Meta is about to hold its biggest event of the year. Like last year's event, Meta has again opted for an evening keynote, with Mark Zuckerberg taking the stage at 4PM PT/7PM ET on September 23. There will be additional talks and developer sessions the following day, starting with a 10AM PT/1PM ET "developer state of the union."

As with the last few years, there's likely to be a lot of glasses-related news. One interesting change with this year's strategy is that the company is reportedly working on a pair of camera-free frames. These glasses, which will reportedly come in two styles, will instead come with extra microphones for chatting with Meta's AI assistant. The lack of cameras could offer Meta a couple of advantages. The frames will reportedly be a bit slimmer and look more like "normal glasses." More significantly, they could also help Meta address ongoing privacy concerns and backlash against its current lineup of glasses.

It's been a while since we've seen a new headset from Meta, and we've never seen anything from them quite like the device currently known as "Phoenix." The mixed reality headset has been rumored for some time, but it certainly seems like the company is gearing up for it to make its official debut at Connect. Several images of the lightweight device recently surfaced in a Horizon OS update. Those images show a thin device that almost looks more like a pair of goggles than a headset. It also clearly shows a cable, which supports previous reporting that Phoenix will rely on a tethered connection to a separate puck. It's also rumored to support hand and eye tracking rather than a dedicated controller.

A new kind of headset will probably also mean some updates to Horizon OS, and it will be interesting to see what kinds of experiences Meta will promote alongside the new hardware. The company has been shuttering VR studios left a...