Anduril, the military tech company founded by Oculus creator Palmer Luckey, has announced the first hardware to come out of its recent partnership with Meta: EagleEye, an AI-powered mixed-reality (MR) system designed to be built into soldiers' helmets.

The modular hardware is a "family of systems," according to Anduril's announcement, including a heads-up display, spatial audio, and radio frequency detection. It can display mission briefings and orders, overlay maps and other information during combat, and control drones and military robotics.

"We don't want to give service members a new tool-we're giving them a new teammate," says Luckey. …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Meta has stopped selling the Quest Pro, UploadVR spotted. The news comes just over two months since the company discontinued the high-end VR headset. Meta wrote then that it would keep selling the headset until year's end or until it ran out of stock, whichever came first. I guess it didn't sell out.

The $999 headset's product page now says the "Meta Quest Pro is no longer available" and encourages users to consider the Meta Quest 3 instead, which we liked more than its upscale sibling. UploadVR notes that the company is still selling the Quest Pro's Touch Pro controllers, which work with the Quest 2 and 3 (but not the 3S).

VR headsets hav …

Read the full story at The Verge.

After a few years of fairly quiet Meta Connect developer conferences, the big virtual reality show is back with a whole mess of announcements in 2023. This year, we’re getting actual details on the upcoming Quest 3, Meta’s mainstream VR headset. The company announced the product and showed off its design back in June but promised that actual details would follow at this year’s Meta Connect. While we know the new — hopefully affordable — headset is coming at the event, there’s been nothing official about the price, specs, or when you’ll be able to buy your own.

We can also expect to see software, quite a few games, and possibly other hardware, too. Meta’s going to need to wow us after the overpriced and pretty dismal Meta Quest Pro came and went last year. And with Apple breathing down the whole virtual reality world’s neck with the Apple Vision Pro, Meta will need to pull out all the stops to show it’s still leaving the virtual reality world in Silicon Valley.

If you want to follow along, you can catch the keynote for free on Meta’s Facebook page.

Or you can just keep up to date by reading our coverage below.

• The Meta glassholes have arrived
• Watch iFixit tear down the Meta Quest 3 in this beautifully shot video
• Say it with me: AI VR legs.
• Five ways the Meta Quest 3 will (let developers) change the game
• Mark Zuckerberg can’t quit the metaverse
• Meta Connect will continue, but the keynote’s wrapped up.
• Web browsing: the new killer app for AI chatbots?
• Here’s the graphical upgrade between Quest 2 and Quest 3.
• I love this intense cat lady energy.
• Supernatural’s workout app is now just $10 a month on Quest.
• The Meta Quest Store is up to $2 billion in lifetime sales now.
• “Every time you put on your headset, they’re right where you left them.”
• We have much more on Mark Zuckerberg’s vision of the AI future on the latest Decoder episode.
• Meta’s Quest 3 wireless charging dock juices up your headset and controllers
• This glasses/AI/Quest combo is the future, Zuckerberg says in closing.
• My favorite Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses feature: they’re a transparent gadget.
• Here’s where you can preorder Meta’s upcoming Quest 3 headset
• So there’s the AR.
• Meta is slow-rolling its AI launches on purpose.
• Here are the Qualcomm chips that power Meta’s Quest 3 and new Ray-Bans
• Meta’s smart glasses can take calls, play music, and livestream from your face
• Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses hands-on: in pursuit of content
• Meta’s AI Studio will let you make your own AI companions.
• Meta’s AI chatbots imagine a world where you don’t need friends.
• Zuckerberg’s demo phone looks like a Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra.
• The Meta Quest 3 lets you play with virtual Legos in your real living room
• Meta AI: it’s ChatGPT for all your Meta apps.
• AI-generated stickers are just one of the AI-related tools coming from Meta.
• Emu is Meta’s AI image generator, and it looks pretty good.
• Immersive spreadsheets?!?
• Xbox Cloud Gaming is coming to the Quest this December.
• Lego is coming to mixed reality for the Oculus Quest 3.
• Zuckerberg wants the Quest 3 to be the first mixed reality headset for everyone.
• “It can all be interactive holograms.”
• We’re up and running at Connect!
• Facebook and Instagram will soon get a slew of AI-powered creator tools
• Meta is putting AI chatbots everywhere
• While we wait for Meta Connect… here’s some unrelated news.
• Connect hasn’t started yet, but check out our Quest 3 hands-on video.
• The Meta Quest 3 is sharper, more powerful, and still trying to make mixed reality happen
• Meta’s $499.99 Quest 3 headset is all about mixed reality and video games
• Meta’s Connect 2023 stream is now live — but it’s also starting late.
• Sadly, we won’t get to hear John Carmack talk shop and delightfully criticize his employer this year.
• We’re expecting a very busy Meta Connect this year.
• How to watch Meta Connect — and Quest 3 — at 10:30AM PT / 1:30PM ET
• The Quest 3 is Meta’s last chance to win the headset war before it truly begins

Meta announced that the Meta Quest 3 will arrive on October 10th during its Meta Connect event, providing a little clarity around the headset’s initial “fall” launch timing. Unlike its predecessor, the Quest 2, the $499.99 Quest 3 will function as both a virtual reality and mixed reality headset. That means, like Apple’s Vision Pro headset, you’ll be able to see and interact with the real world while you wear it.

How well it does outside a highly curated demo space remains to be seen, of course, and we’ll let you know after we’ve fully tested the Quest 3. In the meantime, though, you can check out our initial impressions and place a preorder for the upcoming VR headset.

Where to preorder the Quest 3 headset

Powered by the Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 processor, Meta claims the Quest 3 should offer double the graphics performance of its predecessor and even outperform last year’s Quest Pro, though it won’t offer more battery life. While it is more powerful, the headset is also smaller and slimmer, which Meta claims should make it more comfortable to wear.

The new headset also features two color cameras that should deliver better passthrough video. You can now switch between the immersive VR mode or opt for the “blended” mode, too, which lets you view both the real world and your game. In addition to better cameras, the Quest 3 sports a new 2064 x 2208 LCD display for each eye, along with a larger field of view than both the Quest 2 and the Pro.

Starting today, September 27th, you can preorder the Quest 3 with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage for $499.99 or with an expanded 512GB of storage for $649.99. While it won’t ship until October 10th, you can preorder the headset at Amazon, Best Buy, Walmart, and direct from Meta with a free copy of Asgard’s Wrath 2, an upcoming action-adventure RPG. Meta is also throwing in a six-month trial to Meta Quest Plus when you purchase the 512GB model.

Update September 27th, 4:43PM ET: Added additional preorder details for Best Buy, Walmart, and Amazon.