Myvu Crystal 701 Video Goggles: Deceptively Appealing?

Let's be blunt, you'd have to be a brave person (or entirely lacking in self-awareness) to wear these out in public.  Yet after reviewing the Myvu Crystal 701 video glasses, Gear Diary's Dan Cohen seems surprisingly impressed.  Promising the effect of a 4:3 aspect display viewed from 2m at 640 x 480 VGA resolution, the 701 glasses hook up to standard AV connections or, in Dan's case, your iPod to stop you from squinting at the relatively tiny screen.

"I don't know what I was initially expecting, but at first I wasn't blown away. Turns out my eyes needed to adjust to viewing video on the Crystal. Once I relaxed my eyes a bit and just sat back to enjoy, it was pretty impressive. I handed them to my wife, whose immediate response was "These are Awesome!" (she isn't easily impressed by gadgetry.)" Dan Cohen, Gear Diary

Video quality, while not going to rival your HDTV, proves reasonable, and Myvu took the sensible option and used Ultimate Ears earphones rather than bundling some cheap 'buds.  Unfortunately you don't appear to be able to remove them for separate use.

Dan's been bitten by the Myvu bug – he even used the Crystal 701's while out riding his bike – and is thinking of picking up a pair of his own.  Personally, I'm not convinced that something I'd only feel comfortable enough using in the privacy of my own home is worth $299.95, but then maybe that's my fault for not being brave.