Meta’s Smart Glasses Get a Display - DTNS 5107

But are they pretty? And Nvidia begins to save Intel, while Hollywood reignites the Quibi flame. 

Starring Tom Merritt, Jenn Cutter, and Andy Beach.

TOM: This is the Daily Tech News for Thursday, September 18, 2025. We tell you what you need to know, follow up on the context of those stories and help each other understand.

JENN: Today Andy Beach tells us about the return of Quibi? and Meta announces new smart glasses, but they got a little chonkier [22:03]

I’m Tom Merritt,

I’m Jenn Cutter.

TOM: Let’s start with what you need to know with the big story.

[[BIG STORY]]
[[SOLO story of the day. Basic details, monitor commentary and sound when possible.]]

"Mark Zuckerberg unveils $799 Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses"
"Meta Launches $799 Smart Glasses With Screen in Bid for Mainstream Hit - Bloomberg"
"Meta’s new Ray-Ban smart glasses have twice the battery life | The Verge"
"Meta unveils its new Oakley Meta Vanguard smart glasses for athletes | TechCrunch"
"Hands-on: Meta Ray-Ban Display Glasses & Neural Band Offer a Glimpse of Future AR Glasses"
"Meta Horizon Engine Brings 4x Faster World Loading & 100 User Instances"
"Meta is bringing an all-in-one movie and TV streaming hub to Quest headsets | The Verge"
"Everything Meta announced at Connect 2025: Second-gen Ray-Ban Meta, Oakley Meta Vanguard and Meta Ray-Ban Display"
"Meta launches Hyperscape, technology to turn real-world spaces into VR | TechCrunch"

TOM: Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg kicked off Meta's Connect developer conference on Wednesday evening by announcing some new stuff.

The most anticipated announcement was the Meta Ray-Ban Display, which are Meta's first smart glasses with, well, a display in them. A Full-color LCoS display with a reflective waveguide, to be precise. This is not an immersive display, but a 20-degree field of view, 600x600 pixel window that shows up in the right side of your view with up to 5,000 nits of brightness. You can watch small videos, read messages, get info like directions, and make video calls. It can also show you a preview of what's in a connected phone's camera view and show live captions of what someone is saying to you, which can also be used for live translation. The display disappears when not in use.

You can swipe along the frame, as with other Meta glasses, or control the display with the included Meta Neural Band, available in three sizes. It's an Electromyography or EMG band that detects the electrical activity in your wrist muscles to interpret your inputs. Gestures include swiping a thumb across your hand, pinching the thumb and index finger to select, thumb and middle finger for back, and double-tapping the thumb to activate the voice assistant. Twisting a hand can control things like music volume as well. Later this year, it will get the ability to recognise handwriting done in the air. It promises 18 hours of battery life.

It has a 12-megapixel camera, just like the Meta Ray-Ban Wayfarers, for 1080p video and can go 6 hours on a charge, with the case adding 30 hours.

At launch, they work with Meta AI, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and a special app from Spotify. Instagram will support direct messages and add Reels playback later this year.

The Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses go on sale September 30th for $799. You can get them in two sizes and black or brown.

We also got new models in Meta's audio-only smart glasses.

The Oakley Meta Vanguards are wraparound smart glasses meant for sports like snowboarding or mountain biking. The button for video and photos is on the underside of the frame, so it's easier to get to when you're wearing a helmet. They claim nine hours of battery life and can do 3K video. The speakers are supposedly six decibels louder, too. And they're IP67 dust and water-resistant. And they are designed to connect with Garmin fitness wearables to hear stats using the Meta AI assistant, as well as with the workout app Strava. They sell for $499, shipping October 21st. (That's $100 more than the Oakley HSTNs). You can get four frames and lens colors.

And the Ray-Ban Meta "Gen 2" audio-only smart glasses raise the battery life to 8 hours from 4 and add 3K video. The price goes up from $299 to $379, available now.

The Horizon TV hub is a new way to watch video in Quest headsets, by aggregating video from multiple sources, including Disney, Amazon, Peacock, Twitch, Blumhouse Universal, and more.

As for the Metaverse, one note in particular. The Meta Horizon Worlds Unity engine has been replaced by Meta's own Horizon engine, which it says will load 4 times faster and let 100 users participate in the same instance at once.

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[[BREAK]]
[[PAUSE]]

TOM: There’s more we need to know today, let’s get to the briefs.

[[BRIEFS]]
[[3-9 more solo reads with sound to complete the day in tech news. These are informational with minor commentary.]]

"Got iOS 26? Turn on this iPhone setting to make your screenshots instantly better - here's how | ZDNET"
"Apple’s Higher Prices Give iPhone Doubters Reason for Optimism - Bloomberg"
"Apple promises software update to fix 'very rare' iPhone Air and iPhone 17 Pro camera glitch - 9to5Mac"

JENN: A few Apple notes for you today. If you have upgraded to iOS 26 you may have noticed that screenshots start as a small thumbnail preview you have to tap on to enlarge. One of the most popular topics today is how to turn that thumbnail preview off. Go to settings, general, then screen capture. You can toggle full-screen previews on and never see the thumbnail again.

Also, while Apple didn't raise the entry-level price on its phones, it did raise the top-end price for fully-specced versions. Bloomberg estimates that the average selling price of an iPhone will rise about 4% in the next fiscal year.

And some reviewers noticed that bright LED sources caused black spots or squiggles in photos taken with the iPhone Air and iPhone Pro Max. Apple says it has a software fix ready to go.

"Nvidia and Intel announce jointly developed 'Intel x86 RTX SOCs' for PCs with Nvidia graphics, also custom Nvidia data center x86 processors — Nvidia buys $5 billion in Intel stock in seismic deal | Tom's Hardware"
"Nvidia buys $5 billion stake in Intel, planning AI chip collaboration | TechCrunch"

TOM: Nvidia and Intel announced a joint partnership on Thursday, which sees Nvidia take a 4-5% stake in Intel. The two companies will also integrate Nvidia's NVLink data and control code interface into Intel CPUs. And Intel will make a line of x86 CPUs specifically made for Nvidia's AI infrastructure platform. And for us home users, Intel will integrate Nvidia RTX GPU chiplets into its x86 system-on-chips to come in a wide range of gaming PCs. Those will be called the ‘Intel x86 RTX SOCs.

"Nothing’s Ear 3 buds have a walkie-talkie style ‘super mic’"

JENN: As expected, Nothing's Ear 3 earbuds have a microphone in the case, and now we know why. That mic has better beamforming than you can fit in earbuds, so you can block out everything that isn't your voice. It works with some but not all apps, including Zoom, Teams, Google Meet, WhatsApp, and WeChat, for calls and voice memos, for Android and iOS, as well as Blackmagic's video app. The Ear 3's are available to order now for $179, shipping September 25th.

"China closes antitrust probe into Google's Android operating system"
"China says it is willing to maintain dialogue in response to report of Nvidia AI chip ban"

TOM: Friday is the scheduled call between the presidents of China and the US, after which, supposedly, we will get details on the sale of TikTok's US operation. Meanwhile, the strategic pieces keep moving in the background. China ended its antitrust probe into Google over the dominance of Android. And it appeared to soften a bit regarding Nvidia. Earlier in the week, the Cyberspace Administration of China ordered ByteDance, Alibaba, and other companies to stop testing and cancel orders for Nvidia's RTX Pro 6000D. China's ministry spokesperson told a press conference on Thursday that it will keep dialogue open regarding supply chains. Vague, yes, but something you wouldn't expect them to say at all if there was a hard line.

"Steam is dropping Windows 32-bit support in 2026 | The Verge"

JENN: Thanks to Motang for posting this one on our subreddit. Valve announced it will convert its Steam app to 64-bit soon and stop supporting 32-bit versions of the Windows app starting next year. Windows 10 is soon to enter "Extended support," and it is the only version of Windows available in 32-bit. You'll still be able to play 32-bit games in Steam, you just won't get a 32-bit version of the Steam app.

"Microsoft is Updating Notepad, Paint, and Snipping Tool Again - Thurrott.com"

TOM: Microsoft has added features to the developer and Canary versions of Notepad, Paint, and the Snipping Tool. If you have a Copilot+ PC, Notepad will get summarize, write, and rewrite Copilot features without needing a Microsoft 365 subscription. That includes cloud as well as local processing. Paint gets the option to save Project files to resume work on them later, and an opacity slider for the Pencil and Brush tools. And the Snipping tool gets a markup feature with pen, eraser, and highlighter to make notes before finishing a screenshot.

TOM: OK there were a bunch of interesting things today that don’t need a lot of explanation, but are worth filing away for future reference

"India leads the way on Google's Nano Banana with a local creative twist | TechCrunch"

JENN: India is the country making the most use of Gemini 2.5 Flash Image, aka Nano Banana. Gemini is at the top of the free app charts for both Google and Apple in India.

"US House committee summons CEOs of Discord, Twitch, Reddit to testify on online radicalization | TechCrunch"

TOM: The US House Oversight committee requested testimony from the CEOs of Discord, Twitch, Reddit, and Valve on October 8th to talk about what their platforms are doing to combat online “radicalization” and the “incitement to commit politically motivated acts.”

"Shein Opens Its Supply Network to Fashion Brands to Boost Growth - Bloomberg"

JENN: Online fast fashion app Shein will let other fashion brands use its apparel manufacturing network in China for their own clothing, as long as they sell some of it on Shein. Shein’s network can turn around new designs in 5-7 days.

"Tesla is redesigning its door handles following safety probe, Bloomberg investigation | TechCrunch"

TOM: Tesla is redesigning its passenger door handles so they are less likely to get jammed after an accident. There have been some instances where electronic locks stopped working and passengers had a hard time finding the manual door release.

"Uber will (once again) test delivering food by drone this year"

JENN; Uber will partner with Flytex to conduct a wider test of drone delivery in the US this year. Flytrex also operates Wal-mart’s drone deliveries.

"Waymo, Via to Offer Autonomous Public Transit Rides in Arizona - Bloomberg"

TOM: US public transit company Via will work with Waymo to offer public transit customers in Chandler, Arizona, the option to take a Waymo ride during peak hours for $2 per ride.

"Apple explores test production of foldable iPhones in Taiwan, Nikkei reports"

JENN: And Nikkei says Apple has started its talks with suppliers about making a test run of its first foldable phones.

TOM: Those are the essentials for today. Let’s dive a little deeper.

[[SEGMENT A - FROM SCHEDULE]]

JENN: They’re at it again! Hollywood’s revisiting short-form TV, and this time, they’re doing it with AI on their side. Will that help? Tom asked Andy Beach to help us decide.

[[PROMO]]

TOM: If you have feedback about anything that gets brought up on the show… Get in touch with us on the socials. @DTNSshow on X, Instagram, Threads!, Blue Sky and Mastodon. For Tik Tok and YouTube you can find us at Daily Tech News Show.

[[BREAK]]
[[PAUSE]]

[[HELPING EACH OTHER UNDERSTAND]]
[[Short missives from people with experience. Could be written email or pre-recorded from the person.]]

JENN: We end every episode of DTNS with some shared wisdom. Today Anonymous PIcker was among several people to have a concern about TCL’s new four-way door lock.

TOM:
Picker writes:

As someone who has a background in both lock picking and cyber security, I'm wouldn't say I'm excited about the smart lock mentioned in a recent DTNS episode which touts the ease of having four ways to open it. When I hear that, I hear "this lock has four ways to crack it!" If you trust the company, that might be fine, but you are asserting that you believe the vendor is an expert at preventing all those attacks. Maybe this vendor is the one that can do it, but every week I see examples where vendors didn't anticipate an issue with something because it wasn't their main area of focus.

To help folks understand the risks, there's a great online account called the "lock picking lawyer." It's an eye-opening resource for understanding the vulnerabilities that folks might want to be aware of before making a purchase. (No - I am not affiliated with the account - I just agree with the insights I've seen there.)

Keep up the good work, love the show!

• Anonymous Picker
  
  

[[DISCUSS]]

JENN: What are you thinking about? Got some insight into a story? Share it with us feedback@dailytechnewsshow.com

TOM Thanks to Andy Beach and Anonymous Picker for contributing to today’s show. And thank YOU for being along for Daily Tech News Show. You can keep us in business by becoming a patron, at Patreon.com/dtns