Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Apple Releases Smaller 4GB iPod Shuffle in Black and Silver

Mostly Positive

I actually like most of the things about this iPod that I know about it.

I think going to the audio method of seeing playlists and songs is a good idea, although I will have to see how well it works in "real world" songs. I sometimes forget the name of which song is playing, and would welcome this info without pulling the ipod out of it's case while I am working out.

My iPhone is the first time I've ever had a single button and mic on any ipod that I have owned. Again, I really like that I can just press the button on my 3rd party headphones and control the iphone to some extent (skip songs, pause.) Working volume controls would be perfect for the iPhone, and I'm glad they included them on this new iPod.

Here is what I hate: I can't stand the design of the ipod headphones. Simply, they hurt my ears after about 15 minutes, if I leave them in for about an hour, they actually irritate my ears enough that I can't wear them for a couple days. I do fine with in the canal type earphones, so I use a pair of Griffin tunebuds (they have a button and mic for the iphone.)

If apple was going to include a package replacing the normal earbuds with the apple in-ear earbuds with remote (lets say increase the price by 40 for the more expensive earbuds) i would buy them tomorrow.

Since they don't offer this option, I am going to wait until I can find a better price on headphones with volume control the third party suppliers will certainly produce now, then I will probably pick one up.
 
Form seems to have taken over from function at Cupertino! I'm got to admit it's a bold move, but I think it's a mistaken one. The usability of the product has been seriously hampered.

Forcing consumers to only be able to use one brand of headphones (yours) with your product..... :rolleyes:
 
WOW :) I like it.

My thoughts:

-I want these headphones on my iPhone 3G with the volume. The iPhone 3G is not compatible with the volume controls yet :(
-Kinda sucks to be a Windows user with the crappier voice (which is most iPod users).
-Can't use any other headphones, but fortunately I prefer the Apple iPod headphones with attached Griffin EarJams :) I'm sure third parties will make other options soon for those that don't like Apple headphones.
-You can't plug the shuffle into speakers now because there would be no way to control it. Maybe third parties can remedy that with a splitter or something too.

Pretty amazing though. I really wanna see this thing taken apart and look at how in the world they engineered this thing to be so small!

I LOVE surprise announcements like this today :D (Except when I just bought one haha, luckily I didn't but I got screwed on the surprise MacBook Pro CPU spec bump, I bought mine 3 weeks before :( ).
 
yojitani said:
If you watch the little video on the apple front page, when the woman gets to demonstrating the sound of the mac and pc voices, the PC voice is much cleaner and clearer to my ears. Maybe you can change the voices on the ipod as you can in the system prefs... but still computer talking sounds like rubbish no matter what os you're using.
Click to expand...

It's not like they were going to create a promo video with a bad feature demo. They picked a song that sounded good, but Alex on OS X is a far better sounding computer voice - which is still far from reality.
 
The 'one button does it all' remote is the really distressing part.

Apple needs to release the 3rd party headphone adapter with the click wheel on it.
 
It guess it's a case of "Plus ca Change" with people's responses - here's a selection of quotes from these very forums from when the original iPod was launched...

400 bucks for a MP3 player on steroid? That's a real breaktrought, but in appl... ied stupidity!
Click to expand...

I can't say that I'm that impressed... It's not that innovative, really, just a combination of a bunch of existing technologies (little hard drives, firewire, etc) into a product.
Click to expand...

How can he sell something like that specially when the US is going to a drepression?
Click to expand...

I can see it go down the drain like the cube
Click to expand...

And from what I have read in this forum, the people to whom Apple is marketing this "revolutionary" product think it sucks. You have to wonder what kind of research and test marketing Steve and the guys did for this. Even when the iPod is made compatible with a PC it is going to be shelved in Apple section of CompUSA or Circuit City and it will be buried. There is almost no market for it today, and things arent't going to get much better.
Click to expand...

hey - heres an idea Apple - rather than enter the world of gimmicks and toys, why dont you spend a little more time sorting out your pathetically expensive and crap server line up?
Click to expand...


The members of MacRumors don't really have a history of correctly predicting the success of a product ;)
 
Phil A. said:
It guess it's a case of "Plus ca Change" with people's responses - here's a selection of quotes from these very forums from when the original iPod was launched...

...


The members of MacRumors don't really have a history of correctly predicting the success of a product ;)
Click to expand...

Now that was amazing! Just goes to show how arrogant and ignorant people are! I think the new shuffle is going to do really well, like all other Apple products.

Ams.
 
atotheron said:
The measurement are 0.7"x0.3". A USB port is ~0.5" x 0.2". Plenty of room. Anyhow, would the fraction of an inch needed to make it fit been noticable, especially since it would still be smaller than the last one?

I guess this doesn't bother that many people, but I just hate having to carry around extra chords and adapters with me when I travel. And don't forget it in the hotel room when you leave--those replacement cables are like $20 each!
Click to expand...

Third party cables and adaptors can be had for a couple of bucks already. Why pay Apple's inflated charges?

E.g.

http://www.dealextreme.com/products.dx/category.202
 
I Think Its Cool

I think it's pretty cool and ballsy. If you are serious about music, then get a iPod Touch to use your Bose headphones with. The iPod shuffle is mainly for kids and exercising and I wouldn't give my kid expensive headphones and I wouldn't want to get sweat in them either. People have been so quick to judge this product. A $79 product should not get $300 headphones. The apple ones are fine for basic use.

I think its pretty amazing apple cut out almost 50% of the size!!! I'm almost tempted to get one on top of my Touch... :D

Oh, and I don't think it's too attractive, after all it is a rectangle, but it is sleek enough and oh so tiny. (and 4GB). And i'm sure it wont be long before apple makes some kind of device so that you can plug your own headphones in (as in the device plugs into the headphone jack with the buttons on it and then you plug your headphones into it).

Here's an idea... Use a headphone splitter!
 
Goona said:
No people always have a vendetta against Apple, nothing new. :D
Click to expand...

I know :D I remember the uproar when the new MBs and MBPs came out! I bet I will still see a stack of these floating around uni in the next couple of months as well as in the general public just like the supposedly "bad" MBs and MBPs
 
Do you think Apple will adapt this same control method to other iPods too? I was hoping that the next iPod touch would include play/skip buttons on the side in addition to the volume controls. Probably not.
 
The previous design was perfect. Just add more space and the VoiceOver stuff and you're golden, but nooo they had to ruin perfection.


And that headphone proprietary cable BS...ugh, I don't even know where to start.
 
I like the remote controls on the headphone cord. I liked it when my old panasonic personal stereo tape deck had them too. However, like that panasonic, apple should simply have had the remote on a little dongle with 3.5mm socket, so you can choose your own headphones. That seems to be the biggest gripe here. I think people would have had way less issue if Apple had let you use your own headphones but still kept the remote controls.
 
As has been brought up elsewhere in this thread, the standard Apple earbuds will not fit my ears without discomfort and without falling out. This is a deal breaker for me.
 
I can't say that I'm sold on the new Shuffle. Did the Shuffle really need to get any smaller? Are there really people out there who thought "Ghee, this thing is nice, but if I could only stick it up my nose..."? I'm also nervous about the decision to go with putting controls on the earbuds. While it's a great feature to have, I really like having a set of controls on the unit itself. However, the Apple that we know today isn't one to release a flawed design, so I guess I'll have to trust them on this one. Finally, being an apple snob, I can't get over how generic-looking this thing is. It looks like any other low-end MP3 player on the market; I wouldn't know it was an apple product without seeing the back of it. Finally, I'm not convinced I need VoiceOver. Cool? Sort of. About as cool as when I first learned how to use the Speech feature on my Mac. Granted the new Shuffle is 4gb, but do you really not know what songs are on your unit? Do you really want to be sifting through playlists on a unit like this? Again, Apple's done the research and knows more about selling a product than myself, but I'm not sold.

All in all, thumbs down. I'm headed to the Apple online store to check out the clearances on the 2G shuffle.
 
I wonder if they will update iPod touch soon or will they wait until the usual iPod update in September. For few years Nano & Classic have had only one update per year, while Shuffle & Touch have received two updates.
 
techmonkey said:
Worst iPod design EVER. Seriously, only the hardcore fanboys are going to "love" this. Why do they insist on making the shuffle smaller and smaller? The old design was good enough and it had buttons!!

- Proprietary earbuds/headphones
- Proprietary USB cable
- Lame computer voice that talks to you
- Only 1 button to do everything...lol...The Onion is going to love this
Click to expand...
Yes the same old tired argument, only "fanboys" like Apple products. I'm also sure most people give a damn about the Onion. :rolleyes:
 
Abercrombieboy said:
This is a terrible design. Now you are forced to use only Apple earbuds so you can control it and the clip is gone so you can wear it. Ridiculous!
Click to expand...
Yeah too bad most people already use the Apple earbuds, they are probably the most popular ones on Earth.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back