Meta’s new AI glasses had a rough start. At the Meta Connect event, CEO Mark Zuckerberg showed off the Meta Ray-Ban glasses with a built-in display and the Oakley Meta Vanguard glasses. But instead of smooth demos, the launch was marked by two failures that played out live on stage.
Both times, Zuckerberg and his team blamed the problems on a weak Wi-Fi connection, leaving the much-hyped showcase a little awkward.
Glitches During The Presentation
The first problem happened when food creator Jack Mancuso used the new Ray-Ban glasses to ask Meta AI for a recipe.
The AI gave mixed-up steps instead of clear directions, telling him to “grate the pear” even though he hadn’t reached that step yet. After a few tries, Mancuso stopped the demo and passed control back to Zuckerberg.
The second issue came with the Meta Neural Band wristband, which works with the Ray-Ban glasses to let users send messages and control media with hand gestures.
Zuckerberg managed to send a message but couldn’t answer a call from Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth. After several failed attempts, Bosworth joined him on stage, and both pointed to Wi-Fi as the cause.
Zuckerberg admitted, “You practice these things 100 times, and you never know what will happen on the day.”
Meta Ray-Ban Glasses Specifications
The Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses have a 20-degree field of view, 600×600 resolution, and brightness from 30 to 5,000 nits.
Some prescription options are available as custom orders. They have a 12MP camera, record 1080p video, and last six hours per charge, with the case adding 30 more hours.
The Meta Neural Band wristband comes in three sizes, detects small hand gestures, and works for up to 18 hours on one charge.
Meta says the glasses and wristband are built to blend daily convenience with AR features, though the rocky launch raised doubts about how reliable they will be in real use.