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It also doesn't look nearly as dorky as Google Glass did. Google Glass had the problem where it was trying to be an all-purpose life-enhancing thing that people
by potatoyogurt 10y ago
It also doesn't look nearly as dorky as Google Glass did. Google Glass had the problem where it was trying to be an all-purpose life-enhancing thing that people would wear all the time, so it was trying to be both invisible and distinctive. This doesn't need to pretend to be something that you can forget you're wearing or something that you can pair with any type of outfit -- it has a strong sense of style, and it's easier to work cameras into a design that is loud than a design that is quiet.
- mozumder 10y agoThis is a dead-end product. People aren't going to wear this, because they don't want to creep out people by having a camera pointed at them all the time. This was the real problem with Google Glass. Also, everyone already carries around a camera in their smartphone. They aren't going to add another.
- fowlerpower 10y agoFamous last words on this product. I obviously don't agree with you based on my previous comment but I could be wrong. I will say this though that we all vastly underestimate what people want to do and share with each other. This is the company that spawned the self deleting video. I thought that was the dumbest idea ever. My point is privacy is something they thought of and this isn't as dumb as it looks. This product could evolve to become more than meets the eye. No pun intended.
- xkcd-sucks 10y agoIt's impossible for attractive, socially connected, young people to be creepy. So, it's pretty brilliant for Snapchat to be making this sort of thing. Probably the devices to hit the market will be given to a very carefully curated set of people, and ubiquitous surveillance by camera-glasses will become fashionable.
- supercoder 10y agoSo if an young guy who you rated as attractive came up to you and started filming you , that wouldn't make you at all uncomfortable ?
- jrockway 10y agoBased on the number of vlogs I see on YouTube shot with DSLRs, I don't think many people care about being filmed. I probably show up in hundreds of videos from bike commuting over the Brooklyn Bridge. It doesn't matter. I'm guessing 99.99% of the videos go unwatched anyway.
- mozumder 10y agoYou ever talk to kids? They're well aware of privacy invasions and when to put away the camera. They're trained on proper social media etiquette.
- triplesec 10y agogenuine question: do you have evidence for that? This interests me
- PavlovsCat 10y ago> Based on the number of vlogs I see on YouTube shot with DSLRs, I don't think many people care about being filmed. That's because they cut the ones who don't want to be filmed out. > It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter to you. And you know what, that it doesn't matter to you doesn't matter to me, so this gains nothing.
- jrockway 10y agoI don't know much about vlogging, but I assume that the controversy would increase views/shares/revenue, and as a result, you'd want to keep the controversial segments in.
- noobermin 10y agoAs a young person (age of the CEO of snapchat), I say, yes they fucking can.
- supercoder 10y ago26 is young now ?
- StavrosK 10y agoI'm surprised too, at that age you barely have any of your milk teeth left.
- TeMPOraL 10y agoYou've just triggered my midlife crisis again. I'm 28, which is halfway to the grave :(.
- pmontra 10y agoAs a matter of experience, the bar for being young increases as one grews older. 26 is young for me now, even if that 26 yo person has a couple of children that think that their parents are as old as me.
- noobermin 10y agoProbably not, but that doesn't help the CEO's case on whether he has a handle on what the young'ins (I suppose you'd call them) think is creepy or not.
- potatoyogurt 10y agoMaybe it is, but I don't think it's clear at this point. People certainly aren't going to wear this all the time, but I could definitely see it getting worn for many specific occasions. I see the niche it as something closer to a GoPro for things that aren't extreme sports. I already get random snapchats from friends and coworkers in their early to mid 20s who are dancing at a club, doing whatever it is people do at music festivals, running around in the park, or whatever. It's awkward to pull out a phone and start taking video when you're in a club, but people do it anyway because these are social experiences that people want to document and want to share with their friends. If there is a hands free, less annoying way to do that without looking like a dweeb, I could totally see a large demographic doing it. These aren't the types of events where people are creeped out by there randomly being cameras -- clubs often have semi-official photographers who will go around taking pictures anywyay. I think most people in their early twenties (or younger) are generally very used to cameras being present in these types of situations.
- Sir_Substance 10y ago>It's awkward to pull out a phone and start taking video when you're in a club From my perspective, that's a feature not a problem. It's obvious what you're doing, and of you try to photograph something really inappropriate, I can always slap the phone out of your hand. With snapchat (or google glass) style specs, I essentially need to attack your face to stop you filming, a far more aggressive action. I'd love to be able to bank on people knowing when not to film, but theres always one shitbag at every emergancy callout trying to get a really gnarly shot of someone elses broken arm so they can get dank internet points from their friends.
- kordless 10y agoYou are dead wrong. Cameras on glasses is a brilliant marketing play into owning the AR market. The reason why is the ego.
- thejacenxpress 10y agoAgree to an extent. Personally, being aware that this only records for 10 seconds and requires a tap to activate, I can feel pretty confident nothing is recording. Then again, even if I know someone is pointing an empty gun at me, I'm still of the mindset "don't point that at me!"
- stormbrew 10y agoComments like this always remind me of when camera phones were controversial and had to make a loud clicking noise when they took pictures so everyone knew it was happening. Fast forward 10-15 years and do you really know whether that person using their phone across from you on the bus isn't recording you? Nope.
- mozumder 10y agoThere are far, far more tech failures than there are successful ones. You can bet on this (and most tech products) failing hard.
- exergy 10y agoUh, yep? If you're using your phone for reading or some such, it is perhaps at a 45 degree angle to the horizontal, or even less. If you're sneaking a creep shot, the angle is much greater. You can always tell when someone is clicking a picture.
- dEnigma 10y agoThey might be filming themselves though; even if they don't do anything worth filming they could be just using their phone as a mirror.
- wingerlang 10y agoStill the case in Japan iirc.
- StavrosK 10y agoNot only that, but phones know where you are and start making noise! I was in Tokyo and saw a cute father and baby and wanted to take a photo on the train, but the phone made a loud "click!" even in silent mode, and I looked like a perv. At least the Japanese were too polite to say anything.
- jdavis703 10y agoI think by people you mean the hacker news crowd. Remember many people don't even see much of a problem with mass NSA surveillance.
- mozumder 10y agoNo, the exact opposite actually. Normal people would hate this. This only appeals to a certain tiny nerd demographic, the kind that thought Google Glass was originally a good idea.
- CodeWriter23 10y agoGlass was creepy because someone wrote that extension to allow you to start recording by blinking your eyes. This is apples to oranges.
- 90002 10y agoSorry, I have to disagree with you here. Google Glass never achieved mass adoption amongst consumers due to the simple fact that they weren't fashionable, imo. Excluding SV, many people saw them as ugly and creepy.
- xellisx 10y agoI thought the price tag was the major obstacle to Google Glass.
- ethanbond 10y agoReally? Pretty sure we walk in and out of several hundred (thousand?) camera FOVs every day. Google Glass didn't succeed because you looked like a total dork wearing it. These are a bit silly, but they also acknowledge that they're a bit silly. Google was just classically out of touch, as always.
- mojowo11 10y agoTeenagers right now have a different attitude about how their camera interacts with the world, by virtue of having been raised in a perpetually-filmable world. For a teenager, everyone they know has had a camera with them pretty much as long as they can remember. They've already got a camera pointed at them all the time. It only takes a few seconds to start filming something with your phone. People who are 30 are going to be weirded out by this. People who are 18 are not. They already have the assumption that anything they do in public might be filmed and shared on social media. And they want to be able to quickly film anything they're doing in public and put it on social media.
- sheer_horror 10y agoThese glasses are going to be a huge hit thanks to their style. The main userbase of snapchat are product-hungy 12-25 year olds without much conviction; they'll jump at the chance to get a product that looks cool and represents their favourite timesink. I am very impressed with this move because it gives Snapchat a supplement to ad-based revenue. I hope this makes them a lot of money.
- mikoR 10y agoThe above three comments to me summerise what has qualified as American Innovation for the last 15-20 years. When you are surrounded by the superficial, building things for the superficial what else can you produce other than the superficial. It is sad as hell to watch. It isn't ironic to me that Trump is going to be leading this bunch of innovators soon.
- nxc18 10y agoAn 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 seems amazingly affordable. I expect it to be a hit.