What We Learned from Facebook Connect 7

Facebook’s annual Connect conference, formerly known as Oculus Connect, realized its seventh iteration this year, and its first held entirely online. With all the hubbub about Facebook and Oculus account policies, brand new hardware, and a potentially game-changing AR device, it serves porn fans to sift through the hype to see how the latest from Facebook Realty Labs will be changing the way they enjoy adult content.

From Leak to Release

Image: Oculus / Facebook

After some seriously appetizing leaks, the follow up to the mega-selling Oculus Quest, appropriately named Quest 2, was officially unveiled at Facebook Connect 7 and given a street date of October 13^th. Boasting overall greater per-eye resolution, a lighter form factor, and the lauded Snapdragon XR2 CPU, Quest 2 immediately had VR fans clamoring to place a preorder. For the upgrade-curious, here are the relevant tech tidbits for both the 64GB and 256GB Quest 2 models ($299 and $399, respectively):

• Display: 1832×1920 LCD; near-2K per-eye resolution; 90Hz refresh rate
• Processor: Snapdragon XR2 CPU, 6GB RAM
• IPD options: 58mm, 63mm, 68mm
• Weight: 503g
• Power: 2-3 hours battery

Essentially an upgrade for Quest, Go, and Rift users delivered in one hit, Oculus Quest 2, is already raking in the preorders, but it wasn’t the only revelation exciting Facebook Connect 7’s online audience.

Aria, Office and Other Revelations 

Image: Project ARIA (Facebook / Ray-Ban)

Partnering with Ray-Ban, Facebook Reality Labs has developed augmented reality glasses it calls Project Aria. It is currently being used by Facebook and Oculus employees to assemble environmental and social data to be later used by a much wider publicly-accessible AR network. Project Aria is not yet something that can be sampled by general users, but that day is surely not far off.

Image: Facebook / Oculus

Also unveiled at FC7 was Infinite Office, a virtual workspace utilizing pass-through technology to keep a user in both the real and unreal at the same time. Primarily designed for, well, office-style productivity applications, Infinite Office essentially provides a non-physical workspace with endless customization opportunities. Since traditional computing platforms remain a powerful porn-viewing tool, it only makes sense that some savvy folks will utilize Infinite Office as more of an Infinite Porn Theatre, let alone the custom apps built with the Infinite Office SDK tailored explicitly for porn use.

Powering VR Porn Adoption

Facebook policies may be tying your data to sexual habits as equally as it does spending habits. This is giving many VR aficionados cause for concern; hell, the entire continent of Europe might be excised from Facebook’s global VR plan if the company keeps butting heads with EU regulators. With Quest 2 selling strongly weeks before release, signs point to another wave of new VR porn viewers jumping on board. The easy-to-use first edition Quest brought with it such an influx of new viewers. Quest 2’s upgrades and advancements only make it even more appealing as a VR porn machine. Could Quest 2 be enough to keep the nay-sayers quiet? Even if that doesn’t turn out to be the case, pretty much anything coming from Facebook Reality Labs and Oculus has a profound effect on the rest of the VR industry.

Image: Megan Rain / VR Bangers

Anyone hoping to ditch Facebook and Oculus over privacy concerns, whether well-founded or paranoid, just might be able to do so while still reaping the benefits of the company’s advancements. For VR porn users tied to any other brand, the wait for your next-gen device might be a bit longer than for Oculus devotees, but that elevation to a new level of smooth, pristine, perfect VR is well and truly within reach.