Snapchat now known as Snap Inc. has unveiled its very first hardware product. The Snapchat Spectacles are a fancy pair of sunglasses with inbuilt camera. You are completely wrong if you think that the company got inspired by Google Glass. In fact, it is nowhere near Google’s high-profile offering. The Snap Specs costs just under $130 at $129.99, while the other came with a much higher $1500 price tag. The primary function of the newly launched spectacles is short video capture.
The Snapchat Spectacles are a simple pair of peculiar looking sunglasses. It will be deeply integrated with the Snapchat application of your smartphone. The brand new product can shoot spherical videos instead of the conventional rectangular shape. Two cameras situated at the either sides of the spectacles will shoot the virtual reality like footages. You can initiate the video recording by pressing a small button located at the left corner of the frame.
Short videos of 10 seconds can be shot by one click of the button. You may tap it two more times to extend the recording up to its maximum length of 30 seconds. Pressing the same button once more during the shooting will stop it midway. The recorded snaps will temporarily reside in the inbuilt memory of the Snapshot Spectacles till you push them to your smartphone via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. For Android devices, Wi-Fi is the default transfer medium, while for iPhones it is the Bluetooth. You may change this by tweaking the settings, though.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqkOFLBSJR8
The footages captured with the Snap Specs will be stored in the Memories option of the Snapchat application. The smart sunglasses can last for a whole day on a single charge. There is a lighting system, which lights up inwards when you start recording and even an outside facing light which notifies everyone that they are under the camera. One of the notable aspects of the newly launched product is its ability to capture 115-degree circular footages.
Speaking about availability, the camera sunglasses will be sold in limited quantities. Snap Specs will have three color options namely coral, black and teal. If the first hardware offering of Snapchat will succeed or not; is a very tough question. While the under $130 pricing looks promising, its awkward design may not suit everyone’s taste. Although, with around 200 million active users, Snapchat may manage to sell a significant number of the glasses.
