Snap’s Spectacles

Nicholas Headley

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Snaps+Spectacles

From Twitter, to Instagram, to SnapChat, social media has gathered a large following. It has become a way to to share life events, stories, and pictures. People have even made careers off of vlogging, which is making a video log of one’s everyday life. With the popularity of social media comes demand; demand for something to easily share experiences.

The company behind SnapChat, Snap, has seen that demand and created Spectacles. Spectacles are a pair of glasses that has a set a cameras in them that allows the wearer to capture first-person video. Spectacles connect to SnapChat where the video will  shared. After the release of Snap’s Spectacles, the demand for the product quickly grew and Snap could not keep up with the demand. They are sadly are rare item.

There is currently one way to buy Snap’s Spectacles, it’s through a vending machine. Snap is calling their vending Snapbot. It is actually very simple to buy a pair of Spectacles. A consumer just has to walk up to the vending machine, and pop in $130.00, the cost of the Spectacles, and walk away. But the catch is finding the Snapbot. Snapbot movies from city to city and consumers have to hunt it down if they wish to purchase Spectacles. At this very moment, no one knows where the Snapbot is; the last sighting of the Snapbot was somewhere in New York City. Despite some of the criticism this method has gotten, I personally like the idea of having a roaming shop. It would be a nice experience to pile into a car with your friends and go on a road trip hunting down Snapbot. Although, it would be a good idea to add a few more Snapbot throughout the country to make the process a bit easier.

Snap has taken notice to the high demand of Spectacles and plans a much larger rollout of Spectacles in the future. They were a hot item during the holiday item, but they did not generate much profit for the company due to the high demand and lack a Snapbots.

But before hunting down Spectacles, wouldn’t it be a good idea to find out what it is like to wear them? Or find out the exact specifications of the Spectacles.

Online reviews have left mixed feelings about the Spectacles. They are a good way to share experiences with your friends, but some people do not like how they look on the face. Other reviews say that they feel cheaply made, and that dropping them could cause serious damage. Additionally, reviewers have talked about feeling weird in public with a hidden camera. Snap has consumers covered in this though. When the camera on Spectacles are recording, a bright LED appears around the lens to let people know that cameras are pointed at them. Despite these reviews, it is nice to see Snap trying to make a solid product.

Snap has been pretty sparse on the specifications of their Spectacles. We do not know how many pixels are in the cameras of Spectacles, or how the software operates. All we know is that there is a button on the frame of the glasses that is pressed to connect them to SnapChat.

Overall I would say Snap’s Spectacles are a cool item to have. In today’s society of social media, easily capturing video and sharing it with friends can create some good memories. Personally, I would love to own Snap’s Spectacles; I could share video of hockey games or give my friends a first-person view of being on a football field performing a half time show. It is only the first generation Spectacles, so improvements are to come. Stay tuned for more information. Happy Snapping!