Snapchat wants to give everyone a chance to get their hands on its video-recording sunglasses, known as Spectacles, in time for the holidays.
The visual messaging app’s parent company, Snap, has quietly opened a pop-up store in Midtown Manhattan, New York, overlooking the Apple Store. The branding outside the shop matches the bright yellow Spectacles billboards that have been spotted around Los Angeles. The storefront itself simply states “Spectacles,” without any mention of Snap or Snapchat.
The @spectacles popup overlooking the @apple store…. pic.twitter.com/OaCwFUEt1B
— Adam Besvinick (@Besvinick) November 21, 2016
Shoppers eager to buy the buzzing product that has thus far been released in limited quantities through a quirky vending machine will have to queue up early — Twitter users noted a line forming outside the store at 8 a.m. on Monday. Inside, the design of the space is minimal, with large, smartphone-shaped screens dotted along the walls and said vending machine as the central attraction.
One of the first 6 people at the @spectacles popup store in NYC *directly* across the street from the @apple store pic.twitter.com/v7ZLQJIQ3s
— Adam Besvinick (@Besvinick) November 21, 2016
Those expecting an Apple store-style retail environment may feel let down. The store doesn’t offer rows upon rows of Spectacles, with consumers still having to rely on the sole “Snapbot” vending machine to grab the wearable, which itself only stocks a limited amount.
We're checking out @Spectacles in NYC today on our Snap Story = https://t.co/YHX2D07ETw pic.twitter.com/a5EIXPpL2K
— B&H Photo Video (@bhphoto) November 21, 2016
The Spectacles pop-up store is located at 5 E. 59th St. in New York, and is open through to New Year’s Eve. The pop-up store’s opening hours are 4-10 p.m. Monday to Friday, and 6 a.m. to noon Saturday and Sunday.
Snap’s new retail push reinforces the belief that Spectacles are not being marketed as a product for techies, but rather as a fun “toy” (as CEO Evan Spiegel put it) for Snapchat fans. This strategy could largely be to avoid a consumer flop, in the vein of Google Glass, which never really generated the mass appeal that Google desired.
Pop-up stores themselves have become synonymous with musicians, such as Kanye West and Justin Bieber, looking to sell limited edition clothing. Are we to assume then that Spectacles are little more than Snap merchandise aimed at the app’s loyal fan base. Or will the sunglasses become the holiday season must-have? One thing’s for sure: You’re about to see a lot more New Yorkers wearing them.
Discord is trying to push more visibility on the internet for some of its biggest communities, and there's a good chance your messages could end up in a Google Search. The platform is preparing to make conversations from certain public servers searchable on the web, so there's a privacy setting you might want to check before the rollout begins.
According to Discord's official announcement, the changes will roll out in two stages. Starting November 16, qualifying servers will have public web pages featuring automated summaries of conversations. By mid-December, individual messages from eligible public channels could also appear word-for-word in Google and other search engines.
You just opened X and started typing your thoughts. Imagine the jump scare when a hand suddenly pops up on your screen, pointing at the promote button. It doesn’t say a word and simply points. For a growing number of X users, this isn’t a made-up scenario but something they have been seeing since yesterday, and very few of them are amused.
Most of us have learned to tune out the usual in-app upsells, whether it’s a glowing upgrade banner or a pop-up about a premium plan. A floating hand hovering over your draft is much harder to ignore, and that’s probably the whole point.
Scroll through any app for five minutes, and you’ll find someone maxxing something. Their skin, their sleep, their protein intake, even their Friday night on the couch. That little suffix has been everywhere this year, and now it has a trophy to show for it. In a recent announcement, Dictionary.com named maxxing its 2026 Word of the Year.
What are people actually doing when they’re maxxing?