thump
Latest
Monster and Beats Electronics discontinue partnership, audiophiles rejoice
Color us surprised, but word on the street is that Monster and Beats By Dr. Dre are soon going to be a thing of the past. After years of pumping out fashion-forward, bass and treble pumping headphones that (debatably) changed the landscape of personal audio products -- and spawned a slew of imitators -- both companies have reportedly decided not to renew their five-year contract. Businessweek notes that two sources have confirmed that disagreements over "revenue share" and "who deserved the most credit for the line's success" stemmed the decision between the companies -- not surprisingly, Beats Electronics wanted more of both. In the followup, Monster will pump out eight new headphone lineups this year independently. Monster is noted to have brought in 60% of its own revenue from Beats by Dre, and now plans to shift its focus on older demographics, such as executive types, which the brand never exactly catered to. Notably, Businessweek also states that Beats Electronics will retain the rights to the headphone's iconic design, sound-signature and branding. Considering Beats' partnerships reign far with companies like HP and HTC, things probably won't be all doom and gloom for the company -- but the amount of time left to pick up your very own JustBeats likely just got very slim.
Crapgadget CES edition, round 16: Music Player Sunglasses
The "Most Newest" concept of MUSIC PLAYER... for when Oakley's Thumps are just too classy.Coming soonest.
Oakley's Split Thump: the relentless pursuit of fail
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]
Keepin' it real fake, part XLVI: as if the Thump wasn't bad enough
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]
Oakley Thump Pro in the works
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]
