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A Sight for Sore Eyes that’s Music to my Ears

Oakley Thump 2 Digital Music Eyewear

By Jeff Gottesman

This is it. The invention I’ve been waiting for! Finally a product that is not trying to create a new market, but instead fills a market need. Simply put, the Oakley Thump 2 is billed as the “World’s First Digital Music Eyewear” that combines an MP3 music player into the earpieces of a pair of quality Oakley sunglasses. Sounds like a simple concept, so where has it been all my life?

The Thump 2 comes in various color schemes and sizes of internal memory. The 256 MB model will hold around 60 songs, 512 MB stores 120 songs and the 1 Gig model around 240 songs. The internal battery is charged through the USB port of your computer and will play your favorite tunes for about 6 hours.

Operation of the Thump 2 is incredibly easy and intuitive. Mounted onto the earpieces of the glasses are a pair of telescoping boom speakers that adjust in all different directions so that you can get them comfortably placed as close to the inside of your ears as you desire. Mounted onto the top of the earpieces, close to the lenses, are 5 buttons (three on one side and two on the other) that control all functions. The two buttons on the left side simply control the volume....up or down. The functionality of the three buttons on the right side are similar to what you would expect on any MP3 or CD player; Next Song/Fast Forward, Previous Song/Rewind, and Play/Pause.

The buttons have a few other functions that are described in a simple table like on/off, shuffle mode, and the ability to skip ten songs forward or back. Unlike some stand alone MP3 players, the Thump does not allow you to search for specific songs or play them based on artist, album, etc. The song order is determined by the order in which you write them into the Thump memory from your computer....except in the shuffle mode.

Downloading music into the Thump is really a snap. A USB cable is supplied that plugs into a small covered receptacle in the earpiece. Software provided supplies drivers to make your Thump look like an external storage device. To add music to your Thump just copy your MP3 files over to it and you’re good to go. You can add and remove music as easy as moving data files from one storage device to another. And...speaking of data storage, you can also store data files in your eyewear....although I doubt the lenses will display digital photographs in front of your eyes. Perhaps that might be a future innovation.

Aside from the great tunes, let’s not forget the eyewear itself. Oakley has always been a top name in eyewear and just because the Thump is a music player does not mean that the quality of the Oakley eyewear name was compromised. The lenses are High Definition OpticsÒ which block 100% of UVA, UVB, and UVC rays. The physical design of the glasses wrap the lenses around your face to provide maximum protection from damaging rays entering your eyes from the front and the sides....and on top of that, the glasses look cool! Depending upon the memory size, the glasses come in various color schemes such as black, black/grey, and brown/bronze.

There are a few accessories such as a car charger, wall charger, additional USB cables, and some boxes and cases to protect your investment. Anyone who has purchased a fine piece of eyewear such as Oakley, understands that this eyewear really is an “investment.” Suggested retail prices ranging from $299 - $449 (depending on memory size) should not be surprising for eyewear of this quality.

Now for the best part....the fun of it!!  I like to skate on my Rollerblades and also ride my Trikke cambering vehicle (to be reviewed in a future article)....both of which suggest the use of a helmet to protect my noggin so that I will still be able to write articles in the future. I’m sure that those of you who ride bicycles...and even runners...will appreciate the fact that all you need to wear now is “sunglasses” and your music comes with you. Up until now, it was rather awkward to wear my sunglasses and headphones and try to stuff it all under my helmet....and then find a place to store the music “player” so I wouldn’t lose it or get strangled by the cord. The Thump solves this all for me! I put on my sunglasses, strap on my helmet, and I’ve got my music, my exercise, and my beautiful view of the surroundings with eye protection to boot. Now what could be more fun than that? 

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