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Everything Announced At Meta’s Connect 2023 Event
Including the Meta Quest 3, Ray-Ban smart glasses, and Meta AI updates.
The Meta Connect 2023 keynote event saw the company share news about its latest products and technologies. CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed updates to Meta’s AI, a new pair of smart glasses in collaboration with Ray-Ban were previewed, and the company’s flagship Quest 3 headset was given a release date.
Meta Quest 3 Release Date
The Meta Quest 3 blends augmented reality into the wearer’s physical surroundings. The headset runs on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 chip to double the performance of its predecessor and offer higher resolution and increased depth of field.
Meta has revamped the Quest’s controllers by ditching the tracking rings and adding haptic feedback, while interpupillary adjustment helps glasses wearers get more comfortable.
Along with upcoming native VR games, the Quest 3 will support Xbox Cloud Gaming this December. In addition, Microsoft 365 apps will be compatible by the end of the year, and users will soon be able to access Windows on the headset.
Meta Quest 3 pre-orders are open now, starting at $500 for the 128GB version. The headsets will be shipped by October 10.
Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses
Meta has teamed up with Ray-Ban to develop a new pair of smart glasses that offer much-improved specs (no pun intended) over the original Ray-Ban Stories. A 12MP wide-angle camera can record 1080p video at 60fps, while the glasses also include 32GB of storage, five spatial audio mics and upgraded speakers.
Pre-orders for the $299 Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses open today, shipping on October 17.
Meta AI Updates
Meta now offers a range of AI chatbot personalities and a new generative AI assistant, available on WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram and other new hardware.
Meanwhile, generative AI image editing is coming to Instagram, along with a green screen similar to the one already unveiled by YouTube. In addition, AI-generated stickers are being rolled out across Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger and Facebook Stories.
News
LUVED Is A New Curated Preloved Marketplace For The UAE
Sellers keep 100 percent of every sale and AI can build a listing in five seconds — though the app’s smartest tools are still coming.
Secondhand shopping has become mainstream in the UAE, but the experience is still scattered across resale sites, social media and informal group chats. LUVED, a mobile-first marketplace that launched in Dubai this month, is betting it can pull that activity into one place — and that the thing buyers and sellers actually want is not more inventory, but trust.
The app trades in what it calls circular luxury: preloved fashion and lifestyle pieces across men’s, women’s and children’s categories, bought, sold or given away peer to peer. Its main pitch is economics, with sellers keeping 100 percent of every sale under a zero-commission, fast payout model, while buyers are promised vetted pieces at lower prices.
Where LUVED is staking its reputation is verification. Sellers pass a KYC check, and items run through a two-layer authentication system powered by Entrupy that pairs instant AI screening with human expert review for high-value pieces. Authenticity certificates travel with each item, payments sit in escrow, and a buyer-protection package the company calls The Safety Net adds a 48-hour return window and dispute resolution. Door-to-door logistics removes the in-person meetups that make most resale deals awkward.
An in-app assistant called Luvbot — offering selling insights and demand-based recommendations — is soon to be introduced to the platform. Other features include autofill and dynamic pricing that lets users build a listing in as little as five seconds from three photos, plus a swipe-based feed, story-style drops and in-app chat in English and Arabic. Finally, a gifting layer, Luved & Gifted, lets users pass items to others inside the app rather than sell them.
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“After moving to Dubai, I saw how difficult it was to sell or even give things away,” says founder and CEO Shaima Sibtain. The friction is real, and so is the competition. In resale, trust is won transaction by transaction — and that is the test LUVED has set itself.
The app is live on the App Store now, with Google Play to follow. The company also plans to expand across the region, which will be the real test for a marketplace staking everything on trust.
