Apple Releases Smaller 4GB iPod Shuffle with 'VoiceOver'

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

Apple released two new iPod Shuffles with an even smaller design today. The updates were predicted at the very last minute this morning.

The new 4GB devices are priced at $79 and can hold up to 1000 songs. These new iPod Shuffles adopt a more vertical shape than the previous model, but are smaller overall. The previous generation iPod shuffles remain available for purchase.

Apple also added a new "VoiceOver" feature that allows the iPod shuffle to speak your sing titles, arists and playlist names. All of the controls are located on the earphone cord.

"Imagine your music player talking to you, telling you your song titles, artists and playlist names," said Greg Joswiak, Apple's vice president of 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."

More details are available on Apple's iPod Shuffle section of their website.

Source: Mac Rumors

[King Antonius]

All the controls are on the headphones you say....?

Way to go apple. I can't use my headphones now, gotta use your crappy things.

[crazzyyfool]

All the controls are on the headphones you say....?

Way to go apple. I can't use my headphones now, gotta use your crappy things.

It won't be long before third parties release compatible headphones.

[GameOverRob]

and if you lose or break the headphones? How much are they to replace?

[crazzyyfool]

Have they removed the Dock connector?

[EDIT] Looks like they have. No more Dockness.

[Guest]

I like the sound of the VoiceOver feature.

[MrFuji]

I like the design and navigating on a shuffle finally seems to be more usable. Don't like the headphone controls though, but I always use the iPod earphones anyway.

[SojIrOu]

i don't like the design as compared to the old ones. the colours look bland and uninteresting and the shape is like a stick of gum or something. however, the features do look interesting and its good they removed the dock so you can sync it with a case on.

oh and one more thing. how does it read out japanese/chinese/foreign artists. does it have the capacity to store all the languages for voiceover in there?

Edited March 11, 2009 by SojIrOu

[_neutrino Veteran]

the voice Over features is rather cool i still have my original First Gen Ipod Shuffle too bad my ipod Touch does not have voiceover i wonder if they are going to add it lol :o

[King Antonius]

It won't be long before third parties release compatible headphones.

I don't want to be buying another pair. I already have a ?90 set... lol

I wont be buying this, i'll stick with my iPhone. But i can only see this selling to new customers, and not existing ones.

[NY1]

Apple must be running out of ideas..

[MrA]

Have they removed the Dock connector?

[EDIT] Looks like they have. No more Dockness.

The shuffle never had the dock connector. The first gen has a USB connector, but the second gen used the headphone port, same as this version.

[Si Veteran]

iTunes 8.1 eh?

[SojIrOu]

I don't want to be buying another pair. I already have a ?90 set... lol

I wont be buying this, i'll stick with my iPhone. But i can only see this selling to new customers, and not existing ones.

lol. same here. my earphones costs more than 3 shuffles. does apple expect me to use theirs instead? i guess people with good earphones probably can afford a better ipod anyway.

[Guest]

lol. same here. my earphones costs more than 3 shuffles. does apple expect me to use theirs instead? i guess people with good earphones probably can afford a better ipod anyway.

Exactly. I doubt audiophiles are the market Apple is trying to cater for with the Shuffle.

[SojIrOu]

yeah. the previous shuffle has a horrible hiss that is masked out by the stock earphones. but i wonder what about those who wants to use a different set. their choices are incredibly limited to just 1 for now and i doubt many decent earphone makers would make a compatible one just for the shuffle which costs less than their earphones anyway.

[chaos_disorder]

lol. same here. my earphones costs more than 3 shuffles. does apple expect me to use theirs instead? i guess people with good earphones probably can afford a better ipod anyway.

Precisely. If you're willing to pay for stellar headphones, you're probably not going to waste money on a Shuffle.

[the evn show]

I've used the "three button remote" style apple headphones and find them to be a complete pain in the ass.

They have a tendency to "drop" clicks and turn a "rewind" tripple click into a "fast forward" double click. You can try again -6 clicks- and hope for better but you are just as likely to end up two more tracks ahead and paused.

Most of the time I end up just pulling the phone out of my pocket to figure out what the hell has gone wrong.

You get simmilar problems with fast forward turning into play / pause.

[techbeck]

Sandisk makes a MP3 player called the FUZE. It is a 2-8gb MP3 player with an SD card expansion slot for about $70. So you can expand the memory with a 32gb card and have a 32+gb mp3 player for $70. It also has a screen and plays great. Got one of my young nieces this at xmas since she is young and I didnt want to get her something overly expensive since she will break it. This also got great reviews...oh, it plays Video as well.

So yea, $80 for the new shuffle...or $70 and you get lots more...u decide. Would be different if the shuffle was cheaper than it is...but it isnt.

[Scirwode]

That has got to be one of the most pointless upgrades in Apple's history :blink: . I'm sorry, but no controls except on the headset? They could at least have made it two piece, similar to the PSP headset so you have an option to use your own if you have it. But with this you'll stuck with the Apple branded ones, which is exactly what they like to do. I do like the idea that the Shuffle represents, it doesn't need a screen as the memory was small, but I think this is taking it a bit too far.

Frankly, I'll be surprised if anyone buys this, what with better offerings from other competitions.

Scirwode

[Stetson]

This style of headphone has been out since the iPod Touch v2 release, they aren't some new shuffle-only proprietary standard like most people seem to be saying. I'm sure that, just like with it iPhone, adapters will be made (or are already made) that give you the control clicker while letting you plug in your own headphones, or are complete headphone sets designed with the control clicker inline. The controls are supported by at least the iPod touch and iPod nano released last year already.

[BajiRav]

My comment from the FPN

Looks like it doesn't really "talk". More like the PC or Mac talks every song and it records&plays it back on the shuffle. Huh.

[techbeck]

That has got to be one of the most pointless upgrades in Apple's history :blink: . I'm sorry, but no controls except on the headset? They could at least have made it two piece, similar to the PSP headset so you have an option to use your own if you have it. But with this you'll stuck with the Apple branded ones, which is exactly what they like to do. I do like the idea that the Shuffle represents, it doesn't need a screen as the memory was small, but I think this is taking it a bit too far.

Frankly, I'll be surprised if anyone buys this, what with better offerings from other competitions.

Scirwode

The 2nd Gen shuffles were much better and had controls on the player itself. Seems that Apple moved the controls to the headphones so they could ad a clip to the player.

[Stetson]

The 2nd Gen shuffles were much better and had controls on the player itself. Seems that Apple moved the controls to the headphones so they could ad a clip to the player.

I think that the previous gen had a clip as well. It makes sense when you consider that that vast majority of people this is targeted at will use either the standard or in-ear Apple headphones. I think it would have been nice to have the same style controls from the headphones on the unit itself, but that would have also been a bit redundant since all of Apple's new headphones come with the controller on board.

[+jamesyfx Subscriber²]

I think the idea of this shuffle is to be as small and as durable as possible.

Since it's a small little device which is meant to be attached to some clothing which could be flailing all over the place.

I bet you could drop this new thing from a tall building, and it'd just bounce off the floor and be okay! You'll probably find a dent or two, but hey!