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Meta is gearing up its annual event devoted to all things VR, AR and the metaverse. The company is once again showing off a new VR headset, the Meta Quest 3, as well as its next-generation smart glasses. We already know quite a bit about the Meta Quest 3, thanks to a preview from Zuckerberg earlier this year. The $499 headset has been considerably slimmed down and has redesigned controllers. It will also have better graphics, thanks to a new next-gen Qualcomm chipset, which will power new mixed-reality features similar to last year’s high-end Quest Pro. This is the consumer version of VR/AR Meta hopes the wider public will embrace.

Meta

The VR headset likely won’t be the only Reality Labs gadget we’ll hear more about at Meta Connect. As UploadVR noted last week, Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth hinted at a second-generation of Meta’s Ray-Ban-branded smart glasses also in the works. The new frames should have better cameras and some new features, like livestreaming.

Beyond hardware, we’re expecting Zuckerberg to attempt more compelling pitches on the broader idea of the metaverse itself, AI chatbots and avatars and Meta’s baby metaverse, Horizon Worlds, which could do with more things to do and, honestly, more people in it.

— Mat Smith

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The FCC plans to restore Obama-era net neutrality rules

It could take several months, and legal challenges may lie ahead.

The Federal Communications Commission plans to reinstate net neutrality protections nixed in 2018 during the Trump administration. After Anna Gomez was sworn in as the third Democratic member on the FCC’s five-person panel, the agency is pushing forward with an attempt to bring back net neutrality regulations. Net neutrality rules are meant to ensure internet service providers may not block or give preference to any content.

It will take quite some time to restore the previous rules. The FCC commissioners will vote on the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking at their next monthly meeting on October 19. If, as seems likely, the agency votes in favor, it will start new rulemaking and seek public comments on the proposal.

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LG also made a flexible-screen laptop

The $3,700 Gram Fold is Korea-only at the moment.

LG

Similar to the ASUS Zenbook 17 Fold and the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold, LG’s Gram Fold is a touchscreen device that can be a massive tablet or a computer when fully unfolded. Users will get a 17-inch OLED screen with a QXGA+ (2560 x 1920 pixel) resolution when it’s used purely as a display, and they can link it to its accompanying Bluetooth keyboard, which can rest on the lower half of the screen. It’s 4.99 million won ($3,700) — not cheap, but still more affordable than HP’s $5,000 Spectre Fold.

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Spotify’s new Jam feature lets friends collab on party playlists

It creates shared playlists as Turntable.fm does.

Spotify is rolling out a new feature called Jam, which will give friends a way to curate a single playlist on the service and listen to it together in real time. Participants in a Jam session can contribute tracks to a shared queue, which they can access whether they’re in the same room or around the world. The audio streaming giant is rolling out the feature to both free and Premium subscribers, but only the latter can start a session. Rival service Apple Music has teased a similar collaborative service coming to iOS 17, but it’s expected to arrive later this year.

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Apple has released a firmware update for its Studio Display to improve its contentious 12MP ultrawide webcam, it said in the release 17 notes spotted by 9to5Mac. While the company (sort of) addressed image quality issues in previous updates, users still complained about the camera's relatively high tilt that can be distracting on video calls. Now, the latest update "adds support for zoom, recenter and manual framing" to the webcam, giving users more control over how they look 

The new controls now let you zoom and pan across the image to help position yourself in the frame the way you want, and you can go back to the default settings by hitting the "recenter" button. That should be a big help for those who use the webcam in manual mode, though it also works with Center Stage to automatically frame you in the image. The update also adds "minor stability improvements" to the Studio Display. Note that the Studio Display firmware update also requires the latest macOS Sonoma release that came out yesterday. 

Also via the macOS Sonoma release, Apple brought the same controls over to the Continuity Camera that lets you use your iPhone for video chats on Mac. That might be a better option for many Studio Display owners, as despite all the fixes, the webcam still ain't great. 

You can play the much-awaited sequel to the underground indie hit The Talos Principle in just a month's time. The Talos Principle 2 is coming out for PC (via Steam and Epic Games), the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S on November 2, and you can get the sci-fi puzzler with a 10 percent discount if you pre-order it before its launch date. If you haven't played the original game yet, you can also get it with its Road to Gehenna DLC from Steam at 90 percent off until October 3. 

In The Talos Principle 2, humankind is already extinct, and robots made in our image capable of thoughts and emotions have already taken our place in the world. The machines explore a mysterious megastructure in the story, and as the player, you'd have to solve complex laser riddles to move forward while engaging with in-game dialogue about consciousness, love and the future of our species. 

We described the game as "warm, welcoming and slow," when we previewed it a few days ago. Unlike most other sci-fi games and media, The Talos Principle 2 offers an optimistic story, perhaps more thought-provoking than heart-racing, which you may enjoy if you feel like you need a break from the challenges of the real world. 

While it's good to know that the game is coming out this year, its publisher, Devolver, also recently pushed back several other titles' release to 2024. Skate Story, a stylized skateboarding game set in its version of the underworld with a demon made of glass as the main character, is one of those games. The Plucky Squire, Stick it to the Stickman, Anger Foot and Pepper Grinder had also been delayed and are now scheduled to become available next year. 

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CMF, the budget-friendly sub-brand Nothing announced back in August, has launched its first products: A smartwatch, a pair of earbuds and a GaN charger. The $69 Watch Pro comes with a 1.96-inch AMOLED display and built-in GPS. Its battery can last for up to 13 days, and it can make and receive calls, so long as it's connected to a phone via Bluetooth, but it doesn't seem to have access to an app store. The device is largely health-focused with various features that include monitors for real-time heart rate, blood oxygen saturation, as well as sleep and stress levels. It also provides hydration and movement reminders and the ability to set personalized goals. 

CMF

Meanwhile, CMF's new earbuds are called the Buds Pro, and they cost $49. They offer up to 45 dB of active noise cancellation and a system comprised of an algorithm and optimally positioned openings at the top of each bud to minimize sound interference caused by winds. The earbuds are also capable of eliminating background noise to ensure voice clarity in phone calls with their AI noise reduction algorithm. CMF says they can last for up to 11 hours with one charge, provided ANC remains switched off. With the power provided by its charging case, it could take up to 39 hours before users will have to plug them in. 

Finally, CMF has also launched a 65W GaN charger with two USB-C ports and a USB-A port. It has the capability to bring a Nothing Phone 2's battery to 50 percent in just 25 minutes, the company says. Nothing will be selling these products in limited quantities in India and the UK on September 30, though it did say that it will make the devices available for sale in other markets soon.

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The ARC nerve stimulation therapy system from startup Onward Medical passed another developmental milestone on Wednesday, as the company announced the first successful installation of its brainwave-driven implantable electrode array to restore function and feeling to a patient’s hands and arms. The news comes just five months after the researchers implanted a similar system in a different patient to help them regain a more natural walking gait.

The ARC system used differs depending on how what issue it's being applied to. The ARC-EX is an external, non-invasive stimulator array that sits on the patient’s lower back and helps regulate their bladder control and blood pressure, as well as improving limb function and control. Onward’s lower limb study from May employed the EX along with a BCI controller from CEA-Clinatec to create a “digital bridge” spanning the gap in the patient’s spinal column.

The study published Wednesday instead utilized the ARC-IM, an implantable version of the company’s stimulator array which is installed near the spinal cord and is controlled through wearable components and a smartwatch. Onward had previously used the IM system to enable paralyzed patients to stand and walk short distances without assistance, for which it was awarded an FDA Breakthrough Device Designation in 2020.

Medical professionals led by by neurosurgeon Dr. Jocelyne Bloch, implanted the ARC-IM and the Clinatec BCI into a 46-year-old patient suffering from a C4 spinal injury, in mid-August. The BCI’s hair-thin leads pick up electrical signals in the patient’s brain, convert those analog signals into digital ones that machines can understand, and then transmits them to a nearby computing device where a machine learning AI interprets the patient’s electrical signals and issues commands to the implanted stimulator array. The patient thinks about what they want to do and these two devices work to translate that intent into computer-controlled movement.

How well that translation occurs remains to be seen while the patient learns and adapts to the new system. “The implant procedures involving the Onward ARC-IM and Clinatec BCI went smoothly,” Dr. Bloch said in an press release. “We are now working with the patient to use this cutting-edge innovation to recover movement of his arms, hands, and fingers. We look forward to sharing more information in due course.”

“If the therapy continues to show promise, it is possible it could reach patients by the end of the decade,” Onward CEO Dave Marver said in a statement to Engadget. “It is important to note that we do not expect people with spinal cord injury to wait that long for Onward to commercialize an impactful therapy - we hope to commercialize our external spinal cord stimulation solution, ARC-EX Therapy, to restore hand and arm function in the second half of 2024.”

Onward Medical among a quickly expanding field of BCI-based startups working to apply the fledgling technology to a variety of medical maladies. Those applications include loss of limb and self-regulatory function due to stroke, traumatic brain or spinal cord injury, physical rehabilitation from those same injuries, as well as a critical means of communication for people living with Locked-In Syndrome.