Meta just showed off all the latest in wearable technology, virtual reality, augmented reality, and more at its annual Connect keynote. In addition to the long-awaited reveal of Meta’s updated Ray-Ban smart glasses, the company had some other exciting surprises to share, too.

Here’s a roundup of all the new tech and software updates announced by Meta.

Meta’s display-equipped smart specs make their debut

Rumors have swirled for months about Meta launching a pair of smart glasses with a display, and now they’re finally here. The glasses, dubbed the Meta Ray-Ban Display, feature a full-color, high-res screen in the right lens that you can use to view messages, take video calls, read live captions, see walking directions, and preview the pictures you’re about to take with the built-in 12-megapixel camera.

You control the display with a wristband, allowing you to scroll, click, and, eventually, write out messages, using different gestures. The glasses offer up to six hours of “mixed-use” battery life, or up to 30 hours with the collapsible charging case.

The Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses start at $799, with both the wristband and glasses coming in black or brown. The glasses will be available in the US starting September 30th at Best Buy, LensCrafters, and Ray-Ban stores.

The next-gen Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses have longer battery life

Meta is launching a new version of its popular Ray-Ban smart glasses with an upgraded eight-hour battery life that nearly doubles that of the original model. The second-gen smart glasses still come with a 12-megapixel ultra-wide camera, but they now support 3K video capture and allow wearers to record videos up to 60 frames per second.

Meta upgraded the charging case that comes included with the glasses, too, as it now offers an extra 48 hours of charging, up from 36 hours. There’s also a new “conversation focus” feature coming to the Ray-Ban Meta and the Oakley Meta HSTN glasses that amplifies the sound of the person speaking to you in noisy areas.

The Ray-Ban Meta (Gen 2) glasses will start at $379 and are available now in the familiar Wayfarer, Skyler, and Headliner styles.

New athlete-focused AI glasses integrate with Garmin and Strava

Meta is partnering with Oakley to launch a new pair of smart glasses designed for “high-intensity sports.” The Oakley Meta Vanguard feature a wraparound design, an IP67 rating for water and dust resistance, along with integrations with fitness apps like Garmin and Strava, allowing you to ask Meta AI about your fitness data and stats.

Additionally, the Vanguard glasses feature a 12MP, 122-degree camera on the nose bridge, with the ability to record videos in up to 3K resolution, and they support new capture modes, like slow-motion, time-lapse, and hyperlapse, which are coming to Meta’s other AI glasses as well. Some other standout features include upgraded speakers and up to nine hours of battery life.

The Oakley Meta Vanguard glasses cost $499 and will come in four frame and lens color combinations when they launch on October 21st. Preorders are available now.

Quest headsets can now put real spaces into VR

Meta’s new Hyperscape feature allows users wearing a Quest 3 or Quest 3S headset to scan their surroundings and transform them into a digital space. The company first showed off a demo of the feature at Meta Connect last year, but now users can try out a beta using the Hyperscape Capture app.

A new entertainment hub for Quest headsets

Meta is putting a new Horizon TV entertainment hub inside Quest headsets. There, you’ll find all of the streaming apps available on Quest headsets, including Prime Video, Peacock, Twitch, and YouTube. Meta announced today that Disney Plus, ESPN, and Hulu are also launching apps on the platform. 

The Horizon TV hub supports Dolby Atmos surround sound, and Meta plans on adding Dolby Vision later this year. Some movies you watch through Horizon TV, like M3GAN and The Black Phone, will also come with “immersive special effects” that you can only see inside Quest headsets.

The engine powering the metaverse gets a boost

Meta revealed that its Horizon Engine “powers better graphics, faster performance, and more advanced worlds.” The engine is capable of powering Meta’s new Hyperscape feature, as well as allowing for larger capacities in virtual worlds. Meta also plans on upgrading its Horizon Studio with an agentic AI assistant that helps “stitch” together its existing AI tools that help people make virtual worlds.

Windows App SDK 1.7.4 ( 1.7.250909003 )

WinAppSDK 1.7.4 is the latest stable version of WinAppSDK 1.7 providing new features and improvements to the platform. To see everything that's new and changed, see the full Windows App SDK 1.7 release notes.

This release also includes the following Bug Fixes:

To learn more about how to disable Runtime Compatibility Changes, see RuntimeCompatibilityOptions.DisabledChanges Property

Try it out

• Download the 1.7.250909003 NuGet package to use WinAppSDK 1.7 in your app.
• Download and update the WinUI Gallery to see the WinUI 3 updates firsthand.

Getting Started

To get started using Windows App SDK to develop Windows apps, check out the following documentation:

• Install developer tools .
• Create a WinUI 3 app.
• Continue your development journey.

Download full source code.

Every once in a while I get a simple idea that I want to implement just because it will be fun and I enjoy programming.

Here is a simple C# program that encodes Morse code messages and plays them on Windows and Linux.

For Linux, you need to add the mpg321 package.

sudo apt-get install mpg321

Or whatever package manager you use in your Linux.

I’m using two NuGet packages, NetCoreAudio to play audio files, and in Windows only NAudio to combine the files.

dotnet add package NetCoreAudio
dotnet add package NAudio

The code is very simple, it uses a strategy to choose between Windows and Linux methods of combining sound files. There are audio files for “dit”, “dah”, and silence.

Windows

If you are on Windows, the code uses NAudio to combine the audio files. It does this “correctly”, meaning it understands audio and combines the audio into a single audio file.

 1using NAudio.Wave;
 2
 3public class WindowsCombiner : ISymbolCombiner
 4{
 5 public void CombineSymbols(string sourceFileName, string destFileName)
 6 {
 7 using (var destFileStream = new FileStream(destFileName, FileMode.Append, FileAccess.Write))
 8 {
 9 using (Mp3FileReader sourceFile = new Mp3FileReader(sourceFileName))
10 {
11 Mp3Frame frame;
12
13 while ((frame = sourceFile.ReadNextFrame()) != null)
14 {
15 destFileStream.Write(frame.RawData, 0, frame.RawData.Length);
16 destFileStream.Flush();
17 }
18 }
19 }
20 }
21}

Linux

If you are on Linux, the NAudio library won’t work. It relies on some Windows specific libraries. Instead, the code simply concatenates the files together. This is not the “right” way to do it for audio, but it seems the MP3 format is pretty forgiving.

 1public class LinuxCombiner : ISymbolCombiner
 2{
 3 public void CombineSymbols(string sourceFileName, string destFileName)
 4 {
 5 using (var destFileStream = new FileStream(destFileName, FileMode.Append, FileAccess.Write))
 6 {
 7 using (var sourceFileStream = new FileStream(sourceFileName, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read))
 8 {
 9 sourceFileStream.CopyTo(destFileStream);
10 destFileStream.Flush();
11 }
12 }
13 }
14}

The rest of the code

The rest of the code is simple enough; it determines the platform, chooses the right strategy, encodes the message, and plays it.

 1using NetCoreAudio;
 2
 3ISymbolCombiner combiner;
 4if (OperatingSystem.IsWindows())
 5{
 6 Console.WriteLine("Running on Windows");
 7 combiner = new WindowsCombiner();
 8}
 9else if (OperatingSystem.IsLinux())
10{
11 Console.WriteLine("Running on Linux");
12 combiner = new LinuxCombiner();
13}
14else
15{
16 throw new PlatformNotSupportedException("This OS is not supported.");
17}
18
19Console.WriteLine("Enter message to convert to Morse code:");
20string? message = Console.ReadLine();
21if (string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(message))
22{
23 Console.WriteLine("No message entered. Exiting.");
24 return;
25}
26
27File.Create("morse.mp3").Dispose(); // create the file and release it
28Dictionary<char, string> morseCode = new()
29{
30 { 'A', ".-" }, { 'B', "-..." }, { 'C', "-.-." }, { 'D', "-.." },
31 { 'E', "." }, { 'F', "..-." }, { 'G', "--." }, { 'H', "...." },
32 { 'I', ".." }, { 'J', ".---" }, { 'K', "-.-" }, { 'L', ".-.." },
33 { 'M', "--" }, { 'N', "-." }, { 'O', "---" }, { 'P', ".--." },
34 { 'Q', "--.-" }, { 'R', ".-." }, { 'S', "..." }, { 'T', "-" },
35 { 'U', "..-" }, { 'V', "...-" }, { 'W', ".--" }, { 'X', "-..-" },
36 { 'Y', "-.--" }, { 'Z', "--.." }, { '0', "-----"}, { '1', ".----"},
37 { '2', "..---"}, { '3', "...--"}, { '4', "....-"}, { '5', "....."},
38 { '6', "-...."}, { '7', "--..."}, { '8', "---.."}, { '9', "----."},
39 { '.', ".-.-.-"}, { ',', "--..--"}, { '?', "..--.."}, { '\'', ".----."},
40 { '!', "-.-.--"}, { '/', "-..-."}, { '(', "-.--."}, { ')', "-.--.-"},
41 { '&', ".-..."}, { ':', "---..."}, { ';', "-.-.-."}, { '=', "-...-"},
42 { '+', ".-.-."}, { '-', "-....-"}, { '_', "..--.-"}, { '\"', ".-..-."},
43 { '$', "...-..-"}, { '@', ".--.-."}, { ' ', " "}
44};
45
46foreach (char letter in message.ToUpperInvariant())
47{
48 if (morseCode.TryGetValue(letter, out string? code))
49 {
50 foreach (char symbol in code)
51 {
52 if (symbol == '.')
53 {
54 combiner.CombineSymbols("short.mp3", "morse.mp3");
55 }
56 else if (symbol == '-')
57 {
58 combiner.CombineSymbols("long.mp3", "morse.mp3");
59 }
60 else if (symbol == ' ')
61 {
62 // Space between words
63 combiner.CombineSymbols("silence.mp3", "morse.mp3");
64 combiner.CombineSymbols("silence.mp3", "morse.mp3");
65 combiner.CombineSymbols("silence.mp3", "morse.mp3");
66 }
67 }
68 // Space between letters
69 combiner.CombineSymbols("silence.mp3", "morse.mp3");
70 }
71}
72
73var player = new Player();
74await player.Play("morse.mp3");
75Console.WriteLine("Press any key to exit.");
76Console.ReadKey();

There is also an interface for the strategy pattern.

1public interface ISymbolCombiner
2{
3 void CombineSymbols(string sourceFileName, string destFileName);
4}

There you go, a bit of fun with C#.

Download full source code.

Meta is making it easier to stream movies and TV shows on your Quest headset. During its Meta Connect keynote on Wednesday, the company announced that it’s rolling out a Horizon TV hub with access to streaming apps like Prime Video, Peacock, Twitch, and — finally — Disney Plus, Hulu, and ESPN.

The image shared by Meta shows content recommendations and streaming apps lined up on the homepage, along with tabs to switch between movies, TV shows, “immersive” experiences, sports, music, and your watchlist. It’s unclear whether the tabs will show content from all of these platforms, or just the ones you subscribe to.

As part of the launch of Horizon TV, Meta is also partnering with Universal Pictures and Blumhouse, allowing you to watch movies like The Black Phone and M3GAN with 3D effects. Apple similarly partners with Disney to offer 3D movies on its Vision Pro headset.

Horizon TV currently supports Dolby Atmos surround sound, but Meta plans on launching support for Dolby Vision later this year.

I want to preface this hands-on by saying that I've been a smart glasses skeptic for many years. In 2019, I even made a two-part mini documentary with a thesis that consumer smart glasses couldn't happen without massive societal and technological shifts. Well, color me pink and let me find a shoe to eat. After getting a demo of the $799 Meta Ray-Ban Display, I'm convinced this is the closest we've ever gotten to what Google Glass promised over 10 years ago.

The glasses look just like a chunky pair of Ray-Bans. But put them on, pinch your middle finger twice, and a display will appear in front of your right eye, hovering in front of your vis …

Read the full story at The Verge.