Snapbot Sends Seattle Residents Into A Frenzy

Seattle locals dropped everything once word started to spread online that the yellow vending “Snapbot” was spotted at Dick’s Drive-In restaurant. It didn’t take long before a massive line formed, with people waiting an hour or more to get a pair of the much-coveted Spectacles.

Spectacles, retailing for around $142, are sunglasses that allow wearers to record 10-second video snaps of life from their perspective and then download those memories onto Snapchat. The glasses only work with Snapchat and are always on (although not always recording), so users don’t have to worry about missing a moment. Spectacles take about 100 10-second Snaps per charge.

GeekWire interviewed some of the of Seattle residents waiting in line, like Ian Atianza, who came down from the Capitol Hill neighborhood and was one of the first people in line. When asked how he planned to use the Spectacles, he answered: “The same as I would use my phone, but, you know, having swagged-out cameras for my eyes and getting the bird’s-eye perspective.”

Jordan Jansen has been keeping his eye on the bot for a while, and once he got the notification the Snapbot was in Seattle, he made the 45-minute drive down from Everett, WA, to get a black pair.

And Savannah Parmelee, a nursing student at Seattle University, bolted out of a lab and grabbed a Lyft from Capitol Hill as soon as she saw that the bot was in town. “I’m gonna shoot with them, just try to get a lot of really cool videos that not a lot of people can do,” she said.