News

Everything Announced At Meta’s Connect 2023 Event

Including the Meta Quest 3, Ray-Ban smart glasses, and Meta AI updates.

Published

2 years ago

September 28, 2023

everything announced at meta's connect 2023 event

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

Nano Banana 2 Arrives In MENA For Google Gemini Users

Google brings its latest image model to Gemini and Search, adding 4K output and tighter text control for regional users.

Published

2 weeks ago

February 27, 2026

Nour Nasir

Google

Google has opened access to Nano Banana 2 across the Middle East and North Africa, pushing its newest image model into everyday tools rather than keeping it inside the exclusive (and expensive) Pro tier.

The rollout spans the Google Gemini desktop and mobile apps, and extends to Google Search through Lens and AI Mode. Developers can also test it in preview via AI Studio and the Gemini API.

Nano Banana 2 runs on Gemini Flash, Google’s fast inference layer. The focus is speed, but also control. Users can export visuals from 512px up to 4K, adjusting aspect ratios for everything from vertical social posts to widescreen displays.

The model maintains character likeness across up to five figures and preserves fidelity for as many as 14 objects within a single workflow. This enables visual continuity across scenes, iterations, or edits — supporting projects like short films, storyboards, and multi-scene narratives. Text rendering has also been improved, delivering legible typography in mockups and greeting cards, with built-in translation and localization directly within images.

Also Read: RØDE Adds Direct iPhone Pairing To Wireless GO And Pro Mics

Under the hood, the system taps Gemini’s broader knowledge base and pulls in real-time information and imagery from web search to render specific subjects more accurately. Lighting and fine detail have been upgraded, without slowing output.

By embedding the model inside Gemini and Search, Google is normalizing advanced image generation for a mass audience. In MENA, where startups and marketing teams are leaning heavily on AI to scale content across languages and borders, that shift lands at a practical moment.

The move also folds creative tooling deeper into search itself, so that image generation is no longer a separate workflow. It now sits right next to the query box.