Spatial Realities (english)

With the summer holidays just around the corner, we gather for one last comprehensive round of XR news before the seasonal slowdown. → Inspired by Josef Erl’s latest newsletter on heise.de — where he declares the end of all-rounder headsets and proposes four new VR categories — Thomas and I discuss what the upcoming autumn hardware wave will actually deliver. → We also untangle the latest rumors surrounding Meta's smart glasses: from "supersensing" devices without privacy LEDs switched on to Meta's aggressive countermeasures against hardware tampering. Plus: Meta is testing paid AI subscriptions. Meanwhile, Illinois has banned smart glasses behind the wheel entirely—we analyze the reasoning behind this drastic move. → In financial news, Even Realities has officially reached unicorn status with a new $150 million investment round. We look at why their camera-free, monochrome display approach is winning over investors. → Furthermore, the first dedicated Metaverse browser has launched, Thomas is explaining what it can actually do and we share our initial impressions. → Finally, we look at UBTECH's new U1 companion. Is this humanoid robot genuinely the future of home assistance, or is it just a highly uncanny, overly flexible smart speaker on legs?

The strategy to go with an already well-established brand has been contested by its own creator: Meta introduced Meta Ray-Ban glasses three years ago and created a blueprint which was supposed to explain why suddenly a lot of normal, non-XR people were buying AI glasses. Now, Meta has announced Meta Glasses; their own "store brand," cheaper but supposedly as good as the branded version, which challenges that blueprint. Thomas Bedenk and I, as well as many of you out there, have been asking why Meta is doing that. Sure, cheaper might always be better for wider adoption. Removing a designer glasses brand can make a product cheaper. But will it also remove the appeal? Will people wear glasses with a Meta logo on them? Was Meta forced to go cheaper because the trajectory already showed signs of slowing down? And what role does EssilorLuxottica play in this? The long-time partner, which is 3% owned by Meta and has a 10-year deal signed up to 2034, is not only profiting hugely from that cooperation. It is also in a situation where it could put pressure on its partner. The Italian-French corporation EssilorLuxottica might even be concerned about its own brand integrity regarding what Meta is doing concerning privacy and AI. Maybe EssilorLuxottica halted further brand cooperation without retracting access to its production facilities, we speculate. In this episode, we are analyzing Meta's newest attempt in the smart glasses industry it created, and we share a clear position on whether you should buy these now-cheapest, but still great-looking, smart glasses.

And here they are! In this special episode of Spatial Realities we dive into the highly anticipated reveal of the new Snap Specs at the AWE 2026 conference. We take a close look at the hardware of this new AR device, exploring how its weight, display technology, and pricing compare to previous generations and competitors on the market. We also discuss the newly introduced AI-driven Lens Studio tools and what they mean for the developer ecosystem. Join us as we evaluate the real-world implications of its battery life, discuss the availability of compelling consumer use cases, and analyze Snap's privacy concepts. Tune in to hear our views on whether these glasses are poised to become finally a mainstream success we all have been waiting for.