Everything you should know about Meta's announcements at its annual Connect 2024 event.
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Everything you should know about Meta's announcements at its annual Connect 2024 event.
Meta made significant announcements in the mixed reality space at its annual Connect 2024 event. The company introduced the Meta Quest 3S, a more affordable mixed reality headset, unveiled Orion, its first augmented reality (AR) glasses prototype, and announced updates to its Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses.
The Meta Quest 3S joins the existing Quest 3 in the company's latest family of immersive experience devices. Priced starting at $299.99 for the 128GB model, with a 256GB version available for $399.99, the Quest 3S aims to make mixed reality more accessible to a broader audience. It features 4K+ Infinite displays with a resolution of 2064x2208 pixels per eye, powered by a Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 chipset and 8GB of RAM. The device runs on Meta Horizon OS, which has been rebuilt for spatial computing.
One of the Quest 3S's key features is its full-color passthrough capability. It enhances mixed reality experiences by improving contrast and colour, making the blending of virtual and physical worlds more realistic. The headset also boasts improved spatial audio with Dolby Atmos support. Meta has introduced a "Travel Mode", allowing the headset to be used in transit, with plans to expand this feature to work on trains.
The Quest 3S is compatible with Meta's existing library of VR/AR apps and games and will feature new exclusive content, such as Batman: Arkham Shadow. Pre-orders for the Quest 3S are now open, and shipments will begin October 14.
The most intriguing announcement was the unveiling of Orion, Meta's first AR glasses prototype. While not intended for commercial release, the Orion is designed to look like regular eyewear with transparent lenses, featuring holographic displays for viewing 2D and 3D content. Meta claims Orion has the "largest field of view in the smallest AR glasses form to date."
Orion integrates with Meta AI for visual object recognition and contextual information and supports messaging apps like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. The prototype also demonstrates the use of gestures for AR gaming. Meta emphasized that Orion is not merely a research prototype but a polished product representative of what could potentially ship to consumers. The company plans to continue refining the technology, improving display quality, reducing size, and making the glasses more affordable.
In addition to these new devices, Meta announced updates to its Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, which have been popular since their launch. The company is enhancing the glasses with new AI features and expanding partnerships to make them more useful and engaging.
The Ray-Ban Meta glasses now feature improved AI capabilities. Users can start a conversation with Meta AI using the "Hey Meta" command and continue with follow-up questions without repeating the wake phrase. Meta AI can also record and send voice messages on WhatsApp and Messenger, allowing users to communicate hands-free.
A notable addition is real-time speech translation. The glasses will soon be able to translate conversations in Spanish, French, or Italian to English in real time through the glasses' open-ear speakers. Meta plans to add support for more languages in the future.
Meta is also expanding partnerships for the Ray-Ban Meta glasses and is collaborating with Be My Eyes to allow blind and low-vision users to get assistance through video calls. The company is advancing integrations with Spotify and Amazon Music, adding new partnerships with Audible and iHeart, and enabling voice-controlled audio content playback.
Meta is also introducing a new, limited-edition set of Shiny Transparent Wayfarer frames, which showcase the technology inside the glasses. The company is also bringing Essilor Luxottica's new Ultra Transitions GEN S lenses to the Ray-Ban Meta collection, offering more options for adapting to various light conditions.
At Connect 2024, Meta showcased several AI-powered features across its platforms. Meta AI now offers voice chat capabilities in Messenger, Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram DMs. It can analyze and answer questions about shared photos and provides AI-powered photo editing tools within chat interfaces. The company is also testing automatic translation and dubbing of Reels content and expanding its AI image generation feature to Facebook and Instagram feeds and stories.
For businesses, Meta is expanding its AI tools for those using click-to-message ads, aiming to facilitate better customer engagement and increase sales.
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