The long awaited release of SnapChat’s spectacles will finally reach Europe. Spectacles can be purchased through the pop-up Snapbot vending machines, and also on the Spectacles website. The vending machines will be located in the UK, France, Italy, Spain and Germany. Estimated cost of the glasses will be between 129.99 and 149.99 pounds.
Spectacles are much like regular sunglasses, except that they have cameras on both sides of the lenses. In order to take a picture or record a video, you need only to tap a button. Afterwards, it can be posted directly to Snapchat from the glasses.
Google Glass, now discontinued, was the first to tout this technology and was quite similar to Spectacles. Unlike Google Glass, however, Spectacles look more like normal glasses and there is not as huge an issue with privacy as there was with Glass. This is mainly because the outward facing light on the Spectacles lets people know that you are recording.
Spectacles come in three different colors including black, coral and teal. Snapchat yellow circles are features on all colors and specifically outline the camera on the left, while an LED light ring illuminates the right side.
While some tech-junkies have stated they wished it was not as obvious that recording is taking place, others still cite the fact that Spectacle-wearers are Snapchatters, and not spies. It is important that Spectacles alert people to the recording process so as to alleviate such breaches in privacy as was seen with Google Glass.
They are quite stylish and offer UV protection as well. Not only are they comfortable when you are wearing them, they are also durable, so no worries that they are going to break with ease.
The biggest pro feature when Snap designed spectacles is that they designed the glasses around the camera, and not the other way around. Unlike the geeky, face-hugging glasses that have come before, Spectacles puts fashion at the forefront, with the added extra of being able to capture ten-second increments of your day on the fly.
Seeing your phone screens and smartwatches without distortion is an important feature for some, and you certainly get that with Spectacles. This is primarily due to the lack of polarized lenses in the glasses.
While Snap does not offer Spectacles of the prescription variety, they are made so that swapping out the lenses can be done by an optician who is ABO-certified. They are even set up to answer questions from opticians on their website.
