{"id":4460,"date":"2016-09-26T09:29:43","date_gmt":"2016-09-26T16:29:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/?p=4460"},"modified":"2016-09-26T09:29:43","modified_gmt":"2016-09-26T16:29:43","slug":"the-joy-of-spex-snapchat-introduces-spectacles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/2016\/09\/26\/the-joy-of-spex-snapchat-introduces-spectacles\/","title":{"rendered":"The Joy of Spex? Snapchat introduces Spectacles"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cPunk rock Palm Pilot\u201d isn\u2019t a phrase one hears much\u2014in fact, Google search has never heard it\u2014but maybe it\u2019ll apply to Snapchat\u2019s new $130\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.spectacles.com\/\">Spectacles<\/a>, due to arrive soon. First, here\u2019s how they work:\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"604\" height=\"340\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/XqkOFLBSJR8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; encrypted-media\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>What do you think?<\/p>\n<p>As someone with no dog in this fight (i.e. these really are my thoughts, not Google\u2019s), a few observations:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>If <strong>Google Glass was the Apple Newton<\/strong> of the wearable capture space (complex, ambitious, unsure of its key purpose), <strong>what will be the Palm Pilot<\/strong> (simpler, cheaper, laser-focused)? But this being Snapchat, they\u2019ll bring a healthy does of <a href=\"http:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/2016\/05\/14\/snapchat-photoshop-x-tenacious-d\/\">punk ethos\/social lubricant<\/a>. \u201cOr not, whatevs!&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>They\u2019re keeping initial expectations low. &#8220;<strong>Spiegel refers to it as a toy<\/strong>, to be worn for kicks at a barbecue or an outdoor concert\u201d (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/snapchat-releases-first-hardware-product-spectacles-1474682719\">WSJ<\/a>).<\/li>\n<li>They\u2019re trying to reduce creepiness by providing <strong>social cues<\/strong>. \u201cLights show friends you\u2019re Snapping\u201d is important, but so is the fact that these are <strong>sunglasses<\/strong>\u2014better suited to outdoor, public shooting than, say, creeping around in bars. (Side bonus: This helps manage low-light expectations for the small, inexpensive camera.)<\/li>\n<li>It\u2019s <strong>not (yet) for broadcast<\/strong>. \u201cWirelessly add your Snaps to Memories on Snapchat.\u201d Note that it doesn\u2019t transfer them directly to your shared Story. This almost certainly stems from the lack of \u00a0People don\u2019t share because they fear embarrassment\u2014oversharing, looking foolish, revealing too much. Largely forgotten apps like Instagram Bolt &amp; Taptalk \u201cimproved\u201d upon Snapchat by making it possible to launch, capture, and share in two taps\u2014but that gain in speed (saving one tap) wasn\u2019t worth the loss of control.<\/li>\n<li>Apparently it generates a new \u201c<strong>circular video<\/strong>\u201d format (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?time_continue=1&amp;v=ICy9UwI8SAw\">demo<\/a>) that is always cropped when displayed on phones, requiring you to rotate them to see everything. Hmm\u2014color me skeptical about that. People keep phones in portrait orientation something like 92% of the time, and Snapchat\u2019s vibe has been all about embracing laziness &amp; apathy, not making people invest effort. But I\u2019ll happily reserve judgement until I can try it out.<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Snapchat is the only company cool enough to possibly dismantle the Google Glass stigma,\u201d writes\u00a0Josh Constine at <a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2016\/09\/24\/more-than-just-specs\/\">TechCrunch<\/a>. He also anticipates them doing a constrained rollout, getting celebs to make the device cool\/exclusive first. (Stay tuned for the <strong>louvered Kanye A-Hole Edition<\/strong>, bringing <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/davepell\/status\/779793821160714240\">this tweet<\/a> to fruition.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div>Interesting times.<\/div>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" title=\"NewImage.png\" src=\"http:\/\/www.jnack.com\/micronaxx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/INewImage-3.png\" alt=\"NewImage\" width=\"599\" height=\"246\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>[<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=XqkOFLBSJR8\">YouTube<\/a>]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cPunk rock Palm Pilot\u201d isn\u2019t a phrase one hears much\u2014in fact, Google search has never heard it\u2014but maybe it\u2019ll apply to Snapchat\u2019s new $130\u00a0Spectacles, due to arrive soon. First, here\u2019s how they work:\u00a0 What do you think? As someone with no dog in this fight (i.e. these really are my thoughts, not Google\u2019s), a few [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4460"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4460"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4460\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4461,"href":"http:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4460\/revisions\/4461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}