Meta Connect 2024 wrapped up earlier this week, and with it came big announcements. One such reveal was easier interoperation between the Meta Quest VR headset and Windows 11. In his keynote speech Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg claimed that pairing your Meta Quest headset with your Windows PC will happen simply by looking at your keyboard.
“Soon you’re going to be able to connect to any Windows 11 PC,” he said. “You just look at the keyboard, and it’ll start pairing.” The pairing will allow you to work on one or more giant virtual displays, making Quest a “natural extension of your PC.”
You can already get this kind of feature in Meta’s Horizon Workrooms app, and in third-party apps like Immersed, but the proposed Remote Desktop integration means you won’t have to use new software or launch apps - it'll be as simple as staring down at your desktop for a moment to engage the link. Considering how much Apple has been pushing its own Vision Pro headset for mixed-reality workflows on Mac devices, this feels like a logical next step for Meta and Microsoft.
Meta is putting its money behind augmented reality
The annual Metaverse-focused event also announced its new high-quality mixed reality Meta Quest 3S VR headset, costing $300 (£290, AU$500) for the 128 GB version and $400 (£380, AU$670) for the 256 GB version; there's also the 512 GB Meta Quest 3, which costs $500 (£650, AU$1,050).
Meta AI will be getting a shiny new upgrade, with its smarter open-source language model Llama 3.2. One of the LLM’s innovative features is that it can understand images as well as text.
The Metaverse will be seeing a new AR experience, photorealistic spaces called Hyperscapes. Zuckerberg said, “You’ll be able to use your phone to scan a room and then recreate it, or you can step into a room that someone else has scanned and shared.”
Other notable announcements: Batman Arkham Shadow will be a Meta exclusive, and included in all purchases of a Quest 3 or 3S. The Meta Quest 2 and Quest Pro will cease sales by the end of 2024.
No date has been specified for when the Remote Desktop integration will happen; all we know is: “soon”.
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