Apple Store Down, 4GB iPod Shuffle in the Wings?

[MacRumors]

http://www.macrumors.com/images/macrumorsthreadlogo.gif (http://www.macrumors.com/2009/03/11/apple-store-down-4gb-ipod-shuffle-in-the-wings/)

As many readers have noticed, Apple's online stores have gone down for updates. At this time of day, that typically means that Apple is adding new products to the store.

According to one source (http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=665701) who previously relayed accurate information about the Mac mini, Mac Pro and iMac launch, Apple is about to release a new 4GB iPod Shuffle in Black, Silver and possibly other colors. The current iPod Shuffle maxes out at 2GB of storage for $69 and comes in 5 different colors.

Apple's online store typically returns online around 8:30 AM eastern for major product updates.

Article Link: Apple Store Down, 4GB iPod Shuffle in the Wings? (http://www.macrumors.com/2009/03/11/apple-store-down-4gb-ipod-shuffle-in-the-wings/)

[sgibson]

It's the MacBook Touch!

[Morod]

More goodies in the works? Hmmm.....
Morod

[tufaw]

xMac? :rolleyes:

[talkingfuture]

Its Wednesday not Tuesday - maybe its the end of the world!!

[tiguk]

4GB is a lot of shuffle.

Too much?

[aljawad]

Just a beefed up Shuffle? :confused: How about a 64G iPod Touch or a 32G iPhone? Maybe even something on the Nano front?

[matc]

I guess a Shuffle Nano with Bluetooth, 3G, WiFi and Multitouch ;)

[Sambo110]

I saw it was down and was gonna post it. Wonder what it will be, doubt anything good.

[dmw007]

I saw it was down and was gonna post it. Wonder what it will be, doubt anything good.

Maybe lower prices for the Mac Pro... ;)

[Tragedies]

Mr X reckons it's just the shuffle, and with his past 100% posts I guess he may be right, but it seems to be down a long time just for a shuffle.

Even if his assumption/guess about a new dock cable is correct, seems a long time. All I see them doing is making the cable like the universal iPod and a small attachment for the shuffle. It's normal the way it is now.

[AAPLaday]

Wasnt it the end of feb last year when the 32Gb touch came out?

[iCantwait]

4gb wayyyyyyyyyy too much

hows bout 32gb iPhone and 64gb iPod touch???

you saw it here first:D

[SwiftLives]

But...but...but it's Wednesday!

Sounds like Apple's having a little bit of trouble with this whole time change thing.

[tiguk]

4gb wayyyyyyyyyy too much

hows bout 32gb iPhone and 64gb iPod touch???

you saw it here first:D

Hope not. It'd make a new model iPhone in June / July a lot less likely if they were to release a 32GB now.

[philbeeney]

I can't wait for the new ipod shuffle socks. :D

[aljawad]

But...but...but it's Wednesday!

Sounds like Apple's having a little bit of trouble with this whole time change thing.

Sometimes it happens; if I'm not mistaken the first 24" iMac was announced on a Wednesday :-/

[Tragedies]

Perhaps they're going back to a similar design as the first generation. Not really the same length, maybe shorter, but included USB? That would explain 4GB, as 4GB seems a bit much for a shuffle device.

[liketom]

how about switching the dam store back on Apple - some of us do not want a new shuffle , but want to click buy now on a refurb Mac !!

get on with it

:mad:

[gianpan]

quad core imac quad core imac :p

ok... maybe an i7 iMac??:p
no chance eh?




MAYBE A DOUBLE i7 iMac with SLI/crossfire!

*killing_self*

[aljawad]

Wasnt it the end of feb last year when the 32Gb touch came out?

It was around that time, along with the 16Gb iPhone.

[Kaptajn Haddock]

My guess is new LED 20" and perhaps 30" displays, or maybe only a matte LED 24" display for pro use. Its obvious that Apple thinks 20" is an inferior size when you look at the new iMac configurations, and maybe 30" is to big for LED yet.

I have always wondered why Apple have to close the store entirely for even small updates. What if someone's made a typo, do they have to close store completely again then?

[aljawad]

Its not gonna happen, but I dream of a new 30" LED-based display to compliment my new Mac Pro :p

[The Samurai]

Big Timmy ol Cook is in full swing with these new product launches lol.

[Zandalus]

Its not gonna happen, but I dream of a new 30" LED-based display to compliment my new Mac Pro :p

And me too!

[displaced]

Price drop on the UK Mac Mini?

*tee-hee!* :)

[tiguk]

Price drop on the UK Mac Mini?

*tee-hee!* :)

We can hope! If it is, I'll see ya in Bluewater!

[The Samurai]

Price drop on the UK Mac Mini?

*tee-hee!* :)

Ha ha, that would be awesome.

[aljawad]

And me too!

As long as we are dreaming, why stop with a measly 30" screen? ;) We need something larger, and why only one screen when we have those smoking graphic cards that beg for dual displays :D

[kevzy]

64GB ipod touch!!!!

[fastbite]

Price drops, new screens and new iphone. Why is my safari so much snappier?

[imm22]

What About some resolution for the iTunes Gift Cards that have been hacked??

[MH01]

how about switching the dam store back on Apple - some of us do not want a new shuffle , but want to click buy now on a refurb Mac !!

get on with it

:mad:

With you on that one, just want to check my order. I do not mind the store coming down for big updates but for a shuffle....aaaaarrgghhh

[diamond.g]

What About some resolution for the iTunes Gift Cards that have been hacked??

Interesting... Would that require taking the store down though?

[Hot Snowboarder]

I'd like to see new screens to go with the mac mini and mac pro.

4GB in a shuffle is a tad excessive.

Though, I would rather an updated shuffle to an uninteresting software update or just general store maintenance.

[Tallest Skil]

Interesting... Would that require taking the store down though?

I would assume that the iTunes Store and the Online Apple Store operate independently, seeing as no one has ever had any trouble buying from iTunes while the Apple Store was down at any point in the past... ever.

I'd like to see new screens to go with the mac mini and mac pro.

4GB in a shuffle is a tad excessive.

Though, I would rather an updated shuffle to an uninteresting software update or just general store maintenance.

30" LED Cinema Display is a possibility.

[lolcaz]

I just hope they don't make any changes to the 1GB Shuffle. I just bought one and expecting it to arrive any day now!
A 4GB Shuffle would be nice, but probably expensive. I chose 1GB over 2GB because I just want a cheap player that syncs with iTunes for those nights when I walk home at 3am and don't want to take my 120GB Classic...

[Airforcekid]

WOW 4GB that small just for music this is a must have!

[dual64bit]

Everyone loves those shuffles, 4Gb would be awesome!

[instaxgirl]

4GB in a shuffle is a tad excessive.



I use my 4GB ipod mini just in shuffle mode, depends if they make it easier to navigate outwith shuffle mode I guess.

[diamond.g]

I would assume that the iTunes Store and the Online Apple Store operate independently, seeing as no one has ever had any trouble buying from iTunes while the Apple Store was down at any point in the past... ever.



30" LED Cinema Display is a possibility.
True. I do find it interesting that Macrumors hasn't reported on the cracking of the scheme Apple uses to generate iTunes gift cards.

A 30" LED DP Cinema Display would be kinda cool.

[Hot Snowboarder]

A 30" LED DP Cinema Display would be kinda cool.

Who wants to take a stab at the price? Or if there will be speakers built in as well?

[fastbite]

True. I do find it interesting that Macrumors hasn't reported on the cracking of the scheme Apple uses to generate iTunes gift cards.

A 30" LED DP Cinema Display would be kinda cool.

And a cheeper 20" please.

[Tallest Skil]

Who wants to take a stab at the price? Or if there will be speakers built in as well?

I say identical specs to the 24", with the same price that the 30" has now.

And a cheeper 20" please.

Discontinued, not coming back.

[iOrlando]

my guess:

$99 price drops on all macbook lines except for base model (white) and lowest alum macbook

....or modest macbook upgrades with same price points...

[Max E Verde]

Discontinued, not coming back.

What proof do you have that a 20" is not coming back? I'm really hoping they add a 20" with same design and features of the 24", and the new 30", if they can't get LED due to price, at least get same design (though matte) and iSight and speakers.

[dombi]

They've just updated their entire computer hw product line (last week). New iPod shuffles sound good, but I think everyone else would like to see something more interesting... ;)

[iAtot]

u guys. have not thought of this.. may be its the SNOW LEOPARD.. hahahah who knows

[kornyboy]

Wirelessly posted (iPhone: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5H11 Safari/525.20)

We will see what they have added when it comes back up.

[queshy]

What if there are no new shuffles...what if it's just maintenance? What a lame moment this would all be.

[boer]

Please let it be Aperture 3 with new key features called General Usability and Snappiness. :cool:

[Kaptajn Haddock]

Please let it be Aperture 3 with new key features called General Usability and Snappiness. :cool:

I hope to see Aperture 3 soon as well, but don't think will just do a silent update on that. Maybe on the 24th this month?

I do not think its anything big today, but who knows.

[iAtot]

its the snow leopard u guys.. haha i really hope so

[Tallest Skil]

haha i really hope so

I just want to clarify something; you do know that it can't be, right?

[macmike47]

Please let it be Aperture 3 with new key features called General Usability and Snappiness. :cool:

hear hear :cool:

[RedTomato]

8.30 am Eastern is 12.30pm GMT.

Please Arn, can you include GMT with all time indications, then that'd help MR readers around the world work out times for their own time zones.

It isn't perfect, but it would help.

[Chupa Chupa]

Please let it be Aperture 3 with new key features called General Usability and Snappiness. :cool:

Also "Recommended Requirements: Early 2009 2.93GHz Octo Mac Pro or faster. For viewing personal pictures without an Apple Brand Watermark, an Apple 24" LED Cinema Display."

:D

[MacBass]

A 4 GB Shuffle would be ridiculous! Unless Apple added a screen, it would be insane to have a Shuffle to be able to carry 4 GB! It would be impractical to be used as a flash storage device because it has that silly dock that you would need to carry around.

Although, if the Shuffle adopted a SanDisk Clip-esque OLED display, that would be pretty awesome. I'm betting it's a spec bump for the iPod Touch and/or iPhone, like more storage or faster processor.

[Hot Snowboarder]

8.30 am Eastern is 12.30pm GMT.

Please Arn, can you include GMT with all time indications, then that'd help MR readers around the world work out times for their own time zones.

It isn't perfect, but it would help.

I have a widget clock set to 'apple time'. *embarrassedly avoids eye contact* :P

[Max E Verde]

Please let it be Aperture 3 with new key features called General Usability and Snappiness. :cool:

Aperture is Apple's easiest to use Pro Creative app, and I've used them all, and seems pretty snappy to me.

[talkingfuture]

Didn't they boost the capacity of the iPod touch around this time last year?

[Tallest Skil]

A 4 GB Shuffle would be ridiculous! Unless Apple added a screen, it would be insane to have a Shuffle to be able to carry 4 GB! It would be impractical to be used as a flash storage device because it has that silly dock that you would need to carry around.

Mr. X said it has a new style dock.

Maybe meaning that it uses the standard 30-pin iPod connector.

[Max E Verde]

Mr. X said it has a new style dock.

Maybe meaning that it uses the standard 30-pin iPod connector.

I hope so. My iPod shuffle is very sturdy, I've dropped it plenty of times and worn it in rain, and has been fine since I got it when the 2nd gen first came out.

The dock I have had replaced 3 times and I think I need another one, but am out of warrantee, it either needs a dock connector (preferred) or a straight connector like headphones

[lamerica80]

Its a Mac nano!

[Mac21ND]

It's the MacBook Touch!

I was thinking the MacBook Wheel...

[tiguk]

I was thinking the MacBook Wheel...

Yeah, I wish they'd hurry up and release that. :p

[CompactMacUser]

The old aluminium monitor mini site was active and showing all the discontinued models up till yesterday (well at least in the UK) they had not bothered to take it down - so probz some different size matt and glossy displays, perhaps with the option of a white bezel?

Maybe a black aluminum keyboard to match the imac and suchlike?

[westernmass]

regular number keyboard standard not option anymore. Maybe a price drop of the mini.

[Tallest Skil]

regular number keyboard standard not option anymore. Maybe a price drop of the mini.

First is possible, second is not.

[obiwan]

Maybe Apple realised that they got the price wrong on the Mac Mini - they meant to take £100 off the price instead of adding it on.

... wishful thinking :eek:

[drlunanerd]

Yawn.

How about skipping a useless memory upgrade for the shuffle and bump the base Mac mini to 2GB already? :rolleyes:

The current shuffle design took away function from the "chewing-gum' design, namely the oh-so-useful USB connector. Bring that back (using a micro-USB plug), increase the speed of the flash memory, and I'd buy one to use as a USB thumb drive.

[Shivetya]

Whatever it is, there will be people who are not happy. :P


Me, I will probably hold off until WWDC until I buy anything... one can always hold on to the stupid belief a real desktop is coming

[Hot Snowboarder]

Me, I will probably hold off until WWDC until I buy anything... one can always hold on to the stupid belief a real desktop is coming

I think the Mac Pro is fairly real... what do you mean?

[AlexisV]

Maybe they didn't sell any Macs last week and are putting the prices down to where they were!

[Mac21ND]

I was thinking the MacBook Wheel...

Yeah, I wish they'd hurry up and release that. :p

Only 45 minutes to type an email... :cool:

[obiwan]

Whatever it is, it will be too expensive and underspecced (guess)

[hockeyhammer]

Today will just be iPod & iPhone updates, the 24th will be snow leopard and software. June will be netbook, new iPhone, keybords, mighty mouse and displays.

[Tallest Skil]

I think the Mac Pro is fairly real... what do you mean?

He wants an xMac. We already have it.

Maybe they didn't sell any Macs last week and are putting the prices down to where they were!

Maybe they're dropping the price of the Mac Pro because I cancelled my order!

If this is the case, you're all welcome.

Today will just be iPod & iPhone updates, the 24th will be snow leopard and software. June will be netbook, new iPhone, keybords, mighty mouse and displays.

24th won't be Snow Leopard, and we don't need new keyboards at WWDC.

[dohardthings]

why couldn't apple just fix the sight to their likings on a copy and then the server would just be down long enough to reboot (or what ever it needs to do with the new sight) and then it would be just a couple of minutes or does apple do it on purpose to create some suspence web developers help me out here

[iOrlando]

its a new shuffle
CUPERTINO, Calif., March 11 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Apple(R) today introduced the all-new iPod(R) shuffle, the world's smallest music player at nearly half of the size of the previous model, and the first music player that talks to you. The revolutionary new VoiceOver feature enables iPod shuffle to speak your song titles, artists and playlist names. The third generation iPod shuffle 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. With the press of a button, you can play, pause, adjust volume, switch playlists and hear the name of the song and artist. iPod shuffle features a gorgeous new aluminum design with a built-in stainless steel clip that makes it ultra-wearable.

"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(TM) 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."


iPod shuffle is based on Apple's incredibly popular shuffle feature, which randomly selects songs from your music library. And now, when you can't remember the name of a song or an artist playing, with the press of a button iPod shuffle tells you the name of the song and artist. iPod shuffle can even tell you status information, such as battery life. With the ability to hold up to 1,000 songs and the VoiceOver feature, you can now easily switch between multiple playlists on your iPod shuffle. iPod shuffle can speak 14 languages including English, Czech, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish.


The new iPod shuffle comes in silver or black and features a sleek and ultra-wearable design with a built-in stainless steel clip. iPod shuffle is the smallest music player in the world and is incredibly easy to clip to almost anything and take with you everywhere you go. iPod shuffle features up to 10 hours of battery life.*

Pricing & Availability

The third generation 4GB iPod shuffle is now shipping and comes in silver or black for a suggested price of $79 (US) through the Apple Store(R) (www.apple.com), Apple's retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers. iPod shuffle comes with the Apple Earphones with Remote and the iPod shuffle USB cable. iPod shuffle requires a Mac(R) with a USB 2.0 port, Mac OS(R) X v10.4.11 or later and iTunes(R) 8.1 or later; or a Windows PC with a USB 2.0 port and Windows Vista, Windows XP Home or Professional (Service Pack 3) or later and iTunes 8.1.


*Battery life and number of charge cycles vary by use and settings. See www.apple.com/batteries for more information. Song capacity is based on four minutes per song and 128-Kbps AAC encoding; in 256-Kbps AAC format, song capacity is up to 500 songs; actual capacity varies by encoding method and bit rate.

Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Today, Apple continues to lead the industry in innovation with its award-winning computers, OS X operating system and iLife and professional applications. Apple is also spearheading the digital media revolution with its iPod portable music and video players and iTunes online store, and has entered the mobile phone market with its revolutionary iPhone.


(C) 2009 Apple Inc. All rights reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, Mac, Mac OS, Macintosh, iPod, iPhone, Apple Store and iTunes are trademarks of Apple. Other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.


SOURCE Apple

[SactoGuy18]

A 4 GB Shuffle would be ridiculous! Unless Apple added a screen, it would be insane to have a Shuffle to be able to carry 4 GB! It would be impractical to be used as a flash storage device because it has that silly dock that you would need to carry around.

Although, if the Shuffle adopted a SanDisk Clip-esque OLED display, that would be pretty awesome. I'm betting it's a spec bump for the iPod Touch and/or iPhone, like more storage or faster processor.

In my opinion, the biggest downside of the iPod shuffle is the lack of a small display--you can't tell what song is being played and how far time elapsed into a song.

Small wonder why the SanDisk SANSA Clip has sold very well--the cost is pretty reasonable, and since it has a display song navigation works reasonably well.

I love the iPod nano because you can go to anywhere on a song within 5 seconds accuracy using the Click Wheel. :)

[yoppie]

why couldn't apple just fix the sight to their likings on a copy and then the server would just be down long enough to reboot (or what ever it needs to do with the new sight) and then it would be just a couple of minutes or does apple do it on purpose to create some suspence web developers help me out here

This has so far become a four page discussion with more to go. How much more help do you need to determine that Apple does this on purpose?

[Tallest Skil]

[B][SIZE="4"]The third generation iPod shuffle 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.

SMALLER THAN A DOUBLE A?

What the crap, yo... :confused:

Tells you the NAME of the song?! Wow.

I'll bet it's Alex. :p

[RedTomato]

And so it is!

A 4GB shuffle! £49 / $79

http://store.apple.com/uk/browse/home/shop_ipod/family/ipod_shuffle

4GB shuffle specs

http://www.apple.com/ipodshuffle/specs.html

http://images.apple.com/ipodshuffle/images/features_hero_20090311.jpg

http://images.apple.com/ipodshuffle/images/specs_dimensions_20090311.jpg

[gasport]

They are updating the release date on the iMac 24 with the ATI 4850 to immediate and announcing 10.5.7 release. :eek:

Actually it is the iPod shuffle..... That guy is good....

[Mac21ND]

It's up:

http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_ipod/family/ipod_shuffle?mco=MTE2NTU

[Max E Verde]

Apple Store is up

http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_ipod/family/ipod_shuffle?mco=MTE2NTU

[cjro9]

It's up and so far I see an

Ipod Shuffle 4GB Black and Silver.

http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_ipod/family/ipod_shuffle?mco=MTE2NTU

[Henrik85]

EDIT: Never mind :P

[MrCrowbar]

Hmm, how many colors are there for those clip-on iPod shuffles? About twenty?

Are there any collectors who have one in each color, still sealed in the original box? It's fairly hard to get the colors from the last season, and then there's the special color editions (like pink, which you could only get at WalMart if I recall correctly).

I like how Apple is a bit of a fashion company for the consumer products. I loved the colorful original iMacs. The Unibody Macbooks would be awesome in the iPod Nano colors. Is it hard to add color to anodized aluminum? I want mine in the green iPod nano finish.

[talkingfuture]

Thats a very nice design.

[iOrlando]

wow the design is pretty different....all song functions on the headphone...interesting...

think ill wait for some refurbished ones to hit the market in a few months...i just use it for running...so as long as it plays music...i'm good....all-in-all..looks really nice...think it will be a good seller...

[rye9]

They're on the store, but on the iPod/iTunes page it still shows the old generation.

edit: never mind, the page shows both

[Suasexed]

My God, it's ugly. Tiny mind. £59 is kind of expensive considering the 'old' Nano had a £31 entry price. They should have done a 2GB version aswell.

[gazfocus]

Wow the new shuffle is gorgeous!!!!

[davester]

And here I was hoping for a wired numeric keypad... ;)

[MrFrankly]

In my opinion, the biggest downside of the iPod shuffle is the lack of a small display--you can't tell what song is being played and how far time elapsed into a song.


*puts on a salesman smile*
With the new shuffle you can *pointing fingers gesture*, because it speaks to you!

[Mac21ND]

wow the design is pretty different....all song functions on the headphone...interesting...

There's a new "voice over" function that tells you the name of the song, playlist, etc;. (Insert joke about whose voice it is here)

[TheGraphicMac]

why couldn't apple just fix the sight to their likings on a copy and then the server would just be down long enough to reboot (or what ever it needs to do with the new sight) ...

I was unaware Apple did laser eye-surgery on cloned people. Thanks for the update, Captain obvious. :rolleyes:

[Ubuntu]

Hmm, so in my opinion, Apple is definitely going too far with the Style-Over-Functionality shindig, this is just insane. What happens if you break the earbuds? Or want to use your own pair? Of course you can get the apple ones replaced, but its still a hassle.

[Sebby]

I'm not sure about it. What if you don't want to use the Apple headphones?!

[Warbrain]

OK, they're pretty damn ugly...what the hell...

[Warbrain]

I'm not sure about it. What if you don't want to use the Apple headphones?!

Holy **** you're right...

[Chupa Chupa]

Yawn.

How about skipping a useless memory upgrade for the shuffle and bump the base Mac mini to 2GB already? :rolleyes:

The current shuffle design took away function from the "chewing-gum' design, namely the oh-so-useful USB connector. Bring that back (using a micro-USB plug), increase the speed of the flash memory, and I'd buy one to use as a USB thumb drive.

To people who like the shuffle why is 4GB useless, especially if Apple is going to sell it at the same price at the previous 2GB?

BTW I put 4GB of RAM in my mini. It took me 15 min and cost $50 (net would be less if I sold the original DIMMS but I'm holding on to them in case there is a warranty issue.). Point being it's not that hard for users to bump the RAM in a mini themselves. It's impossible to self-upgrade a Shuffle.

[pbkiller]

Finally! iPod shuffle is out! $79 4GB... In silver or black... looks niceee!


http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_ipod/family/ipod_shuffle?mco=MTE2NTU

[Mac21ND]

Kind of looks like it should say "Wrigleys" or "Double Mint" across it...

Looks ok... don't know what to think about the design yet.

[Motley]

Don't know. New shuffle kinda weird looking to me.

[Spanky Deluxe]

Woah that's small! Was VoiceOver a feature on the previous Shuffle? That sounds kinda cool.

[Vip]

It says it requires iTunes 8.1

Now i am using 8.0.2

So where is 8.1

??????????

[Tallest Skil]

Aaand once again, the page is broken. :p

You'd think they'd be able to fix this by now, since it happens at EVERY product release.

It says it requires iTunes 8.1

Now i am using 8.0.2

So where is 8.1

??????????

Where do you think?

[instaxgirl]

They don't look anywhere near as nice as the last gen and the voice over feature seems kind of flawed. I wouldn't want someone talking over my music :confused:

[DualShock]

what the?

no controls on the device???

everyone knows the sound quality of apple's headphones sucks. now people will be forced to use them to control the iPod??? :eek:

[Sonicjay]

Damn, I'm really glad I bought the previous model about two weeks ago; it's awesome for the gym. Moving the controls to the headphone cable was a bad move, IMO; now you can't use any headphones with it. The standard earphones fall out in about two seconds on a treadmill or whatever, so I bougth some cheap in-ears and they work very well. Having controls on the cable is nice, but not as the only way to control it..

[Tallest Skil]

what the?

no controls on the device???

everyone knows the sound quality of apple's headphones sucks. now people will be forced to use them to control the iPod??? :eek:

This is Apple. Where have you been? :confused:

[Ubuntu]

Kind of looks like it should say "Wrigleys" or "Double Mint" across it...



LOL.

It looks like the rejected child of a packet of Wrigley's gum, the ugly duckling, of sorts.

[iAtot]

I just want to clarify something; you do know that it can't be, right?

yup i know. but there are still possibilities.. lol

[jclardy]

Hmm cool idea but what if you want to plug it in to a cars AUX input? Are they going to sell a cable for that? Not that I really care because I have an iPod Classic but just wondering.

[iStudentUK]

It's impressively small! Has controls on the headphones... that's quite nice, but controls on the iPod too would be good. But even with it chattering away at you and playlists surely 1000 songs are too many to manage without a screen?

Nice of apple to keep the 'old' ones available too, as I think £59 is a little overpriced.

[pbkiller]

I think the voice over thing is going to work out, if its just like the girl who talks with the Nike+... its really cool and convenient. And besides if your using the shuffle feature, i dont think your going to care who's playing...:o

[iOrlando]

battery life cut by 17%.....thats interesting...10 hours is still good..i guess...

[Jeremy81]

It says it requires iTunes 8.1

Now i am using 8.0.2

So where is 8.1

??????????

The iTunes download page on Apple.com says 8.1 coming soon.

[iAtot]

SMALLER THAN A DOUBLE A?

What the crap, yo... :confused:

Tells you the NAME of the song?! Wow.

I'll bet it's Alex. :p

hahaha no man. it'll be zarvox

[Tallest Skil]

I find the "whatever happens, happens" under the Shuffle feature description to be humorous. :p

hahaha no man. it'll be zarvox

I'd rather have Bad News or Princess. :D

Oh, and this foreign language speaking thing...

I can see new languages being added eventually, but say I have a song with the title in Cyrillic... will it be able to read it back to me?

[lolcaz]

It doesn't even look like it's an iPod! It's quite nice, apart from the fact that there are no controls on it! I've never used the iPod earphones because I prefer to use my own so being forced to use them would suck. But maybe 3rd party companies will start making their own remote headphones.
I'm glad that I bought a 1GB red second gen for £31. Sure, these ones have 4 times capacity for twice the price but the red one looks nicer and is cheaper! That's the reason I bought it. I wouldn't want to get mugged for a £59 item.

[Kar98]

It says it requires iTunes 8.1

Now i am using 8.0.2

So where is 8.1

??????????

http://i42.tinypic.com/12.jpg

Controls on the headphone cord = you have to use the Apple headphones that sound like crap, don't fit the anybody's ear and freaking hurt.

[chedda]

As the controls are on the headphone cable that means you are restricted to apples own headphones ? Also i am not sure how to change playlists this is a welcome addition. I am also guessing the dock has been dropped ?

[iOrlando]

It doesn't even look like it's an iPod! It's quite nice, apart from the fact that there are no controls on it! I've never used the iPod earphones because I prefer to use my own so being forced to use them would suck. But maybe 3rd party companies will start making their own remote headphones.
I'm glad that I bought a 1GB red second gen for £31. Sure, these ones have 4 times capacity for twice the price but the red one looks nicer and is cheaper! That's the reason I bought it. I wouldn't want to get mugged for a £59 item.

thats why i think ipod shuffle refurbs are the best deals out there. Its just a little tiny thing..so what if it is used...and doesnt apple replace the outer shell anyways on refurbished products? got my shuffle for 40 bucks. use it for running...so if it falls, gets wet, etc...it was just 40 bucks..

[dXTC]

(in signature)
I'm glad that I cancelled my Mac Pro. Now I can get a new iPod Shuffle and only use Apple's headphones!

Brilliant and timely sig change! LOL-worthy. :D

[Zaci]

Multiple playlists, that's nice, but the controls on the earbud cord? I don't think that's a good idea, I like the design though. Once again a small display is missing; it's not like it really need it but would be better if it had it.

[obiwan]

I love the way voiceover sounds like cr** if you sync with a PC - nice!

[lolcaz]

I wonder how the VoiceOver feature works. Will it only be for tracks purchased from iTunes? Will it recognise tracks that iTunes sells but that you got from other sources? I guess it wouldn't have it for any tracks that aren't in the iTunes database.

[obiwan]

I wonder how the VoiceOver feature works. Will it only be for tracks purchased from iTunes? Will it recognise tracks that iTunes sells but that you got from other sources? I guess it wouldn't have it for any tracks that aren't in the iTunes database.

Surely it must take up a good chunk of that 4GB for the added audio files

[junker]

With this "control on the ipod earbuds" issue... maybe an eventual workaround could be Apple providing an option to opt for a separate cord with controls and a female connector to connect 3rd party "from the neck up " ear bud/headphones. This would allow for control but "upgrade" options as well.

I don't really think this to be very likely, but it's a thought.

[wizard]

8.30 am Eastern is 12.30pm GMT.

Please Arn, can you include GMT with all time indications, then that'd help MR readers around the world work out times for their own time zones.

It isn't perfect, but it would help.

Just a thought but time zones are there for a reason. The world doesn't revolve around Greenwhich or however it is spelled.

Dave

[lolcaz]

Surely it must take up a good chunk of that 4GB for the added audio files

Good point. How would it store them anyway? I'm guessing it'd be somewhere in the ID3 tags or something.

[Tallest Skil]

Surely it must take up a good chunk of that 4GB for the added audio files

Added audio files... :confused:

It reads from the TEXT attached to the filenames. The software to do so takes up room, but there aren't any new files created.

Just a thought but time zones are there for a reason. The world doesn't revolve around Greenwhich or however it is spelled.

Dave

It, uh, kind of does, since all other time zones are based off of GMT... :p ;)

[Kar98]

With this "control on the ipod earbuds" issue... maybe an eventual workaround could be Apple providing an option to opt for a separate cord with controls and a female connector to connect 3rd party "from the neck up " ear bud/headphones. This would allow for control but "upgrade" options as well.

I don't really think this to be very likely, but it's a thought.

Not likely, but I can imagine $129 Bose replacements at the Apple store.

[cswiger1]

phew, good thing i sold my shuffle before these came out. It woulda been worthless ha. Then again, i didn't make much anyways, but who cares. i got it free.

I actually like the new design though. But while I do think having controls in the headphones as a standard item is a good Option, I can see why some people wouldn't like it.

[Virtualball]

It'll take some getting used to but I like it. There's only one HUGE problem... I dont think it can go back on a song.... this is SO important on a shuffle.

[lolcaz]

If it stored them in the ID3 tags, it'd also take up space on your hard drive and any other iPods that sync to the same library.

[irbdavid]

Never occurred to me before, but how is it that Apple isn't able to add products, alter the store front page etc without shutting it down? After all, they manage to cobble together OS X...

[dXTC]

Surely it must take up a good chunk of that 4GB for the added audio files

Not really. You may be surprised at how little code/data is used for text-to-speech synthesis; virtually no "audio files" are used.

Still, this may present a problem when you're listening to your favorite oddly-named band. How would the new shuffle say "Apoptygma Berzerk"? :rolleyes:

[Jeremy81]

I love the way voiceover sounds like cr** if you sync with a PC - nice!

It's a guys voice for Mac and a girls voice for PC. I wonder if they are trying to say something about PC's there.

[lolcaz]

There aren't any pictures of the bottom of the player which, I assume, is where the USB connector is. I wonder what kind of connector it has.

[lamerica80]

So not right for what i use it for. I usually have it in my pocket and the wire under my shirt (running/working out). I use my own in ears so they dont fall out. I like beeing able to reach the shuffle quickly if I have to lower the volume on a loud song fast (happens a lot), imagine reaching for the remote under the sweaty shirt and in panic yank the phones out of your ears.

Voice over is totally useless. Like i would have to remind myself that im listening to enter sandman by metallica when im on my second lap, unlikely.

[alexwaddell]

Good point. How would it store them anyway? I'm guessing it'd be somewhere in the ID3 tags or something.

My guess is that they're using text to speech processing to achieve the voiceover functionality as in OS X.

The next logical step would be for Apple to put Voiceover into iPhone OS 2.3 or 3.0 - makes sense and something Apple have a habit of doing (testing out technology in one device then rolling out to others - MacBook Air aluminium one-piece is a great example of this)

Alex.

[Tallest Skil]

Never occurred to me before, but how is it that Apple isn't able to add products, alter the store front page etc without shutting it down? After all, they manage to cobble together OS X...

It's on purpose.

[alexwaddell]

There aren't any pictures of the bottom of the player which, I assume, is where the USB connector is. I wonder what kind of connector it has.

The USB cable connects via the earphone port as per the previous Shuffle - now just a cable instead of a dock & cable (aka lower cost)

[lolcaz]

The USB cable connects via the earphone port as per the previous Shuffle - now just a cable instead of a dock & cable (aka lower cost)

Oh, okay. Never had a Shuffle before so didn't know how the previous ones connected.

[obiwan]

Added audio files... :confused:

It must add some audio surely from the operating system. - Why does voiceover sound different when synced with different operating systems, if the onboard software is doing all the work? - Surely there would be no reason for it to sound different.

[lolcaz]

I guess, then, that these new USB cables will work with the old Shuffles too?

[Sonicjay]

I guess, then, that these new USB cables will work with the old Shuffles too?

I hope so; I've been looking for just such a cable for my existing Shuffle, since you can't keep that fragile dock/pin thing in your laptop bag.

[dXTC]

It must add some audio surely from the operating system. - Why does voiceover sound different when synced with different operating systems, if the onboard software is doing all the work? - Surely there would be no reason for it to sound different.

No, there are no set audio waveforms. Speech synthesis software emulates the natural resonance of the human mouth; it's (more or less) a set of formant filters operating on a simple carrier wave for the vowels, and a little more complex filtering algorithm for the consonants. These are run through an inflection process that raises or lowers the pitch of words as they are "spoken", so that it sounds more like a human reading a sentence.

The differences in the resulting speech from different operating systems depends on both the shape and starting pitch of the carrier wave used as well as the tonal quality of the filters.

[alexwaddell]

I hope so; I've been looking for just such a cable for my existing Shuffle, since you can't keep that fragile dock/pin thing in your laptop bag.

According to the Apple Store it's only compatible with 3rd gen Shuffles:

http://store.apple.com/uk/product/MC003?mco=NDI3MzM3NQ

:(

[wbeasley]

Yes, once again we get screwed over Down Under... :(

The wireless keyboard lists at US$79 as does the new Shuffle.

Aussie prices? $109 for the keyboard, $129 for the Shuffle.

What the???

Guess we can live in hope this is either a mistake (rather than greed) or our dollar starts to climb out of the toilet again sometime soon. :(

[wizard]

Before we get into the new Shuffle I have to say the girl giving the tour is a real babe. Makes me wish for the younger years.

About this Shuffle I have to say I'm impressed and I believe Apple will sell a bunch of them. The unit has been improved in multiple ways and has enough storage to make it of interest to even current Shuffle owners.

There are a couple of surprises though that I find bothersome. The price increase isn't all that swift especially for a device that is likely to be cheaper for Apple to produce. The other thing that struck me as odd is the devices operating and storage temperature range, the unit tops out at 95degrees F. Frankly that is a bit of a limit on usability. Storage isn't much higher than that, guess you won't be able to leave it in the car. Frankly I've not taken notice on the environmentals on other iPods but I can't believe they are all this limited in temperature range. Hopefully this will be improved in a revision to hardware.

In any event I do like the feature set. The multiple play lists ought to work out really nice. They did a nice job with the controls and voice over. Plus this means a new version of iTunes which is always nice.

With reservations, nice Job Apple



Dave

[wizard]

Never occurred to me before, but how is it that Apple isn't able to add products, alter the store front page etc without shutting it down? After all, they manage to cobble together OS X...

Interesting thought and the first thing that come to mind is a marketing ploy. Having the store down creates excitment, speculation and discussion. Apple may be using the store shutdowns as a way to replace Mac World.

That is one perspective, my technical guess is that the store runs on multiple servers in different locations and they need to sync things up before restarting the store. They could also be doing something like flip between a development and production server. If it was me I'd would want a hot backup until I knew the store was 100%.

The more I think about it the more I wonder. Niether explanation above really does it fir me.



Dave

[Grolubao]

I really can't understand how people don't get that this is target to low-budget people, so no need for good headphones. If you are serious about music you would never buy a shuffle. Get an ipod with good headphones, that's what I do

[drlunanerd]

If you are serious about music you would never buy a shuffle.

Yes you would. The shuffles have traditionally given the best audio quality in listening tests.

High-end hi-fi traditionally does away with features to improve the sound quality.

[twoodcc]

wow. i guess Wednesday is the new Tuesday?