Apple deals new iPod shuffle
When Apple started blowing out iPod shuffle refurbs a week or so ago, no one blinked. The pundits were quiet and there was nary a squeak from the usually raucus rumor sites.
Nevertheless, Apple has announced the all-new iPod shuffle with VoiceOver, a feature enables iPod shuffle to speak your song titles, artists and playlist names.
“Imagine your music player talking to you, telling you your song titles, artists and playlist names,†said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s vice president, iPod and iPhone Product Marketing. “The amazingly small new iPod shuffle takes a revolutionary approach to how you listen to your music by talking to you, also making it the first iPod shuffle with playlists.â€
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iPod shuffle can speak 14 languages including English, Czech, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish.
The 3G iPod shuffle, which looks not a little like the 1G iPod shuffle (wikipedia), is significantly smaller than a AA battery, holds up to 1,000 songs and is easier to use with all of the controls conveniently located on the earphone cord. Further, users can play, pause, adjust volume, switch playlists and hear the name of the song and artist.
The 3G iPod shuffle comes in one size, 4GB iPod, in either silver or black for $79, and requires iTunes 8.1 or better to mount / manage.
Was it wise to move the iPod shuffle’s controls to the earphone cord? Also, what about VoiceOver—sounds neat, but it’s not hard to imagine getting frustrated with it…
What’s your take?
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March 11th, 2009
Very good announce, thanks for it
March 11th, 2009
I for one, hate the controls on the cord. I use my old shuffle in my vehicle. Plugging into my system just became a whole lot messier if I have cords hanging all over the place. The voice announce is a neat idea since there is no display on the shuffle.
March 11th, 2009
It just occurred to me this feature would also be very handy for vision impaired folks. I wonder if Apple will spread it to the rest of the iPod line?
March 26th, 2009
I wonder about the USB connectivity.
I read that the 3rd generation shuffle does not require the doc that the 2nd generation did. Is the USB cable a standard one or a special Apple only design? Can this double as a USB thumb drive?