So yeah, a couple of hours ago, the Apple store went offline. Which obviously meant that something was up, usually a new product (or more) being added to the store. Lo and behold, Apple went and introduced a new iPod Shuffle. Cue outpouring of oohs and ahhs. Which is to be expected since, hey, you’ve got to admit it looks pretty damn good.
While the older Shuffle features a literal rainbow of colors, the new one only comes in silver and black. It’s been elongated a little, and the clip at the rear has been retained. You get 4GB of storage on it too. The best part about the iPod Shuffle is it’s totally minuscule size – it’s literally smaller than your thumb. What’s more, Apple’s introducing a new feature called VoiceOver, which is basically the Shuffle telling you the song title, as well as who’s the artist singing said song. Better yet, VoiceOver supports multiple languages, with the current count at 14. If you have a song with a Spanish title, the Shuffle will pronounce the title and artist name in, doh, Spanish.
So what’s the problem?
Take a closer look at the pic above. Notice that the primary playback controls are located along the bundled earbuds’ cable. This is significant because despite the hold and shuffle controls that are located on the Shuffle’s body, unless you use Apple’s bundled earbuds, you have literally no control over volume or playback. This also happens to give Apple an excuse to sell more third-party accessories with built-in controls, leaving users who already have perfectly serviceable third-party earbuds out in the cold.
Then again, for the asking price of US$79 in the US of A (S$128 here in Singapore, and RM309 over in Malaysia), its doubtful that anyone who buys iPod Shuffles would actually bother spending probably the equivalent amount of money on a half-decent pair of in-ear buds.
What’s also interesting is that the idea of shoving the remote control onto the earbud cables isn’t all that new; just about every Sony Walkman sold today has that feature as standard.
Not quite the smartest thing to do in times like these, but hey, Apple’s pretty much made a habit of taking the path less chosen.
5 comments ↓
And we all know Apple’s bundled earbuds are nothing to shout about. Bleah~
well, there will be a group of Apple fans crazy about this iPod
Triple Click for previous track. Wow, that’s going to be a pain if you want to go back a few tracks. Actually, it’s probably already a pain if you want to go back just one track.
Even better if you try to triple-click, but somehow end up double+single clicking. I can already imagine the frustration that’ll ensue.
[...] Audio playback quality on the new shuffle is quite good. I also own an iPod touch 32GB, as well as an iPod classic 120GB; so far, with a pair of Audio Technica earbuds, I can’t really hear any difference between the three. Of course, using a third-party set of earbuds at this point also means that you lose a great deal of control over playback. Apple says they should have an adapter cable out soon, but having to shell out more cash on an add-on that lets you use your preferred set of earbuds just doesn’t seem right. [...]
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