Need to KnowFIRST LOOK10 27 Nov-10Dec 2019
Snapchat
Spectacles 3
bit.ly/specsRememberwhen
high-techglasseswere
settochangetheway wesawthe
world? Theideawasthatyou’d slip on
apair,recordyourevery waking
momentwith thebuilt-in camera and
shareitwith your adoringfollowers on
social media.Google hadago with its
Glassspecs, andfailed,but Snapchat
hasn’t givenupand itsSpectacles 3
glassesareits latest attempttoturn
thedreaminto reality.
Built into either side of thelenses
aretwocamerasready to recor dHD
imagesandvideo at 60fps(frames
persecond).Thisgives Spectacles 3
itsunique selling point:theability to
capturethe worldin3D. Youcan thenlook like asecondpair of eyes,
squinting aboveyour own, andthe
ultra-thickarms,bridgeand topbar
will getyou noticedfor allthe wrong
reasons.Still,atleastit’s easy to share
thebaffledlooksyou’ll get–onsocial
media andin3D.
Snapchat Spectacles 3are available
nowfor an unjustifiable£330, and
comein twoshades: mineral and
carbon.What happened?
Anyone worriedaboutthe privacy
implications of usingsocial-media apps
suchas Facebook nowhas even greater
causefor concernbecause theapp has
been discoveredactivatingusers’
cameras withouttheir knowledge. A
handfulof iPhoneusers have takento
Twittertoshareevidencethattheir
phone’scamerastarted runningin the
background, andwasautomatically
activatedwhilethey were scrolling
throughtheirFacebooknewsfeed.
First reportedon2November
by TwitteruserJoshuaMaddux
(@JoshuaMaddux), severalpeoplehave
nowdiscoveredthe same bugaffecting
their device.Itappearsas though the
cameracan beinadvertentlyactivated
when you’re lookingatphotosor
watchingvideosinyourfeed.Because
of aglitchthatmeant theFacebook
screenwas shuntedslightlyto theright
afterviewing an imageorclipinfull
screen, severalpeople were able to see
that thecamera hadbeenopened and
wasrunningbehind their Facebook app.
Howwill it affectyou?
Facebook’sVicePresident of Integrity,
GuyRosen, hasacknowledgedthe
problemand stated that this isdefinitely
abug –not somethingthat the
companyisdoingdeliberately. Hehas
also respondedto concerns on Twitter,
Facebook‘bug’ secretly opensiPhonecameras
statingthatthe
camerawould
neither capture
nor upload any
photosor
videos.Rosen
said:“We’ve
confirmed that
wedidn’t upload
anythingto
FBduetothis
bugand that
thecamera
didn’tcapture
anything,since it
wasinpreview
mode.We’ve
submitteda
fixedversion to
theApp Store
which isalready
rolling out.”
SinceFacebook says it hasfixed the
bug, there’snot muchyou candotofind
outwhether your phonewas affected
by this problem.We’ll justhave totake
thesocialnetwork’s word that no data
wasactually recorded.What dowethink?
It’s importanttoapproachappssuchas
Facebookwith ahealthydoseof
cynicism: noneofuscan knowprecisely
whatthey’redoingwith ourdata, and
allowing unfetteredaccess to ourdevicesmeansit’s easyfor somethingto
go wrong.Inthiscase, it really does
seemto be abug:there’snoevidence
that Facebook wasactingmaliciously or
that users’securitywas compromised.
Allthatbeingsaid,Facebook users
areputting ahugeamountoftrustin
thecompany,and wedon’t thinkthat
it’s unreasonableto expectbetterof
them.Bug or otherwise,thiskindof
mistake shouldn’tbehappening, andwe
hopethatFacebook haslearned a
lesson andwill tightenupits quality
controlprocesses asaresult.play thembackusing the
included3Dviewer–
essentially,acardboard
boxwith aslotfor your
phone–which givesyour
footageasense of realistic
depth.Syncupmedia withyour phone
andyou’rethen free,in true Snapchat
fashion, to addall mannerof creative
filtersand 3Deffectstoyourphotos.
Digginginto thespecs’ specsreveals
abasic phone-inspired set-up,
presumablytomaintain thelightweight
56.5gframe:twof/2.2aperture
cameras,afour-microphonearray,
BluetoothandWi-Fi, and 4GBstorage
capableof saving 1003Dmovies.
Themaindrawback,however,isn’t
thelowspecificationoreventhe
invasiveness of having apairofcameras
strappedtoyourface–it’sthatthe
glasses’design is awful. Thecameras