Spatial Realities
Spatial Realities
Thomas Riedel
E133 - Meta's Glasses Drama, Even Realities Hits Unicorn Status & UBTECH's Creepy Companion
1 hour 20 minutes Posted Jul 16, 2026 at 1:17 pm.
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Show notes
With the summer holidays just around the corner, we gather for one last comprehensive round of XR news before the seasonal slowdown.
→ Inspired by Josef Erl’s latest newsletter on heise.de — where he declares the end of all-rounder headsets and proposes four new VR categories — Thomas and I discuss what the upcoming autumn hardware wave will actually deliver.
→ We also untangle the latest rumors surrounding Meta's smart glasses: from "supersensing" devices without privacy LEDs switched on to Meta's aggressive countermeasures against hardware tampering. Plus: Meta is testing paid AI subscriptions. Meanwhile, Illinois has banned smart glasses behind the wheel entirely—we analyze the reasoning behind this drastic move.
→ In financial news, Even Realities has officially reached unicorn status with a new $150 million investment round. We look at why their camera-free, monochrome display approach is winning over investors.
→ Furthermore, the first dedicated Metaverse browser has launched, Thomas is explaining what it can actually do and we share our initial impressions.
→ Finally, we look at UBTECH's new U1 companion. Is this humanoid robot genuinely the future of home assistance, or is it just a highly uncanny, overly flexible smart speaker on legs?