| Nu Tech Dark Shadow 256MB MP3 Sunglasses
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The Sunglasses:
I for one am very picky about my sunglasses. I insist that they be comfortable, sturdy, provide adequate protection from the sun, and UV filtration is a must. I am happy to say the Dark Shadow glasses met all of my requirements better than I thought they would. I initially thought the weight of the MP3 player/voice recorder would make them uncomfortable to wear for extended periods of time, but I was wrong! I would go as far as to say the Dark Shadow glasses are among the most comfortable sunglasses I have ever worn. The Geeks.com website shows the following features pertaining to the sunglasses:
• Polarized Lenses
• TR 90 Frame
• Shock Proof and Anti-static electricity
• Filter out 100% of all UVA/UVB/ UVC and harmful blue light
As listed above, the Dark Shadow's come with two sets of lens. The set that arrives in the glasses have a light brown tint and let a little more brightness in than I personally like. The darker blue set were very much to my liking. Being polarized, they seemed to make things stand out better than when viewed with a naked eye and kept the brightness under control even on very bright, sunny, California days.
The Nu Tech Dark Shadow glasses also come with a pretty nice hard storage case. The case does have loops on the back to strap to your belt, but it is a little on the big side, and in my opinion would look a little too geeky for most to use it on their belt. It is nicely lined and padded and does make a good storage case for when the Dark Shadow glasses are not in use.
 
So to sum it up, as sunglasses the Dark Shadows get a big thumbs up from me. They are very comfortable, sturdy, and provide good protection for your eyes from the sun without taking anything away from your vision. Now let's move on to the MP3 Player/Voice Recording side of things.
The MP3 Player:
To get things started, I popped the mini CD into the drive and let it do the auto run. The disk contains USB drivers for systems that require them, such as Windows 98, along with two utilities. The first application converts files to MP3 format, and a second application is a disk management tool to format and manage the disk space.
The next step was to connect the Dark Shadow glasses to the computer via the USB cable. This not only allows you to move or copy MP3 or WMA files to the flash drive of the MP3 player, but it is also how you charge the battery. On the bottom of the right hand side of the glasses is a small rubber plug that covers the port where the USB cable connects to the glasses.
 
The manual claims it takes approximately two hours to fully charge the battery. When first plugged into the USB port the Battery Charge light will glow brightly, then toward the end of the charging cycle the light will dim indicating the charging mechanism has changed into the trickle mode to slowly top off the battery, and finally the light will turn off when the battery if fully charged.
I had one small glitch in this procedure. When first plugged in, the Battery Charge light did glow very brightly and when about an hour and forty five minutes into the charging the light did noticeably dim indicating it had shifted into the trickle charge mode. The glitch was the light never totally went out indicating the battery was fully charged. I left it plugged in and indicating it was in trickle charge mode for another two hours after it had initially gone into the trickle charge mode and it never went out. Whether the manual is offering misinformation or our test sample has a minor defect in the charging system is not clear at this point. Leaving it connected to the USB cable in the trickle charge mode for the extended period of time did not appear to do any harm or create any noticeable heat.
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