Facebook’s annual conference for alternate and virtual reality projects has gotten a new name, and it’ll be going virtual this year.
Facebook Connect — formerly known as the Oculus Connect conference — will be held on September 16. Like many tech conferences during the age of coronavirus, the conference will be entirely digital as well as free to attend.
The event will feature keynote addresses from “Facebook leaders and industry visionaries” and offer “immersive developer sessions” for attendees, the company said in its announcement on Tuesday.
“Over the years, Connect has grown to include so much more than Oculus, with research updates and product news from Spark AR to Portal from Facebook,” the social media giant said in a blog post. The conference has been held for the past six years.
Facebook’s AR/VR research division will also drop “Oculus” from its name and will be rebranded as Facebook Reality Labs (FRL). The new name serves to “encompass the expansive work being done at Facebook as we build the next computing platform to help people feel more present with each other, even when we’re apart.”
Facebook said FRL will continue developing hardware and software, with a commitment to users’ privacy.
The rebranding — which Facebook said would provide clarity — is the latest move to integrate Oculus more seamlessly into Facebook’s overall ecosystem.
Earlier this month, Oculus made a controversial announcement that new users would need to sign in with a Facebook account to use the device. Existing users will also need to sign in by January 2023.
Apple is less than a day away from launching its highly anticipated OLED MacBook Pro with a touch-sensitive screen. But it appears that the upgrade is going to cost a pretty penny. According to a report by Bloomberg, Apple is reportedly eyeing a starting price of $2,899 for the 14-inch MacBook Pro, while the 16-inch version could start at $3,399 in the US.
"At $2,899, the 14-inch model would mark the highest starting price for a new MacBook Pro model, surpassing the $2,799 Apple charged for a 17-inch version introduced in 2006," says the report. The report claims that Apple is targeting a minimum price hike of $400 for its upcoming redesigned 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models.
I've spent a good amount of time digging into the spec sheet of the new M6 MacBook Pro (14-inch), and for all intents and purposes, this is a classic Apple "chip and connectivity" refresh. It's not a full redesign. The chassis, Liquid Retina XDR panel, speakers, ports, and battery, all of them carry over unchanged.
However, the M6 brings more cores, stronger on-device AI, higher memory bandwidth on the larger configs, and modern wireless. Here’s the practical rundown of what actually improved, and whether those gains are worth your money.
Two new highly requested iCloud plugins just got added to ChatGPT, giving people who rely on Apple’s Mail and Calendar services a way to search emails, check appointments, and manage their schedules directly through the chatbot.
The integration is rolling out to all ChatGPT plans, including the free tier. You can access it on the web, desktop, and iOS.