Submitted via IRC for takyon
Snap will reportedly release AR-enabled Spectacles with dual cameras
Snap is reportedly set to release a new version of Spectacles with an aluminum design that packs in two cameras. Through the Snapchat app, you may be able to add augmented reality overlay effects in videos you capture with the updated Spectacles. The $350 frames will cost more than double the first version, which arrived in 2016, and will be on sale by the end of the year, according to Cheddar.
Following a $40 million write-down on the first version after Snap overestimated demand (it ordered around 800,000 pairs), it has been more conservative with orders of the device. For the second version of Spectacles, which were released earlier this year, Snap reportedly ordered 35,000 pairs, and 52,000 of a tweaked set it released in September. This time around, it's hedging its bets further by ordering around 24,000, according to the report.
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Snap announces Spectacles 3 with an updated design and a second HD camera
Snap today announced Spectacles 3, a redesigned version of its augmented reality sunglasses with a sleek new design and an added HD camera to create depth perception. The glasses, which the company has positioned as a limited release, represent Snap's latest effort to build a new computing platform centered on the face. They will go on sale on Spectacles.com in November for $380.
That makes them more than twice as expensive as last year's model, which cost $150. Snap executives say the higher-end version is meant to appeal to a smaller group of "fashion-forward" creative types. It may also be designed to recoup more of its manufacturing costs for the famously money-losing product; Snapchat wrote down nearly $40 million in costs associated with the first version of the glasses after wildly overestimating demand.
The high price of Spectacles 3 will likely limit their appeal, particularly among the high school and college-age students who make up Snapchat's core user base. A Snap spokesperson said this year's model represented a necessary investment in the platform. The company has to figure out a way to do AR computing right, the logic goes, before it can do it cheaply.
Not quite VR180 given the 1216×1216 video.
Previously: Snapchat's Spectacles: A Bad Idea in Hindsight
Snapchat Takes a Second Shot at Wearable Camera "Spectacles"
Snap Gives Spectacles a Face Lift to Look More Like Traditional Sunglasses
Instagram "Influencer" Sued for $90,000 for Not Sufficiently Sporting Snapchat's Spectacles
Snap Will Reportedly Release AR-Enabled Spectacles With Dual Cameras
(Score: 4, Insightful) by ikanreed on Tuesday November 27 2018, @03:44PM (5 children)
Or are they letting customers figure out that's where they belong for them?
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday November 27 2018, @03:51PM
Instagram could probably sell something like this since it's the hawt shit right now (not counting Tik Tok), but Facezuck is probably scared of the... optics of it.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 27 2018, @04:10PM (2 children)
You can't skip the step of the user getting their ass kicked for being a walking surveillance system, before the glasses hit the dumpster.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday November 27 2018, @04:14PM (1 child)
Violent bigot! We need spycam contact lenses because of people like you!
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Tuesday November 27 2018, @10:42PM
Mother's new "Eye-Phone" [youtube.com]?
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Tuesday November 27 2018, @08:30PM
They're taking the view that if something doesn't sell, keep doing it until it does.
It doesn't really matter, as the founders of the company have their cash now and that is the only point of Snap inc.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by TheFool on Tuesday November 27 2018, @06:34PM (3 children)
I wonder if we're still smart enough to give users a label like "glasshole" and do things like refuse them service for wearing them out in public. Probably not, but I can dream.
(Score: 2) by acid andy on Tuesday November 27 2018, @11:36PM (1 child)
Is that really that old already or am I just ...really that old already?
Master of the science of the art of the science of art.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 28 2018, @12:03AM
That was ~5 years ago, only old in the 24 hour news cycle perspective.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 28 2018, @12:05AM
Please please add "no customer privacy respect" along with "no shirt, no shoes". I think it would be 100% fine to refuse service to someone who will be recording customers.