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Meta Launches Ray-Ban Smart Glasses With Display & Neural Band
The company’s latest wearable adds a display for apps and alerts, paired with a Neural Band wrist controller. Launch is set for September 30 at $799.
Meta has revealed a new pair of Ray-Ban branded smart glasses featuring a built-in display and a wristband controller that reads hand gestures. CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the device, called Meta Ray-Ban Display, at the Meta Connect 2025 conference, confirming it will go on sale September 30 for $799.
The glasses display apps, alerts and directions directly on the right lens. Control comes via the Meta Neural Band, a wristband using electromyography (EMG) to detect signals between the brain and hand during small movements. The band resembles a screenless Fitbit, offers 18 hours of battery life, and is water resistant.
Meta is pitching the device as its strongest consumer push so far toward hardware that doesn’t depend on Google’s or Apple’s ecosystems. While the company has invested heavily in VR, it now sees AI-powered smart glasses as a more direct way to reach users.
The Ray-Ban Display builds on Meta’s earlier smart glasses, developed with eyewear partner EssilorLuxottica, which have sold in the millions. Like those models, the new glasses include an AI assistant, plus cameras, speakers and microphones. The addition of a display broadens what the glasses can do: users can access Meta apps such as Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook, see directions and live translations.
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Reports of the device surfaced earlier this week after a leak, with media outlets noting its internal codename Hypernova. The product is notably less advanced than Meta’s Orion prototype shown at Connect 2024, which featured full AR lenses and eye tracking. That device remains years away from consumer release.
Zuckerberg argued the advantage lies in being first to ship something consumers can actually buy, even if competitors like Apple and Google are expected to follow with their own smart glasses. Tight integration with existing mobile operating systems could give those rivals a significant edge despite Meta’s early move.
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NEOPAY Wants To Follow Merchants Across Channels And Borders
A controlling 65% stake in noon payments would give NEOPAY access to marketplace sellers, online merchants and the payment flows they generate.
It’s been a long time since checkouts were single defined places. A merchant might take payments at a physical register, on its own website and through an online marketplace, sometimes in more than one country. NEOPAY wants to follow those transactions wherever they happen.
The UAE payments company has entered into an agreement to acquire a 65% controlling stake in noon payments. NEOPAY already runs the acquiring infrastructure that lets merchants accept card payments, along with omnichannel acceptance and a merchant services platform. This new deal would add noon payments’ embedded payments platform, e-commerce gateway and merchant network across the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. That would considerably expand both NEOPAY’s digital commerce capabilities and its regional reach.
For merchants, the attraction is a single provider for online and in-store payments, plus faster settlements, data and analytics, and value-added financial services.
“Payments should be simple, reliable, and built for the markets they serve,” said Faraz Khalid, CEO of noon. His counterpart at NEOPAY, Vibhor Mundhada, added: “We have built a strong payments business in the UAE, and our ambition is now to take that capability across the region”. The acquisition, Mundhada added, would “expand our footprint into Saudi Arabia and Egypt” while reinforcing NEOPAY’s position at home.
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NEOPAY is also keen to point out potential payment volume increases. The company says noon payments’ integrations with marketplace sellers and online merchants create high transaction density in some of the region’s fastest-growing digital commerce segments. It also believes control of the business would give it access to those merchant relationships and payment flows, and speed up the rollout of alternative payment methods and installment options.
The combined roadmap targets faster merchant onboarding, better payment performance, tighter fraud controls and embedded financial services. The deal could also strengthen cross-border payments and settlement along key regional commerce corridors.
NEOPAY Wants To Follow Merchants Across Channels And Borders
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