Meta starts $349 camera-free AI glasses

Meta is taking preorders for Ray-Ban Meta Audio glasses at $349, with a camera-free design, 43-gram weight, up to 12 hours of battery life, and shipping set for October 13. The launch also takes Meta’s glasses lineup past 100 options by year-end, making hands-free AI a device category rather than another phone feature. Builders deciding where an assistant should live should compare that hardware boundary with Apple’s $240 annual camera-summary upgrade before assuming intelligence belongs in a cloud subscription.