Have an Apple Vision Pro and wish you could fight alongside Marvel superheroes and potentially battle against villains like Thanos? Well, Marvel Studios is granting you your wish and will allow you to open portals with a twist of the hand and even take part in battles.
What If…? – An Immersive Story, which combines augmented and mixed reality, arrives on the Apple Vision Pro as an app on May 30, 2024. Furthermore, it will be free for a limited time, and we’re all getting our initial look at it courtesy of the first trailer drop.
If you’ve watched What If…? on Disney Plus or have seen a Marvel film, you’ll likely be right at home. As the trailer shows, “The Watcher” will be life-size in your living room, asking for your help to battle variants from across the Marvel universes and even search for various Infinity Stones with the help of myriad spells courtesy of Master Wong.
Thanks to vibrant, clear 4K displays on the Apple Vision Pro and the advanced camera setup, you’ll be transported and fully immersed into worlds from the Marvel universe, as well as see elements like portals and characters appear in your home space. The teams at Marvel Studios and ILM Immersive have also tapped into the various capabilities of Vision Pro and will employ eye and hand tracking.
From the trailer, the experience looks quite fun. It will likely be a major hit with Marvel fans who have the Apple Vision Pro headset – plus, it’ll be free for a limited time. As What If…? – An Immersive Story is the first immersive story from Disney Plus, it will feature characters, storylines, and even locations from the show and introduce new ones.
The story will last a full hour, and there might be some replayability as it seems to be taking the path of a choose-your-own-adventure, with various storylines you might end up playing through.
Pricing and Availability
Marvel Studios What If…? – An Immersive Story will launch on May 30, 2024, exclusively for the Apple Vision Pro.
It'll be a separate app to download from Disney Plus and will be “a free app for a limited time,” according to the release. You'll need the $ 3,500 (around £2,750 / AU$ 5,270) spatial computer from Apple as well, of course.
LG Display has unveiled an eye-wateringly bright OLED display that's specially designed for VR headsets – a 10,000-nit OLEDoS (OLED on silicon) panel that could help to bring Meta headsets more in line with the Apple Vision Pro’s visual superiority.
For context, the Meta Quest 3’s displays offer a mere 100 nits, while Apple’s Vision Pro’s OLEDoS panels are rated to achieve 5,000 nits – though there’s no official word on whether they ever get that bright.
LG’s 10,000-nit screens would blow all of these out of the water, though they’d only be half as bright as the 20,000-nit prototype Meta headset I’ve tested in the past (appropriately called Starburst). The advantage is that these super-bright headsets can deliver much more life-like HDR – meaning darker spaces seem darker, while bright objects truly glow like you’d expect them to in the real world.
It’s worth noting that while LG’s new VR OLED can achieve 10,000 nits, it may not ever get that bright or be that bright frequently. Running at 10,000 nits constantly would likely cause a lot of heat and drain your headset’s battery. Considering it would be so close to your eyes, I’d also be concerned it might cause damage. When I tested Starburst, the highest 20,000-nit setting did slightly sting and most of the scenes demoed in this setting were dark with just a few exceptionally bright columns.
Beyond being über bright, this LG display has an ultra-high 4,000 pixel per inch resolution. That's over triple the Quest 3's 1,218 pixel per inch resolution, and LG still beats out the Vision Pro's 3,386 pixels per inch (via iFixit).
Starburst was so heavy I had to hold it with two hands (Image credit: Future)
Is LG going to take over XR?
There’s no word yet on when or even if LG's OLEDoS panel will appear in an actual VR headset that you or I could buy, but if it does feature in a product, we expect it’ll be in Meta hardware first. That’s because LG and Meta have officially teamed up to work on XR technology (a catchall for VR, AR, and MR), and I’m convinced this means LG is making the displays for the next Meta Quest Pro.
However, there is a small chance LG’s VR plans could be more selfish.
That’s because since LG and Meta announced their collaboration, Meta has revealed that its Horizon OS is coming to third-party VR headsets – beginning with Xbox Lenovo, and Asus. LG isn’t on this list but it too may have its own VR headset in the works that would put its OLEDoS panel to use, rather than appearing in an official Meta Quest.
We'll have to wait and see what's announced, but whichever VR headset gets this new LG OLEDoS panel it's almost certainly going to be one of the best VR headsets out there.
As part of iOS 17.5, Apple is finally rolling out its Detecting Unwanted Location Trackers specification, allowing mobile users to locate suspiciously placed AirTags and other similar devices. Simply, this update has been a long time coming.
To give a quick breakdown of the situation at large, Bluetooth trackers were being used as a way to stalk people. Google announced that it and Apple were teaming up to tackle this problem. The former sought to upgrade its Find My Device network quickly but decided to postpone the launch, partly to wait until Apple finished developing its new standard.
With iOS 17.5, though, Apple states that your iPhone will notify you if an unknown Bluetooth tracker device was placed on you. If it sniffs something out, an “[Item] Found Moving With You” alert will appear on the smartphone screen.
Upon detection, your iPhone can trigger a noise on the tracker to help you locate it. An accompanying notification will include a guide showing you how to disable the gadget. You can find these instructions on Apple’s support website.
Supporting devices
The detection tool can locate other Find My accessories so long as the third-party trackers are built to the specifications that Apple and Google are on. Devices not on the new network aren't compatible and will not work. Third-party tag manufacturers like Chipolo and Motorola are reportedly committing future releases to the new standard, which means the iOS feature will also detect forthcoming models.
Android devices have been capable of detecting Bluetooth trackers for some time, and Google is currently rolling out its long-awaited Find My Device upgrade to smartphones. Thanks to the Detecting Unwanted Location Trackers specification, it’ll work in conjunction with Apple’s network.
Part of iOS 17.5
There is more to iOS 17.5 than just the security patch.
Moreover, Apple News Plus subscribers can download audio briefings, entire magazine issues, and more for offline enjoyment. When you're back online, the downloaded content list “will automatically refresh.”
Besides these, 9To5Mac has confirmed even more changes like the Podcasts widget receiving support for dynamic colors. This alters the color of the box to match a podcast’s artwork. The publication also confirms the existence of Repair State, a “special hibernation mode” that lets people send in their iPhone for service without disabling the Find My connection.
To install iOS 17.5, head over to your iPhone’s Settings menu. Go to General then Software Update to receive the patch. And be sure to check out TechRadar's list of the best iPhone for 2024.
While there weren't any AI announcements to rival the launch of the iPad Pro (2024) or new M4 chip, Apple did uncharacteristically mention 'AI' on eight different occasions during the event – and those covered five different new announcements about the tech.
Apple has previously been reluctant to join the chorus of AI hype, preferring to stick to the less zeitgeisty (if often more accurate) 'machine learning' during its launch events. But back in February, Tim Cook started making unexpectedly bold statements about AI, calling it a “huge opportunity for Apple” and that AI tools would be coming to Apple devices “later this year”.
So what exactly were those subtle AI announcements at the iAPd-centric Apple event? Here are the times the Cupertino crew gave us a taster of what's to come next month at WWDC 2024…
1. The M4 chip is more powerful than 'any AI PC today'
(Image credit: Apple)
Apple's next-gen silicon had been rumored for the iPad Pro (2024), but it was still something of a surprise to see the M4 appear for the first time during a tablet announcement. Naturally, Apple was keen to flag its serious AI potential.
Tim Millet, Apple's VP of Platform Architecture, said that “the Neural Engine makes M4 an outrageously powerful chip for AI”, pointing to the simple example of it letting you isolate a subject from its background in 4K video with a tap in Final Cut Pro.
Clearly, Apple thinks its silicon makes for a strong foundation for AI apps, with Millet adding that “the Neural Engine is an IP-block in the chip dedicated to the acceleration of AI workloads”. And he finished with the bolder statement that “the Neural Engine in M4 is more powerful than any neural processing unit in any AI PC today”. We can't verify that yet, but it doesn't sound like an outlandish claim.
2. The Logic Pro 2 app has AI-powered Session Players
(Image credit: Apple)
The Logic Pro app landed on the iPad about a year ago – and the new version that Apple's just announced has some AI-powered 'Session Players' for you to dabble with.
These are designed to play alongside the existing Drummer feature to give you something like a virtual band. Will Hui, Apple's Product Manager of Creative Apps, said: “Now Drummer is getting some new bandmates in a feature we call Session Players. We're introducing an all-new Bass and Keyboard Player, and like Drummer,they're built using AI.”
Given Apple's digital audio workstation was already a lot of fun, we're looking forward to giving them an audition.
3. The iPad Pro uses AI to help you scan documents
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(Image credit: Apple)
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(Image credit: Apple)
This might not be the most wildly exciting AI use case, but sometimes the tech is best suited to helping us with more mundane tasks – and Apple reckons it does just that with the iPad Pro (2024)'s AI-powered document scanning.
This comes courtesy of a new 'adaptive' True Tone flash, which works in tandem with AI algorithms to adjust the lighting depending on the document and ambient lighting. John Ternus, Apple's SVP of Hardware Engineering said: “We've all had the experience of trying to scan a document in certain lighting conditions where it's hard to avoid casting a shadow – the new Pro solves this problem.”
“It uses AI to automatically detect documents like forms and receipts,” he added. “If shadows are in the way, it instantly takes multiple photos with the new, adaptive flash. The frames are stitched together and the result is a dramatically better scan.”
We'll have to see how well that works in practice, but because it's built into iPadOS it'll also be in the Camera app, Files, Notes, and third-party apps, too.
4. The iPad Air 6 isn't left out of the AI party
(Image credit: Apple)
Apple was keen to stress that the iPad Pro (2024) isn't the only tablet in its range suitable for AI-powered tasks or future apps, despite that tablet being the only one with the new M4 chip.
Melody Kuna, Apple's Director of iPad Product Design, said that “with M2, the new [iPad] Air is also an incredibly powerful device for AI. It's blazing fast for powerful machine learning features in iPadOS, like Visual Look Up, Subject Lift, and Live Text capture.”
So while the iPad Pro's M4 chip is capable of an impressive 38 trillion operations per second (which apparently makes it sixty times faster than Apple's A11 Bionic neural engine from the iPhone 8), the iPad Air 6 won't be left out of future AI apps and features on Apple's tablets.
5. iPadOS is just getting started with AI
(Image credit: Apple)
On a similar theme, Apple's final mention of AI during its long-awaited iPad launch was reserved for iPadOS.
Will Hui, Apple's Product Manager of Creative Apps, said that “iPadOS has advanced frameworks like Core ML that make it easy for developers to tap into the Neural Engine to deliver powerful AI features, right on device”.
Clearly, Apple is treading carefully with AI in its own apps, with only Logic Pro's session players and the iPad Pro's document scanning making much use of it so far. But it also put out a call to developers to tap the potential of its software (and chips) for AI-powered features. And we can expect to hear a lot more about those next month at WWDC 2024.
The current Apple Vision Pro is a fantastic bit of mixed reality kit, blending impressive hardware and an innovative user interface. But as you’ll see in our Apple Visio Pro review, it’s far from perfect; throw in a $ 3,499 price tag and other early-adopter woes, and the headset isn’t something for most people.
As such, Apple has been tipped to be working on next-generation and potentially cheaper versions of the Vision Pro. But Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, who’s a renowned and accurate Apple tipster, has said the Cupertino crew is some 18 months away from releasing a ‘Vision Pro 2’, with a roadmap that reportedly won't see a second-generation model ready until the end of 2026.
Apparently, Apple will try and bring the cheaper version to the market before then, but Gurman says, per his sources, that Apple is “flummoxed” about how exactly to bring the headset's cost down.
So that arguably leaves a gap in the mixed reality (or XR for extended reality) market, one that Apple has injected interest into for others to join in. Enter Samsung.
Samsung, Sony and Snapdragon
The South Korean tech giant is working on an XR headset that's likely to come with some impressive specs. We’re talking about a Sony-made micro-OLED display with a resolution of 3,840 x 3,552 pixels, 90Hz refresh rate and a peak brightness of 1,000-nits; those are Vision Pro-challenging screen specs. A Snapdragon XR2 Plus Gen 2 chipset is set to power the Samsung XR/VR headset, which could arrive at some point this year.
While Apple has a knack for creating slick interconnected product ecosystems, Samsung has got a lot better at building out its device ecosystem, in addition to having its phones, tablets and other gadgets play nice with Windows 11. So it could make an impressive XR headset that arguably has more flexibility that the Vision Pro by working with more devices and a wider range of laptops.
Now that’s all speculation on my part, but Samsung has made VR headsets in the past and worked closely with Microsoft, which could give it an ace up the sleeve by working well with Microsoft MR platform and perhaps Steam VR; the latter would arguably give it a gaming advantage over the Vision Pro.
The Samsung Gear VR – you needed a phone to operate it (Image credit: samsung)
Working with a more open-ended platform like Windows 11 could potentially make it easier for more developers to get on board with making XR/MR apps and services. That would make jumping into XR a more appealing prospect if would-be buyers could be assured of plenty of apps and software compatibility.
Furthermore, Samsung is potentially closer to supply chains than Apple – not least of all because it has its own display arm – so could stand to make a high-end XR headset that undercuts the Vision Pro.
While I need to be convinced that extended and mixed reality (which blends virtual and augmented reality) has a viable spot in the future of computing, I’m keen to see Apple have some clear competition in the area – there are other MR headsets but they haven’t really grabbed the limelight or developed a system to compete with Apple’s visionOS; that’s not counting the likes of the Meta Quest 3.
Samsung basically competes with Apple in the smartphone arena, so I see no reason why it can't lock horns in the XR world, and with a reported wait for a next-gen Vision Pro, Samsung could take a bite out of the MR pie for itself.
It appears that some Apple users are being signed out of their Apple ID across their devices for no apparent reason – and are subsequently locked out of their accounts if they try signing in with their current passwords.
According to 9to5Mac, the issue has been ongoing since Friday, April 26, and is forcing users to reset their passwords despite entering the correct ones to get back into their accounts. This also creates a headache for users who have Stolen Device Protection enabled, as they’ll need to be in a trusted location and have access to all of their devices at once.
Users have taken to social media to report their experience with this annoying bug, which seems to happen completely at random. Twitter user @MaxWinebach posted that he was in the middle of a FaceTime call when he was suddenly locked out of all his Apple products.
I was mid FaceTime with @milesabovetech and my Apple account got locked and signed out of all of my Apple productstf is happeningApril 26, 2024
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A Mastodon user said they were told by a member of Apple Support that “sometimes random security improvements are added to your account”, which may have prompted the random booting. Still, it seems unlikely this would impact so many users, and we can’t be sure of anything until we hear official word from Apple itself.
So, what do you do?
Overall, as an Apple user who frequently forgets passwords, I’m pretty nervous about the prospect of being locked out of my beloved TikTok-watching device. Thankfully, there seems to be no immediate need to panic if this has happened to you (or like me, you’re anxiously waiting for it to happen to you). It could simply be a harmless bug, and from what we can tell so far, it doesn’t seem related to the recent phishing attack that could lock you out of your device.
So, what can you do to protect yourself from this bug? Honestly, not much. Since everything seemed to kick off on Friday, if you’re yet to have it happen to you, there’s a good chance you’re in the clear. If you do find yourself locked out, it seems like all you have to do is reset your password and go through the tedious task of logging into all your other Apple devices as well. While this is an annoying bug it doesn’t seem too serious. Make sure you’re not reusing passwords, though – that’s a recipe for disaster.
We have reached out to Apple for comment and will update this article if an official statement is released.
Copyright is something of a minefield right now when it comes to AI, and there’s a new report claiming that Apple’s generative AI – specifically its ‘Ajax’ large language model (LLM) – may be one of the only ones to have been both legally and ethically trained. It’s claimed that Apple is trying to uphold privacy and legality standards by adopting innovative training methods.
Copyright law in the age of generative AI is difficult to navigate, and it’s becoming increasingly important as AI tools become more commonplace. One of the most glaring issues that comes up, again and again, is that many companies train their large language models (LLMs) using copyrighted works, typically not disclosing whether they license that training material. Sometimes, the outputs of these models include entire sections of copyright-protected works.
The current justification for why copyrighted material is so widely used as far as some of these companies to train their LLMs is that, not dissimilar to humans, these models need a substantial amount of information (called training data for LLMs) to learn and generate coherent and convincing responses – and as far as these companies are concerned, copyrighted materials are fair game.
Many critics of generative AI consider it copyright infringement if tech companies use works in training and output of LLMs without explicit agreements with copyright holders or their representatives. Still, this criticism hasn’t put tech companies off from doing exactly that, and it’s assumed to be the case for most AI tools, garnering a growing pool of resentment towards the companies in the generative AI space.
(Image credit: Shutterstock/photosince)
The forest of legal battles and ethical dilemmas in generative AI
There have even been a growing number of legal challenges mounted in these tech companies’ direction. OpenAI and Microsoft have actually been sued by the New York Times for copyright infringement back in December 2023, with the publisher accusing the two companies of training their LLMs on millions of New York Times articles. In September 2023, OpenAI and Microsoft were also sued by a number of prominent authors, including George R. R. Martin, Michael Connelly, and Jonathan Franzen. In July of 2023, over 15,000 authors signed an open letter directed at companies such as Microsoft, OpenAI, Meta, Alphabet, and others, calling on leaders of the tech industry to protect writers, calling on these companies to properly credit and compensate authors for their works when using them to train generative AI models.
In April of this year, The Register reported that Amazon was hit with a lawsuit by an ex-employee alleging she faced mistreatment, discrimination, and harassment, and in the process, she testified about her experience when it came to issues of copyright infringement. This employee alleges that she was told to deliberately ignore and violate copyright law to improve Amazon’s products to make them more competitive, and that her supervisor told her that “everyone else is doing it” when it came to copyright violations. Apple Insider echoes this claim, stating that this seems to be an accepted industry standard.
As we’ve seen with many other novel technologies, the legislation and ethical frameworks always arrive after an initial delay, but it looks like this is becoming a more problematic aspect of generative AI models that the companies responsible for them will have to respond to.
(Image credit: Apple)
The Apple approach to ethical AI training (that we know of so far)
It looks like at least one major tech player might be trying to take the more careful and considered route to avoid as many legal (and moral!) challenges as possible – and somewhat surprisingly, it’s Apple. According to Apple Insider, Apple has been pursuing diligently licensing major news publications’ works when looking for AI training material. Back in December, Apple petitioned to license the archives of several major publishers to use these as training material for its own LLM, known internally as Ajax.
It’s speculated that Ajax will be the software for basic on-device functionality for future Apple products, and it might instead license software like Google’s Gemini for more advanced features, such as those requiring an internet connection. Apple Insider writes that this allows Apple to avoid certain copyright infringement liabilities as Apple wouldn’t be responsible for copyright infringement by, say, Google Gemini.
A paper published in March detailed how Apple intends to train its in-house LLM: a carefully chosen selection of images, image-text, and text-based input. In its methods, Apple simultaneously prioritized better image captioning and multi-step reasoning, at the same time as paying attention to preserving privacy. The last of these factors is made all the more possible for the Ajax LLM by it being entirely on-device and therefore not requiring an internet connection. There is a trade-off, as this does mean that Ajax won’t be able to check for copyrighted content and plagiarism itself, as it won’t be able to connect to online databases that store copyrighted material.
There is one other caveat that Apple Insider reveals about this when speaking to sources who are familiar with Apple’s AI testing environments: there don’t currently seem to be many, if any, restrictions on users utilizing copyrighted material themselves as the input for on-device test environments. It's also worth noting that Apple isn't technically the only company taking a rights-first approach: art AI tool Adobe Firefly is also claimed to be completely copyright-compliant, so hopefully more AI startups will be wise enough to follow Apple and Adobe's lead.
I personally welcome this approach from Apple as I think human creativity is one of the most incredible capabilities we have, and I think it should be rewarded and celebrated – not fed to an AI. We’ll have to wait to know more about what Apple’s regulations regarding copyright and training its AI look like, but I agree with Apple Insider’s assessment that this definitely sounds like an improvement – especially since some AIs have been documented regurgitating copyrighted material word-for-word. We can look forward to learning more about Apple’s generative AI efforts very soon, which is expected to be a key driver for its developer-focused software conference, WWDC 2024.
Apple has released a set of several new AI models that are designed to run locally on-device rather than in the cloud, possibly paving the way for an AI-powered iOS 18 in the not-too-distant future.
The iPhone giant has been doubling down on AI in recent months, with a carefully split focus across cloud-based and on-device AI. We saw leaks earlier this week indicating that Apple plans to make its own AI server chips, so this reveal of new local large language models (LLMs) demonstrates that the company is committed to both breeds of AI software. I’ll dig into the implications of that further down, but for now, let’s explain exactly what these new models are.
The suite of AI tools contains eight distinct models, called OpenELMs (Open-source Efficient Language Models). As the name suggests, these models are fully open-source and available on the Hugging Face Hub, an online community for AI developers and enthusiasts. Apple also published a whitepaper outlining the new models. Four were pre-trained on CoreNet (previously CVNets), a massive library of data used for training AI language models, while the other four have been ‘instruction-tuned’ by Apple; a process by which an AI model’s learning parameters are carefully honed to respond to specific prompts.
Releasing open-source software is a somewhat unusual move for Apple, which typically retains quite a close grip on its software ecosystem. The company claims to want to “empower and enrich” public AI research by releasing the OpenELMs to the wider AI community.
By putting its new on-device AI models out to the world like this, Apple is likely hoping that some enterprising developers will help iron out the kinks and ultimately improve the software – something that could prove vital if it plans to implement new local AI tools in future versions of iOS and macOS.
It’s worth bearing in mind that the average Apple device is already packed with AI capabilities, with the Apple Neural Engine found on the company’s A- and M-series chips powering features such as Face ID and Animoji. The upcoming M4 chip for Mac systems also appears to sport new AI-related processing capabilities, something that's swiftly becoming a necessity as more-established professional software implements machine-learning tools (like Firefly in Adobe Photoshop).
In other words, we can probably expect AI to be the hot-button topic for iOS 18 and macOS 15. I just hope it’s used for clever and unique new features, rather than Microsoft’s constant Copilot nagging.
New leaks coming from Chinese social media have claimed that Apple is planning to start development of its own dedicated AI chips in the near future – but it’s not the hotly-anticipated M4 chip that I’m talking about here.
Although Apple has been making waves in the AI space recently with its upgraded Neural Engine (a dedicated neural processing unit for handling AI-related tasks on Apple devices) as seen in its powerful new M3 chip, this leak makes specific reference to server AI processors – in other words, chips to power datacenters that run cloud-based AI tools. Popular online chatbot ChatGPT, for example, runs the bulk of its operations in the cloud rather than directly on your device, which is why it requires an internet connection to use.
Apple looks to be hedging its bets when it comes to AI – investing both in cloud AI technology and on-device machine learning capabilities, with the M4 chip promising to bring the entire Mac range up to speed in today’s world of ‘AI PCs’. But what does this actually mean for consumers?
AI for the Apple guy
Well, the current rumor (which originates from well-known Apple leaker ‘Phone Chip Expert’ on the Chinese site Weibo) states that Apple is working with chipmaker TSMC to develop the AI chip on a new 3nm process, but that production isn’t likely to start until the latter half of 2025 at the earliest. Basically, we shouldn’t expect to see this making a huge impact straight away.
The upcoming range of new M4 Mac products likely won’t be affected by this decision, with Apple still aiming to remain competitive with Intel and Qualcomm’s AI PC efforts.
However, Apple users of all sorts could stand to benefit from the company’s new interest in cloud-based AI – with its own powered-up servers for offloading AI workloads on iPhones, iPads, and Macs combined with more powerful on-device AI capabilities, Apple could be poised to become a market dominator offering best-in-class AI services to everyday users.
Apple’s on-device AI ventures actually started way back with the iPhone 8 in 2017, long before ChatGPT exploded in popularity. (Image credit: Future)
You might be surprised just how much AI there already is in your iPhone 15 or MacBook Air. Apple’s Neural Engine tech has been lurking in its phones since the A11 Bionic chip seen in the iPhone 8, powering staple iOS features such as Face ID and Animoji. As AI-powered software becomes more common – it’s already wormed its way deep into Adobe Photoshop, for example – the need for competitive hardware in both consumer devices and data centers is on the rise.
As always with leaks such as this, it’s wise to take it with a pinch of salt – while Phone Chip Expert is a relatively reputable leaker, that doesn’t instantly guarantee that this information is legit.
Still, I reckon it’s at least somewhat accurate; while a development like this will no doubt cause further struggles for TSMC’s already-burdened manufacturing and supply lines, the fact is that local on-chip AI isn’t yet powerful enough to properly handle high-level large language models – so investing in its own AI servers is the perfect way to deliver the best possible AI experience to users.
The Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses are still waiting on their big AI update – which is set to bring features like ‘Look and Ask’ out of the exclusive beta and bring them to everyone – but while we wait, a useful upgrade has just rolled out to the specs.
The big feature for many will be native Apple Music controls (via 9to5Mac). Previously you could play Apple Music through the Ray-Ban Meta glasses by using the app on your phone and touch controls on the glass’ arms, but this update allows you to use the Meta AI voice controls to play songs, playlists, albums, and stations from your music library for a hands-free experience.
The update also brings new touch controls. You touch and hold the side of the glasses to have Apple Music automatically play tracks based on your listening history.
(Image credit: Brett Jordan / Unsplash)
Beyond Apple Music integration, the new update also allows you to use the glasses as a video source for WhatsApp and Messenger calls. This improves on pre-existing interoperability that allows you to send messages, and images or videos you captured using the glasses to contacts in these apps using the Meta AI.
You can also access a new command, “Hey Meta, what song is this?” to have your glasses tell you what song is playing through your smart specs. This isn’t quite as useful as recognizing tracks that are playing in public as you walk around, but could be handy if you like collecting playlists of new and unfamiliar artists.
To update your glasses to the latest version, simply go to the Meta View App, go to Settings, open the Your Glasses menu option, then Updates. You’ll also want to have your glasses to hand and make sure they’re turned on and connected to your phone via Bluetooth. If you can’t see the update – and your phone says it isn’t already on version 4.0 – then check the Play Store or App Store to see if the Meta View app itself needs an update.
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