MP3 sunglasses and glasses are an alternative to portable music players like the iPod. These gadgets have a portable music player actually in its frame and earbuds along each side.

One of the big advantages of MP3 Sunglasses is no dangling cords. You typically carry a regular music player in your pocket, meaning that the earphones have to snake all the way up to your ears.

A number of different manufactures make MP3 Sunglasses. The best known of these is probably Oakley, a California based high-end eyewear maker.

Their current line is the Oakley Thump 2 MP3 Players. Like any other MP3 player, these glasses hook into a computer with a USB cord. Then you can load music onto them.

The number of songs you can squeeze on varies. The biggest Oakley model has 1 gigabyte of storage space. That means you can put about 240 songs on there.

The Oakley models offer some nice customization options. You can choose tinted lenses. You can also choose different colored frames like polished black, polished white, and brown smoke. You can also have prescription lenses put in if you are nearsighted.

Prices for an Oakley set of glass vary with the amount of storage. The smallest version, which is 256 megabyte, costs about $200.

If that’s too much for you, there are cheaper options. For those on a tight budget, one thing some might want to look into is ordering non-branded MP3 glasses from Chinese factories.

These can be bought for a fraction of the price of some of the branded pairs. But buyers beware, these items don’t have the reputations (and often the warranties) of the more expensive options available.