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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?"
I'm holding off until they come out with a hat that's got a built in subwoofer
My guess is that you're playing for the Oakley sunglasses...the MP3 players is more or less a tag-along, as far as cost is concerned.
As somebody who has never owned a pair of Oakleys, I ask: wht does a good pair cost?
Government's idea of a balanced budget: take money from the right pocket to balance...oh who am I kidding?
The geek factor will go way up after you break your brand new Oakley MP3 player shades and tape them together across the bridge...
Yes, you are.
Notice how both guys in the pictures have false teeth?
Maybe they got their heads kicked in for wearing rather geeky mp3 players.
Mouse powered Chips, Open source Processors and Lego
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...
Notice how both guys in the pictures have false teeth? Maybe they got their heads kicked in for wearing rather geeky mp3 players.
Mouse powered Chips, Open source Processors and Lego
I thought Oakley was all about thermonuclear protection stickers for cars?
Here is a link with a picture of Lance's MP3 sunglasses.
m l
http://www.tdfblog.com/2004/07/armstrongs_othe.ht
I guess I am not in the target market (then again, I'm 36 and French): the very large face shots that illustrate the product actually repulse me.
Why don't they just sell a product instead of a lifestyle ?
Apart from the fact that I find the sades both ugly and flashy, I find the idea quite good... 1 item less to carry. Oh wait, my bluetooth phone already does MP3 and FM.
The Cloud - because you don't care if your apps and data are up in the air.
I think both of those guys modeling should have spent the $400 on a dentist instead.
I listen to music at work on headphones; it would be great if I could come back to my desk, put them back on and have the same song playing that I interrupted when I left. I'm a bit surprised that Apple hasn't figured out how to do this yet....Hey Apple and Oakley -- you listening?
Carousel is a lie!
Now if my glasses break, I lose my MP3 layer. And if my MP3 player breaks, I get a bulky pair of glasses. Convergence is Awesome!
what if you want to listen to music at night?
Only if you're listening to Corey Hart.
I am Sartre of the Borg. Existence is futile.
resistance is fut.... ahh nevermind.
A couple years ago I remember talking to a mac-geek friend of mine and he said "Someday, Apple will be an eyewear company"
This obviously only makes sense in a future where the network is CPU and Storage, wireless is very fast and advanced, and the glasses are basically just display technology.
How likely is this future, maybe as a precursor to direct neural jacks ala Matrix?
Do slashdotters believe the "Network is the Computer" idea will eventually come to be ?
The IPatch is WAY cooler.
Oakley doesn't target the slashdot crowd. They target skiiers, snowboarders, skateboarders, cyclists, etc.
The people doing these sports would really like the idea of not having the wires for headphones to get caught up in, and the extra weight of a player flopping around. I've pulled my headphones out a lot while riding a bunch of times.
The placement of the headphones looks really nice since they don't need to fully block your ears. They've even got good operating temperatures for the player and support both windows and mac. Since they don't specifically require software, thet might even be compatible with everything else.
Most people aren't going to spend that kind of money, but having the music in the glasses will be something that a lot of people go for. But you can bet that Oakley will find people who will definitely want to buy 'em.
And bad jokes about the teeth of the models aside, Oakley knows who they're marketing to. And a bunch of clean-cut models wearing clothes from the Gap isn't how they sell their products.
Cheers
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Am I the only one here that thinks
...
a) the design of the glasses look like something you might get free with a happy meal?
b) the "models" have their mouths open and look slightly gay?
I was expecting something a little more slick to be honest.
I wouldnt be seen dead wearing a pair of those.
Nick
Electronic Music Made Using Linux http://soundcloud.com/polyp
the coolness factor is way up there.
For the price of the sunglasses you can get an iPod, which also has a great coolness factor plut the functionality.
When I go to buy sunglasses I look for the ones that are lite and easy to put in my pocket, these sunglasses look pretty similr to a science project where you tape a USB memory stick mp3 player and tape it to a pair of sunglasses. Definately not worth 395$ or even half that. Of course thats just my opinion, i'm sure i don't speak for most people
At any rate, I personally think Oakleys are over rated and over priced. Get a pair of Rudy Projects and a decent MP3 player for the same price and have better sunglasses and better mp3 player.
Buy the President
o/~ Join us now and share the software
OTOH the lack of wires is a big benefit for many applications. If I were working outside often I would definitely consider a pair of these. Of course the battery life makes it unsuitable for anyone but the hobbyist, but that is still a market.
In future versions I hope they put bluetooth connectivity for a remote and hookup to a cell phone as an additional mic. In fact, this might be a better product all together.
The biggest problem might be for someone who uses this regularly. The battery will run out, probably lose half it's lifetime in relatively short order, then what happens. Throw the entire thing away?
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
I suppose you could call it an EFD (Eyes Front Display), though.
"Even for Slashdot, that was a very obscure reference!" - Anonymous Coward
To create a small mp3 player that grabbed onto a glasses arm, rather than a whole pair of glasses.
This is both:
1) an MP3 player that you can't listen to without wearing sunglasses
2) a pair of sunglasses that you can't wear in extreme conditions.
This is about as useful as a champagne glass with a built-in knife.
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The requested URL
Where can i BUY that stuff? Right Now!
*me wantssssss it*
It looks like the hearing aid glasses of the 1970. Except clunkier.
Integrating a wireless headset into sunglasses, so you could listen to music or talk on your cell phone, would be cool. Only one gadget to carry around, too.
Their target audience are assholes that never graduated high school but 10 years later are still trying to pick up 16 year old chicks in their ratted out cameros
You say that like it's a bad thing.