Facebook’s annual F8 conference had a flurry of announcements for the year ahead, covering everything from app redesigns to VR headset releases.
In an age where a small number of tech giants own huge swathes of social media and digital services (Google, Apple, Facebook, and the like), even a single conference event from one such company can have wide repercussions for the way we consume media day to day.
This week we were treated to Facebook’s annual F8 conference in California, which had a flurry of announcements for the coming year, covering everything from app redesigns to VR headset releases.
We’ve run through everything from the conference that looks set to shape the industry – or, at least, Facebook’s share of it – in the year ahead.
Oculus Quest and Oculus Rift S coming in MayThe social media giant has bet big on VR as the next big computing platform, and Oculus’s range of VR headsets is how Facebook plans to do that. The standalone Oculus Quest headset (with built-in movement tracking) and PC-tethered Oculus Rift S will both be landing on May 21, both for the price of $399 / £399 (around AU$730).
Both are also available now for pre-order and will be replacing the previous Oculus Rift model.
Messenger getting desktop apps Facebook’s Messenger app will be getting dedicated desktop apps for PC and Mac. They’ll be based on the smartphone apps for the chat service, and will incorporate Messenger dark mode.
