Initial Impressions: The glasses seem strange at first, since they only block a center strip of your eyes, and they have tinted glass on either sides of the screen. This does allow you to see around you when the glasses are on. It seems a little disconcerting at first, seeing the world around you, yet partially blocked by a screen. The screen basically looks like the one on your iPod, held six inches from your face.
Unfortunately, in a normally lit room, the ambient light distracts you from focusing on the video. It is also a drain on the eyes, since the user’s eyes are constantly looking at other things, since what you see is only this little screen floating in front of you.
MyVu works much better in the dark. There aren’t as many distractions, and objects above and below the screen don’t stand out as much. The nice thing about the way the screen is situated is that once you get used to it, you can walk around with it on your head, even playing a video. Since you can see around the image the image is like walking with a flier or a book in your hands.
The way it connects to the iPod is pretty convenient. It has an external battery pack, but it will also run off the regular iPod’s battery. I got through at least an hour and a half before the batteries died. The included battery pack give it about four hours. One downside though, MyVu will draw battery power if it’s plugged in, even if the iPod isn’t playing anything. Leaving the MyVu plugged in at night results in a dead iPod in the morning.
Using the iPod’s battery is convenient since it doesn’t require you to carry around a separate battery just for the screen, though if your using the MyVu for long periods of time, you will want to use an additional battery.
The audio is fairly standard from the built-in ear bud headphones. They seem loud enough, and a mini remote that comes with the system controls the volume independent from the iPod. The pause and play button takes a noticeable period of time to pause or play the video, unlike pressing it on the screen. The volume controls also have no visual reference to tell you how load or soft they are currently set at.
The MyVu Ships with demo software to convert your videos to a format that can play on the iPod. The Demo requires an Internet connection and a valid e-mail, because it requires a license to test it out, which has to be sent to your e-mail.
Overall it’s an interesting gadget, but the size of the screen it produces isn’t much better than just using the original iPod screen. If you travel a lot or have long commutes to and from work, it may be worth it, though to save holding the iPod itself while walking, and if you don’t normally hold your iPod up right in front of your face, it will seem like a bigger screen.
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