Snapchat announces Spectacles video-recording sunglasses, available this fall for $130
Snap, Inc., the company formerly known as Snapchat, on Friday announced its first hardware product in Spectacles, a $130 pair of sunglasses with an embedded camera that captures 10-second point-of-view video clips at the tap of a button.
Snap, Inc. CEO Evan Spiegel pictured wearing Spectacles. | Source: The Wall Street Journal
Revealed to the The Wall Street Journal by company cofounder and CEO Evan Spiegel, Spectacles are designed to break free from the literally square confines of conventional smartphone video by recording circular footage from a first-person vantage point. The effect, Spiegel says, is akin to reliving a memory.
"It's one thing to see images of an experience you had, but it's another thing to have an experience of the experience," he said. "It was the closest I'd ever come to feeling like I was there again."
Despite the WSJ's lengthy writeup, little is known about the actual product set to ship this fall. The report notes Spectacles achieve footage akin to human vision by utilizing a 115-degree-angle lens, though it is unclear if the glasses feature two lenses, as suggested by the photo above. A button located near one of Spectacles' hinges -- likely the left side, again gleaned from the photo -- starts the recording process, wirelessly transmitting 10-second clips to a host smartphone for easy sharing.
Battery life, weight, available onboard storage and other basic device specifications are at this point unknown.
In any case, Spiegel views Spectacles as a lark, not a major revenue driver. Users might wear the glasses for fun at a barbecue or concert, the publication muses. That being said, Spiegel hinted at potential far-reaching implications (big money) if Snapchat app were to gain control over camera hardware instead of relying on smartphone surrogates like iPhone.
Alongside Spectacles, Spiegel announced Snapchat has been renamed to Snap, Inc., as the company now offers more than app-based sharing of ephemeral photos and video. The CEO imagines Snap, Inc. a camera company, not a social media platform, the report says. Comparing it to Kodak and Polaroid, Spiegel says, "First it was make a photo [...] Then it was take a photo [...] And finally it became give a photo."
Priced at $130 and available in black, coral and teal, Spectacles will see limited release later this fall.
Snap, Inc. CEO Evan Spiegel pictured wearing Spectacles. | Source: The Wall Street Journal
Revealed to the The Wall Street Journal by company cofounder and CEO Evan Spiegel, Spectacles are designed to break free from the literally square confines of conventional smartphone video by recording circular footage from a first-person vantage point. The effect, Spiegel says, is akin to reliving a memory.
"It's one thing to see images of an experience you had, but it's another thing to have an experience of the experience," he said. "It was the closest I'd ever come to feeling like I was there again."
Despite the WSJ's lengthy writeup, little is known about the actual product set to ship this fall. The report notes Spectacles achieve footage akin to human vision by utilizing a 115-degree-angle lens, though it is unclear if the glasses feature two lenses, as suggested by the photo above. A button located near one of Spectacles' hinges -- likely the left side, again gleaned from the photo -- starts the recording process, wirelessly transmitting 10-second clips to a host smartphone for easy sharing.
Battery life, weight, available onboard storage and other basic device specifications are at this point unknown.
In any case, Spiegel views Spectacles as a lark, not a major revenue driver. Users might wear the glasses for fun at a barbecue or concert, the publication muses. That being said, Spiegel hinted at potential far-reaching implications (big money) if Snapchat app were to gain control over camera hardware instead of relying on smartphone surrogates like iPhone.
Alongside Spectacles, Spiegel announced Snapchat has been renamed to Snap, Inc., as the company now offers more than app-based sharing of ephemeral photos and video. The CEO imagines Snap, Inc. a camera company, not a social media platform, the report says. Comparing it to Kodak and Polaroid, Spiegel says, "First it was make a photo [...] Then it was take a photo [...] And finally it became give a photo."
Priced at $130 and available in black, coral and teal, Spectacles will see limited release later this fall.
Comments
Should probably read, "Limited project will spectacularly fall after release ."
For less than a tenth of the price of Google Glass, you can proudly declare "I'm a loser!".
The real applications — or implications — would be revolutionary, if that were the case.
Please link to where you've seen these "round videos."
Edit: Never mind, I see the videos are at Recode and elsewhere. They're just wide angle shots, seems to me, which I don't care for either. But then they're in 2D, which is the real problem.
I'm pretty sure that the whole thrust of this device is toward 3D video, meaning it will eventually have two cameras, if it doesn't already. And that will make all the difference. Being one-eyed and split-brained was the creepiest thing about Google Glass. Not to mention it was aimed at left-brained Google types — no accident the camera was on the right side, in other words.
Snap's approach seems to be different.
For years we've been hearing pundits talk about Apple's lack of innovation and how companies such as Google are doing great stuff with Project Ara or Glass. Where are they now?
I'm willing to bet that in few weeks time, this thing will be nothing more than an afterthought.
cameras are small. tech is small. why do these companies keep failing to put their tech into the folding arms of the glasses, rather than bolting it on top? think about apple's Airpods, they've put all the tech into the stems to achieve the same form factor. until glasses makers do the same they're DOA.
Glass inspired instant, visceral hatred whether it was turned on or not. We're wired from infancy to respond favorably to an evenly bilateral, binocular face.
YUK!
It isn't April 1... surely this is a joke? Right?