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After a handful of rumors and speculation suggested Meta was working on a pair of AR glasses, it unceremoniously confirmed that Meta AR glasses are on the way – doing so via a short section at the end of a blog post celebrating the 10th anniversary of Reality Labs (the division behind its AR/VR tech). While not much is known about them, the glasses were described as a product merging Meta’s XR hardware with its developing Meta AI software to “deliver the best of both worlds” in a sleek wearable package. We’ve collected all the leaks, rumors, and some of our informed speculation in this one place so you can get up to speed on everything you need to know about the teased Meta AR glasses. Let’s get into it. Meta AR glasses: Price We’ll keep this section brief as right now it’s hard to predict how much a pair of Meta AR glasses might cost because we know so little about them – and no leakers have given a ballpark estimate either. Current smart glasses like the Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses, or the Xreal Air 2 AR smart glasses will set you back between $300 to $500 / £300 to £500 / AU$450 to AU$800; Meta’s teased specs, however, sound more advanced than what we have currently. Meta's glasses could cost as much as Google Glass (Image credit: Future) As such, the Meta AR glasses might cost nearer $1,500 (around £1,200 / AU$2300) – which is what the Google Glass smart glasses launched at. A higher price seems more likely given the AR glasses novelty, and the fact Meta would need to create small yet powerful hardware to cram into them – a combo that typically leads to higher prices. We’ll have to wait and see what gets leaked and officially revealed in the future. Meta AR glasses: Release date Unlike price, several leaks have pointed to when we might get our hands – or I suppose eyeballs – on Meta’s AR glasses. Unfortunately, we might be waiting until 2027. That’s according to a leaked Meta internal roadmap shared by The Verge back in March 2023. The document explained that a precursor pair of specs with a display will apparently arrive in 2025, with ‘proper’ AR smart glasses due in 2027. (Image credit: Meta) In February 2024 Business Insider cited unnamed sources who said a pair of true AR glasses could be shown off at this year’s Meta Connect conference. However, that doesn’t mean they’ll launch sooner than 2027. While Connect does highlight soon-to-release Meta tech, the company takes the opportunity to show off stuff coming further down the pipeline too. So, its demo of Project Orion (as those who claim to be in the know call it) could be one of those ‘you’ll get this when it’s ready’ kind of teasers. Obviously, leaks should be taken with a pinch of salt. Meta could have brought the release of its specs forward, or pushed it back depending on a multitude of technological factors – we won’t know until Meta officially announces more details. Considering it has teased the specs suggests their release is at least a matter of when not if. Meta AR glasses: Specs and features We haven't heard anything about the hardware you’ll find in Meta’s AR glasses, but we have a few ideas of what we’ll probably see from them based on Meta’s existing tech and partnerships. Meta and LG recently confirmed that they’ll be partnering to bring OLED panels to Meta’s headsets, and we expect they’ll bring OLED screens to its AR glasses too. OLED displays appear in other AR smart glasses so it would make sense if Meta followed suit. Additionally, we anticipate that Meta’s AR glasses will use a Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset just like Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses. Currently, that’s the AR1 Gen 1, though considering Meta’s AR specs aren’t due until 2027 it seems more likely they’d be powered by a next-gen chipset – either an AR2 Gen 1 or an AR1 Gen 2. The AR glasses could let you bust ghost wherever you go (Image credit: Meta) As for features, Meta’s already teased the two standouts: AR and AI abilities. What this means in actual terms is yet to be seen but imagine virtual activities like being able to set up an AR Beat Saber jam wherever you go, an interactive HUD when you’re navigating from one place to another, or interactive elements that you and other users can see and manipulate together – either for work or play. AI-wise, Meta is giving us a sneak peek of what's coming via its current smart glasses. That is you can speak to its Meta AI to ask it a variety of questions and for advice just as you can other generative AI but in a more conversational way as you use your voice. It also has a unique ability, Look and Ask, which is like a combination of ChatGPT and Google Lens. This allows the specs to snap a picture of what’s in front of you to inform your question, allowing you to ask it to translate a sign you can see, for a recipe using ingredients in your fridge, or what the name of a plant is so you can find out how best to care for it. The AI features are currently in beta but are set to launch properly soon. And while they seem a little imperfect right now, we’ll likely only see them get better in the coming years – meaning we could see something very impressive by 2027 when the AR specs are expected to arrive. Meta AR glasses: What we want to see A slick Ray-Ban-like design The design of the Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses is great (Image credit: Meta) While Meta’s smart specs aren't amazing in every way – more on that down below – they are practically perfect in the design department. The classic Ray-Ban shape is sleek, they’re lightweight, super comfy to wear all day, and the charging case is not only practical, it's gorgeous. While it’s likely Ray-Ban and Meta will continue their partnership to develop future smart glasses – and by extension the teased AR glasses – there’s no guarantee. But if Meta’s reading this, we really hope that you keep working with Ray-Ban so that your future glasses have the same high-quality look and feel that we’ve come to adore. If the partnership does end, we'd like Meta to at least take cues from what Ray-Ban has taught it to keep the design game on point. Swappable lenses We want to change our lenses Meta! (Image credit: Meta) While we will rave about Meta’s smart glasses design we’ll admit there’s one flaw that we hope future models (like the AR glasses) improve on; they need easily swappable lenses. While a handsome pair of shades will be faultless for your summer vacations, they won’t serve you well in dark and dreary winters. If we could easily change our Meta glasses from sunglasses to clear lenses as needed then we’d wear them a lot more frequently – as it stands, they’re left gathering dust most months because it just isn’t the right weather. As the glasses get smarter, more useful, and pricier (as we expect will be the case with the AR glasses) they need to be a gadget we can wear all year round, not just when the sun's out. Speakers you can (quietly) rave too These open ear headphones are amazing, Meta take notes (Image credit: Future) Hardware-wise the main upgrade we want to see in Meta’s AR glasses is better speakers. Currently, the speakers housed in each arm of the Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses are pretty darn disappointing – they can leak a fair amount of noise, the bass is practically nonexistent and the overall sonic performance is put to shame by even basic over-the-ears headphones. We know open-ear designs can be a struggle to get the balance right with. But when we’ve been spoiled by open-ear options like the JBL SoundGear Sense – that have an astounding ability to deliver great sound and let you hear the real world clearly (we often forget we’re wearing them) – we’ve come to expect a lot and are disappointed when gadgets don’t deliver. The camera could also get some improvements, but we expect the AR glasses won’t be as content creation-focused as Meta’s existing smart glasses – so we’re less concerned about this aspect getting an upgrade compared to their audio capabilities. You might also like Meta Quest Pro 2: everything we know about the Apple Vision Pro competitorMeta Quest 3 Lite: everything we know about the rumored cheap VR headset View the full article

This week has been another hectic one in the world of tech. Samsung's One UI 6.1 update – which was supposed to make its tech better – actually made Galaxy S23 phones worse (though there is a temporary fix), OpenAI released a weird AI-made music video, and Meta teased its first AR glasses. To help you get up to speed on the latest tech stories we've recapped these and the others so you can get caught up on the most important events from the last week. You'll also find links to our full coverage of every story if you want to learn more. So scroll down for your firmware update, and we'll see you next week for another ICYMI. 7. PlayStation Portal lost its PSP emulator The PlayStation Portal (Image credit: Future/Rob Dwiar) This week it became even more clear that the streaming-only PlayStation Portal remote player won't be getting any offline functionality any time soon. Back in February, a team of programmers claimed that they had managed to get some PlayStation Portable (PSP) games running natively on the handheld, which usually requires a PlayStation 5 console to play games over an internet connection. Don’t get too excited though, because the same team revealed that the exploits they used to get the games running have been patched after they “responsibly reported the issues to PlayStation”. The alleged change came as part of the wider version 2.0.6 software update and, while the official release notes cryptically state that the update simply “improved system software performance and stability”, it definitely seems plausible that Sony would patch out such an exploit if it was found. Whether we’ll see such games supported without an internet connection officially is yet to be seen, but the handheld is firmly remote play only for now. Read more: Programmers got PSP games running on the PlayStation Portal 6. Samsung's One UI 6.1 update wreaked havoc A Samsung Galaxy A54 (Image credit: Future | Alex Walker-Todd) It’s been a whirlwind week for Samsung Galaxy S23 users who downloaded the big One UI 6.1 update, which finally brings Galaxy AI features to last-gen Samsung phones. Just a few days after some Samsung fans blamed One UI 6.1 for causing slower charging speeds on older Galaxy phones, others reported that the company’s latest update had wreaked havoc on the touchscreen functionality of certain Galaxy S23, Galaxy S23 Plus and Galaxy S23 Ultra devices. Several users claimed that their Galaxy S23 displays were left “totally unresponsive” following the One UI 6.1 download, while others said their touchscreen functionality was limited to the S Pen. Yikes! Thankfully, Samsung quickly acknowledged the problem, identified the cause, and issued a temporary fix. The company blamed “compatibility issues with some Google app features”, specifically Google Discover, for the irregular touchscreen behavior triggered by One UI 6.1, and added that deleting the Google app's data should put a stop to any touchscreen slowdown (for now, at least). Read more: Samsung shares temporary fix for Galaxy S23 touchscreen issue 5. Google agreed to delete Incognito mode data Google Incognito Mode isn't so private (Image credit: Getty Images) Not to alarm you but all that incognito browsing you’ve been doing in Chrome? Turns out that maybe Google was storing some of the data related to it. No judgments here but it’s a revelation that we first heard whispers about a few years back when someone in California launched a class-action lawsuit. Google said, “Nope,” but now there’s a settlement that Google’s agreed to, which appears to indicate that, even as Google still sort of says, “Nope” there is something to delete (not locally but somewhere in Google’s cloud). As part of the agreement, which will be signed in June, Google agreed to delete any incognito data it stored, change its incognito browser messaging, and will allow people to proactively block third-party cookies when in this mode. As we see it, it’s a reminder that you should never assume that no one else can see what you’re browsing in any mode. Read more: Google may have been storing your incognito browsing data 4. Disney set a date for its password sharing crackdown Disney Plus password sharing is going extinct (Image credit: Netflix / Disney+ / Amazon Prime Video) It was announced that the Disney Plus password sharing crackdown will begin in June according to Disney CEO Bob Iger. Thankfully it won’t hit everyone right away, with Iger explaining that "In June, we'll be launching our first real foray into password sharing in just a few markets, but then it will grow significantly with a full rollout in September." What this means in practical terms is that by the end of September at the latest you'll no longer be able to share your Disney Plus account with people you don’t live with. The move comes after years of Disney hemorrhaging money – though its financial situation has been improving as of late – and following Netflix’s wildly successful password sharing crackdown. Despite users claiming they’d abandon the streaming service, Netflix’s subscriber numbers instead rose massively – so clearly Disney is hoping to replicate that with its own account sharing shutdown. Read more: Disney Plus' password crackdown starts in June 3. OpenAI released Sora’s first (very odd) music video Sora – OpenAI’s text-to-video tool – was used to create a music video for the song Worldweight by August Kamp this week, and the result is a trippy romp through forests, beaches, underwater habitats and various otherworldly environments. It’s an interesting watch for simply the sheer novelty of the project, though the unsettling vibe caused by the classic AI-image blurred look and the various hallucinations – where Sora makes errors – are yet another reminder that the tool still struggles to create 'normal-looking content'. For independent creators looking to embrace weirdness, Sora might be a popular tool, but despite Hollywood studios reportedly being interested in the technology we’re still far from convinced we’ll one day see a Sora-made blockbuster. Read more: OpenAI's Sora first music video is psychedelic trip 2. Apple reportedly started work on a robot The Amazon Astro home robot (Image credit: Amazon) Apple’s car project might have been permanently parked, but it’s apparently already working on its next pie-in-the-sky idea: a personal robot. This week, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman (who often shares credible Apple insider information) reported that Apple “has teams investigating a push into personal robotics.” One of the proposed designs would be a mobile assistant that follows you around and can perform some household tasks, and another would in effect be a moving tablet. As with all leaks we should take this with a pinch of salt – especially because the project is apparently still in its early stages, so who knows when or even if Apple’s robot will ever see the light of day. But we'll be watching with interest even so. Read more: Apple could be planning a surprise Amazon Astro robot rival 1. Meta teased its first AR glasses Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses (Image credit: Meta) Meta’s Reality Labs – the team behind its VR tech – turned 10 this week, and to celebrate Meta released a blog post highlighting major events from the team’s history. It’s a delightful trip down memory road, sure, but what was more interesting was Meta’s first official teaser of its next major new hardware release: AR glasses. According to the blog post, these AR specs would “deliver the best of both worlds” by blending Meta’s VR hardware (like the Meta Quest 3) with the form factor and AI abilities of its Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses. Rumors have suggested Meta’s AR glasses could land in 2027 at the earliest – so we have a while to wait – but if they deliver on what’s been teased then we can’t wait to test them out. Read more: We’re excited for Meta’s first AR glasses View the full article

Meta’s Reality Labs division – the team behind its VR hardware and software efforts – has turned 10 years old, and to celebrate the company has released a blog post outlining its decade-long history. However, while a trip down memory lane is fun, the most interesting part came right at the end, as Meta teased its next major new hardware release: its first-ever pair of AR glasses. According to the blog post, these specs would merge the currently distinct product pathways Meta’s Reality Labs has developed – specifically, melding its AR and VR hardware (such as the Meta Quest 3) with the form factor and AI capabilities of its Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses to, as Meta puts it, “deliver the best of both worlds.” Importantly for all you Quest fans out there, Meta adds that its AR glasses wouldn’t replace its mixed-reality headsets. Instead, it sees them being the smartphones to the headsets’ laptop/desktop computers – suggesting that the glasses will offer solid performance in a sleek form factor, but with less oomph than you’d get from a headset. Before we get too excited, though, Meta hasn’t said when these AR specs will be released – and unfortunately they might still be a few years away. When might we see Meta’s AR glasses? A report from The Verge back in March 2023 shared an apparent Meta Reality Labs roadmap that suggested the company wanted to release a pair of smart glasses with a display in 2025, followed by a pair of 'proper' AR smart glasses in 2027. We're ready for Meta's next big hardware release (Image credit: Meta) However, while we may have to wait some time to put these things on our heads, we might get a look at them in the next year or so, A later report that dropped in February this year, this time via Business Insider, cited unnamed sources who said a pair of true AR glasses would be demoed at this year’s Meta Connect conference. Dubbed 'Orion' by those who claim to be in the know, the specs would combine Meta’s XR (a catchall for VR, AR, and MR) and AI efforts – which is exactly what Meta described in its recent blog post. As always, we should take rumors with a pinch of salt, but given that this latest teaser came via Meta itself it’s somewhat safe to assume that Meta AR glasses are a matter of when, not if. And boy are we excited. We want Meta AR glasses, and we want ‘em now Currently Meta has two main hardware lines: its VR headsets and its smart glasses. And while it’s rumored to be working on new entries to both – such as a budget Meta Quest 3 Lite, a high-end Meta Quest Pro 2, and the aforementioned third-generation Ray-Ban glasses with a screen – these AR glasses would be its first big new hardware line since it launched the Ray-Ban Stories in 2021. And the picture Meta has painted of its AR glasses is sublime. Firstly, while Meta’s current Ray-Ban smart glasses aren’t yet the smartest, a lot of major AI upgrades are currently in beta – and should be launching properly soon. The Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses are set to get way better with AI (Image credit: Future / Philip Berne) Its Look and Ask feature combines the intelligence of ChatGPT – or in this instance its in-house Meta AI – with the image-analysis abilities of an app like Google Lens. This apparently lets you identify animals, discover facts about landmarks, and help you plan a meal based on the ingredients you have – it all sounds very sci-fi, and actually useful, unlike some AI applications. We then take those AI-abilities and combine them with Meta’s first-class Quest platform, which is home to the best software and developers working in the XR space. While many apps likely couldn’t be ported to the new system due to hardware restrictions – as the glasses might not offer controllers, will probably be AR-only, and might be too small to offer as powerful a chipset or as much RAM as its Quest hardware – we hope that plenty will make their way over. And Meta’s existing partners would plausibly develop all-new AR software to take advantage of the new system. Based on the many Quest 3 games and apps we’ve tried, even if just a few of the best make their way to the specs they’d help make Meta’s new product feel instantly useful. a factor that’s a must for any new gadget. Lastly, we’d hopefully see Meta’s glasses adopt the single-best Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses feature: their design. These things are gorgeous, comfortable, and their charging case is the perfect combination of fashion and function. We couldn't ask for better-looking smart specs than these (Image credit: Meta) Give us everything we have already design-wise, and throw in interchangeable lenses so we aren’t stuck with sunglasses all year round – which in the UK where I'm based are only usable for about two weeks a year – and the AR glasses could be perfect. We’ll just have to wait and see what Meta shows off, either at this year’s Meta Connect or in the future – and as soon as they're ready for prime time, we’ll certainly be ready to test them. You might also like Meta is cutting off support for the original Quest headset at the end of AprilApple confirms the Vision Pro will get international launch this yearMeta could launch an LG OLED VR headset in 2025 View the full article

Every January, the Las Vegas convention centers are full to the brim with exciting new tech for CES, and that’s no different for CES 2024. And what tech is more exciting than the best VR headsets and AR glasses? We scoured CES 2024 for the best VR and AR tech announcements. We drove in AR-powered cars, tested a bunch of different glasses, and even subjected ourselves to a haptic suit. It was all worth it, though, to find five fantastic gadgets for this CES 2024 round-up. If you want to check out more of the awesome tech showcased at CES, we’ve got a guide to the 20 best gadgets of CES 2024 and the best wearable and fitness tech of CES 2024. 1. New Qualcomm XR2+ chip This isn’t a VR headset, and, technically, it was revealed before CES, but we’re including it here because Qualcomm gave us a more in-depth look at the Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 2 at the Las Vegas tech convention. This chipset is going to feature in a number of the best VR headsets we see released in the next few years. (Image credit: Qualcomm) This powerful successor to the XR2+ Gen 1 found in the Meta Quest Pro will power the next generation of enterprise headsets. This includes the Samsung VR headset being developed in partnership with Google. In practical terms, the chipset can support displays up to 4.3K resolution per eye running at 90Hz, boasts a 2.5x better GPU performance than the XR2 Gen 2 found in the Meta Quest 3, and has 8x better AI performance. It can also support Wi-Fi 7 and full-color mixed reality passthrough. Qualcomm is currently the name in the XR chipset game, and we expect the XR2+ Gen 2 will only further cement its position. And it might help rival XR gadgets prove they're just as capable as the Apple Vision Pro. 2. Asus AirVision M1 glasses Speaking of Apple, this year’s CES prize for the gadget that sounds most like a knockoff Apple product goes to the AirVision M1 glasses from Asus. (Image credit: Asus) The name might be reminiscent of the Vision Pro – sprinkling in aspects of the iPad Air and Apple’s M1 chipset found in some iPads and Macbooks – but is almost completely unrelated to Apple’s hardware. The only minor similarity is that these specs are a wearable AR display. The Asus glasses don’t function on their own; you need to plug them into a compatible phone or computer with a USB-C display port (meaning it can output video and audio through USB-C). These kinds of gadgets are admittedly a lot of fun, but our experience with them is that they’re still pretty pricey for what you get. The resolution is only full-HD, and you often need to buy several not-so-optional add-ons to get the most out of your experience – raising the price above the usual $400 / £400 / AU$600 price you already pay for smart spectacles. We haven’t yet tried the Asus AirVision M1 glasses – nor do we know what regions they’ll be available in or when the launch date is – so we’ll reserve judgment on them for now. But if you’re after a pair of specs that lives up to what you expect from “AR glasses” the next item on this list might be a better pick. 3. Xreal Air 2 Ultra (Image credit: Xreal) Xreal makes some of our favorite smart glasses – you can find out more about the AR specs it made before in our Xreal Air review and Xreal Air 2 Pro review – and at CES 2024, it debuted something that promises to be even better than what we’ve seen from it in the past. The Xreal Air 2 Ultra goes beyond simply projecting an AR screen in your real-world space like its predecessors. It’s a proper spatial computer complete with a camera – so the device can track your hands and identify real-world objects that virtual elements can interact with. However, while the glasses sound a lot like the Apple Vision Pro there’s one downside – you need an external device to power them. Specifically, Xreal lists only the Samsung Galaxy S22, the Samsung Galaxy S23, and a “custom computing unit” that is yet to be released as the gadgets fit for the job. If you aren’t interested in spatial computing you could use them as a wearable full-HD display for any gadget with a USB-C display port. On the flip side, even if you buy a new Samsung phone, you could get a whole Xreal spatial computing package for around $1,000 / £1,100 if you can find a Galaxy S22 on sale. This is less than a third of the price of the $3,499 Apple Vision Pro – though it is a lot pricier than the $499.99 / £479.99 / AU$799.99 Meta Quest 3. We don’t yet know how well this Air 2 Ultra experience compares to its rivals, but if it can deliver a solid experience Xreal could be on to a winner. 4. AR glasses in a car My ride. (Image credit: Future) BMW has been finding ways to bring XR tech to cars for a while. We’ve previously seen its efforts to bring VR offices and entertainment on your travels so car passengers can do more with their journey, but its CES 2024 demo centered on drivers. Thanks to a pair of Xreal Air 2 glasses, we saw AR directions that guided us through the streets of Las Vegas (for the demo, we were in the passenger seat while someone else drove). We could also see warnings about upcoming potholes, stop signs, and how much charge the electric vehicle had left. This was all just a very well-made research pilot to help inform the future of driving tech. But the BMW AR experience sold us on the idea, so we hope this kind of tech isn’t too far from being more than just a prototype. 5. Sony’s enterprise headset (Image credit: Siemens) Most people think of entertainment when they think of VR, but there’s a huge push to bring more XR gadgets to industry – a trend that the newly announced Sony XR headset continues. Created in partnership with Siemens, the device is designed to help companies bring more stages of production – in particular, design and prototyping – into the metaverse. Using the headset, they can produce and analyze 3D models of their designs and diagnose any issues before investing in real-world prototypes. In general, the headset looks pretty standard, but it does feature an odd pair of handsets. One is a more traditionally shaped VR controller, while the other is a ring. The advantages of this setup are that you have a hand free to more easily interact with real-world objects, and you can get hands-on with virtual objects while still having the convenience of buttons on a controller. There’s not much more to say about the headset for now, but given its standalone design maybe it’ll pave the way for a successor to the PSVR 2 headset that’s no longer tethered to a PlayStation console. You might also like... 6 new things we've learned about the Apple Vision Pro from its first video adHow the Vision Pro's external display could evolveWhat to expect from the Apple Vision Pro 2 View the full article