While it didn’t start on time, once Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg took the stage at Meta Connect 2024 for the opening keynote it’s safe to say that it was a fast-moving and news-making event. Zuck and co showed off a ton of AI tools – including new celebrity voices and live translation for Meta AI, new hardware in the shape of the Quest 3S and a futuristic-looking AR glasses prototype, and AI updates for the Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses.
You can catch up with everything that was announced at our Meta Connect live blog, including some hot takes from our Editor-at-Large Lance Ulanoff, who was at the event, but below, we’re sharing the six biggest things that Meta unveiled at its Connect keynote.
1. A first glimpse at the prototype Orion AR glasses
The honor of biggest surprise at Meta Connect goes to Mark Zuckerberg showing off its first fully holographic AR glasses, dubbed Orion. These take the familiar shape of glasses, much like the Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses, albeit a bit thicker.
There’s a lot of technology packed inside, including a new display architecture. These glasses are fully see-through, and you’ll control them through a neural-network-based hand gesture that requires a wristband.
In several demos, we saw the Orion glasses being used for games and opening windows overlaid onto whatever you’re looking at. We got a quick snippet of video calling using personal avatars as well.
Suffice to say, the Orion prototypes were impressive, even from the pre-recorded demos and sizzle reel of folks trying them out. Folks mentioned the lightness of them, and Mark Zuckerberg waxed lyrical about the work that’s gone into them. A magnesium frame is being used to ensure the glasses aren’t heavy – at least in this stage of development – and rather than glass lenses, theyre silicon carbide, which light gets projected through for displays. They’re still a few years away, and Meta noted that it needs to bring the price down, although it will be releasing early developer kits for a select few.
It’s been rumored for quite some time, but Meta made the Quest 3S officially, official. It’s now the entry point to the Quest mixed-reality headset lineup, and given its place it has an affordable price to match, starting at just $299.99 / £289.99 for the 128GB model.
Facing the world, the Quest 3S has a similar overall build to the Quest 3 with a redesigned front, notably with the camera stack, but the goal is to deliver “high-quality mixed reality” to the masses at a cheaper price point. In our early hands-on, the onboard Qualcomm processor was plenty to run through Horizon OS, which made it a breeze to play games like Batman: Arkham Shadow and multitask with multiple windows.
We can’t wait to spend more time with the Quest 3S, but in the meantime, check out our hands-on Meta Quest 3S review for what’s shaping up to be a compelling and affordable headset.
Meta announced some huge Meta AI updates at Meta Connect 2024, including the introduction of voice to the AI chatbot. Not any voice, however, celebrities like John Cena, Keegan-Michael Key, and Kristen Bell. Now, you can have realistic, human-like conversations with your smartphone using apps like Facebook, Instagram DM, WhatsApp, and Messenger. This brings Meta AI right up to date with the other big-name AI companies like OpenAI, Google, and Apple, which are all introducing voice modes to their AI products.
While it’s not as monumental as the prototype Orion glasses, Meta announced a laundry list of updates for its Ray-Ban Smart Glasses. First, these will now offer hands-free access to pulling your favorite songs, audiobooks, or even podcasts through services like Spotify or Audible. Instead of asking for a specific song, you could ask for a pop tune by Taylor Swift or maybe a classic folk song. Again, Meta AI is pushing towards more natural conversations.
Beyond song requests, these smart glasses will be able to handle some language translation queries by the end of the year. You can look at something written Spanish, French, or Italian and ask Meta AI to translate it. We gave this a go, and it worked in a demo space. Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses will also score visual reminders, lenses that can transition into sunglasses faster, and Meta AI for video. All of these are due to arrive before the end of the year.
An incredible new AI translation tool for Instagram and Facebook Reels allows content creators to reach a wider audience thanks to automatic dubbing and lip-syncing. The AI feature is currently in testing in the US and Latin America but Meta hopes to expand these translation tools to more languages in the future.
Imagine a world where you can watch portrait video content from around the world and hear it in your language without the need for subtitles – this could be a revolutionary new AI feature for anyone who consumes video content on Instagram or Facebook.
6. AI image generation on Facebook and Instagram
Meta is adding its Imagine features to Facebook and Instagram to compete with some of the best AI Image generators on the market. Similar to Apple’s Image Playground or X’s Grok LLM which allows you to create images of anything you can dream of.
Built into Meta’s social media platforms, you’ll be able to easily share these AI-generated images with your friends as well as create posts for your feeds and stories to add a new dimension to your Facebook and Instagram accounts.
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jacob.krol@futurenet.com (Jacob Krol)
