Pico Reportedly Creating Sleek Mixed Reality ‘Goggles’ to Compete with Next-Gen Meta Headset

Okay, so I stumbled upon this bit about Pico, y’know, the headset folks owned by TikTok’s big boss—ByteDance. Apparently, they’re cooking up something to go toe-to-toe with Meta’s fancy schmancy XR headset. I came across all this when, I dunno, I should’ve been doing something else. Classic me.

Anyway, they’re calling this contraption ‘Swan’. Picture these mixed reality, uh, goggles—they’re supposedly light as a feather. I mean, they weigh just around 100 grams! That’s lighter than those heavy old VR rigs we’ve been dealing with.

So, here’s the scoop from some insiders spilling the beans: Swan’s got this nifty hybrid vibe going on. It offloads all the techy stuff to this tethered “compute puck.” Honestly, the first time I heard “compute puck,” my brain said, “Ice hockey?” But no, it means the specs can stay svelte, none of that bulky gear pressing on your nose.

Oh, and they tossed in a picture of Pico 4 Ultra—looked all shiny and advanced, but you know how those promo images can be. Tangent alert: Why do all promo pictures always look so perfect? Reality check, please.

Back to Swan. It’s ditching the old-school handheld controllers. It’s all about eye and hand tracking now. Can you imagine waving your hands around and feeling like a wizard? All thanks to some custom chips doing their magic, making sure your moves match up with what you’re seeing. No more awkward delays—thank goodness for small mercies.

Pico might’ve borrowed a page from Meta’s playbook—rumor has it Meta’s got something similar called ‘Phoenix’ (or was it ‘Loma’? ‘Puffin’ maybe? — the names are all over the place). Anyhow, this Meta gizmo could hit the shelves around 2026 or so, and might even be kind on the wallet. Well, under a thousand bucks, but that’s a whole different conversation about “affordable,” right?

Nobody seems to know yet what Swan’s gonna cost or where you’ll be able to snag one. Pico’s stuff usually hits the markets in East Asia, Southeast Asia, and Europe. North America? Nada. Maybe they’ll switch it up this time. Fingers crossed for something new and exciting.