Snapchat Spectacles go on sale today. But they're not at Best Buy or Amazon. Instead, the high-tech sunglasses are available only from bright yellow vending machines, or "Snapbots."
For now, there's just one Snapbot in Venice, California, near Snap Inc.'s headquarters, but more machines are expected to arrive in other locations. Track their whereabouts via this map on the Spectacles website; new locales will be shared about 24 hours prior to arrival. According to the company, Snapbots will linger for about a day in each spot before moving on to its next location.
It's unclear how many of the $130 Spectacles are included in each machine; one Twitter user said Snap has already re-filled the machine at least once. On its Twitter feed, the Spectacles team has been re-tweeting messages about long lines at the Venice location (and people subsequently trying to re-sell their Spectacles for almost four times the price to those in line and on eBay).
I am in line for a pair of @spectacles. My god have mercy on my soul (and my skin, since it's already in the upper 80s today). pic.twitter.com/6qgrVndmmM
— Ashley Esqueda (@AshleyEsqueda) November 10, 2016
Those who do make it to the front of the line can step into a Snapbot's field of vision to wake it up, then virtually try on different colors (black, teal, or coral) before making a final purchase.
The specs come with a built-in camera for recording 10-second, first-person videos with the tap of a button. Connect Spectacles to your handset via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi to transfer Memories into the mobile app through "circular video format."
"Circular video plays full screen on any device, in any orientation, and captures the human perspective with a 115-degree field of view," a company blog post said.
Smart glasses have yet to really take off. Google went back to the drawing board with Glass, and expects to target its second-gen specs at the enterprise. Spectacles, at least, look a bit more like traditional sunglasses, save for the large camera module. And they're a lot cheaper than Google's $1,500 Glass.
For more, see Snapchat's Spectacles: Not Just for Millennials and Spectacles Are the Missing Piece of Snapchat's Business Model.