Oakley Thump
You have to admit these are pretty cool.
Not five hundred clams worth of cool, mind you... I think I'll wait for the price to drop precipitously before buying a pair, but they'll be perfect for motorcycling, (as long as you're not a helmet-wearer, of course).
Not five hundred clams worth of cool, mind you... I think I'll wait for the price to drop precipitously before buying a pair, but they'll be perfect for motorcycling, (as long as you're not a helmet-wearer, of course).
posted by Jar(egg)head at 09:29
4 Comments:
These fall just short of really cool, IMHO. I would rather have just the headphones and a bluetooth receiver in the sunglasses instead of the entire player. I have been getting into MP3s and players recently, and my biggest complaint is the lack of integration. For example, if I want to listen to my MP3 player in the car, I have to either get an FM Transmitter (which I don't recommend) or listen using headphones. I can't wait until these types of product integrate more seemlessly. What would you rather have, 256MB of music (about 2 hours) in your sunglasses, or 40GB of music (about 500 hours) on a single MP3 player that you can access with your cool shades, your car stero, or your home audio system? If you really want to push the limit, it could interface with your mobile phone and provide hands-free communication as well. THAT would be cool.
-J
Hrm....Interesting point, as my phone does play MP3's, using AC5 decoding. Takes SD-Cards up to 1GB. And it's Bluetooth. All I need is for someone to make some BT hi-fi headphones, as listening to music for extended peroids of time through only one earbud can be very disorienting, and actually made me mildly dizzy the first and only time I tried it. Dizzy + motorcyle = Bad.
The only thing about the glasses that would be better on a bike is having the controls on the temples. If you want to skip tracks or change volume, you really don't want to be fumbling around in a jacket or handlebar pouch at 70 mph, let alone looking down at the player. It's downright unhealthy. The model I've got now straps onto my right wrist, so I can run the cord up my sleeve, and change tracks/volume by reaching over with my clutch hand.
As for the amount of music, I can easily get two hours on my 64MB Yepp. Remember that on a motorcycle, you've already got lots of ambient noise, so there's no point in uploading the music at high sample rates. I could quite comfortably squeeze in a full day's riding music on those 256MB glasses.
I agree about the convenience of the controls being on the sunglasses themselves. That's still a posibility, since bluetooth allows for two-way communications.
What I would really like to see is more integration between the many different devices we have now. I know this will sound strange from a techie, but I don't want to have 50 different gadgets on my belt. I would rather have one device that stores my music and data, acts as a mobile phone transmitter, can send/receive email, acts as a PDA, etc. That device would then be able to connect (wirelessly) to my computer, car stereo, home audio system , TV, and cool Oakleys. I could then go wherever I wanted without having to worry about transfering data to this or that player, or having to cram large quantities of music into a smaller player by sacrificing quality. In a nutshell, I would rather spend time listening to my music than managing it.
I think that products are heading in this direction, so I don't think that it will be long before that type of convenience will be a reality. Hopefully, by then I'll be able to afford it.
If we push the limits of current tech I would say have a wire implanted so you can control the volume, song...etc. with thought via a bluetooth transmitter. Integrate that with your mobil device and use it to control accecories in your car and house. The ultimate in remote control.
Just a thought. (No pun intended.)
Later,
N
Post a Comment
<< Home