Snapchats long-rumored camera glasses are actually real. The startups first foray into hardware will be a pair of glasses called Spectacles and will go on sale this fall for $129.99,as first reported by The WSJand confirmed to TechCrunch by the newly rebranded Snap Inc..
The glasses will only come in one size, but will be available in three colors black, teal and coral.
To start recording you tap a button on the side of the glasses. Video capture will mimic Snapchats app, meaning you can only capture10 seconds of video at once. This video will sync wirelessly to your phone, presumably making it available to share as a snap.
Interestingly, the camera will use a 115-degree lens (which is wider than a smartphone or regular camera) and the video captured will be circular. Its not yet clear how this video will be displayed in the app, but since the field of view is so large Snapchat could either crop it to a vertical format or update the app to allow viewing of circular views.
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While Spectacleswill be available publicly sometime this fall, Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel told the WSJthat they will have limited distribution and not be reliedupon for significant immediate revenue. This means that Spectacles could end up being like Google Glass when it first launched officially on sale to the public but pretty hard to come by.
Oh, andin a potential nod to Apples now decade-old moveto eliminate computer from its name, Snapchatwill dropping chat from its name andrebranding to Snap Inc., as we had earlier speculated would happen. Thats a move to signify that Snapchat the app isnt the only product the company now makes.
Update 09/23 23:46 pm PDT: Now we have the first official video for Spectacles. Unlike the earlier b-roll that leaked out ahead of the announcement, this clip is much more Snapchat-like.
