If you thought you already had a Snapchat video addiction, wait until you read about this!
Miranda Kerr’s fiancé and Snapchat company boss Evan Spiegel has just announced the release of his company’s first piece of hardware – sunglasses called Spectacles that come with a built-in Snapchat camera.
The must-have tech fashion accessory – available initially in black, teal, and coral – is expected to hit stores in the next few weeks with a price tag of US$130.
The tiny wireless camera built into the sunglasses will be capable of recording a day’s worth of ‘Snaps’ on a single charge, according to the Spectacles announcement.
Recording up to 10 seconds of video at a time is as simple as tapping a button near the hinge.
The Spectacles are wirelessly linked to your smartphone, so the Snaps are then automatically added to your Memories.
Why use a pair of video sunglasses instead of holding up your smartphone like everyone else?
Because, Evan tells The Wall Street Journal, the images that result are fundamentally different.
Spectacles’ camera uses a 115-degree-angle lens, wider than a typical smartphone’s and much closer to the eyes’ natural field of view.
The video it records is circular, more like human vision. As you record, your hands are free to pet dogs, hug babies or flail around at a concert. You can reach your arms out to people you’re filming, instead of holding your phone up, as Evan describes it, “like a wall in front of your face.”
Evan, 26, says he tested a prototype in early 2015 while hiking with Miranda in California.
“It was our first vacation, and we went to Big Sur for a day or two. We were walking through the woods, stepping over logs, looking up at the beautiful trees. And when I got the footage back and watched it, I could see my own memory, through my own eyes—it was unbelievable.
“It’s one thing to see images of an experience you had, but it’s another thing to have an experience of the experience. It was the closest I’d ever come to feeling like I was there again.”
The company also changed its name to Snap Inc., a move which Evan says reflects the company’s future.
“Now that we are developing other products, like Spectacles, we need a name that goes beyond just one product,” he wrote in a blog post.
