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Snap updates Spectacles with faster uploads, water resistance

The first version of Snap's camera-sunglasses went from hype to afterthought in a couple months. Now, the company is reviving the device with some tweaks.

Joan E. Solsman Former Senior Reporter
Joan E. Solsman was CNET's senior media reporter, covering the intersection of entertainment and technology. She's reported from locations spanning from Disneyland to Serbian refugee camps, and she previously wrote for Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal. She bikes to get almost everywhere and has been doored only once.
Expertise Streaming video, film, television and music; virtual, augmented and mixed reality; deep fakes and synthetic media; content moderation and misinformation online Credentials
  • Three Folio Eddie award wins: 2018 science & technology writing (Cartoon bunnies are hacking your brain), 2021 analysis (Deepfakes' election threat isn't what you'd think) and 2022 culture article (Apple's CODA Takes You Into an Inner World of Sign)
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Joan E. Solsman
A woman wears a pair of new black Spectacles with blue lenses.

Snap's new version of Spectacles 

 Snap

Snap unveiled the second iteration of its Spectacles wearable camera, with faster uploads, water resistance, and improved audio quality for videos, the company said in a blog post Thursday. 

Snap's first version of Spectacles launched to a lot of hype in 2016 before quickly fizzling out. Releasing its Spectacles was meant to be a transformative event for Snapchat, which dropped the "chat" from the company's name for Spectacles' launch and redefined itself as a "camera" company. But after a few months of scarcity-fueled buzz, Spectacles started collecting dust. The company has so many unsold Spectacles sitting around, it had to book a $40 million loss in November. 

Watch this: Snap refreshes Spectacles, adds water resistance

In a comparatively understated six-sentence blog post, Snap said the new version of Spectacles has a smaller profile and is water resistant. The audio quality of video captures has improved, the company said, and now you can press and hold to take a photo. It also said Spectacles will transfer to Snapchat up to four times faster than previously -- always in high definition.