Facebook is holding its annual augmented/virtual reality convention on Wednesday, featuring discussions and performances, and anyone can tune in.
Facebook Connect (formerly known as Oculus Connect) will feature 35 speakers over 15 sessions that will showcase the work of Facebook Reality Labs, which is the company’s newly renamed AR/VR team.
Here’s everything you need to know about Wednesday’s event, including how to watch it live:
You can watch Facebook Connect on Facebook Reality Lab’s page via Facebook Live beginning at 10 a.m. PT on Wednesday, September 16. You can also stream the event through Oculus Venues if you own an Oculus VR headset and want a more immersive experience.
The event will discuss all topics when it comes to the AR/VR industry, including VR storytelling, synesthesia in VR, designing live media experiences for social VR, increasing diversity and accessibility in VR development, and more. Facebook may also make new announcements about its VR lineup, like the rumored Oculus Quest 2.
Facebook said the event is for anyone interested in AR/VR, or developers and tech engineers looking to learn more.
Speakers include John Carmack, the CTO of Oculus VR; Dante Buckley, the Founder and Director at Downpour Interactive; Alton Glass, the CEO at GRX Immersive Labs; Testuya Mizuguchi, the Founder and CEO at Enhance; Hessvacio Hassan, the Founder and Lead Developer at Made in Brooklyn Games; Facebook engineers and developers, and more.
There will also be an after-party performance by artist Jaden Smith.
The absolutely absurd idea of putting a touchscreen display on a mouse isn't exactly new. Turtle Beach already did it with its Command Series MC7, which features a 2.25-inch control screen. But apparently, even that wasn't ridiculous enough for Arctic Fox Technologies. Its new Super Mouse looks like someone took the chunky old Atari ST mouse, slapped a touchscreen and scroll wheel on it, and called it an upgrade.
The result is a rather unusual-looking mouse that is now on Kickstarter, starting at $199. And as ridiculous as it looks, some of its features are genuinely intriguing.
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.
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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.