Meta Connect 2024 live – looking out for Meta Quest 3S and more from Menlo Park

Zuckerberg says Meta's social networks are indeed getting an AR update. There will be versions of Instagram and Facebook that you can browse via Meta Quest 3 devices, including the Quest 3S. 

Meta has been working with Microsoft to enable the Quest devices to work with Windows PCs and extend the desktop onto the Quest headset, similar to the way Apple Vision Pro works with Mac OS computers. 

Now Zuckerberg is showing off the new Horizon Worlds improvements. 

Zuck says the Meta Quest 3S performs better with hand-tracking and other sensing than the Quest 3 did when it launched a year ago. Of course, the Meta Quest 3S has also been improved since then. 

Zuckerberg identifies our Quest 3S-wearing friend in the crowd as Kenny, who is live-streaming his AR view from the new Quest 3S to the world. 

Mark Zuckerberg is on stage now and he says they have a lot to talk about. Without much delay he announces the Meta Quest 3S, and it's exactly the device we say early.

"High quality mixed reality for $299. Hell yeah. I've been waiting for this one for a long time," says Zuckerberg.

The waiting screen has changed, a new countdown has begun, and frankly it's much prettier. We're a minute away from the next delay or Mark Zuckerberg, whatever comes first. 

Okay, time to place bets. I have no information in advance, I'm just guessing here. 

Meta Quest 3S today? Absolutely, sure thing. Too many leaks, and check out the photo below of the guy who looks kind of like Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth wearing what looks like the new goggles. Will they come with Batman: Arkham Shadow? Not entirely sure, so I'd say 50/50 chance there, maybe depending on your region. 

Will there be new Ray Ban Meta smart glasses? I'd say there's a 10% chance of new hardware, but 100% chance of new features for the existing glasses. Something with the camera, for sure. That's the way development has been heading. 

There will certainly be other news about Meta's AR projects, but will they include AI? Will we see a virtual image generator? I don't think the technology is quite there yet, but I'd suspect we'll see some chat features added to the new hardware. 

Otherwise, I expect a show for developers, and that means exciting software possibilities that haven't yet come to fruition. It should start in ... well, it should have started already. Keep watching, we aren't going anywhere. 

So, hey, while we wait ... anybody see that new Thunderbolts trailer? That looks pretty sweet, huh? Too bad they lost Stephen Yeun, he would have been great. 

Also, have you been listening to Chappell Roan? Wow, that album is so great. I just keep it on repeat all the time. 

Has it started yet? No?! Wow, five minutes late. Apple would never...

It's not just you, it's late for us too. 

We're only minutes away, and while I'll be posting all of the news and our live reactions here on this live blog, you can also head over to Meta to catch the video yourself. You shouldn't need to sign in to Facebook to watch today's event. Just go to this Facebook page and you'll find the video playing. 

Is this the new Meta Quest 3S?! We think so. Our Editor-at-Large Lance Ulanoff spotted this gentleman in the front row at Meta Connect, as we're about 10 minutes from Mark Zuckerberg taking the stage for the keynote address and announcements. 

These look like no other Meta goggles you can buy right now, so we're calling these the new Meta Quest 3S until we see otherwise. 

Our Editor on the scene Lance Ulanoff says that the keynote today is being filmed in 3D, with dual-lens cameras spotted. We suspect that is for watching the keynote presentation in VR using Meta's Horizon Worlds. Today would be a great day, then, for an update on Meta's VR social network. 

One of the consistent rumors we're hearing is that the new Meta Quest 3S will ship with a new Batman game included. The new Batman: Arkham Shadow game has been in previews for a while, and it is expected to be a launch title for the Quest 3S. 

That's a very smart move, giving the new headset a launch title. Back in the olden days, every gaming console would launch with an iconic game attached. If you bought the Nintendo, you got Mario. If you bought the Sega Genesis, you got Sonic. Now that serious, AAA games are coming to Meta Quest, it's great to see these launches timed together with a bundle to drive excitement and more players to the game. 

One of the big questions for today are Meta's Ray Ban Smart Glasses plans. Will we see a new set of glasses today? Will there be new styles? Will Meta leave the Ray Ban partnership for its own fashion brand? Hopefully that last one will never happen, and I'll keep buying Wayfarers whether they're smart or not. 

As for new glasses, I think we'll definitely see some updates, but I don't think we'll see all-new devices. The Qualcomm Snapdragon AR1 Gen 1 chipset inside today's smart glasses is already very powerful, but we haven't heard about any device upgrades, and we haven't seen any leaks about new devices. 

Still, it would be exciting to see more in the smart glasses space. The Snapdragon AR1 is strong enough to power smart glasses with a display, not just a camera and speakers. I'd also like to see battery improvements, and maybe something new for the camera as well. 

Today will probably be about the Quest 3S and no more hardware than that, but I'll keep my current Meta Ray Bans handy in case they need a fast update. 

One of the more questionable rumors we've heard from Meta Connect is news that Meta will let you use the voices of famous celebrities, possibly including Judi Dench and John Cena, with its talking AI platform. According to a report in Reuters, Meta will announce this new feature today, with more celebrities along side. 

This sort of thing hasn't gone well in the past, and I'll be skeptical, but it begs the question: will there be celebrities at the event today? Will John Cena's voice make an appearance without the man himself? I've tasked our Editor-at-Large to look for other large humans, especially wrestler/action stars. Not because I need to know about the next season of Peacemaker. Nope. But find him, Lance. 

We're only 90 minutes from the start of Meta Connect and Mark Zuckerberg's keynote address. While we're pretty sure about the Meta Quest 3S coming today, a big question will be Meta AI. Will there be AI on Meta's AR headsets? What sort of features will Meta offer?

As Apple rolls out Apple Intelligence to its newest devices, the Apple Vision Pro has been left out of the AI party, for better and for worse. This could be a way for Meta to pull ahead with its own, more affordable AR headset offering. 

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Lance is at Menlo Park Campus, has his badge, and is ready for Meta Connect 2024 to begin!

He also got given a couple of pins (I'm very jealous) and  while one is just the word 'Connect' inside a box the other shows a few shapes (a star, triangle and circle) floating next to each other. Maybe it has a meaning we'll learn more about during Connect, or maybe it's just meant to look nice. 

We'll know either way in a couple of hours.

We'll be here from now until a little after the keynote ends covering all of the announcements as they happen, but if you want to watch the keynote live for yourself what are your options?

Assuming you can't attend in person then option one is to head to the Meta for Developers Facebook page and tune into the livestream there when it goes live.

Option two is to put on your Meta Quest headset, boot up Horizon Worlds, and attend a virtual version of Meta Connect being hosted at a VR space inspired by Menlo Park campus.

If you miss the event you can usually catch the presentation later on Meta's YouTube channel.

We know for certain that Meta AI will make an appearance at Connect 2024, and there's a few announcements I'm hoping to see.

The first is a global rollout of the AI on Meta's hardware, or at least a UK launch. Currently Meta AI is only officially out on the Quest 3 and Ray-Ban smart glasses in the US and Canada (so I was surprised that I somehow have access to it on my smart glasses here in the UK, though I'm not complaining). Considering how fun the feature is I really want more people to have access to it on their Meta devices.

I'd also like to see the Meta AI not only gain some of the abilities we've recently seen added to Google Gemini, Apple Intelligence, and ChatGPT to bring it on par with its rivals, but perhaps some uniquely Meta tools. 

Perhaps the ability to generate mixed-reality objects using AI prompts that you can then interact with using your Quest headset, or a Messenger assistant that uses your contacts' Facebook info to remind you about things like an upcoming Birthday.

I'm spit balling a bit here, but you get the picture. I'm hoping the next few years we'll see each AI assistant generate its own unique identity rather than each being effectively a carbon copy of what's already out there.

So we've gone through the Meta Quest 3S, and the Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses on the hardware side at Meta Connect, what about the software we might see get shown off?

We'll probably hear a little bit about VR gaming at Connect, in particular Batman: Arkham Shadow. It's a Meta Quest 3 exclusive launching sometime in October so I wouldn't be surprised if we got another trailer and a firm release date for it.

We might also see a few other VR and MR games because we didn't get a dedicated Quest Gaming Showcase this Summer. Meta didn't have its own space to showcase trailers so it may take a little bit of time to do that Connect.

The one subject I'm certain will be talked about however is AI, and how Meta's own artificial intelligence has been progressing since the last time it gave us an update.

Our Editor At Large Lance Ulanoff was scoping out Meta's HQ yesterday ahead of today's event and took the above snap. He'll be attending the keynote later today so he can see everything that's announced first-hand.

AR has been the talk of the town in the XR space, and so I think we'll get a taste of what Meta's cooking up for its own AR glasses. 

Beyond their existence and that they'll combine AR and AI technologies as a sort of hybrid of Meta's hardware efforts to date (its AI smart glasses and its VR headsets) we know next to nothing about them. Though given Meta recently reupped its partnership with Ray-Ban I expect these AR glasses would continue to sport the brand's iconic design.

A Meta Connect teaser would allow Meta to show the world what it has been working on, though I expect Zuckerberg won't go into details like price or a release date. Instead I'm envisioning a trailer like the Meta Quest Pro teaser we got at Connect 2021 when it was announced as Project Cambria.

Project Cambria Teaser - 'High End' Standalone Headset Launching 2022 - YouTube

Watch On

Zuckerberg might appear on stage in a prototype, or show us a more in-depth demo, but I doubt they'd be ready for members of the public or press to give them a whirl. So don't expect a hands-on feature from us unfortunately.

I predict we'll have to wait until at least 2025 (but perhaps even 2026 or 2027) to actually get to try the Meta AR Glasses for ourselves, but maybe I'll get proven wrong later today.

Right out the gate I'm going to say I don't think we'll get a whole new pair of Meta smart glasses this year. Maybe a new design of the existing hardware could make an appearance, but don't hold your breath for a hardware upgrade.

My reasoning? One, we've seen zero leaks for it which seems odd next to the Meta Quest 3S which has had a boatload of leaks wash up on our shores. If new specs were also coming I feel we'd know even just a little bit of info about them.

Two, it's way too soon. Meta AI integration (which is the biggest selling point and best feature of the Ray-Ban smart specs) hasn't even made its way to every region where the current-gen glasses are sold, so it would be odd to launch a follow-up now when the old model isn't even complete yet.

Three, I think Meta is going to tease a different kind of glasses instead.

That's enough Meta Quest 3S talk, lets get into Meta's other big hardware focus and discuss potential Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses Connect announcements.

$299 Quest 3S 128GB Confirmed by Amazon Ad on Peacock from r/OculusQuest

And how much will the Meta Quest 3S cost? 

Well as with the previous rumors everything should be taken with a pinch of salt but a supposed leaked Amazon advert (above) for the headset says it starts at $299.99 which suggests the VR headset could end up being $299.99 / £299.99 / AU$479.99 for its base model, which is the same price as the what the Quest 2 settled at before it got some dramatic price cuts earlier this year.

So this would be for the rumored 128GB Quest 3S, with the model with more storage (likely either 256GB or 512GB) then probably landing somewhere around $399.99 / £399.99 / AU$599.99 to use the Meta Quest 2's pricing structure.

As for the specs it'll sit between the Meta Quest 3 and the Meta Quest 2 according to the rumors. So it'll boast a Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 chipset from the Quest 3, but displays that are only 1,832 x 1,920 pixels per eye like those found in the Quest 2. They will, however, supposedly boast a variable refresh rate that supports 90Hz and 120Hz playback.

We haven't heard about its RAM but I have a feeling it might only offer 6GB instead of 8GB as a further cost cutting measure to keep it more affordable. Though 8GB would be ideal especially for any AI functions Meta might add to Quest at Connect or beyond, as well as for multitasking in mixed reality, so we'll have to wait and see what's announced

Sticking with the Meta Quest 3S design, there are a few extra details to unpack from this leak.

As you can see on the front face in the Twitter image the Quest 3S will supposedly boast some mixed reality sensors. We're expecting those to be for full-color mixed reality and be roughly of the same quality as the cameras we've seen on the Meta Quest 3 proper.

Just below the left set of cameras as we look at the headset you'll see a volume bar (fairly standard) and a new button. We've heard this is an 'Action Button' like you'd find on an iPhone 16. 

By default it'll apparently swap between passthrough and VR like the side of the headset double-tap feature on the Meta Quest 3, but you might also be able to customize it to perform other tasks like launching an app.

Let's start with the announcement that seems most likely: the Meta Quest 3S.

Nothing has yet been said officially but as is usual with tech announcements several details have leaked early; some information about the headset's existence even came from Meta itself like when it accidentally named the new device on its official app store.

We know more than its name though, with leaks even showing us the headset's design early:

As you can see in the Twitter post, the device looks like a Quest 2 in terms of how bulky it is because it reportedly uses the older model's fresnel lens system rather than the Quest 3's pancake lenses.

I won't get too into the weeds here, just know that fresnel lens systems are usually chunkier than pancake ones and can lead to images being a little less sharp. That said pancake lenses aren't perfect, they typically lose more light meaning images viewed through fresnel lenses can appear brighter.

Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening folks! We're just under seven hours from the start of the Meta Connect 2024 keynote, so until it kicks off I'm going to run you through some of the updates we're expecting to see based on the leaks and rumors so far.