Apple’s New iPod Shuffle Mistake
Apple has just introduced a new iPod shuffle, with a capacity of 4 GB, a new smaller size, and a new feature (new to the shuffle) called Voice Over that can speak the names of your tracks and playlists. This is an interesting feature for a music player with no screen: before, navigating was either sequential or random; you couldn’t use playlists. While the size and feature set are interesting, there’s a major flaw in this new device. If you look at the image to the left, you’ll notice that there are no buttons to control the shuffle on the device, but rather on the earbud cord. This means that if you want to use this iPod shuffle, you have to use Apple’s earbuds. And if something happens to them, you can’t use the shuffle until you replace them with the same type of earbuds.
Now, for many people this is no big deal. But I’m in touch with lots of iPod users, and a large share of them use different earbuds or headphones. (As I mention in this article about headphones, I don’t use earbuds at all any more.) People use different earbuds or headphones for many reasons: Apple’s earbuds don’t stay in their ears well, especially when exercising; they want better sound; or they lost or damaged their original earbuds and replaced them with something else. Apple’s putting the controls on the earbuds certainly makes the shuffle itself easier to manufacture, but certainly not easier to use. The location of the controls may not be ideal for all uses.
While this new shuffle may be right for some, I’m sure that many users are going to complain about it. Perhaps Apple will sell a sort of “wired remote”, like they did with early iPods, that allows you to connect any headphones to its jack. That would make a lot more sense than limiting the use of this device to people who are happy with Apple earbuds.
Oh, one more thing: it doesn’t seem to play Audible’s new “enhanced” format, something that a lot of audiobook listeners would want to use.
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When I first read about this, I thought maybe Apple integrated Alex into the iPod, but it actually just uses the voice on your computer, so PC users will have to resign to using the crappy voice that comes with Windows.
As for the button, it’s kind of ridiculous. That button on the wire is quite small. It would hardly take up any more room on the iPod if they put it right on it.
Yes, the nano already does that (creates the menu and track texts using a voice on a computer).
Regarding the button, yea, it seems like an obsession to be buttonless more than anything logical. I can’t see paying more for an adapter with buttons to be able to use other headphones.