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THERE are times when watching videos on the iPod's small screen is not a good idea: Holding the player tires your hands after a while and you do not fancy those prying eyes peering in your direction.
The Myvu Crystal, a wearable personal media viewer - they look like cool shades that Cyclops wore in the X-Men movie - solves these problems. Whereas normal sunglasses have transparent lenses, the Myvu Crystal has two miniature screens for the lenses, and a stub on both sides of the frame from which the in-ear earphones dangle.
Looping from both stubs is also a wired remote control, into which you plug in a movie-capable iPod via a short cable.
Seems like a handful and initially it does feel a little unwieldy. Though 82g sounds light, the gadget is still almost three times the weight of my sunglasses.
Nevertheless, I found myself quickly getting used to wearing it.
Though they look like curve-around-the-face sunglasses, these allow for peripheral vision, so you can grab that cup of soda or popcorn without knocking things over.
The controls on the Crystal consists of just the essentials: power switch, volume, colour and contrast.
To skip parts of a movie or to pause it, press the controls on your iPod.
The Crystal is powered by its own rechargeable battery, which can be charged via a bundled USB cable.
Battery life is four hours, enough to watch two feature-length movies.
There is no battery indicator on the Crystal, though.
With one of the action movies, Walking Tall, where The Rock (Dwayne Johnson) plays the sheriff, the sounds of screeching tyres, punches and people bashing each other with baseball bats were heart-pounding.
As for the picture quality, the 640 x 480 resolution visuals did not look quite as amazing as it would be on high-definition screens.
But I am not complaining - the Crystal improves upon the earlier Myvu Solo Plus ($189), which has a lower 320 x 240 resolution.
Final say
Pack it for a short plane ride for your private in-flight entertainment.
This story was first published in The Straits Times Digital Life.
