Snapchat Spectacles are off to a great start avoiding Google Glass' stigma

On this week's MashTalk, the tech team reviews Snapchat's Spectacles and the new MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, discusses Facebook's fake news problem and looks forward to Thanksgiving.
 By 
Raymond Wong
 on 
Original image replaced with Mashable logo
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

As reality slowly sinks in that Trump will become president of the United States of America, many of us are turning to other things — anything — for comfort.

For us at Mashable, it was Snapchat's Spectacles, the $130 camera glasses it started selling last week, the new MacBook Pros with Touch Bar and pointing fingers at Facebook's fake news problem for influencing election results.

Because next week is Thanksgiving in the U.S. and we'll be off spending times with our families, we've got an extra long MashTalk for you guys this week.

Joining me on this week's podcast is Mashable chief correspondent Lance Ulanoff and tech editor Pete Pachal.

After getting the Spectacles overnighted from LA (thanks Saba!), I spent last weekend using them in New York City. If you haven't read it, you can read my Spectacles review here.

I snapped videos of myself eating pizza, flying a drone, taking photos with my phone — all hands-free.

Though the camera-equipped sunglasses are only being sold through a "Snapbot" vending machine, which appears to be making its way across the country, and most people have yet to try them, I was really wowed by its simplicity. While not perfect (importing snaps to your phone is a slow process), Spectacles are shaping up to be one of the hottest "toys" of the year (along with the NES Classic Edition, of course).

Circle videos are SO cool:

Look, Trump's win has been hard to accept for a lot of people. Hillary Clinton blamed her loss on FBI director James Comey for re-opening an investigation into her controversial emails just three days before Election Day.

But this week, as upset Americans tried to cope, Facebook emerged as another bearer of blame. Specifically, all the fake news published through the News Feed.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he didn't think Facebook's fake news problem influenced the election and helped Trump win. But even Facebook's own employees disagree with him.

Even if Zuckerberg refuses to believe it, many people would agree there is a rampant fake news issue. Following reports of Google News also being susceptible to fake news, Google's gone out to ban sites with fake news from its ad service.

Is it time for the News Feed to die and for human news editors to return in place of algorithms?

Original image replaced with Mashable logo
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

The other big gadget to distract us from political news was Apple's new MacBook Pros with Touch Bar. You can read Lance's review on them here.

Bottom line: they're pretty — really pretty. It's too early to declare the Touch Bar revolutionary or a gimmick, but they're damn expensive and dongle hell is a very real thing.

Buying a MacBook Pro has never been so hard, that's for sure.

Again, there won't be a MashTalk next week. We'll be back in two weeks. Thanks for your support and don't forget to leave your questions and comments by tweeting @Mash_Talk with the #MashTalk hashtag.

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Raymond Wong

Raymond Wong is Mashable's Senior Tech Correspondent. He reviews gadgets and tech toys and analyzes the tech industry. Raymond's also a bit of a camera geek, gamer, and fine chocolate lover. Before arriving at Mashable, he was the Deputy Editor of NBC Universal's tech publication DVICE. His writing has appeared on G4TV, BGR, Yahoo and Ubergizmo, to name a few. You can follow Raymond on Twitter @raywongy or Instagram @sourlemons.

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