Meta’s big event, called Meta Connect, was on Wednesday and a lot of news came out of it.
While it might not draw the same excitement as Apple’s event, it certainly wasn’t without headlines and developments. Chief among them: the Meta Quest 3S and the Orion glasses.
Mashable covered all the big stories in detail. Here’s everything that was announced and links to further coverage and in-depth analysis.
Meet Meta Quest 3S
Meta has announced its new headset that promises great performance at a reduced price. The Quest 3S starts at $299.99, which is significantly cheaper than other Meta headsets. You should be able to do all the main attractions of an AR headset, though, like playing games and watching movies.
The Meta Quest 3S is available for pre-order now.
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Meta’s AI gets the celebrity treatment
Haven’t you always wanted an AI assistant with a celebrity voice? Well, even if you didn’t, but here. Meta AI will now be able to answer questions aloud with the voice of many famous people such as John Cena, Awkwafina, Dame Judi Dench, Keegan-Michael Key, and Kristen Bell.
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Mashable’s Christianna Silva has all the details.
Ray-Ban’s Meta sunglasses get AI updates
Meta has announced several improvements to their Ray-Ban sunglasses. Glasses already have cameras for taking pictures and videos, as well as the ability to listen to sound. But now AI features should be able to help with things like remembering where you parked your car, recording or sending messages, and translating speech in real time.
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Orion glasses are here (sort of)
Meta released its AR Orion glasses that look like, well, glasses, instead of an entire headset. They cover AR features in the real world, things like messages or games. Zuckerberg revealed the glasses but they haven’t been released to the public yet. A Meta executive said the company is still refining the glasses as well as finding ways to improve looks and reduce costs.
Mashable’s Chance Townsend has all the details.
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Goodbye to Meta Quest 2 and Quest Pro
With the announcement of the new Meta Quest 3S headset, the company has reportedly discontinued its older models for good. As Mashable’s Alex Perry noted, that’s likely because the Quest 3S seems, on paper, to be a better product at a much lower price.
The revised Llama
Meta has announced Llama 3.2, the latest in its AI models. Another big update is improved image recognition. Meta noted, for example, that a user can ask about their business’s sales and Llama 3.2 will be able to answer the question by reading a graph of the data.
