a heavy Meta AI showcase featuring the company’s newest Llama large language model and image generator in apps like WhatsApp.
Technology
The cheaper Quest 3S, AI, smart glasses and everything else to expect
It used to go by at least two different names — Oculus Connect and then Facebook Connect — but whatever the moniker, Meta’s fall event is still a big showcase for the company’s latest and greatest achievements in the virtual reality and mixed reality space. Much like last year, we can likely predict the biggest news coming out of Meta Connect 2024 with just two acronyms: AI and AR.
Like every other big tech firm this year, Meta will be desperate to demonstrate how it plans to stay relevant in a future powered by AI. And now that we’re seven months beyond the launch of Apple’s Vision Pro, which arrived alongside a short-lived spike in interest in augmented reality (AR), Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is likely eager to show off his own plans to make AR a reality.
While Zuckerberg isn’t as hot on the metaverse as he was when he renamed his company, the union of AI and AR is one way he can still make the dream of persistent virtual worlds come true. It might look less like Ready Player One, but if AR glasses actually take off, they could still let Meta control another piece of our digital world. And to help get them there, delivering an updated inexpensive VR headset couldn’t hurt.
With all of that in mind, here are a few things we expect to see at Meta Connect 2024, which kicks off virtually on September 25 and runs for two days.
Orion AR glasses
After reportedly killing a pricey next-generation mixed reality headset, which was meant to compete with the Apple Vision Pro, Meta is instead focusing on a pair of augmented reality glasses, codenamed Orion, as its next innovation. As seen in the background of one Mark Zuckerberg photo (above), and later somewhat confirmed by him, Orion resembles a pair of chunky hipster frames.
Unlike the Quest 3, which fully consumes your vision and uses cameras to show you a low-quality view of the world, Orion could let you see the real world like a normal pair of glasses. But, like Magic Leap and Microsoft’s HoloLens before it, Meta’s glasses could layer holographic imagery on top of your reality. The key difference, of course, is that it appears to be far less cumbersome than those devices.
“The glasses are, I think, going to be a big deal,” Zuckerberg said in an interview on the Blueprint Podcast (via RoadtoVR). “We’re almost ready to start showing the prototype version of the full holographic glasses. We’re not going to be selling it broadly; we’re focused on building the full consumer version rather than selling the prototype.”
Back at Meta Connect 2022, Zuckerberg showed off how the company was thinking of AR glasses, together with an intriguing wrist-based controller:
“It’s probably our most exciting prototype that we’ve had to date,” Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth told The Verge last year. “I might get myself in trouble for saying this: I think it might be the most advanced piece of technology on the planet in its domain. In the domain of consumer electronics, it might be the most advanced thing that we’ve ever produced as a species.”
According to a leaked Meta roadmap, the company plans to release a new pair of Ray-Ban smart glasses next year which would add a small built-in screen alongside its existing camera, speaker and microphone. That would be followed by Meta’s first pair of consumer AR glasses in 2027. It makes sense that we’ll see some sort of concept device this year. Much like Apple’s Vision Pro was effectively that company’s version of an AR/VR concept car to introduce developers to its notion of “spatial computing,” Meta will need to give developers a way to use its platform so they can build their own AR experiences. Competitor Snap just debuted its fifth-generation AR Spectacles, and this version is oriented at developers (with a $99/month subscription fee).
A cheaper Quest 3 variant
Instead of an upgraded headset, all signs point to Meta releasing a stripped-down version of the Quest 3 called the Quest 3S, reports Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. Recent leaked images from Meta’s own Quest Link application has confirmed the headset’s existence. According to Gurman, the company is aiming to make it much cheaper than the current version, reportedly considering price points of $300 or $400, while still delivering an experience close to the Quest 3.
The latest leak suggests it’ll start at just $299. A user shared a clip of an Amazon ad reportedly shown on Peacock that features the Quest 3S, complete with a price and storage (h/t ). Per the ad, the 128GB Quest 3S will cost $299, but there may be other storage options as well. It could potentially replace the Quest 2, which remains in the product line priced at $299 long after its 2020 release.
So why would Meta do this? There’s a huge performance gap between the Quest 3 and Quest 2, which makes life difficult for developers. With a cheaper device that’s similar to the Quest 3, potentially using the same processor, it would be easier to build games that can scale across two price points. According to Bloomberg’s Gurman, Meta has also considered releasing some models of the new headset without any bundled controllers, which would push the price down even further.
More AI, of course
Expect Meta to show off even more ways it’s taking advantage of AI across its Quest headsets and the Ray-Ban smart glasses. The company rolled out multi-modal AI search capabilities on those glasses in January, which allowed you to ask the Meta AI about objects or landmarks you were looking at, or for a quick translation. Based on our testing, though, those features were surprisingly half-baked.
Meta will likely discuss ways it’s improving those existing features by implementing its Llama 3.1 large language model (LLM), which it’s positioning as an open source competitor to Google and OpenAI’s LLMs. In particular, the company notes that Llama 3.1 offers dramatically improved translation, math and general knowledge capabilities. There’s certainly room for Meta to introduce new AI capabilities powered by Llama 3.1 in the Ray-Ban smart glasses, but given their limited processing power and battery life, we’ll probably have to wait for an updated model before we see anything truly groundbreaking.
Karissa Bell contributed to this report.
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X is reportedly reversing course after weeks of refusing to comply with conditions set by the Brazilian Supreme Court that would allow it to operate in the country again. According to , the company’s lawyers said in a Friday court filing that X has named a legal representative in Brazil as demanded by justice Alexandre de Moraes and removed accounts that the judge had identified as a threat to democracy, along with paying the fines it owed. But, the publication also reports that the Brazil Supreme Court has said X did not submit all the necessary paperwork, and now has five days to do so.
The paperwork X failed to submit is that which would prove it formally appointed a legal representative in Brazil, as required by Brazilian law, according to . X named Rachel de Oliveira Conceicao as its new legal representative in the filing on Friday. The company has been working to restore service to users in Brazil after it was blocked at the end of August, and briefly came back online earlier this week using Cloudflare’s DNS. But, it said that this was “inadvertent and temporary.” In a statement, at the time, “While we expect the platform to be inaccessible again in Brazil soon, we continue efforts to work with the Brazilian government to return very soon for the people of Brazil.”
Brazil has of nearly $1 million if they do not comply with the ban in the country. Justice Moraes also made it so users in Brazil could be fined roughly $8,900 to access X. The company’s latest move is a step toward resolving the issue and potentially bringing X back to Brazil legally.
One of India’s largest startups, budget hotel company Oyo, has reached a deal to acquire G6 Hospitality, which operates Motel 6.
Oyo says it will pay Blackstone Real Estate $525 million in an all-cash transaction. The acquisition also includes the Studio 6 extended stay brand and is expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year.
The Indian startup opened its first U.S. location in 2019 and now operates more than 320 hotels across 35 states. Oyo is dramatically expanding its North American footprint by acquiring Motel 6 — arguably the best-known budget hotel brand in the country, with a franchise network of around 1,500 locations in the United States and Canada.
“This acquisition is a significant milestone for a startup company like us to strengthen our international presence,” said Oyo International CEO Gautum Swaroop in a statement. He added that Motel 6 will “continue to operate as a separate entity.”
Founded in 2012, SoftBank-backed Oyo’s was valued at $10 billion in 2019, but has struggled in recent years due to pandemic-related challenges, as well as criticism over practices such as offering rooms from unavailable or unlicensed hotels.
Over the summer, TechCrunch reported on a new funding round that saw the company’s valuation fall to $2.5 billion — less than its total capital raised. (Oyo has denied reporting about its lowered valuation.)
Motel 6, meanwhile, was founded in 1962. It popularized the budget hotel concept (rooms originally cost $6 a night) and was eventually acquired by Blackstone for $1.9 billion in 2012.
And as Meta sunsets custom tools for AR filters, we could end up seeing a whole new set of developer tools designed to harness generative AI experiences. Perhaps it will all come together in Meta’s next big push into its alternative reality ideas (and namesake) in the metaverse, including significant Horizon Worlds updates.
However, the most anticipated products expected to appear during the conference are the successor to the Meta Quest 3 and perhaps updates to Meta and Raybans, which are very cool smart glasses. Hopefully, we’ll see the rumored “Orion” AR glasses, but we will need to catch the Connect keynote to find out.
When is Meta Connect 2024
Meta’s Connect developers conference this year starts on Wednesday, September 25th, 2024, and ends the next day on Thursday, September 26th. The conference will kick off with the Connect keynote, headlined by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, at 1PM ET / 10AM PT, followed immediately by a Developer keynote at 2PM ET / 11AM PT. Meta has a full program schedule on the Connect site.
How to watch Meta Connect 2024
The Meta Connect keynote will stream live on the official Meta Connect website. If you’re a Quest headset user, you can also watch it on Horizon Worlds. Following the keynotes, you can participate in live developer sessions for deep dives on AI and mixed reality on Facebook.
What to expect at Meta Connect 2024
The most exciting thing about Meta is that it holds the keys to the closest thing to mainstream VR headsets with the Quest 2 and Quest 3. The latter, however, started at a price that was too high ($500 compared to the now $200 Quest 2) and did not have a very sharp AR video passthrough. Now we’re expecting a cheaper version, the Quest “3S,” that might sell for as cheap as $299.99, according to leaks.
Meta also has other new VR headsets in the pipeline, including a new Quest 4 for 2026 and something at the pro level designed for spatial computing internally dubbed “La Jolla” for 2027. Recent reports suggest plans for the latter might now be on ice, especially as Apple’s $3,500 Vision Pro struggles to gain traction. We may not see these models specifically at Connect, but other models in the pipeline may show up.
Expect an update on the futuristic Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses at Connect too. The current glasses look clean and aren’t too chonky, but they’re ripe for an iterative update, even if no AR capabilities are coming. The glasses respond to your commands with Meta AI, so expect fresh chatbot assistant experiences on the way.
Meta is also working on new mixed reality glasses internally dubbed “Orion,” which we can expect at least a glimpse of. Snap recently let us wear its new AR Spectacles, but those are developer-only, and a former Snap engineer on the project called them “obviously bad.” Hopefully what we see of Orion is a lot more interesting.
Along with Meta’s VR strategy comes expectations of new software and experiences, including the future of games on Quest. Right now, there are questions about what Meta is doing for games: it’s shutting down the Ready at Dawn game studio that made immersive 3D games like Echo VR, while casual games like Wordle are rolling in. Meanwhile, Meta recently launched an app that lets you play console games on the headset through HDMI.
Technology
Hey Logitech, my mouse just died – but I loved it so much that I’m not complaining, I’m buying another one
Sometimes, you get your hands on a piece of hardware that just feels right. For me, that was the Logitech G502 Lightspeed Wireless – and now that mouse is reaching the end of its life, and while I won’t be hosting an actual Viking funeral for it, I genuinely am a little upset.
A fairly high-end gaming mouse with a comfortable ergonomic design and understated RGB lighting, the G502 Lightspeed Wireless has been my trusty desktop companion for more than five years, and is only just starting to show its age; specifically, the left-click switch is giving out, still registering most clicks but rendering click-and-drag operations almost impossible.
It’s fair to say that I’ve definitely put this mouse through the wringer over the past half-decade. Not only have I used it to put literally thousands of hours into all manner of games, but it’s also been my daily driver for work ever since the pandemic shifted me into working from home. It’s survived countless hours of frantic clicking, scrolling, and at-desk lunches (no, I’m not a ‘tidy desk, tidy mind’ sort of person).
It’s not an exaggeration to say that I love this mouse. It’s incredibly comfy under the hand thanks to the curved shape and thumb rest, and the underside features two magnetic panels that can be removed to add tiny metal weights to the interior – in other words, a little tweaking can create the perfect weight distribution for any user.
It’s also just a good gaming mouse in general: a 25,600 DPI sensor, long battery life, 1ms latency thanks to the proprietary Lightspeed USB dongle, and 11 remappable buttons all make it a stellar choice for any genre of PC game.
Consistency above all else
As heartbroken as I might be that my reliable gaming companion is beginning to fade from glory, there’s a definite silver lining here.
See, Logitech does something that I wish more PC hardware companies would do: a certain ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ approach to product design, meaning that I can still buy the exact same G502 Lightspeed Wireless mouse that I originally purchased over five years ago. Plenty of companies would’ve made the original product redundant in that time period, replacing it twice or three times over with new models (looking at you, Razer).
Hell, Logitech has been using the same design for its mainstream 1080p webcam – the Logitech C920 – for more than a decade, with only some minor generational improvements over the years. There’s a reason that cam still sits in the top spot of our best webcams ranking, is what I’m saying.
The G502 Lightspeed has been replaced in our best gaming mouse list by the newer, shinier Logitech G502 X Plus, but it’s still the same excellent mouse at heart – and gamers on a budget can always pick up the G502 Hero, which packs a lot of the great design and features found in my favorite mouse into a more wallet-friendly package.
But you can’t have too much of a good thing, so while I’m currently rocking a temporary replacement from NZXT, I can’t wait to take my paycheck to the Logitech G Store to pick up an identical replacement for my beloved G502 Lightspeed Wireless. There’s only one problem, and that’s the price: $99.99 / £139.99 (around AU$150, but it’s no longer available from Logitech in Australia). Why’s it so expensive in the UK, Logitech?
I guess I’ll be waiting for a Black Friday deal… unless the kind folks at Logitech read this and take pity on a poor tech journalist. Keep your fingers crossed for me, readers!
The back of Neil Harbisson’s head and his sound generator
Sideways Film
Cyborg: A documentary
Carey Born
First Born Films In UK cinemas on 20 September; US to be announced
Neil Harbisson studied music composition at Dartington College of Arts in the UK. He was born with achromatopsia, so is unable to perceive colour of any kind. Not one to ignore a challenge, in 2003 Harbisson recruited product designer Adam Montandon to build him a head-mounted rig that turns colours into musical notes that he can listen to via earphones.
Now in his 40s, Harbisson has evolved. The sound…
Host Samantha Dover is joined by gaming industry experts Brian Benway and Zach Emmanuel as they discuss the future of the gaming industry, including social media participation, game streaming, and the development of VR and AR technology. What are the opportunities for in-game advertising and sponsorship? What can brands do to address diversity in gaming and how can they provide a safe space for gamers? Listen now to find out more about games, gamers and the gaming industry!
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