Snap turns its hand to hardware with Spectacles

Can Snap succeed where Google failed in making it acceptable to record your life?

Snapchat is no longer a messaging company; it's a camera company that just happens to do messaging. Hence the sunglasses with a camera built in. Dubbed Spectacles, the glasses may remind you a little of Google Glass, but a little less obvious.

Can Snap succeed where Google failed in making it socially acceptable to walk around recording and sharing every second of your life? It’s certainly cheaper than Google’s Explorer programme devices, at $130.

Snap said it would be making the glasses,which record between 10 and 30 second clips in a circular format designed to imitate the human eye’s vision, in limited quantities though.

They’re certainly a little less conspicuous than Google Glass, looking more like a regular pair of sunglasses than anything high tech.

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There’s still the creep factor to take into account, which Snap has dealt with in part by putting a light on the inside and outside of the glasses to alert both the wearer and those in range that you are recording. The footage can be transferred via Bluetooth or wifi to your iPhone, or wifi for Android users.