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RSN025
Published 22.09.2025.09.00.MON
Hardware, Software And Community: The Next Platform Shift
Wearables sprouted screens, homes shifted from Nest nostalgia to a pragmatic Google Home core, and agentic AI crept from hype into real workflows. Meta put displays in Ray-Bans, Google quietly sunset pieces of Nest while doubling down on Home + Matter, Notion shipped an agent that actually does multi-step work, Apple’s local models started powering small but useful on-device features, and Hello Games turned No Man’s Sky into a co-op Corvette sandbox with tech destined for its next title. The connective tissue: ambient AI and better tooling changing how we see, build, and play without always shouting “AI.”
1. Meta Connect 2025: Glasses Get Screens, Worlds Get Bigger
"From Ray-Ban Display to Hyperscape, Meta puts AI on your face and in your room."
What’s Happening: Meta unveiled Ray-Ban Display glasses with a full-color lens display (messages, calls, captions, nav, camera preview) controlled via a wristband; $799, Sep 30 US. Gen-2 Ray-Ban Meta bumps to 3K/60fps video, 8-hour battery, $379 now. Oakley Meta Vanguard targets sport use (IP67, 12MP/122° cam, 3K, slow-mo/timelapse, up to 9 hours) at $499 on Oct 21. On Quest, Hyperscape beta scans rooms into digital spaces; Horizon TV aggregates Prime, Peacock, Twitch, YouTube, with Disney+/ESPN/Hulu incoming and Dolby Atmos (Vision later). Horizon Engine upgrades graphics, scale, and adds an agentic assistant to Horizon Studio.
Why it matters to you: If you’ve been AR-curious, these are the first mainstream glasses that feel practical: hands-free capture, captions, directions, and quick glances without a phone in your face.
Why it matters to the world: Glasses + room-scale capture normalize heads-up computing. As use broadens, UX norms, accessibility (captions), and privacy etiquette for cameras/mics will be set in consumer spaces, not labs.
2. The End of Nest-as-a-Platform
"Google Home takes the wheel while partners fill the hardware gaps."
What’s Happening: Google is retiring legacy Nest lines (Secure gone; Protect and Nest x Yale lock sunsetting) while surfacing replacements built “for Home”: First Alert smoke/CO2 and a new Yale Matter lock styled for Nest Doorbell. Core first-party stays (Nest Cams + Aware with Gemini, new Nest Learning Thermostat, Google TV streamer), but niche categories shift to partner ecosystems, with Home app gaining robust automations, customization, and an AI roadmap. Translation: fewer parallel apps, more Matter-centric choice, though non-US users again see options vanish sooner than arrivals land.
Why it matters to you: Plan future installs around the Home app and Matter-compatible devices. Mixed brands, one app, fewer dead ends, but check regional availability before you commit.
Why it matters to the world: A platform pivot from vertical Nest bundles to horizontal Home orchestration pressures vendors to interoperate. Consumers win on choice and the brand lock-in loosens, if Google sustains partner quality.
3. Notion’s First Agent Goes From Notes to Ops
"Auto-analyze, build pages, and wire tools together, without babysitting."
What’s Happening: At “Make with Notion,” the company launched an AI agent that uses your pages and databases as context to generate meeting notes, competitor analyses, and feedback rollups; create/update pages and DBs, and run multi-step tasks (up to 20 minutes) across hundreds of docs. It can be triggered from linked platforms (Slack, email, Drive) and guided via a Profile page with style rules, source citing, destinations, and editable “memories.” It’s a step beyond summarize/search: an agentic layer that writes, files, and updates where your team lives.
Why it matters to you: If your week is 30% admin glue, the agent can draft, file, and link work while you focus on decisions, less tab-hopping, more outputs living in the right database.
Why it matters to the world: Agentic workflows inside productivity suites shift AI from chat toys to operational co-workers, pushing vendors to standardize tool use, provenance, and safe automation controls.
4. Apple’s On-Device AI Quietly Shows Up Everywhere
"Foundation Models power small, private features across everyday apps."
What’s Happening: With iOS 26, Apple’s Foundation Models framework lets apps use local AI without inference costs or cloud latency. Early adopters include children’s apps generating stories, finance apps categorizing spending, and journaling apps suggesting titles and prompts. Tasks, Day One, and Crouton also use on-device models for tagging, recurring task detection, and recipe simplification. These models are smaller than cloud rivals, but their privacy and offline advantages make them practical for day-to-day features. It’s Apple’s play for “quiet AI”, subtle improvements baked into existing workflows.
Why it matters to you: Expect dozens of apps to feel smarter without sending your data to a cloud. Faster, private features that work on planes, in basements, and with lousy signal.
Why it matters to the world: On-device AI nudges the ecosystem toward privacy-by-default and cost-aware design, broadening AI access beyond big-budget cloud apps to indie devs and niche use cases.
5. No Man’s Sky: Voyagers Makes Your Ship the Game
"Build Corvettes, walk in space, crew up, and tech seeds Hello’s next world."
What’s Happening: The free Voyagers update (v6.0) adds a Corvette starship class with bespoke interiors (habs, med-bay, war room), assemble-your-own hulls/wings/engines, spacewalking, autopilot, varied cockpits, mission radar, new missions/expedition, graphical upgrades, and multiplayer crews editing and decorating in flight. Corvette modules are scavenged, salvaged, bought, or rewarded; workshops live on stations; drafting is supported. I feel this is the biggest update the game has ever seen. This update actually made me play the game for the first time. The tech behind Voyagers will also power Hello Games’ next title, Light No Fire, an open-world Earth-sized game. For No Man’s Sky fans, it’s another leap in a long redemption arc, transforming the game into a collaborative sci-fi playground.
Why it matters to you: If you bounced off NMS years ago, this is a fresh fantasy: build a ship that’s a home, party up, and literally walk the stars. It meaningfully changes the loop.
Why it matters to the world: Live-service craftsmanship over nine years shows sustainable game R&D: shipping tech that compounds across titles while rewarding players with substantive, free updates. Making it one of the best Space Games ever made.
Conclusion
Ambient AI is arriving sideways: in glasses you’d actually wear, in home hubs that favor standards, in agents that touch real work, in apps that feel smarter offline, and in games re-architected for shared spaces. Less spectacle, more utility, and a clearer map for what “everyday AI” will actually look like. For me, RSN025 highlights how differently companies play the game. Meta wants to own our faces, Google wants us locked in its platform, Notion wants to automate our brains, Apple wants AI to feel invisible, and Hello Games just wants to give us more wonder. I see a common thread: everything is becoming an ecosystem play. The winners won’t just have great products, but systems that people trust and return to daily. That’s what I’m watching, and building for.
— Ritik Sharma, Founder, RSN (Ritik Sharma Newsletter)