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Digital Music Eyewear From Oakley
Mecha-A writes "Am I the only one that finds this insanely awesome? Oakley is marketing a new line of digital music eyewear in time for the holidays. $400-$500 is an obscene lot for a small USB MP3 player, but the coolness factor is way up there. Questions: Is a brand name like Oakley going to get this idea off the ground? Who's going to be first to market this same thing except with a 'now playing' HUD on the sunglasses?"
This is very similar or the same as the eyewear that Lance Armstrong wore this year in the tour de France. His was only 128MB though.
Is this news? These things have been heavily promoted by Oakley all summer. For example, if you watched any of the tour de france coverage you would have seen cyclists wearing them. Putting the story here is just one more way to get free publicity.
Then again, I'm just pissed that Oakley hasnt given me a free pair yet...
Here is a link with a picture of Lance's MP3 sunglasses.
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http://www.tdfblog.com/2004/07/armstrongs_othe.ht
You're right, to an extent.
These are a bit more than a normal pair of Oakleys. I have a pair of matte black polarized Oakleys, very understated, and I paid maybe $210 for them. Best eyewear I've ever owned, quality-wise. Some other styles do come near the $300 mark, I believe.
That being said, I'd still prefer to just have a pair of sunglasses and my Rio Nitrus. I don't see the need for this combination, at least not until the get it a bit more compact.
I find it ironic that people on Slashdot are bashing this. Maybe it isn't geeky enough.
You can usually expect minimum of $80. When I was in high school, I knew a lot of guys that bought Oakleys for about $120. As other posters have said, some models go into the low hundreds.
If you add $100 for a USB MP3 player, you're looking at maybe $350-450. I guess that's about right.
Of course, I've also heard that you can pick up a pair of Oakleys for about $20 in Mexico...
The first one is Lil' John in case you didnt know...
I think anyone would understand that a word isn't able to stop UV rays.
br>Here's some reading on the tests Oakley does on their eyewear:
http://oakley.com/technology/impact_protection/
http://oakley.com/technology/lens_clarity/
You can read more on their site.
Care to post the standards the EU requires on their £2.99 pairs?
By the way, could you please point out which pair of Oakleys cost (£2.99 + £295 =) £297.99 or $537.75? I couldn't find them...
o/~ Join us now and share the software
"The European Sunglasses Standard EN1836:1997
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t p://www.changing-gear.com/acatalog/CG_Catalog_P ENNY_218.html
In order to meet the essential requirements of the PPE Directive sunglasses have to be tested to, and conform to, EN 1836:1997 (Personal eye protection-Sunglasses for general use and filters for direct observation of the sun).
This standard defines requirements for transmittance properties, optical properties, minimum robustness and information and labelling. It also requires that sunglasses are safe to wear with no sharp protrusions or defects that could cause harm, are not combustible and are made from materials that are non-toxic when in contact with the skin."
Copied from the ESA website:
http://www.eurosunglass.com/de/index.ht
Oh, and Dollar prices often convert approximately 1:1 to GBP prices, the real live USD/GBP exchange rate rarely comes into it:
e.g.
http://www.shadestation.co.uk/oakley/
ht
HTH...
Government of the people, by corporate executives, for corporate profits.
I suppose you could call it an EFD (Eyes Front Display), though.
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