The "Most Newest" concept of MUSIC PLAYER... for when Oakley's Thumps are just too classy.

Coming soonest.

We're not sure why Oakley keeps gluing MP3 players to semi-fashionable sunglasses and expecting us to be impressed, but they've gone above and beyond this time by calling the latest model the Split Thump. Apart from sounding like a kitchen accident, it's the same old Thump concept you know and avoid, only this time with controls integrated into the O logo and detachable earpieces so you can just be a straight-up Oakley guy instead of a giant Oakley nerd. Pricing should make you feel similarly chumpish, with 512MB going for $249, 1GB for $299, and 2GB for a whopping iPod touch five Zune 30s Archos 605 $399. Coming your way in black and white soon, according to Oakley.

[Via Acquire, thanks, Bernard]

It's one thing to fake a successful product, such as a Nokia phone or an iPod nano, but we can't really think who in their right mind would go through all the trouble of ripping off the first generation Oakley Thump. Still, we have the fruit of such insanity before us, and while the aesthetics are no win, these "MP3 Sunglass" shades actually pick up a couple extra features that might've benefited the Thump. The addition of a screen on these things has its pros and cons, but there's also Bluetooth 1.1 on board -- obviously unsuitable for beaming musics A2DP style, but at least you can chat on the phone without having to take these ridiculous things off. The shades are USB rechargeable, play a decent complement of codecs, sport 128MB to 1GB capacities and sport 6 hours of battery. Now if they only included a time travel function so we could head to the year 2004 and make sure the Thump never existed.

[Thanks, xman]

Alright Oakley, we'll try to break this to you gently: we're not really digging this whole Thump thing. Yeah, we realise we should've come clean back in 2004 when we first spotted them, but now that we're nearing on two years of Thump versioning, we thought you might try cramming an MP3 player into something other than some silly looking sunglasses for a change. No matter, just our opinion, and it looks like you guys are already set on releasing the "Thump Pro" version this Holiday season. Oakley dropped the info during a rather boring corporate meetup of theirs, and will be basing the design on their BOTTLECAP line of shades which are pictured above.  With "Unobtainium" components, water/sweat resistance and interchangeable lenses, these Thump Pros are set to be the baddest Thumps yet, and we mean that in the kindest way possible.

[Thanks, Monster Dog]