Gadzooks! Snap Inc. Is Making a New Pair of Doomed AR Glasses

Twice the cameras, twice the cost.

Why Tho

Snap Inc, the company behind the has-been photo-sharing app Snapchat, just announced the third iteration of its camera-equipped AR glasses, Spectacles 3.

At $380, the glasses will be double the cost of Spectacles 2 when they launch in November, according to The Verge. Perhaps that's because they come with a second HD camera — one rests over each eye, like those old school flip-up sunglasses. But, as The Verge points out, Spectacles 3 has just as short a battery life as the last version, and makes it just as annoying to transfer pictures and video to a bespectacled person's phone.

It all raises the question of why, exactly, these trendy-looking glasses exist.

Spy Glasses

When Google unveiled its AR spectacles, Google Glass, there was immediate blowback against the "glassholes" who started wearing them around town. Now Glass is back, but largely used for industrial purposes.

Snap's AR glasses, even the shiny new Spectacles 3, still seem like a Google Glass imitator — with all the public unease of people unsure whether they're being filmed, but with fewer functions for the wearer.

In order to send out a picture recorded on Spectacles, users will have to connect their phone via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, download them their phone, and then edit them and send them out to their friends, according to The Verge. It all seems like a bit too much of a hassle when someone could just hold their phone up to get a point-of-view-angled shot.

READ MORE: Snap announces Spectacles 3 with an updated design and a second HD camera [The Verge]

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