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Snapchat Releases First Hardware Product, Spectacles

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191–200 of 342 posts

Re: Snapchat Releases First Hardware Product, Spectacles

#191

This fixes everything broken about Google Glass. It's almost disturbing how much more on point this is: Of _course_ they're sunglasses. Of _course_ it's focused completely on video. Of _course_ it's marketed as being about sharing your memories as you lived them. Of _course_ you can only record 10 second videos at a time. Of _course_ snaps automatically sync to the app. Of _course_ they're designed to appeal to young…

As Google learned with glass and Twitter still needs to learn:

If you don't know what your product is for, your customer is unlikely to figure it out for you.

Re: Snapchat Releases First Hardware Product, Spectacles

#192

This fixes everything broken about Google Glass. It's almost disturbing how much more on point this is: Of _course_ they're sunglasses. Of _course_ it's focused completely on video. Of _course_ it's marketed as being about sharing your memories as you lived them. Of _course_ you can only record 10 second videos at a time. Of _course_ snaps automatically sync to the app. Of _course_ they're designed to appeal to young…

Not to mention, one tenth the retail cost.

One tenth the cost, one tenth the functionality. This is just a wireless camera for your smart phone. Point and shoot, that's it. It really reminds me of the cheap "Spy Sunglasses" I had as a kid.

Glass had a camera but it was secondary. Glass was about AR, it was an interactive experience.

Re: Snapchat Releases First Hardware Product, Spectacles

#193

I think this is brilliant. Even the press details seem perfectly crafted, with one article referencing Evan's "supermodel girlfriend." Snapchat can win here based on brand alone. The hardware features are a plus, but they're going to sell a lifestyle. Think GoPro + Versace. Commenters here are caught up in the tech. It's not the tech. Get a few celebrities in these, people will buy them and barely use the recording f…

I can't tell whether your comment is satire or serious, I should quit the internet today ;) Also, that 'thing' looks even more ridiculous then Google Glass.

Yeah, there are an incredible number of positive posts in this thread. All this support for Spy Kids sunglasses is very... surprising.

Re: Snapchat Releases First Hardware Product, Spectacles

#194
post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>An alternative way of thinking about this is that we're fortunate that our needs are so well provided for that we can focus on entertainment and life enrichment. It's a nice way of thinking of it and hopefully it's true one day, but unless "our" means the typical HN reader, I don't think we're there yet. Consider that in the US in 2015, 43.1 million people were living in poverty (13.5% poverty rate) [1], and income…

Considering the snark was directed at the comments on this post, I'm certain "our" means us HN readers/commenters.

Don't assume all HN users are narcissists and politically uninterested. I for one have very personal needs that are directly connected to what is going on politically and socially in the world.

Re: Snapchat Releases First Hardware Product, Spectacles

#195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't tell whether your comment is satire or serious, I should quit the internet today ;) Also, that 'thing' looks even more ridiculous then Google Glass.

Yeah, there are an incredible number of positive posts in this thread. All this support for Spy Kids sunglasses is very... surprising.

Very refreshing compared to the usual negativity on here if you ask me.

Re: Snapchat Releases First Hardware Product, Spectacles

#196
post #68
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An alternative way of thinking about this is that we're fortunate that our needs are so well provided for that we can focus on entertainment and life enrichment. A camera at eye level is extremely useful for many reasons, snapchat is just one, excellent use case. In my own life, I have a use for that specific tool, and am glad it exists - Google Glass was never widely released. And the price is great - at $129 this s…

>An alternative way of thinking about this is that we're fortunate that our needs are so well provided for that we can focus on entertainment and life enrichment. It's a nice way of thinking of it and hopefully it's true one day, but unless "our" means the typical HN reader, I don't think we're there yet. Consider that in the US in 2015, 43.1 million people were living in poverty (13.5% poverty rate) [1], and income…

The other part of my comment I didn't write because I thought it would basically be evident without spelling it out: problems like poverty and income inequality aren't solved by tech innovators.

The actual problems that do exist in the U.S and the rest of the developing world are social problems. No amount of big disruptive thinking (by tech folk) is going to solve them.

If you look at SV's attempt to solve medical problems, you start to see where regulation and oversight are necessary for the difficult problems. Then you see why large governments, large companies, and exceptionally smart people with the backing of those organizations are the ones who need to solve the problem.

On top of all that, there's so often no actual intent to solve those problems. Poverty in the US is a big problem because the people who are capable of solving it just don't care enough to. In the case of government, voters are too self interested in the short term to push for it - how many times do you see complaints about hard earned tax dollars being used for poor people?

Even when the tech people do try to solve a social problem because the public has decided to care about it, attempts are misled and ineffective. If you look at the problem of diversity, companies are tryin to solve their problems at demand side. Big companies compete for female engineers to boost their numbers and smaller companies can't match their offers. This looks good on Apple's diversity report, but the problem is disguised, not fixed. Actual solutions, like encouraging women to become interested in STEM when they're young are few and far between.

So yes, I'd like tech innovators to focus on solving non-problems with life enriching innovations (slack, twitch, twitter, facebook, steam, VR, AR, bluetooth audio, etc) then waste time on misguided attempts that are way out of range for them.

Re: Snapchat Releases First Hardware Product, Spectacles

#197
post #191

This fixes everything broken about Google Glass. It's almost disturbing how much more on point this is: Of _course_ they're sunglasses. Of _course_ it's focused completely on video. Of _course_ it's marketed as being about sharing your memories as you lived them. Of _course_ you can only record 10 second videos at a time. Of _course_ snaps automatically sync to the app. Of _course_ they're designed to appeal to young…

As Google learned with glass and Twitter still needs to learn: If you don't know what your product is for, your customer is unlikely to figure it out for you.

Twitter might be a bad example, given that's exactly how it rose to popularity

Re: Snapchat Releases First Hardware Product, Spectacles

#200
On the design end, I don't like the look of the camera lense.

Are they able to darken the lense glass to hide the camera a bit? Maybe they could match the black of the camera sensor to the black of the glass a little more. Otherwise it looks a lot like two cameras on your face.

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