Oakley O Rokr (polished black/gray)

Quick Take: Oakley began dabbling in wearable electronics back in 2004 with the original Thump MP3-playing sunglasses. Surprisingly, Oakley hasn't given up on the category and continues to turn out products with increasingly favorable results. The Thump 2, for example, improved upon the design of its predecessor and added some much-needed memory. At CES 2006, the company added two more high-tech sunglasses to its lineup, the Razrwire, which integrates a mono Bluetooth headset into the ultrathin frame of the glasses, and the O Rokr.

The bulkier Oakley O Rokr offers a built-in stereo Bluetooth headset, making it the obvious choice for any MP3-playing cell phones with Bluetooth. However, the music part of the headset requires a handset that supports the Bluetooth Stereo Music Protocol (A2DP), and unfortunately, there are very few phones--like, two--currently on the market with this technology. Combine this with the fact that you'd want to use the O Rokr outdoors only (the dark lenses don't flip up), and you have a very limited target audience indeed.

That said, outdoor enthusiasts who like to multitask will certainly be pleased with the sunglasses. Dedicated buttons on the arms make it easy to answer calls, adjust volume, skip tracks, and play and pause music. The last is presumably done automatically when a call comes in, but we weren't able to test this feature. We easily paired the O Rokr to the resident T-Mobile Sidekick 3's calling function, but because this smart phone doesn't have A2DP technology, we couldn't test the music playback on the glasses. The LG Fusic is on its way back to CNET headquarters to assist with further O Rokr testing. Stay tuned.