Meta recently announced the Meta Ray-Ban Display, its first smart glasses with a built-in display that take the device beyond the existing Ray-Ban Meta (Gen 2) glasses and the upcoming Oakley Meta Vanguard.
To increase awareness of its new smart spectacles, the Mark Zuckerberg-led behemoth is opening a number of pop-up stores — called Meta Lab — where visitors will be able to put them on and try out all the features.
Announced on Wednesday, Meta will open the first of its pop-up stores in Las Vegas on October 16, followed by another in Los Angeles on October 24. Over on the East Coast, New York City will host a Meta pop-up store from November 13. Meta already has a Meta Lab store in Burlingame, close to the company’s headquarters in Silicon Valley.
Many folks visiting the stores will have been lured by the new Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses, which for $799 offer augmented-reality experiences thanks to the built-in display that appears in the right lens.
Whereas the more basic Ray-Ban Meta glasses let you take photos and videos, make and take calls, send texts, and analyze images, the new and more advanced glasses utilize the display by showing messages, providing a viewfinder preview for camera shots, enabling turn-by-turn navigation, and offering live captions and real-time translations. They can even show you what you’re listening to on Spotify.
Just like the Ray-Ban Meta glasses, the Meta Ray-Ban Display also offer voice control. But for silent control, the Display spectacles also come with a wrist-based band called the Meta Neural Band that lets you control the device using intuitive hand gestures.
Meta described demand for in-person demos of the Meta Ray-Ban Display as “strong,” with appointments fully booked through mid-October. It doesn’t say how long the pop-up stores will remain open. If you live close to a Meta pop-up store or have plans to visit one of the listed cities, you can try booking a personal demo via Meta’s website. Alternatively, you might be able to try them at Ray-Ban, Verizon, Best Buy, and LensCrafters stores.
The Meta Ray-Ban Display smart glasses are available in the U.S. from September 30, with international availability expected from early 2026.
The OnePlus Buds Clip are a new pair of open-ear earbuds built around a simple convenience. They join Sony’s LinkBuds Clip in the growing ear-cuff category, but either OnePlus bud can go on either ear.
Sensors recognize how the earbuds are being worn and route the audio channels accordingly. There’s no label to check before putting them on, and the feature also works when only one bud is used.
We buy fitness bands and activity trackers to keep tabs on our exercise, but it is easy to forget to start tracking or switch modes when moving between different activities. For Fitbit and Pixel Watch users, that could soon become a lot less annoying, as Google is rolling out a major upgrade to automatic activity tracking that can recognize more than 100 types of exercise, up from just 10 before.
Google first showed off the improved tracking earlier this month alongside the Fitbit Edge. It is now coming to Fitbit Air and the Pixel Watch 3, 4, and 5, and Google claims the added context behind the system makes workout detection nearly twice as accurate while cutting missed activities by more than half. Fitbit Edge will support it too.