In case you missed the news over the weekend, the company formerly known as Snapchat Inc., now simply known as Snap Inc., has entered the hardware game with a new pair of connected sunglasses by the name of “Spectacles” that allows users to take 10 seconds of video.

The pair of glasses, which includes integrated video, is said to be capable of taking a day’s worth of Snaps on a single charge, and is also available in three colors. Syncing to the Memories function in Snapchat is done via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi with a new circular video format.

Spectacles connect directly to Snapchat via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, and transfer Memories directly into the app. The new, circular video format plays full screen on any device, in any orientation, and according to Snap captures the human perspective with a 115-degree field of view.

The glasses haven’t been released yet, but are expected to go on sale sometime in fall for $130 a pair.

Reaction

Reaction to the announcement has been mixed so far, particularly given that not only did the idea come out of left field, no one has seemingly tried a pair yet.

Chris Welch at The Verge described the glasses as being like Google Glass, but somewhat stylish.

Brian Barrett at Wired went along with the Google Glass comparison but took it further, saying that “whatever reservations you might (rightly) have about wearing camera glasses, don’t mistake Specs for Glass 2.0. They’ve got a lot more going for them than that.”

Because comparisons to Google Glass never get old, Android Authority does the comparison as well, writing “Spectacles look fun and friendly – in other words, the opposite of Glass. It may be tempting to dismiss the idea as gimmicky, but Evan Spiegel already built a multi-billion-dollar business on top of what many considered a gimmick – ephemeral messages.”

Tom’s Guide goes positive, writing:

There’s two potentially appealing things about placing a video camera on glasses. For one … it gives the people watching the video clips the same perspective you had as you captured the footage, creating a potentially shared experience. For another, it frees up your hands. And as someone who’s spent a lot of time at children’s birthday parties, dance recitals and family get-togethers gripping a smartphone to capture videos, I certainly appreciate to go hands-free while filming memories.

Android Police are not quite as forgiving, saying that “Thought Google Glass was ugly? Think again. To be perfectly fair, Spiegel does call this pair of camera-packing sunglasses a toy, but what a strange toy it is.”

New York Mag hedges its bets, saying that “it’s obviously too soon to make a call about Snapchat — sorry, Snap Inc.’s new hardware, but the proposition is intriguing.”

Overall, despite the somewhat dubious look, consensus seems to lean towards positive for the glasses. Whether they sell or not is something we won’t know until we can actually try them on.

Image credit: Snap