Snapchat’s New Sunglasses Let You Live Your Life AND Record It at the Same Time

by Enoch

If there is one complaint that many people have about “people these days,” is that they are more obsessed with recording their lives than actually living it. You see that in concerts, where half the audience have their phones up. You see that at restaurants, where the cameras eat first. I know I’m guilty of that; heck, I write reviews of my flights and hotel stays for goodness sake. As Louis CK said, “if you just put your phone down, the resolution behind it is infinitely greater.”

Well, maybe we can both live our lives and record them at the same time. The Wall Street Journal reports that Snapchat will be launching a pair of sunglasses, called the Spectacles, this fall.

SEvan Spiegel, CEO of Snapchat, wearing Spectacles. Photo by the WSJ.

Evan Spiegel, CEO of Snapchat, wearing Spectacles. Photo by the WSJ.

The Spectacles is a pair of one-size-fits-all sunglasses, with two cameras that will record 10-second videos. The cameras use 115-degree-angle lens, which resemble the human eyes’ field of vision. Instead of the rectangular videos that are common today, the glasses will record circular videos. Evan Spiegel, CEO of Snapchat, says that “rectangles are an unnecessary vestige of printing photos on sheets of paper.”

To record, you just tap the hinge of the glasses, and each tap records a new 10-second video. I can’t help but think of the Spectacles as a joke, and Snapchat does intend to market them as a “toy.” But strangely, I can also also see some rational thought process behind it. After all, we record videos and take photos partly because we want to share and relive wonderful moments. But a camera of phone does, in Spiegel’s words, “put up a wall.” Whether you are at a restaurant, on a hike, at a concert, or just hanging out at home with loved ones, the Spectacles will free your hands (for the most part) to actually interact with your environment, rather than being tied up trying to capture it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqkOFLBSJR8

Snapchat says they spent years developing the product, and will be releasing them this fall. Once they are out, Spectacles will cost $130, and come in black, teal, or coral.

In the meantime, who remembers young Frankenstein?

frankenstein

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