Snapchat changes name to Snap Inc., is now a sunglasses-that-are-also-a-camera company

Snapchat changes name to Snap Inc., is now a sunglasses-that-are-also-a-camera company

Social media giant Snapchat has announced that it’s no longer just the go-to place for poorly thought out photo filters and teens looking to avoid their parents on Facebook: according to Variety, the service is moving into the world of wearable cameras, rebranding its parent company as “Snap Inc,” and announcing Spectacles, a new line of sunglass-based recording device.

Snap Inc. made the announcement last night, via a youth-oriented marketing video that shows a group of kids using their Spectacles to record wholesome skateboarding tricks, and not the billion or so other things human beings will inevitably get up to if you strap a camera to their head. The wireless camera records pictures in a circular format—the better to fit multiple smartphone orientations—and has a bright light that activates when it’s recording.

That’s presumably in an effort to distance the Spectacles from the last big name in weareable recording devices, Google’s troubled Glass, which garnered a number of bans and other criticism from people harboring privacy concerns about covert recording. Meanwhile, Snap’s product will cost just a fraction of Google’s—$130 at retail—and won’t contain any onboard computing power, beyond what’s required to power the camera itself.

 
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