Sunglasses That Bring Music to Your Ears
The Oakley Thump 2 from Oakley Inc. scores points for style, but costs between $299 and $449 and has limited functionality.
But there's another approach to getting rid of the wires: make the music player wearable. This week, we tested just such a product -- the Thump 2 from Oakley Inc., the same company known for its stylish and expensive sunglasses with the signature "O" imprinted near your temple. The Thump 2 is a pair of Oakley sunglasses with an MP3 player and earbuds built into its foldable arms, eliminating the messiness of dangling cords.
After trying out the Thump 2, we agree that the sunglasses/earbuds combination works pretty well, is comfortable to wear and operates rather easily -- using a series of buttons on the top side of each sunglass arm. But it's very expensive and rather impractical.
The Thump 2 is an improved version of the original Thump that came out about a year ago. That first version was built on the thinner frames that you might conjure up when you picture a pair of Oakleys. This Thump uses shades that have a boxier look.
This gadget is very light, weighing only 2.1 ounces, and comes in three capacities -- 256 and 512 megabytes, and one gigabyte, which would provide room for about 60, 120 and 240 songs, respectively.
Along with the designer look, all three versions of the Thump 2 have a designer price tag -- $299, $349 and $449. To give you an idea of how that pricing compares with an iPod, made by Apple Computer Inc., the same $299 that you'd spend on the cheapest Thump 2 would buy you the second-most-expensive iPod, which comes with 30 gigabytes of memory, a color screen and video viewing capabilities, not to mention the other features that a regular iPod offers. Instead of 60 songs, that $299 iPod can hold 7,500 songs.
Oakley reminded us that the Thump sunglasses alone cost between $90 and $180, depending on the lenses, which makes the price seem a little less ridiculous, but the Thump's price tag is still a lot to pay to lose the wires.
Pricing aside, the Thump 2 is seriously lacking in practicality. First and foremost, it is built into sunglasses -- meaning unless you want to look like a Secret Service agent, you can only use the product outside. Oakley suggests turning the Thump backward (resting on the back of your head) while indoors, but it was immediately obvious to us that this work-around isn't what the Thump is made to do. The adjustable earbuds still reached our ears, but the sunglasses didn't stay put -- and we weren't even exercising, like many people do while listening to their music players.
Another issue with the Thump 2 is its lack of a screen. There's absolutely no way to view song information, nor can you see the contents of your music player without plugging it into a computer. No screen also means you won't see a battery indicator, like that on an iPod. Instead, you must listen for a special tone that sounds to indicate a low battery. A tiny indicator light also glows when you're low on battery, but this is poorly placed so far back on one glasses arm that you must take off the glasses to see it.
We easily copied music onto the Thump 2 by attaching an included USB cord to a small port on its right side and plugging it into one of our computers running Windows XP; it is also compatible with Macs. Our test Thump 2 -- the one gigabyte, $449 version -- was recognized on our computer like any USB thumb drive, and we simply dragged and dropped songs onto it. We dragged a handful of music files over, including MP3s from the pop band Fountains of Wayne, and a few AAC (iTunes format) Bob Marley tunes. The Thump can also handle WMA and WAV format files.
The speakers sounded rather good to us, and we liked being able to adjust the earbuds in five different directions to make sure they were comfortably snug. The earbuds were designed to be comfortable for long-term use, so they won't start hurting after a while. You can also crank up the volume and angle the earbuds away from your ears if you don't want to block other sounds out as much.
Two buttons on the left sunglass arm adjust volume (up and down), and three buttons on the right arm enable seeking forward or back and play/pause. We skipped through songs with ease, and were able to rewind or fast forward within songs to find certain spots. A combination of buttons can be pressed for other functions, such as skipping 10 songs ahead (by pressing Pause then the Next Song/Fast Forward button) or setting songs in shuffle mode (by holding the Next Song/Fast Forward button and immediately pressing the Previous Song/Rewind button once).
The Thump's battery is rechargeable by plugging into any computer, again using the USB cord, and the indicator light glows green when the three-hour charge is complete. After an hour, 80% of the battery is recharged, which is convenient. We ran our Thump 2 for about six and a half hours; Oakley says its battery will last for six hours.
We got a few stares while wearing the Thump 2 on the street, but for the most part, the earbuds weren't noticeable at a glance -- especially when worn by someone with long hair that can hide the earbuds. If this gadget had earbuds that could fold into the sunglass arms, the shades themselves would be more versatile for use even when you're not operating the MP3 player. As is, the earbuds can be straightened out to run along the arm of the glasses, but they're never totally hidden away.
The Thump 2 would also benefit from a screen -- perhaps even one that could flash on the lenses while you're wearing the device. But that kind of technology would probably push the price point even higher.
Unlike the iPod, which brilliantly combines stylish form with practical function, the Oakley Thump 2 is strictly a style item. Still, if you're already used to spending hundreds of dollars on sunglasses, the Thump 2 might seem like a deal. Everyone else would be better off suffering with wired earbuds for now.
能听MP3的太阳镜
iPod等便携音乐播放器虽然大受欢迎，但也有一个缺点：用户在走动的时候，耳朵上总要垂著两根线，非常不方便。在一切都朝无线化迈进的时代，这一点似乎显得很不合时宜。虽然iPod也提供一些支持无线耳机的配件，但这些配件和无线耳机无不又笨又不美观。
现在有另一种方法来摆脱耳机线的麻烦：让播放器可以佩戴在身上。最近我们就测试了一个这样的产品--Oakley Inc.公司推出的Thump 2，该公司生产的太阳镜风格十足且身价不凡，在镜腿的位置印有其标志性的“O”。Thump 2是一款带MP3播放器的Oakley太阳镜，可折叠的镜腿上有内置的MP3和耳塞，因而免除了耳机线缠绕的麻烦。
经过对Thump 2的测试，我们都认为这个太阳镜和耳塞的组合性能相当好，佩戴舒适，操作也很方便--在每个镜腿的顶部都有一系列的按钮。但这款产品价格十分昂贵，且很不实用。
Thump 2是约一年前推出的Thump太阳镜的改进版本。最初版本的Thump边框较细，和一般Oakley太阳镜的样子差不多，而Thump 2则显得方正一些。
这款太阳镜非常轻，只有2.1盎司，存储量有三种配置--256兆、512兆和1G，分别可以容纳大概60、120和240首歌。
与风格化的外观相匹配的是，三个型号的Thump 2都有不凡的身价--分别卖299美元、349美元和449美元。我们不妨拿这个价格来跟苹果公司的iPod比较一下：299美元只能买到最便宜的一款Thump 2，但同样的价钱却可以拿到iPod价格第二高的型号：30G内存，彩屏，还可以看录影，iPod提供的其他常规功能就不用说了。299美元买到的iPod能容纳7500首歌，大大超过Thump 2的60首。
Oakley公司指出，单是Thump太阳镜的价格就已经在90美元和180美元之间了，具体售价视镜片的不同而有不同。这一点似乎使得Thump MP3太阳镜的天价显得合理一些，但尽管如此，Thump太阳镜的价格还是让人感觉为了摆脱耳机线这个麻烦所付的代价太大了。
除了价格昂贵，Thump 2也很不实用。首先，播放器是内置在太阳镜中的，这就意味著你只能在室外使用，除非你想打扮成特工的样子。Oakley公司建议在室内把太阳镜反过来戴（即戴在脑后勺上），但我们马上就发现，Thump本身设计的时候就不是这样用的。反戴的时候，虽然可调整的耳塞还能够得著耳朵，但太阳镜就固定不住了，何况我们还没有动起来呢，而很多人喜欢一边运动一边听播放器。
Thump 2的另一个问题是没有萤幕，完全看不到歌曲的信息，如果不插上电脑，也没办法看到播放器里的内容。没有萤幕也意味著不能像iPod那样看到电池指示器，用户得留心听一个提示电池不足的特殊铃声来获得这个信息。当电池不足时，一个小小的指示灯会亮起，但这盏小灯的位置安排得很糟糕，在镜腿很靠后的位置上，要把眼镜摘下来才能看得见。
我们用一根附带的USB线接到Thump 2右边的一个小接口上，再把线的另一头连到运行Windows XP的电脑上，然后很容易就可以把歌曲拷贝到Thump 2上。Thump 2也能和苹果机相容。我们测试了内存为1G、售价449美元的Thump 2，我们的电脑能像识别其他USB外部存储器一样把它识别出来，只要把歌曲托拖拽到上面就行了。我们把几个音乐文件拽了过去，包括流行乐队Fountains of Wayne的MP3和几首Bob Marley的AAC（iTunes格式）。Thump还能处理WMA和WAV格式的文件。
扬声器听起来感觉不错，耳塞能从五个不同方向调整直到舒服为止，我们很喜欢这个功能。耳塞的设计考虑到长期使用的舒适问题，因此使用一段时间后不会让人有不适感。如果你不想把外界声音完全隔离，也可以加大音量，同时让耳塞离耳朵远一点。
左镜腿上的两个按钮是调节音量的（增大和降低），右镜腿上的三个按钮分别是向前搜索、向后搜索和播放/暂停按钮。我们可以随意地从一首歌跳到另一首歌，在一首歌曲中也可以通过倒回或快进来找到某些片断。按钮的组合使用可以实现其他一些功能，如向前跳10首歌（按暂停，然后按“下一首歌/快进”按钮）或设置随意播放模式（按著“下一首歌/快进”，紧接著按一下“前一首歌/倒回”按钮）。
Thump使用的是充电电池，用USB线连到随便一台电脑上都可以，电池充满3个小时后，指示灯就会变绿。只要一个小时就可以充80%的电，非常方便。我们连续使用了大概6个半小时才把Thump 2的电用完了，Oakley称电池能持续6个小时。
当我们戴著Thump 2在街上走时，引来了一些目光，但大多数情况下，第一眼看上去都不会发现耳塞，如果用户是长头发的，那就更加隐秘了。如果耳塞能折叠进太阳镜的镜腿内，这样在不使用MP3播放器的时候，就能发挥太阳镜的更多功能了。而实际上，Thump 2的耳塞能折叠至与镜腿平行的位置，但不能完全藏起来。
如果有萤幕，Thump 2将会增色不少--甚至也可以是那种在镜片上闪现的萤幕。但这种技术可能会使价格更加昂贵。
Oakley的Thump 2不像iPod那样把时髦的外形和实用的功能结合得那么出色，它仅仅是个时尚的东西。不过，如果你早已习惯花几百美元买一副太阳镜，那Thump 2可能会是个不错的选择。对于其他人，从目前来看，忍受有线耳塞还是要实惠一些。
