Why, though? Sunglasses with sound, but no style

The jury’s nonetheless out on the success of Apple’s Imaginative and prescient Professional, however VR headsets are supposed to be immersive, so it is smart for them to cowl each a person’s eyes and ears.

However 2004’s Oakley Thump — sun shades, earbuds, and an MP3 participant multi functional — was simply too costly for what it offered.

Sun shades…

… are for shielding your eyes from the solar and searching cool. Oakley Thump got here in a single model and a handful of colours, none of which made anybody look cool — not even Lil Jonwho had his personal version.

Hooked up have been a pair of earbuds and a chargeable MP3 participant, which may maintain as much as 128MB or 256MBs of music. The 256MB model value $495 ($800+ immediately), per Engadget.

What went flawed?

Again when most individuals used wired headphones, a tool with six hours of battery life that wouldn’t tangle you in wires might have been interesting, particularly for joggers or bikers.

Engadget discovered the Thump straightforward to make use of and the sound high quality “surprisingly glorious.”

Nevertheless, there are solely so many actions one performs in sun shades, except they’re a Terminator.

The less expensive iPod Shuffle (RIP) and different opponents retailed for a number of lots of much less, and didn’t require sporting sun shades to make use of them.

Nonetheless…

… Oakley made a second Thump, which CNET largely favored — other than the value, and the truth that folks round you possibly can hear your tunes — and one other in 2007 with removable audio system.

Finally, nonetheless, Apple’s iPod would develop to dominate the music participant market, and Oakley’s excessive value and debatable model led it to discontinue the Thump after 4 years.

And now?

One reviewer famous that the Thump may very well be sensible for a couple of hundred bucks much less.

And that’s just about what’s occurred, albeit not with Oakley and now utilizing Bluetooth tech. CNET touts Bose’s sunglasses-headphones combo as the most effective available on the market in 2024, retailing for $249 immediately.