Week in Tech: Meta & Oakley Launch Smart Glasses, Plus Top AI & Startup News

Welcome back to our weekly dive into the most significant developments across the tech landscape. This past week delivered exciting announcements from major players like Meta and Oakley, continued rapid advancements in AI, notable startup activity, and crucial updates in space, mobility, and digital platforms.

Here’s a look at the key stories that shaped the week:

Smart Glasses & the Future of AR

Meta and Oakley Team Up on New Smart Specs: Meta continues its push into the wearable space, partnering with EssilorLuxottica to unveil a new generation of smart glasses under the iconic Oakley brand, specifically leveraging the HSTN design. Starting at $399, these new glasses represent a significant upgrade over previous Meta Ray-Bans. They boast the ability to record high-resolution 3K video, handle music playback and calls, and integrate seamlessly with Meta AI for voice prompts and information. A key improvement is the doubled battery life, promising up to eight hours of use. A limited-edition Oakley Meta HSTN model will also be available for $499, with preorders starting July 11.

Adding to the growing augmented reality (AR) scene, Xreal also unveiled its One Pro AR smart glasses. Praised for their impressive optics offering a clearer, larger image with reduced reflections, these glasses are seen as a strong step towards advanced Android XR devices. Positioned as a high-end tool for portable entertainment and productivity, the One Pro is priced at $649 / £579, with optional accessories like the Xreal Beam Pro ($199 / £189) enhancing their functionality.

The Ever-Expanding World of AI

Artificial intelligence dominated headlines again, with developments ranging from cutting-edge tools to intense competition for talent.

AI Tools for the Workplace: Perplexity, the AI-powered search engine, launched Perplexity Labs for Pro subscribers. This ambitious tool aims to automate work tasks by generating reports, spreadsheets, and dashboards using integrated web search and analysis, promising results in roughly 10 minutes. This signals a growing trend towards AI automating complex workflows. Relatedly, Gmail is integrating AI summaries, with Gemini now automatically summarizing emails when it deems necessary, requiring users to opt-out if they prefer not to use the feature.
The AI Talent War Heats Up: Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is reportedly offering lucrative packages, potentially up to $100 million, to attract top AI researchers from rivals like OpenAI and DeepMind. However, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman claims none of his key personnel have taken the bait, emphasizing his team’s commitment to OpenAI’s mission over financial incentives. Meanwhile, OpenAI continues developing new models and has even hinted at an AI-powered social app, potentially challenging Meta’s own social media dominance.
AI Model Development: Chinese lab DeepSeek released an updated version of its R1 reasoning AI model, showing strong performance on math and coding benchmarks. Speculation has arisen among researchers that its training data might include components from Google’s Gemini models.
AI in Browsers: The trend towards integrating AI into web browsers is accelerating. The Browser Company is reportedly focusing its efforts on a new AI-centric browser called Dia, potentially selling or open-sourcing its current Arc browser. Opera and Perplexity are also developing their own AI browsers, indicating a significant shift in browsing experiences.
AI and Employment: A recent World Economic Forum survey paints a potentially challenging picture for the job market, with 40% of employers expecting staff reductions in roles where tasks can be automated by AI.
Strategic AI Partnerships: Oculus founder Palmer Luckey’s company Anduril is partnering with Meta to build the EagleEye ecosystem, a suite of extended reality (XR) devices specifically for the U.S. military, marking Meta’s entry into defense tech.

Startup Scene & Funding Rounds

The startup ecosystem remained dynamic with significant acquisitions and funding news.

Rapid Acquisition: Website building platform Wix acquired Base44, a 6-month-old solo-founded startup, for $80 million in cash. Base44 had quickly gained traction as a no-code AI tool for building web applications and was already profitable, making it an attractive target for Wix.
Major Funding Rounds: Defense tech startup Anduril secured a substantial $1 billion investment as part of a larger $2.5 billion funding round, boosting its valuation to $30.5 billion. AI writing assistant Grammarly received a $1 billion investment from General Catalyst, intended to fuel sales and marketing efforts and free up capital for potential acquisitions. Toma, which develops AI phone agents for car dealerships, raised $17 million in a round backed by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z).
US Navy Engages Startups: The U.S. Navy is actively streamlining its collaboration with startups, reducing red tape to quickly adopt game-changing technologies, particularly in AI, GPS, and system upgrades.

Lasers in Orbit: Baiju Bhatt, known for co-founding Robinhood, is now focusing on space with his new startup, Aetherflux. Having raised $60 million, the company aims to demonstrate the feasibility of beaming solar power from orbit, with a demo satellite planned for launch next year and early backing from the Department of Defense.
Space Exploration Setback: A SpaceX Starship rocket exploded during a test in Texas due to a pressurized tank failure. While no injuries occurred, the incident is expected to delay the vehicle’s next planned launch, adding another setback to SpaceX’s ambitious mega-rocket program.
E-bike Returns: VanMoof is back from bankruptcy with the launch of its S6 e-bike. Despite its custom design contributing to past issues, the company is sticking to its signature style, backed by McLaren tech and an improved repair network, promising smoother rides and smarter features.
New Mobile Device: Donald Trump’s company launched a new mobile phone service and a companion device, the Trump Mobile T1 phone. Priced at $499 with a $45.47 monthly service plan, the Android 15 phone features a mix of tech and makes a disputed claim of being made in the USA, with a September launch planned.

Spotify’s Lossless Audio: Spotify’s long-awaited lossless audio tier still hasn’t launched, but hints in recent app code suggest it’s under active development and potentially closer than ever. However, after years of delays, fans remain cautiously optimistic.
Digg’s Reboot: News aggregator Digg has entered alpha testing for a rebooted iOS app positioned as an AI-era alternative to Reddit. It features a clean design, curated communities, AI-powered article summaries, and gamified elements like “Gems” and leaderboards.
WhatsApp on iPad: WhatsApp has finally released a dedicated version for the iPad, allowing users to leverage iPadOS multitasking features like Stage Manager and Split View.
Platform Policy Shifts: Meta is overhauling its content moderation, moving away from third-party fact-checking towards a community-notes model similar to X (formerly Twitter). Critics view this as potentially influenced by political pressure. Meanwhile, X announced it will begin labeling parody accounts following instances where unlabeled accounts were mistaken for authentic profiles.
Content and Copyright Issues: A legal filing alleges that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg approved the use of a dataset containing pirated e-books and articles to train the company’s Llama AI models, raising significant copyright concerns.
Company Response to Crisis: Amid devastating wildfires near Los Angeles, TikTok’s LA office remained closed, and affected employees were reportedly told to use personal or sick hours if they couldn’t work from home, highlighting employee relations challenges during emergencies.
Dating App Feature: Tinder is reportedly testing a new “height preference” feature to inform recommendations, though not necessarily act as a strict filter.

Security and Privacy Concerns

Cybersecurity incidents continued to pose significant risks this week.

Data Breach: Data broker LexisNexis Risk Solutions reported a security breach affecting over 364,000 individuals. An unknown hacker accessed its GitHub account, stealing sensitive personal information including names, dates of birth, SSNs, and driver’s license numbers.
High-Profile Hacking: The personal phone of White House chief of staff Susie Wiles was reportedly hacked, leading to the theft of contacts which were then used to impersonate her, allegedly using AI voice cloning, to contact other high-ranking officials.
Cannabis Brand Attack: Popular LA cannabis brand Stiiizy confirmed a cyberattack suffered in November resulted in hackers accessing sensitive customer data, including government-issued identification and medical cannabis cards.

World’s Largest Sand Battery: Finland turned on the world’s largest sand battery, a low-tech, low-cost system using actual sand to store heat from discarded fireplace soapstone in a giant silo. This innovative solution can store heat for weeks, helping power a small town’s heating system and reduce carbon emissions, demonstrating that fighting climate change doesn’t always require expensive lithium.
CES 2025 Snippets: Highlights from CES 2025 included Nvidia’s Project Digits, a “personal AI supercomputer” for researchers; Yukai Engineering’s Nékojita FuFu, a tiny robotic cat that blows air to cool drinks; and Kirin Holdings’ Electric Spoon, which uses weak electric currents to enhance perceived saltiness. The event also featured a range of audacious and sometimes “weird” gadgets.
Legal Settlements: A Delaware judge approved a settlement requiring Tesla directors to return up to $919 million to the company, addressing allegations of overpayment.

1. Startup Party Gone Wrong: In San Francisco, an after-party for YC’s AI Startup School thrown by Cluely founder Roy Lee went viral after drawing 2,000 potential crashers but was shut down by police before it could really begin, dubbed the “most legendary party that never happened.”

That wraps up another busy week in tech! From smart glasses breakthroughs to the accelerating pace of AI development and unexpected innovations, the industry continues to evolve rapidly.

References

2. techcrunch.com
3. www.techradar.com
4. techcrunch.com
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6. techcrunch.com