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  Geebo 10:49 am on March 3, 2017 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Snap Inc. ( 2 ), Snapchat   

  Snapchat IPO sees successful first day 

  

  Yesterday, Snapchat parent company Snap Inc. had their IPO with the stock finishing at a 44% price increase by the end of trading. This should come as no surprise as the photo sharing app has been a massive success with the much coveted 18 to 34 market.

  Snapchat started out as somewhat of an Instagram clone except with a twist. It first started out as the app where the pictures disappear after a short time. Even though there have been ways to save pictures that were not intended to be saved Snapchat became even more popular with the release of its quirky filters that allow you to do fun manipulations to your photos such as face swapping.

  Then came the limited of release of Snapchat’s video recording glasses known as Snapchat Spectacles. Their viral marketing and pop up vending machines saw the glasses sell out at every location they surprised users at.

  Snapchat’s biggest feature seems to be that it’s the social platform that your parents aren’t on. Basically, they’re the anti-Facebook as it’s specifically designed to appeal to the millennial crowd. That niche focus has made Snapchat a wild success and their IPO’s achievement reflects that.

   

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  Geebo 10:02 am on September 26, 2016 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Google Glass, Snap Inc. ( 2 ), Snapchat, Spectacles   

  Snapchat announces video recording glasses 

  

  The company behind the ubiquitous photo sharing and messaging Snapchat, has changed their name to Snap Inc., and that wasn’t even their big announcement of the weekend. Snap announced that they were releasing video recording sunglasses called Spectacles.

  For some this brings back memories of the controversial Google Glass. While Google Glass was planned to be a wearable computing device, it ended up not being much more than a video recorder. The main controversy with that aspect of Google Glass was that people could be recorded without them knowing about it, leading to some establishments in the Bay Area to ban Google Glass. Snap claims that Spectacles will not have this issue as they have a set of lights that will light up whenever it’s recording. Also, since they’re sunglasses, you would notice if you were being recorded indoors since the recorder would be wearing sunglasses indoors. Another reason that Spectacles could be more successful that Google Glass is accessibility. While Glass was $1500 a pair, Spectacles are said to be listed at $130.

  The question is, since most people have cameras on their phones do we need another type of camera? Snap CEO Evan Spiegel seems to think so.

  “It’s one thing to see images of an experience you had, but it’s another thing to have an experience of the experience. It was the closest I’d ever come to feeling like I was there again.”

  Will that experience be enough for consumers to part with their money? In these days of virtual and augmented realities, it just might.

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  Geebo 10:10 am on July 18, 2016 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Dani Mathers, Detroit ( 4 ), live streaming ( 2 ), Los Angeles ( 3 ), Periscope ( 2 ), Snapchat, Stephen Drake Edwards   

  Does live streaming bring out the worst in us? 

  

  Live streaming has proven to be invaluable within the past few years when it comes to not only news but criminal investigations and social movements. Unfortunately, it’s also been used to commit disparaging acts as well.

  In Los Angeles, Playboy model Dani Mathers allegedly sent out a Snapchat of an undressed woman at her gym while making disparaging remarks about the woman’s body. Backlash from that incident not only led to Ms. Mathers being banned from the entire chain of gyms and the loss of her radio job but she’s also being investigated by the LAPD for illegal distribution of the Snapchat.

  Even more disturbing, 20-year-old Stephen Drake Edwards has been arrested in Detroit for allegedly brandishing a gun towards a man while hurling homophobic slurs at him. Edwards streamed the entire event on Periscope. He is even said to have done a second live stream on Periscope where he fielded questions about the incident. While he did receive backlash from the LGBT community he also had a number of supporters and therein lies the problem.

  There have even been more heinous crimes and activities that have been live streamed that have received positive feedback while they were taking place. The internet has always allowed distasteful groups and individuals to organize and communicate but live streaming now allows them to disseminate their messages and activities in real-time. However, live streaming is just a tool and like any tool can be abused for the wrong purposes. It seems these acts are more of a reflection of some of the more intolerant and ignorant subsections of our society.