Facebook parent company and VR giant Meta will hold a conference at its HQ in California, at which we will hear the final details about the Meta Quest 3. It’s called Meta Connect 2023.
The event kicks off on September 27 with a Mark Zuckerberg keynote speech, at 6pm UK time. This will be followed by a geeky look at some of the company’s future plans, presented by some of the top brains at Meta’s Reality Labs.
Reality Labs is the part of Meta that deals in virtual reality, augmented reality and all things Metaverse.
Talks continue on September 28, but the Meta Quest 3 is what folks want to hear about most.
Meta Quest 3 features
This next-generation headset was announced on June 1, way before its release, for one reason. It was just before Apple announced the Vision Pro headset, and Meta wanted to trip its rival up.
That early tease offered a bunch of details on what the headset will offer, but there are still details to be filled in. And not much time remains until its launch, previously teased for “the fall”.
In UK-speak that means sometime between now, late September, and the end of the year.
The Meta Quest 3 will cost £499, and will use more advanced “pancake” design lenses. These should make the headset’s VR image look sharper at the corners, as will the higher-resolution display behind that lens.
There’s talk a Meta Quest 3 will let you turn any flat surface into a virtual keyboard, once again mimicking the productivity-led approach of the Apple Vision Pro.
We already know the Quest 3 will have colour passthrough too. It means when you see your surroundings, relayed through cameras on the outside of the headset, they will appear in colour. This view is black and white through the Quest 2.
We also hope to see the Meta Quest 3 shed some weight, to make longer sessions more comfortable. This seems likely, given how much slimmer the headset appears in images we have already seen.
How to watch Meta Connect 2023
The easiest way to watch these conferences is on YouTube. But as this is a show by Google rival Meta, you won’t find a live stream there.
You’ll be able to watch the conference through the Horizon Worlds app on a Meta Quest headset. Or, much less faff, you can stream it from the Meta Facebook page.
You can also register to attend at the Meta Connect 2023 website, but may end in Meta sending you more emails you don’t want, and is unlikely to get you anything more useful than a link to the Facebook stream.
What else will be at Meta Connect 2023?
Alongside the Quest 3, Mark Zuckerberg’s keynote address will look into “how Meta is bringing mixed reality to life” according to Meta’s website.
This may mean we get more news on Microsoft’s collaboration with Meta. This was announced almost a year ago, that Microsoft Office apps would come to Quest 2. They are yet to be released.
There’s also hope Xbox Game Pass could come to the platform, letting you stream games directly to a giant VR TV in front of your face.
There are some indications the next-generation Ray-Ban Stories may be announced to teased at Meta Connect 2023, too.
The pair appear to have passed through the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which is the US regulator for devices that use tech like Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, writes UploadVR.
You can already buy the original Ray-Ban Stories, which will take video and photos using integrated cameras, let you make calls and listen to music. According to The Verge, features of the next model may include live streaming and the ability for viewers to “whisper in your ear”.
In the geeky session that follows the Zuckerberg keynote, the focus will be on “contextual AI, neural interfaces and ultra-realistic codec avatars”. Here we may hear a chunk more about the next era for Meta’s Horizon Worlds virtual playpen.
This presentation may also look at how Meta’s mixed reality and metaverse experiences will develop in the future, rather than what you’ll be able to play with in, say, the next three months. However, Meta Connect 2023 is intended as much, if not more, for developers as it is for fans of VR.
