Though Meta Join 2024 lacked a marquee high-end product for the vacation season, it nonetheless included a brand new price range VR headset and a tease of the “magic glasses” Meta’s XR gurus have been speaking about for the higher a part of a decade. As well as, the corporate retains plowing ahead with new AI instruments for its Ray-Ban glasses and social platforms. Right here’s every part the corporate introduced at Meta Join 2024.
Orion AR glasses
Right this moment’s greatest combined actuality gear — like Apple’s Vision Pro and the Meta Quest 3 — are headsets with passthrough video capabilities. However the tech trade ultimately desires to squeeze that tech into one thing resembling a pair of prescription glasses. We’ll allow you to decide whether or not the Orion AR glasses pictured above go that take a look at, however they’re definitely nearer than different full-fledged AR gadgets we’ve seen.
First, the dangerous information. These puppies gained’t be out there this 12 months and don’t have an official launch date. A leaked roadmap from final 12 months recommended they’d arrive in 2027. Nevertheless, Meta mentioned on Wednesday that Orion would launch “within the close to future,” so take what you’ll from that. For its half, Meta says the full-fledged product prototype is “really consultant of one thing that might ship to customers” fairly than a analysis machine that’s many years away from transport.
The glasses embody tiny projectors to show holograms onto the lenses. Meta describes them as having a big discipline of view and immersive capabilities. Sensors can monitor voice, eye gaze, hand monitoring and electromyography (EMG) wristband enter.
The glasses mix that sensory enter with AI capabilities. Meta gave the instance of trying in a fridge and asking the onboard AI to spit out a recipe based mostly in your components. It would additionally help video calls, the flexibility to ship messages on Meta’s platforms and spatial variations of Spotify, YouTube and Pinterest apps.
This 12 months’s new VR headset focuses on the entry-level rather than early adopters wanting the most recent cutting-edge tech. The Meta Quest 3S is a $300 child sibling to final 12 months’s Quest 3, shaving cash off the higher-end mannequin’s entry payment in trade for cheaper lenses, a decision dip and skimpier storage.
The headset contains Fresnel lenses, that are acquainted to Quest 2 house owners, as an alternative of the higher-end pancake ones in Quest 3. It has a 1,832 x 1,920 decision (20 pixels per diploma), a drop from the two,064 x 2,208 (25 PPD) within the Quest 3. Meta says the price range mannequin’s discipline of view can be barely decrease.
The Quest 3S begins with a mere 128GB of storage, which may replenish rapidly after putting in just a few of the platform’s greatest video games. However in the event you’re keen to shell out $400, you possibly can bump that as much as a extra respectable 256GB. (Alongside the announcement, Meta additionally dropped the 512GB Quest 3 value to $500 from $650.)
The headset could outlast the Quest 3 in a single respect: battery life. Meta estimates the Quest 3S will final 2.5 hours, whereas the Quest 3 is rated for two.2 hours.
These ordering the headset will get a particular Bat-bonus. Quest 3S (and Quest 3) orders between now and April 2025 will obtain a free copy of Batman: Arkham Shadow, the VR motion sport coming subsequent month.
The Quest 3S is now out there for pre-order. It begins transport on October 15.
Out with the previous
To have fun the arrival of the Meta Quest 3S, Meta is kicking two older fashions to the curb. The Quest 2 and Quest Professional will be discontinued by the end of the year. The corporate says gross sales will proceed till stock runs out or the tip of the 12 months, whichever comes first.
The corporate now views the Quest 3S, with its significantly better combined actuality capabilities, as the brand new price range mannequin, so the $200 Quest 2 not has a spot. The Quest Pro, which by no means gained a lot traction with customers, has inferior cameras and passthrough video than the 2 Quest 3-tier fashions. The Professional launched two years in the past as a Metaverse-centric machine — again when the trade was pounding that phrase as exhausting because it’s pushing “AI” now. The headset launched at a whopping $1,500 and was later lowered to $1,000.
Though the {hardware} stays the identical, Meta is including new AI options to its tech-filled sun shades. The Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses will get an updated AI assistant.
The assistant will now allow you to set reminders based mostly on objects you see. For instance, you possibly can say, “Hey Meta, remind me to purchase that guide subsequent Monday” to set an alert for one thing you see within the library. The glasses also can scan QR codes and dial cellphone numbers from textual content it acknowledges.
Meta’s assistant also needs to reply to extra pure instructions. You’ll want to fret much less about remembering formal prompts to set off it (“Hey Meta, look and inform me”). It would allow you to use extra informal phrasing like “What am I taking a look at?” The AI also can deal with complicated follow-up questions for extra fluid chats with the robotic pal residing in your sun shades.
In response to Meta, the glasses’ dwell translation can be getting higher. Whereas final 12 months’s model struggled with longer textual content, the corporate says the software program will now translate bigger chunks extra successfully. Reside translations will arrive in English, French, Italian and Spanish by the tip of 2024.
The corporate mentioned Met AI now supports voice chats. Though this functionality existed earlier than, it was restricted to the Ray-Ban glasses.
Meta additionally partnered with celebrities to assist draw prospects into its chatbots. That’s proper, people: Now you can hear Meta’s chatbot responses within the dulcet tones of the one and solely John Cena! Different superstar voices embody Dame Judi Dench, Awkwafina, Keegan Michael Key and Kristen Bell.
Meta’s AI can now edit photographs with textual content prompts, performing duties like including or eradicating objects or altering particulars like backgrounds or garments. AI picture modifying shall be out there on Meta’s social apps, together with Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp.
In the meantime, Meta’s Llama 3.2 AI mannequin introduces imaginative and prescient capabilities. It might probably analyze and describe photographs, competing with related options in ChatGPT and Anthropic’s Claude.
Compensate for all of the information from Meta Connect 2024!
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