The Morning After: Get ready for Meta Connect
Meta’s annual VR / AR shindig kicks off a few hours after this newsletter hits your inboxes. As usual, it’ll lay down the direction of travel for the next year of strapping stuff to your face. So, before the awkward stage banter begins, it’s worth reading up on what’s to come. We’ve prepared our usual roundup of all the rumors, scuttlebutt and leaks about what we’ll see.
That includes Orion, a pair of Buddy Holly glasses offering augmented reality in a more user friendly package. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has already hinted about its potential, but he added we’ll only see the prototype today. We can also expect a cheaper version of the Quest 3 and some more AI doodads to come to the Ray-Ban smart glasses.
Once you’ve studied up, you can follow our coverage of Meta Connect 2024 live to get a blow-by-blow of the show the minute it happens. Everything kicks off at 1PM ET / 10AM PT, but the color commentary will start long before then.
— Dan Cooper
All the (mostly games) news you might have missed
Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered arrives October 31 on PS5 and PC
Astro Bot is getting a free update that adds speedrunning levels
Lego Horizon Adventures hits PS5, PC and Switch on November 14
SAG-AFTRA strikes against League of Legends over voiceover company actions
FTX advisor and Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison gets two years in prison
She was a key witness in Sam Bankman-Fried’s criminal trial.
Caroline Ellison, CEO of Alameda Research and advisor to FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, has been sentenced to two years in prison. Ellison pled guilty at the end of 2022 for her role in the FTX fraud and was a key witness in Bankman-Fried’s criminal trial. Ellison will spend a further three years on supervised release once she has left prison. In a statement, the disgraced crypto executive expressed remorse for her conduct.
Palworld suddenly arrives on PS5
Except in Japan, for obvious reasons.
Depending on your loyalties, Palworld is either an exciting spin on the adventure genre or a shameless rip-off of Pokémon, but with guns. Developer Pocketpair is being sued in Japan by Nintendo, who is firmly in the latter camp, but that isn’t yet slowing Palworld’s progress. The title was just surprise-launched for the PS5 in 68 countries, with Japan an obvious exception.
Duolingo, best known as a language learning app, now makes a piano
I want this thing so darn much.
I’ve been a fan of cute pianos that teach you how to play for a long while and have reviewed a few for Engadget. Now, Duolingo is getting in on the action, teaming up with baby digital piano makers Loog to produce its own learning piano. It’ll integrate with Duolingo’s app, which has music courses to teach folks how to grasp the basics of playing. And, did I mention that I really want to play with one of these?
TikTok Music is on its way out
Raise your hand if you didn’t know this was a thing.
TikTok has announced TikTok Music, the company’s streaming service to rival Spotify and Apple Music, is closing down. The platform announced it’ll cease operations on November 28 and delete all user data and login information soon after. It has advised subscribers to reach out to their payment platforms of choice to get refunds before that date. Don’t worry though, I’m a technology journalist and even I didn’t know TikTok had its own standalone streaming service.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/the-morning-after-engadget-newsletter-111528327.html?src=rss
Meta’s annual VR / AR shindig kicks off a few hours after this newsletter hits your inboxes. As usual, it’ll lay down the direction of travel for the next year of strapping stuff to your face. So, before the awkward stage banter begins, it’s worth reading up on what’s to…
