This is the Daily Tech News for Friday, May 14th, 2026.

We tell you what you need to know, give you some important context, and try our darndest to help each other understand.

Today, Times reported, year of the smart glasses is almost middle-aged,

and X-Rail and Meta are still the leaders, just like last year, Tom will explain himself.

I know. I'm so, I will apologize. No, I think there's still hope. I'm Tom Merritt.

I'm going to do it now. Let's start with what you need to know with the big story.

Yeah, so as we head toward the summer development conferences of Google I.O., Microsoft Build, Apple's WWDC, my contention

that this will be the year of the smart glasses is about to be put to the test. But the early leaders in

smart glasses both have news today. Let's see if it makes me feel

any better about my prediction. The ROG X-Real R1 gaming glasses are available now for pre-order. These are

basically X-REEL's 1080P glasses, but with a 240-hertz refresh rate. They also have a bundled

dock that's pretty cool. It makes it much easier to connect to multiple types of hardware,

like game consoles and PCs. You can still connect directly by USBC if you want. The ROG XREL

R1 glasses are $849. And again, they're tethered. Also, meta is opening up its meta-rayband

display glasses to third-party developers. You can make your app now take advantage of the mic,

the sound, the display, and the neural band controller on both iOS and Android. So that could be

adapting an app you already make or making an app from scratch.

You can also connect it to a web app as well.

So it could be an extension of your website.

Meta showed the glasses being used for both your typical information overlays like navigation

or information about what you're looking for, grocery lists while you're in the grocery store,

but also games,

...