iPod Shuffle Turns Weird

[DaMadFiddler]

http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/s ... co=MTE2NTU

Small gets smaller.

The new iPod shuffle is amazingly small and even easier to use. The controls are now conveniently located on the earbud cord. It’s so easy, you can use it with your eyes closed.

VoiceOver. It speaks for itself.

With the press of a button, VoiceOver tells you what song is playing and who's performing it. It tells you the names of your playlists, too.

1000 songs. Multiple playlists.

With 4GB of storage, iPod shuffle can now hold up to 1,000 songs.3 So your music library can go with you. And you can now sync multiple playlists for the perfect mix for any mood.

The troubling bit: the controls are now entirely on the headphones. Is it just me, or does this sound like a monumentally bad idea?

[Specially Cork]

The voiceover is a take-it/leave-it thing based on whether you miss the screen or not I guess. But the controls in the headphones thing seems weird. Have they really just designed an MP3 player that only works with their headphones?

[DaMadFiddler]

The voiceover is a take-it/leave-it thing based on whether you miss the screen or not I guess. But the controls in the headphones thing seems weird. Have they really just designed an MP3 player that only works with their headphones?

I expect there will be a trickle of third-party headphones and control dongles coming...but yeah, not so good. Especially since Apple's headphones are nothing special... and for people like me, who don't find earbuds comfortable in the first place, this is a definite turn-off. Then again, I'm not exactly the target audience for the Shuffle anyway. I like features, and I like having my full library on a device. The Shuffle has neither.

[az_bont]

The controls are now conveniently located on the earbud cord.

I would have thought it more convinient that they remained on the iPod itself, as that's the part that will be clipped to your clothes or in a jacket pocket (where most people keep their hands when they're out and about), and not flapping in the breeze as the headphone cord would. Especially if you're now forced to use Apple's own earphones, which are of the style that seem to dislodge from the ear when you so much as breath on the wire, let alone tugging on them inadvertently every time you try to change a track.

[impetus]

Apple's crapplest gets crappler.

[melancholy]

Wait, isn't that Shuffle design bigger than the current one?

I always thought the Shuffle line was an experiment to see how crappy Apple can make an MP3 player before people stop buying it. The current Shuffle must have been doing too well, so they decided to deteriorate the player even more.

[Specially Cork]

I never really kept up with the Shuffle. Does it still only have the options of going through each track in alphabetical order or playing them randomly?

[Jaded JAaron77]

wow. what a terrible idea. I usually run my headphones under my shirt so they don't get caught while I'm working. It looks like those controls would be just below the collar of my shirt... most convenient for me is right where they are. I keep my nano clipped on my pocket where I can control it without looking.

With the press of a button, VoiceOver tells you—without interrupting your music.

..but if you listen to the example clips they have, it fades out the music, says the name, then fades in

I swear apple's "great ideas" are getting worse and worse

[Roofus]

wow. what a terrible idea. I usually run my headphones under my shirt so they don't get caught while I'm working. It looks like those controls would be just below the collar of my shirt... most convenient for me is right where they are. I keep my nano clipped on my pocket where I can control it without looking.

With the press of a button, VoiceOver tells you—without interrupting your music.

..but if you listen to the example clips they have, it fades out the music, says the name, then fades in

I swear apple's "great ideas" are getting worse and worse

If you don't like it, it's because you're wrong, not Steve.

[Quzar]

Sounds exactly like that feature that RockBox has had forever, for blind-controlling the player have menus be spoken.

[Luriden]

I always thought the Shuffle was a horrible idea from the very beginning, but their ideas to "improve" it keep on getting worse and worse.