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Meta Connect 2025 Highlights: Evolution of AI Glasses, Metaverse Momentum, and More

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Mark Zuckerberg and Diplo just ran off the Connect stage — literally — to kickstart the after party, and we’re here to recap all the news you might’ve missed. But first, let’s talk about another dynamic duo that’s taking the world by storm: glasses and AI.

It’s no secret that we’re working to bring personal superintelligence to everyone. And glasses are the ideal form factor to deliver it. It’s the only form factor that lets your AI see what you see, hear what you hear, and talk with you throughout the day. AI glasses can help improve your memory, heighten your senses, and let you seamlessly communicate with others — all while staying fully present in the moment.

We design our AI glasses with three core values in mind:

  1. They need to be awesome glasses, full stop. They should be light, feel comfortable, and look great.
  2. The technology needs to get out of the way. We want to give you powerful tools when you want them that fade into the background when you don’t.
  3. We take superintelligence seriously. Our glasses are engineered to get better over time. As the AI improves, your glasses do, too.

And because good things come in threes, we’ve got three major AI glasses announcements to share.

Ray-Ban Meta (Gen 2): Extended Battery Life, 3K Video, & More

The next generation of Ray-Ban Meta glasses is here. With up to 2x the battery life compared to its predecessor, Ray-Ban Meta (Gen 2) offers up to eight hours of mixed use as well as ultra HD 3K video recording — more than double the previous number of pixels — for sharper, smoother, move vivid content capture.We announced conversation focus, a new feature coming soon that’ll help you hear better in noisy environments. If you’re eating at a hot new restaurant, commuting on the train, or catching your favorite DJ’s latest set, conversation focus uses your AI glasses’ open-ear speakers to amplify the voice of the person you’re talking to. And it’s coming to our existing Ray-Ban Meta and Oakley Meta HSTN glasses as a software update, too.

We’re enhancing live AI. As we make battery and energy efficiency optimizations, Meta AI will transition from something you prompt with a wake word to an always-available assistant. While all-day AI is a technical challenge we’re heads-down focusing on, you can currently use live AI for an hour or two.

We’re introducing three new limited-time-only seasonal colors and a limited-edition Wayfarer Matte Transparent frame with two lens color options to better match your personal style.

The next generation of Ray-Ban Meta is available now on meta.com and Ray-Ban.com starting at $379 USD. Learn more.

Oakley Meta Vanguard: The Next Era for Performance AI Glasses

For AI glasses to truly go mainstream, we need frames designed for different activities and aesthetics so they match whatever you’re into. Following up on the success of Oakley Meta HSTN, today we announced Oakley Meta Vanguard — Performance AI glasses that combine classic Oakley style with the durability to withstand high-intensity sports and rugged outdoor adventures.The battery can last up to nine hours of mixed use, helping you train for that marathon on a single charge. The camera is centered with a wider 122-degree field of view, and 3K video with stabilization means amazing footage whether you’re trailrunning or hitting the slopes.

We added two new capture modes — Hyperlapse and Slow Motion — so you can capture your epic adventures in new ways. And not to worry: Those capture modes are available on Ray-Ban Meta (Gen 2) and Oakley Meta HSTNs, too, so you’ve got options.

The open-ear speakers are our most powerful yet — six decibels louder than Oakley Meta HSTN. Combine that with our advanced wind noise reduction, and they’re great for running and biking in up to 30mph winds.

We’re integrating Garmin and Strava with the Meta AI app to take your performance to the next level. You’ll be able to get real-time stats on the fly, completely hands-free, and Meta AI will give you workout summaries to help you track your progress over time.

We also built a new autocapture feature with Garmin that triggers your glasses to capture footage automatically based on your workout stats and milestones. When you hit a set distance or get a burst of speed, your glasses can grab a hands-free video without you even having to ask. And if you pair the Meta AI app with Garmin or Strava, you can even overlay performance stats on your videos before sharing them for bonus bragging rights.

With an IP67 rating, Oakley Meta Vanguard is definitely sweatproof and can even withstand temporary submersion in up to a meter of water. And they’re designed with swappable Oakley® PRIZM™ Shield Lenses, so you can customize your look and optimize for various lighting conditions.

Pre-orders are open now, for $499 USD, and they’ll hit shelves October 21. Learn more.

Meta Ray-Ban Display: A Window Into the Future, Today

We introduced our first AI glasses with a high-resolution monocular display, which combine iconic Ray-Ban style with our brand-new Meta Neural Band.The display itself — which is large enough to read text messages or watch a small video — is slightly offset to avoid disrupting your view, and it disappears after a few seconds when not in use so it doesn’t distract you. At 42 pixels per degree (ppd), it’s higher resolution than any of our consumer VR headsets. And with a custom light engine and waveguide delivering brightness up to 5,000 nits, it works great both indoors and outside — even on bright, sunny days.

And each pair of Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses comes with a Meta Neural Band. With 18 hours of battery life and a comfortable, water-resistant form factor, it’s a true scientific breakthrough, letting you silently control your Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses with subtle hand gestures. We’ve been talking about our research investment in surface electromyography (sEMG) since 2021. We showed the world this tech could work with our Orion product prototype at last year’s Connect, and we published an update in Nature that details our most recent research findings. We’re thrilled to unveil this new wristworn product that puts seamless, intuitive control of your AI glasses quite literally at your fingertips.

Meta Ray-Ban Display will be available for purchase September 30 for $799 USD, which includes the Meta Neural Band. You can sign up for a demo and find your perfect pair at select Best Buy, LensCrafters, and Ray-Ban Store locations in the US. Learn more.

AI Glasses for Good

Whether you’re capturing the moment hands-free while staying fully present, getting more information about the world around you on the fly, or making calls to friends and family, our AI glasses help keep you connected to the people and things that matter most.

We were so excited to learn that Blind and Low-Vision users and Blinded Veterans across America are using our AI glasses to experience the world more independently. They’re using Meta AI to describe their surroundings into audio descriptions, which lets them find things in a room, identify what’s in front of them, or read food labels in the grocery store. In fact, we’ve learned that VA Blind Rehabilitation Centers are issuing Ray-Ban Meta glasses to support Blind and Low-Vision Veterans. That’s why the Blinded Veterans Association is developing a guide to teach them how to use the glasses to help with daily living and to navigate the world with greater autonomy, confidence, and connection.

Last year at Connect, we announced our partnership with Be My Eyes, which connects people who are Blind or have Low Vision with sighted volunteers who then “see” on their behalf through the Ray-Ban Meta glasses and help talk them through various tasks. Since then, people have used their Ray-Ban Meta glasses to connect with volunteers hands-free to help them shop for groceries, cook a meal at home, pick out a birthday card, and more. With the continued expansion of Ray-Ban Meta into new markets, our Be My Eyes integration is becoming available in more and more new countries and languages with even more coming soon. And we’re making it easier to use by tapping on the side of the glasses rather than saying, “Hey Meta, call a volunteer,” out loud.

Metaverse Momentum

We’re hard at work advancing the state of the art in augmented and virtual reality, too, and where those technologies meet AI — that’s where you’ll find the metaverse.

Our vision for the future is a world where anyone anywhere can imagine a character, a scene, or an entire world and create it from scratch. There’s still a lot of work to do, but we’re making progress. In fact, we’re not far off from being able to create compelling 3D content as easily as you can ask Meta AI a question today. And that stands to transform not just the imagery and videos we see on platforms like Instagram and Facebook, but also the possibilities of VR and AR, too.

Foundational Infrastructure: Meta Horizon Engine & Meta Horizon Studio

Meta Horizon Engine has been built from scratch and optimized to help bring the metaverse to life. It powers better graphics, faster performance, and more advanced worlds. Developers and creators will be able to use it to easily generate nearly infinite connected spaces with realistic physics and interactions.We introduced Meta Horizon Studio, a new editor and hub for creator capabilities. It includes the generative AI tools we’ve added over the last year that let creators generate mesh, textures, TypeScript, audio, skyboxes, and more with simple text prompts, so they can make high-quality worlds in a fraction of the time. And soon, we’ll add an agentic AI assistant to stitch together different tools and make the creation process even faster and easier.

Using Horizon Engine, we built a new Immersive Home for VR. You can customize it by pinning apps in different spots. And you can jump straight from your home to a series of interconnected worlds. Thanks to Horizon Engine, it’s 4x faster to load and render new worlds, so it takes just a few seconds.

Horizon Engine also enables much greater concurrency, so more people can enjoy the same world at the same time. We can now support 100+ people in a single space — 5x more than our previous engine could handle. Now the vibes match the experience, whether you’re catching a concert with a huge crowd in our new Arena or meeting up with friends in Horizon Central to explore new worlds.

And eventually, you’ll be able to seamlessly incorporate photorealistic spaces in worlds, too. Last year at Connect, we introduced a demo of Hyperscape, which uses Gaussian Splatting, cloud rendering, and streaming to make these types of spaces viewable on Meta Quest 3 and 3S headsets. And today, we’re rolling out Hyperscape Capture in Early Access, so you’ll be able to use your Quest to scan a room in just a few minutes and then turn that into an immersive, photorealistic world of your own.

Entertainment on the Horizon

Quest continues to have the best slate of VR games, and it keeps getting better. Marvel’s Deadpool VR, ILM’s Star Wars: Beyond Victory, Resolution Games’ Demeo x Dungeons & Dragons: Battlemarked, and nDreams Elevation’s Reach are all launching this fall. And entertainment all-up continues to grow in popularity. VR lets you enjoy your favorite content on a massive screen you can bring with you anywhere. And new formats are emerging that incorporate immersive elements to make the experience more magical.

That’s why we’re launching a new entertainment hub called Meta Horizon TV.* We’re partnering with some big names to bring the best in movies, TV, live sports, music, and more direct to your headset. And our upcoming platform investments will eliminate letterboxing, displaying media in a correctly sized window based on its aspect ratio. That means you’ll get an optimal viewing experience, as the director originally intended.

Disney+ is coming to Quest, including content from ESPN and Hulu, and will be available in the Meta Horizon Store and Meta Horizon TV. And we’re partnering with Universal Pictures, Nexus Studios, and iconic horror company Blumhouse, so you can watch movies like M3GAN and The Black Phone with immersive special effects you won’t find anywhere else.

Meta Horizon TV supports Dolby Atmos sound, with support for Dolby Vision coming later this year. That means rich colors, crisp details, and spatial sound for a more immersive experience than a traditional TV can deliver.

Finally, as an extension of our partnership with James Cameron’s Lightstorm Vision, we’re thrilled to share that an exclusive 3D clip of Avatar: Fire and Ash is available now in Meta Horizon TV for a limited time — so go check it out now! This is just the beginning of how fans can experience Pandora like never before on Quest, following the film’s theatrical release this December.

Future Focus

The next computing platform continues to come into focus. VR headsets let us immerse ourselves in interactive worlds and experience best-in-class entertainment on a larger than life screen. AI glasses connect us to real-world superpowers as we move throughout the day, tapping into a wealth of information while staying present in the moment. And AR glasses will overlay rich digital content on top of our view of the physical world, opening up the door for new adventures we haven’t even dreamt of yet.
Here’s to another year of progress building the future of human connection. We’ll see you tomorrow for a recap of the day two keynote as Connect continues.


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Ugo Onwuaso is an ICT enthusiast. He believes technology should be used for general good. He holds a Master of Public Administration (MPA) degree from the Lagos state University. Dear Reader, Your support matters. But we believe that technology makes life more exciting and helps improve the lives of people around Nigeria and indeed the world. That is why, we have devoted our energy to independent reportage of technology and finance and how they affect lives. Our incisive and analytical view of how technology news affects the daily life help individuals and organizations make up their minds. Quality journalism costs money. Today, we're asking that you support us to do more. Kindly support our effort to deliver technology and finance journalism to everyone in the world. Donate as little as N1,000. Bank transfers can be made to: UBA Plc 1017156876 Communication Week Media Ltd

General News

CAC Lists 15 Unregistered Firms Operating in Nigeria

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Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) has warned Nigerians against dealing with 15 unregistered entities using company names and registration numbers that are not in the commission’s records.

CAC Lists 15 Unregistered Firms Operating in Nigeria

In a public notice signed by CAC Management, the commission said it had discovered the use of purported company names and RC numbers that are not registered with the CAC, urging the public to disregard them and verify all business information directly from its portal.

“The CAC remains committed to protecting the integrity of the Companies Register, upholding the law, and ensuring a safe and transparent business environment in Nigeria,” the CAC said.

According to the notice, the following are the entities not registered with the CAC:

Famas Services Nigeria Limited (RC: 216312)

Promo Dutch Investment Limited (RC: 396654)

Dialack Concept Nig. Ltd (RC: 297772)

Purpleheart Construction and Real Estate Mgt. Co. Ltd (RC: 1210548)

M/S Loktu Enterprises (BN: 373466)

Loktu Enterprises (BN: 400390)

Badatoyak Ltd (RC: 521322)

Johson Nats Limited (RC: 198492)

Peoples Club Nigeria International (CAC/IT/41191)

Jiba Enterprise (BN: 577523)

Civil Engineering Solutions Nigeria Limited (RC: 33001)

Gabdoff Hotel Ltd (RC: 112409)

Amoka Group (BN: 545221)

BEEC Nigeria Limited (RC: 30143)

  1. Adetunji (BN: 657466)

Explaining the reason for the commission’s publication, the statement noted that it aligns with its statutory role of maintaining an accurate and reliable companies register, protecting investors, and preventing fraudulent activities in the business environment.

The commission urged Nigerians to always confirm the status of any company or business name through its official portal.


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IHS Nigeria Leads Gender Based Violence Awareness Walk, Reaffirms Zero Tolerance with Advocacy Seminar

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Demonstrating unwavering commitment to a safe and dignified workplace, IHS Nigeria held an awareness walk followed by a high-impact seminar as part of activities to commemorate the global 16 days of activism to End Gender-Based Violence against women and girls.

The initiative underscored the organisation’s ongoing efforts to sensitize the community, educate employees, strengthen internal safeguards, and reinforce its zero-tolerance policy for all forms of harassment and abuse.

After the walk along Adeola Odeku and Idejo Streets on Victoria Island, employees convened for a seminar at the IHS Nigeria corporate head office, where Bukola Konkwo, Associate Director, Operations Excellence IHS Nigeria and one of the leaders of the Women in IHS Network (WIIN), reiterated the organisation’s position on gender-based violence in her opening remarks:

“Violence does not discriminate, and neither should our compassion. At IHS Nigeria, boldness is not just a value on paper, it is a call to action. We are intentional about ensuring every employee feels safe, respected, and empowered.”

The seminar featured two leading voices in Gender Based Violence advocacy. Titiola Vivour Adeniyi, the Executive Secretary of the Lagos State Domestic and Sexual Violence Agency and Nwanne Okafor, Victimologist and Gender Based Violence Advocate. Speaking during the seminar, Titilope stressed the urgency of prevention and education:

“Gender-based violence is not a special-class problem. Anybody can be a victim. Our responsibility is to know the signs, protect one another, and intervene early. When we know better, we do better.”

She also encouraged organisations to prioritise consent education, confidential reporting, and background checks, practices IHS Nigeria has already integrated through its Safe Zone Committee, a confidential support system for staff.

Nwanne Okafor, also spoke on the role of colleagues in recognizing and responding to abuse in the workplace:

“Many victims don’t need you to fix their situation, they need your support, your sensitivity, and your discretion. Speak up when necessary. Silence gives violence permission.”

Her session included real-life cases that underscored how abuse affects workplace productivity, mental health, and safety.

The awareness walk, saw both male and female staff members from across various departments marching in solidarity with survivors and advocates worldwide  and served as a public declaration of IHS Nigeria’s commitment to building a culture rooted in respect, safety, and accountability.

Reinforcing IHS Nigeria’s stand, during her  closing remarks, Titilope Oguntuga, Director, Sustainability, IHS Nigeria, captured the spirit of the event:

“This conversation doesn’t end today. Now that we know better, we must all do better, by advocating, supporting, and actively contributing to a workplace free of violence in any form.”

IHS Nigeria continues to strengthen its internal systems, policy frameworks, training programs, safe reporting channels, and continuous awareness sessions, to ensure that every employee is protected and empowered. The organisation reaffirms its zero-tolerance policy for any form of harassment, abuse, or violence, and remains committed to leading the corporate sector in progressive, people-centered safety standards.


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Nigeria’s GDP Rises to 3.98% in Q3 2025, Driven by Agriculture, ICT, and Finance

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Nigeria’s economy expanded by $3.98$ per cent in the third quarter of 2025, according to the latest Gross Domestic Product (GDP) report released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Monday.

Nigeria’s GDP Rises to 3.98% in Q3 2025, Driven by Agriculture, ICT, and Finance

GDP

This growth rate marks a slight improvement from the $3.86$ per cent recorded in the same period of 2024.The report highlights a mixed but generally positive recovery across key sectors. Aggregate GDP in real terms stood at ₦57.03 trillion, up from ₦54.85 trillion in Q3 2024.

The Services sector remained the largest contributor to overall output at $53.02$ per cent, followed by Agriculture at $31.21$ per cent. Key growth drivers included crop production, telecommunications, real estate, trade, and financial services.

The non-oil sector continued to be the main engine of the economy, expanding by $3.91$ per cent. This strong performance outpaced both Q3 2024 ($3.79$ per cent) and Q2 2025 ($3.64$ per cent). Agriculture grew by $3.79$ per cent, driven predominantly by crop production.

The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector posted a particularly strong real growth of $5.78$ per cent, with its contribution to real GDP rising to $9.10$ per cent. Furthermore, Financial and Insurance Services recorded a significant real growth of $19.63$ per cent.

In contrast, real growth in the Manufacturing sector slowed to $1.25$ per cent, down from $1.74$ per cent in the previous quarter.

The oil sector posted a real growth of $5.84$ per cent, a marginal increase from $5.66$ per cent in Q3 2024. This growth was linked to an average crude oil production rise to $1.64$ million barrels per day (mbpd), up from $1.47$ mbpd a year earlier.

Despite this positive change in output, the sector’s contribution to real GDP remains modest at **$3.44$ per cent$.Statistician-General of the Federation, Prince Adeyemi Adeniran, noted that while most sectors sustained positive momentum, growth remains uneven.

Strong gains in ICT, finance, agriculture, and trade were crucial in stabilizing overall output. This data aligns with projections from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which, in October 2025, revised Nigeria’s 2025 growth outlook upward to $3.9$ per cent, citing higher oil production, stronger investor confidence, and a supportive fiscal stance as key drivers.


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