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Meta's annual developer conference, Connect 2026, is underway, with Gizmodo providing live coverage of announcements as they happen. The company is anticipated to unveil new smart glasses hardware along with upgrades to its AI models during the event.
Polish developer Pawel Szydlowski built ZuckOff, a free Bluetooth scanning app that identifies nearby smart glasses from Meta and Snap by matching device signals to fingerprints he compiled from purchased hardware. The app has drawn over 5,000 downloads on Apple's App Store and 1,000 on Google Play within its first month.
Australia's public service minister Katy Gallagher announced the government is exploring a ban on Meta's AI-enabled smart glasses in federal government buildings, citing privacy and security risks tied to their recording capabilities. Officials plan to consult the public service commission and hold a roundtable with major employers like Microsoft and Commonwealth Bank to develop broader AI workplace guidelines.
According to The Information, Meta is building a new smart glasses model called Luna that drops the built-in camera found in its current lineup. Instead, the device relies on six microphones and a side button to let wearers talk directly to Meta's AI chatbot and its Muse AI agent. The glasses could debut as soon as next week's Meta Connect event in Menlo Park.
Meta is reportedly building a camera-less version of its Ray-Ban smart glasses, codenamed Luna, following widespread criticism that the camera-equipped models enabled covert recording and harassment. The new glasses would retain six microphones for voice interaction with Meta's AI assistants but drop the camera entirely, and could debut as soon as next week's Meta Connect conference.
According to The Information, Meta is developing a new smart glasses line called Luna that omits the camera found in its current models. The glasses will reportedly come in two styles, Clubmaster and Burbank, and feature six microphones plus ear-facing speakers for interacting with Meta's AI assistant via a side button. Meta may reveal Luna at its Connect conference on September 23-24, with shipping possibly starting in October.
According to The Information, Meta is preparing to unveil camera-less smart glasses codenamed Luna at next week's Connect event. The device would rely on six microphones and speakers to let users interact with Meta AI and a new Muse AI agent, and is expected to ship in October in Clubmaster and Burbank styles.
A proposed class action filed by families in Illinois and California accuses Meta of harvesting biometric data from Facebook and Instagram photos to build a facial recognition system tied to its smart glasses, reportedly called 'NameTag.' The suit follows earlier reporting that Meta quietly embedded facial recognition code into the devices despite public denials that such a feature was planned. Meta has called the lawsuit meritless, saying no product has shipped and no final decision on the feature has been made.
Plaintiffs in Illinois and California have filed a class action lawsuit against Meta, alleging the company intends to incorporate facial recognition technology into its smart glasses products. The suit centers on privacy concerns tied to biometric data collection without proper consent.
Apple's September event unveiled the foldable iPhone Duo, iPhone 18 Pro models, ANC on the entry-level AirPods 5, and a Siri Recap feature for Apple Watch, but did not include the long-rumored AirPods Pro with built-in cameras. According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, that camera-equipped model has been pushed back to 2027. The rumored cameras were said to be low-resolution and meant to feed Siri and Visual Intelligence rather than capture photos or video.
Meta has remotely disabled photo and video functions on smart glasses that owners modified to hide or disable the recording indicator light. The company's wearables VP told Semafor that under 0.1% of the roughly 7 million glasses sold in 2025 were altered this way, meaning up to several thousand devices were affected. The move follows a wave of complaints about people using the glasses to secretly film others, particularly women, without consent.
HTC is bringing its Vive Eagle smart glasses to the US market after debuting them last year, offering a screen-free, glasses-first design. The device includes a 12MP ultrawide camera, 32GB of encrypted storage, and support for either OpenAI or Gemini voice assistants, running on Qualcomm's Snapdragon AR1 chip. Pricing starts at $499 for standard or sunglass lenses, rising to $599 for photochromic versions.