Facebook halt Quest 2 sales. Gives free silicone covers to existing customers. New revision to feature 128GB at $299.

[TetraSky]

Summary

Facebook has announced that they are halting the sales of the Oculus Quest 2 while they prepare a new revision next month, featuring 128GB of storage at the lowest instead of 64GB, for the same price ($299), due to an issue with the foam faceplate when in contact with people's skin. The current foam caused skin irritation to some users and was, in some case, severe enough to cause swelling around the eyes, forcing them to close.
Facebook is thus issuing a "recall" of sort, telling users to stop using the headset if they experience such symptoms. But because Facebook does not wish to deal with actual returns, they are instead offering a free silicone cover to all existing customers, for them to cover the foam up. Users who wish for it, can simply login to their account and press the Redeem button to request a free silicone cover.
 

Facebook hasn't announced any other plans except for providing this silicone cover and the new revision will reportedly feature a silicone cover in the box.
 

 

Quote

Facebook said on Tuesday that it's temporarily halting sales of the Oculus Quest 2, a month before a planned update to a new entry-level model with more onboard storage. The move comes after several reported cases of skin reactions to the headset's included foam faceplate, the social media giant confirmed.
 

In a Facebook post on the issue from earlier this year, the company says a small percentage of Quest 2 owners have reported the issue. But in some cases reported online, the issue has been bad enough to cause people's faces to puff up and their eyes to close. Facebook changed the manufacturing process of its foam face interfaces earlier this year, but the concerns still prompted Facebook to stop selling the Quest 2 in coordination with the US Consumer Product Safety Commission.

 

Facebook's adding silicone face-mask covers in future versions of the Quest 2, which will fit over the foam. Existing customers can contact Facebook for the replacement cover as well. 

This is happening a month before Facebook is updating the Quest 2 with more storage: a new version of the $299 Quest that goes on sale Aug. 24 will have 128GB of storage instead of 64GB. Quest 2 models will include the silicone face-cover in the box from that point onward. It's awkward timing for the move, but also looks like a chance for Facebook to replace Quest 2 stock with models that have the silicone covers.

 

My thoughts

I own a Quest 2 and I can safely say that, yes, the foam cover is irritating to my skin. From day one, I couldn't wear it any more than 5 or 10 minutes. It got itchy, was super hot and extremely uncomfortable to wear on my face. Like a lot of people, I've already bought a silicone cover and happily been using that since. I was tempted to order this free cover as well, but figured I really didn't want to give my address to facebook (I used a throw away account, no personal info on it).

 

I'm pissed that it took THIS LONG for them to finally acknowledge that there was an issue with the foam face cover, as I've seen posts about it literal days after the initial release of the Quest 2. But at least they responded, I guess. Better late than never?
This, to me, is a bit similar to how Nintendo started to offer those silicone condoms for their Wiimote back in the days. When the Wii first launched, there was no such thing, then they had to make a new revision and new remotes sold after that came with one bundled in.

 

The new Quest 2, 128GB for the same price as the current 64GB is a great deal for anyone who still hasn't gotten a Quest 2 headset. With the current 64GB model, you can only have a handful of big games before running of space, forcing you to delete them. (While a lot of games are between 500MB to 2GB, some do take a lot of space, like The Walking Dead Saints and Sinner which is nearly 9GB by itself or the almost 7GB Myst, for example)

 

Sources

Main article from CNET  (archived link here, if you do not like CNET)
Silicone cover info page
More info on the new 128GB revision at $299.

[da na]

"Oh there's an issue with our design? more storage will fix it"

/s

[Cool_Evlo]

8 minutes ago, TetraSky said:

The current foam caused skin irritation and was, in some case, severe enough to cause swelling around the eyes, forcing them to close. Facebook is thus issuing a "recall" of sort, telling users to stop using the headset if they experience such symptoms.

The price you must pay for 360° porn.

[TetraSky]

2 minutes ago, Cool_Evlo said:

The price you must pay for 360° porn.

180˚ is more common. 
A wireless headset is certainly great for this purpose.

[Cool_Evlo]

Just now, TetraSky said:

180˚ is more common. 

How do you know that?

[suicidalfranco]

Eh

Can't blame Facebook if people are dumb enough to buy their products

[Helpful Tech Witch]

2 hours ago, suicidalfranco said:

Eh

Can't blame Facebook if people are dumb enough to buy their products

“Can't blame Facebook for people buying a actually good product with no alternative”

[TOMPPIX]

Oculus quest is spawning a bunch of shitty looking games being designed around the standalone VR experience. And ported to the PC without any extensive graphical enhancements.

[Curufinwe_wins]

Hmm thanks for the notice. I hope this silicone cover fits better.

 

Gotta admit other than the FB part I love the Quest 2, and the only reason I have a silicone cover is because sharing the foam is truly revolting. Foam feels lighter and cooler for long duration, but once you take it off, putting it on before it drys is perhaps the most disgusting thing I've felt last few years.

[Moonzy]

On 7/28/2021 at 12:49 AM, TetraSky said:

figured I really didn't want to give my address to facebook

It's a good thought but it's funny that you assume they don't already know

[TetraSky]

3 hours ago, Moonzy said:

It's a good thought but it's funny that you assume they don't already know

They might be able to use location data from the Quest 2 to triangulate more or less where it is that I live, but no precise address. I never gave it to them, that's for certain. Never bought anything on the oculus store, FB account uses a fake name and has no info added to it whatsoever (and no other FB account, nor do I have it on my phone). So I would certainly be surprised if they had anything worth anything on me.

Looking at the data they have on me, for location, they know my city, but the zipcode is wrong. No actual address shown. Maybe they are lying and they have more info, I don't know.

[StDragon]

On 7/27/2021 at 11:58 AM, Cool_Evlo said:

The price you must pay for 360° porn.

That sucking you hear, that's the soul given up for buying one of those.

[Srius1]

On 7/29/2021 at 8:20 AM, TetraSky said:

They might be able to use location data from the Quest 2 to triangulate more or less where it is that I live, but no precise address. I never gave it to them, that's for certain. Never bought anything on the oculus store, FB account uses a fake name and has no info added to it whatsoever (and no other FB account, nor do I have it on my phone). So I would certainly be surprised if they had anything worth anything on me.

Looking at the data they have on me, for location, they know my city, but the zipcode is wrong. No actual address shown. Maybe they are lying and they have more info, I don't know.

Lol. Trust me…fb knows a ton about you as does google and the USA govt . If you  have a cell phone , you’re communications can are are monitored. To assume otherwise is pretty ignorant. Remember when everyone called you crazy’ for saying usa govt was spying on every single person? Then Snowden proved them all right lol. 
 

My point is, unless you are doing crazy steps to stay off grid, leaving phone at home, not hanging out with other people with phones , using vpns all the time,  etc. they know where you live. 
 

watch “enemy of the state” with Will smith to see how bad they can make your life. Today it’s much worse.

 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5448389/Facebook-personal-data-files-Australia-inquiry.html

[TetraSky]

8 hours ago, Srius1 said:

Lol. Trust me…fb knows a ton about you as does google and the USA govt . If you  have a cell phone , you’re communications can are are monitored. To assume otherwise is pretty ignorant. Remember when everyone called you crazy’ for saying usa govt was spying on every single person? Then Snowden proved them all right lol. 
 

My point is, unless you are doing crazy steps to stay off grid, leaving phone at home, not hanging out with other people with phones , using vpns all the time,  etc. they know where you live. 
 

watch “enemy of the state” with Will smith to see how bad they can make your life. Today it’s much worse.

 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5448389/Facebook-personal-data-files-Australia-inquiry.html

Well, yes. This would apply if FB was installed on your phone. It is not for me. Nor have I ever accessed FB on my phone (and routinely clear out cookies).
That's just me and I know a lot of people don't care to change their privacy settings or they actively use their FB account and have that spyware installed on their phone, but I just downloaded my info off facebook, here's what they have on me :
*Phone number, *birthday, *gender, *city but no precise location, *they think I'm on Roger's wireless network (I'm not), *they know each time I've opened the Quest 2 and that's pretty much it.
The rest is basically public info that can be found anywhere, like my very short post history and my even shorter list of interests (basically a TV station and a radio station...). 

They don't even have my real name.  It's easy to only give them the bare minimum information. Overall, my downloaded info is a whole 599KB.

 

That last one about tracking each sessions might scare people from buying a Quest 2, but I don't personally care. It seems standard to me for a service to log every time you open a "session" with them. Wouldn't be surprised if even this forum tracked this.

So yes, they have some info on me and maybe they have more than they let on.
But this info is nothing and not worth not using buying a dirt cheap wireless VR headset to play PC VR games wirelessly. You don't even have to ever buy anything on the Oculus store.
Not to mention, this sort of info would be readily available to any other services you sign up to.
If they have more info on you, you're doing something wrong (no VPN either).

 

But this thread is not about the data facebook collects off you and this is very much off topic.

Not to mention, I'm pretty sure this info I just posted is being collected by every other VR headsets on the market, because it's the bare minimum data they can gather.