More Irons in the AR Fire for Meta with 'Project Puffin'?
Sylvia Varnham O'Regan
As they gear up to show of a new prototype of AR glasses next month, the leaks seems to be coming fast and furious out of Meta. Last week, there was the timing of the unveil of said glasses (and the fact that Snap would show of some new ones as well around the same time). Then there was word that Meta was ceasing work on a higher-end XR headset meant to better compete with Apple's Vision Pro. Then came word that they were also ceasing custom chip development for such devices. And now...
Meta Platforms is planning a new mixed reality device that resembles a bulky pair of glasses, according to two Meta employees. The project, internally code-named Puffin, suggests the company is looking to design an alternative to its large, heavy headsets, which so far have had limited consumer appeal.
From the description, "Puffin" sounds like a device that sits right in between Meta's Ray-Ban smartglasses and their Quest devices.
As it’s currently envisioned, Puffin would be a much smaller device than Meta’s existing Quest headsets. The device has been described internally as resembling bulky glasses, estimated to weigh less than 110 grams. That’s about twice as heavy as Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses, but one-fifth the weight of the Quest 3 headset. The new project, which is still in the early stages and could fall through, is currently earmarked for release in 2027, the people said.
What's entirely not clear from this reporting is if this is actually the new device that Meta intends to show off in a few weeks. The above makes it sound like "no" – but we also know that whatever Meta is showing off will be a very early prototype that is likely years away from mass production (thought there may be developer versions ready earlier – maybe next year?). So there's a way to square that timetable circle.
Or maybe it is different – but that would be a, um, fourth device in the general space that Meta is working on (which doesn't even count the two-to-three variants of the Quest, with the cheaper version inbound).
Meta would have to make technical trade-offs to deliver such a lightweight device. For example, the battery and computing power would shift to a second device the user carries with them, attached by a cable, one of the people said. Staffers hope the second device will be able to fit into a pocket.
This also lines-up with the Fortune report this week about the cancelled custom chips, as I wrote yesterday:
Also of note, at least one version of the Glasses apparently had a "puck" that sounds like it tethers to the device but outside of it. Perhaps similar to Apple's battery pack for the Vision Pro but with processing power – more seemingly similar to Magic Leap's "Lightpack"...
Yeah, that sounds exactly like what is being described in this new Information report. So again, "Puffin" just may indeed be the glasses set to be shown off shortly (or some variation of them). As for if that's a good idea, well, it didn't work out for Magic Leap. But having lived with the Vision Pro for several months now, I'm surprised Apple didn't do something similar with their bulky battery pack. It's already bulky and tethered, why not offload some of the compute to that?
Hell, why not put an entire Mac in that thing? It sounds like the new Mac mini may be a similar size! So while I don't love the notion of computing pucks for these headsets, everyone is doing them!
For now, I leave you with these images.
