I never thought I’d say this, but Meta’s announcements — from affordable Quest 3 headsets to updated Ray-Ban smart glasses — are a lot more exciting than Apple’s right now.
I just finished watching Mark Zuckerberg give his keynote address at Meta Connect 2024, the company’s big deep dive event into their technologies and research. Think of it as roughly the equivalent of Apple’s WWDC but for Meta’s tech.
Just a few weeks ago, I watched the annual Apple event launching the new iPhone 16 line, and I couldn’t help but be struck by the contrast. Meta seems to be pushing hard to get to the future. Apple, for the most part, seems to be coasting.
Well, that’s not really fair. Apple is constantly innovating and improving its products. The company has enormous engineering investments. But, with a few surprise exceptions, like the AirPods Pro 2 now available as hearing aids, Apple seems like a lot of the same ol’ with a new coat of paint.
And then there’s Meta. I can see why Zuckerberg changed the company name from Facebook because what we saw at Connect 2024 was way more than just Facebook.
But there was more. There were the Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses, which are now infused with Meta’s AI assistant. The glasses can do translations on the fly, remember things, identify objects, and even act as eyes for blind folks through the Be My Eyes partnership.
Zuckerberg also showed off a development prototype of Project Orion. These are full holographic glasses, where you see through true lenses, and holographic image generators insert graphics between your eyes and the lenses. They use hand gestures, voice recognition, and even a neural interface that registers wrist motions.
