Spectacles, or Specs for short, can record up to 30 seconds of video at a time.
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As Snap CEO Evan Spiegel told WSJ, the rectangle format is a vestige of when we printed photos on paper, and isn’t necessary anymore. The wearer can tap a button near the hinge to record video of up to 10 seconds using the wide-angle lens on the glasses.
The release date is also unknown, but Spectacles will cost $US130 (Australian pricing is another question mark) and will be available in three colours: black, teal, and coral. Snap Inc is now branching into new territory: smart glasses. It’s one thing to see images of an experience you had, but it’s another thing to have an experience of the experience.
As for pricing and availability, Snap said the sunglasses will be produced in small quantities and are priced at US$130 (S$180).
After the recent debacle of the Google Glass, this launch by Snap Inc can be seen as a bold move.The Spectacles allow full control to the users over the hardware.
“It was our first vacation, and we went to [Californian state park] Big Sur for a day or two. It was the closest I’d ever come to feeling like I was there again”.
Google Glass had been hit with criticism due to concerns about privacy since the devices were capable of capturing pictures and video.
Snap posted a promotional video, above, for Spectacles on YouTube and is expected to show off the gadget in NY next week.
A first glimpse at the video glasses is shown in the teaser above, which comes via Laughing Squid, demonstrating the glasses’ click-to-record activation and some totally rad bowl thrashing (is that skater lingo?!).
“It’s about us figuring out if it fits into people’s lives and seeing how they like it”, Spiegel said.
However, with a far lower price point, and likely adoption by influential celebrities, Snap’s Spectacles stand a solid chance of being seen as cooler than Google’s attempt.
While the Snap product may look a lot like Google Glass at first take, Specs have been developed to avoid numerous pitfalls that led to Glass shutting up shop.
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Carolina Milanesi, a consumer technology analyst at Creative Strategies, while commenting on the various aspects Spectacles, has said, “If you look at the kinds of glasses millennials wear, the design is very “in”. Snap is perhaps becoming more about life-logging, content generation and story-telling”.
