Facebook, the beleaguered social media company, has announced that is renaming itself under a new parent company name called Meta.

It was reported earlier this month that Facebook was interested in rebranding itself in order to divorce itself from being seen as "just a social media company." Instead, as founder Mark Zuckerberg spent an hour explaining, the company's big focus is the Metaverse.

This is why Facebook has appropriately renamed itself as Meta, a company that will focus on the metaverse and other future technologies. Meanwhile, social media services like Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp will become brands under the Meta umbrella.

In fact, Zuckerberg announced that in the future, customers will not have to use Facebook at all to work with its Metaverse products. To sideline its flagship app is a dramatic step for the former social media company.

Rebranding is not new in the tech industry. Google, for example, created a parent company called Alphabet to which Google is just one brand under its umbrella. Likewise, Meta will exist as an umbrella company where historic Facebook brands exist and new metaverse technologies will be developed under.

But at the end of the day, a new name will not change Facebook or Instagram. But it's clear that Zuckerberg's interest is now fully invested in the metaverse, not social media.

Matt T.M. Kim is IGN's News Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.

Oculus has announced its next big VR headset, codenamed Project Cambria.

The new headset is still heavily in the prototype stage, but Facebook described it as a high-end headset that focuses on face- and eye-tracking. It doesn’t appear to be an entirely VR-focused product like the Oculus Quest 2, as the headset will also support augmented reality experiences.

While Project Cambria is all about wrapping a screen around your face, the device also features cameras that will capture high-resolution full-color video for you to see through the headset, allowing for augmented reality experiences.

Project Cambria will also introduce a new optical stack of pancake lenses behind its screens. These pancake lenses basically have a flatter profile than the fresnel lenses found in most current VR headsets, and allow for a more compact design.

The pancake lenses Facebook teased appear to be similar to those we've seen on the HTC Vive Flow, which is the most compact VR headset we've tried so far. That device feels more like wearing a pair of VR goggles than a bulky headset, so we're hoping the Project Cambria will be of a similar design.

Facebook says Project Cambria will release next year, but no hard release date or pricing information was announced. Stay tuned as we follow all the news and new developments on it until then.

At Facebook Connect, the company also announced that GTA: San Andreas will be coming to Oculus Quest, Oculus devices will soon no longer require a personal Facebook account, and the company is changing its name to Meta.

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During Facebook Connect, Mark Zuckerberg announced that a personal Facebook account would soon no longer be required to use Oculus Quest hardware.

"As we've focused more on work, and frankly as we've heard your feedback more broadly, we're working on making it so you can log into Quest with an account other than your personal Facebook account," Zuckerberg said during the Facebook Connect keynote.

Last year, Facebook announced that Oculus VR headsets would require a Facebook login starting in October 2020, and independent Oculus account support would end at the start of 2023. The move was massively unpopular, as many people did not want to link their personal social media – or use Facebook at all – in order to use their Oculus VR devices.

Now, it seems the company has reversed course.

"We're starting to test support for work accounts soon, and we're working on making a broader shift here within the next year," Zuckerberg said.

During today's event, Facebook also announced that GTA: San Andreas would be coming to Oculus Quest 2, teased a next-generation VR/AR headset called Project Cambria, and said the company would be changing its name to Meta.

Bo Moore is IGN's Executive Tech Editor. You can find him on Twitter @usebomswisely.

During today's Facebook Connect, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that Rockstar's classic open-world game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is coming Oculus Quest 2.

While no footage of the VR port was shown, Oculus Quest 2 is no stranger to porting classic games and re-imagining them for VR. Oculus previously worked with Armature and Capcom to bring Resident Evil 4 to VR.

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is set in the fictional southern California city and tells the story of the CJ, a framed man who returns to his old San Andreas neighborhood to save his family.

Like other Grand Theft Auto games, San Andreas is an open-world game where players can freely explore San Andreas and its neighboring areas. Facebook didn't reveal details about how this open-world saga will be translated into VR.

While we don't have a frame of reference for this upcoming Rockstar VR port, you can check out our review for Resident Evil 4 VR, a successful VR port we quite enjoyed.

Matt T.M. Kim is IGN's News Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.

Scientists from the University of Waterloo studying how rubies are formed discovered the residue of a microorganism inside a 2.5 billion-year-old gemstone.

The team found a ruby that contained graphite while working in Greenland, which is home to some of the oldest known deposits of colored gemstones. Graphite is made of pure carbon and analysis of its atomic mass indicated that it was produced by an ancient lifeform.

Carbon-12 atoms are easier to integrate into living cells than heavier carbon-13 or carbon-14 atoms. The ruby's graphite had an elevated level of carbon-12, which indicated it was once alive. There wasn't much oxygen in Earth's atmosphere when the gem was formed, meaning the microorganism was likely a cyanobacteria or part of an algae film.

“The graphite inside this ruby is really unique," Waterloo professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences Chris Yakymchuk said in a press release. "It’s the first time we’ve seen evidence of ancient life in ruby-bearing rocks. The presence of graphite also gives us more clues to determine how rubies formed at this location, something that is impossible to do directly based on a ruby’s color and chemical composition.”

The team discovered that the microorganisms actually allowed the rubies to form by changing the chemical composition of nearby rocks. The results of the study were recently published in Ore Geology Reviews.

Samantha Nelson is a freelance writer for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @samanthanelson1.