Incase you live under a rock Snapchat, I’m sure, is quickly becoming your most used mobile app. If it’s not than it should be. The Venice Beach based company has recently announced they will be releasing their first hardware product. There is not currently much known about the Spectacles however many are already comparing the ‘snapchat glasses’ to the disastrous release of Google Glass.
Snapchat has just recently undergone some rebranding. They followed in the footsteps of tech giants like Apple, who dropped the ‘Computer’ from their name. The social media company will from now on be known as Snap Inc. This move clearly sets up the company on a path where future hardware releases are only nature.
According to Snap Inc. CEO, Evan Spiegel, the video sharing glasses are not much more than a ‘toy,’ but is also thinking of all the ways the device frees up smartphone cameras. Since the cleverly named, ‘Spectacles’ are a piece of wearable tech there will be no need to use your smartphone to upload the video.
Like the app, the glasses, will record 10 second long videos and wirelessly upload them to your smartphone. The camera they have installed in the glasses uses a 115-degree lens which is far wider lens than your typical smartphone or digital camera. Spiegel believes the circular view is more true to life, opposed to holding the phone out in front of you, “like a wall in front of your face.”
This field of view is much wider than that currently used in the app. Developers are currently still deciding how the 115-degree video will play in the app. There has been talk about adapting the app to play circular video or to merely crop the video to be vertical or horizontal. But this last solution would ultimately diminish the point, and value, of a circular camera in the first place.
The Glasses will come in one size but three colors, black, teal and coral, will be available. Evan Spiegel has been clear that despite the expected fall release of the tech, there will not be a huge supply of the hardware. They are expected to have “limited distribution” and will not “be relied upon for significant immediate revenue” at this time.
With limited distribution and even more limited functionality it is expected the ‘Spectacles’ will be more of a branding and media spectacle than anything else. The Spectacles are expected to hit shelves in the fall and will cost around $130 a pair.