Meta Connect Hardware Headlines

https://youtu.be/Ptp7kNI7ir0

There was plenty going on at Meta Connect during the Zuckerberg keynote yesterday. Here are some of the hardware highlights. The did indeed roll out the camera-free AI glasses we talked about earlier this week. The glasses are designed by Essilor Luxottica, and they start at $349. The claimed battery life is 12 hours between charges. You can use them to listen to music and podcasts, take calls, translate speech, and of course chat with Meta’s AI assistant, Muse. Meta claims they have high-quality audio, but tiny speakers in the bows of glasses are unlikely to give you AirPods quality sound, let alone top quality sound from a good set of headphones. The glasses will be open for preorder on October 13th at any rate. 

Meta also showed off an all-new gadget. They call it Muse Charm, and it is a little AI device with a screen and a lanyard to hold it. Theverge.com compared it to a smart watch without the watch band. Meta didn’t give anyone a chance to play with the device, but it looks like it has several mic holes and a small camera. Meta plans to ship the Charm in time for the holidays. Pricing and other deets are coming soon according to Zuckerberg. 

The big reveal at Connect was some new Meta VR Glasses. They are oversized, and look more like goggles, but are much smaller and lighter than the headsets Meta and others have offered in the past. The bows just sit on your ears like a regular pair of glasses. Engadget.com notes that you can’t see through them without the passthrough feature turned on. At 100 grams, they are heavier than the Meta Ray-Bans, but much lighter than the Quest 3S or really any other headset. They do have a separate pack that houses the battery power and processing. It has a clip so you can hang it on a pants pocket, but it is really too big and heavy for that…clipping to your belt is better. There are no controllers, the device picks up on hand and eye movements to take commands. The gesture recognition is much like the Apple Vision Pro at $3500. So what do the Meta VR glasses cost? They will start at $1299 and should be out this spring. 

I’m Clark Reid and you’re…’Metafied’ for now.