“A look under the hood of Apple Computer’s iPod Shuffle shows the company is making music with two chips,” John G. Spooner reports for CNET News. “IDC analyst IdaRose Sylvester recently dissected a 512MB iPod Shuffle, purchased at retail, in order to determine what the tiny music player is made of. Her report, published earlier this month, reveals that Apple used two main chips spread over two separate circuit boards to foster the compact design of the music player, which was introduced in January. But despite the Shuffle’s tiny size, Apple still left room for a relatively high profit margin.”
“The Shuffle that Sylvester dismantled was based around two main chips–an MP3 decoder from SigmaTel and a flash memory chip from Samsung–which means the device uses many fewer chips than hard-drive-based iPods, she wrote,” Spooner reports. “The MP3 decoder, mounted to one board, takes charge of a multitude of functions. Its handles music, including the playing of MP3, AAC and Audible format files. At the same time, it harbors a USB 2.0 converter, SDRAM for buffering data and a headphone driver. The chip can also handle Windows Media music file decoding, voice recording, sending images to an LCD screen and an FM tuner, she wrote. Those features go unused in the Shuffle, though.”
Full article with more details here.
Jobs has an incredible knack for packing more features into his products so that, if necessary, they can be pulled out of the hat!!
The mac mini is going to be an huge testament to that fact.
Was I supposed to include something stupid like:
“First Post”
?
Loki-
I agree, I love how Jobs does more than he’ll ever say.
He makes one great product, and then, if it starts to loose some ground he could be like “oh yeah, it also can do this, this, and this.”
And then the competition stops dead in its tracks.
So they use an off-the-shelf chip that includes everything they need, and a few things they don’t, rather than using a more expensive custom design chip. To implement the other features (except WMA) Apple would have to add size, weight, and cost to the Shuffle.
IokI, no, you don’t need “first post” I can tell who it was without someone writing it.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”grin” style=”border:0;” />
uhhh … I dunno about anyone else…. but I have never seen any file with the WMA suffix that was worth anything….
WMA files have always been crappy on my Macs… so, I have no idea why anyone would want their music encoded in this sub-par format !!
I agree with Daddy Steve that we probably won’t ever see any of the additional features. SigmaTel probably makes chips for many different companies, and so its cheaper for Apple to use the standard chip they produce instead of a custom one that has only the features that are needed. I think the same is true for the other iPods. they include chips with capabilities, including video, not because Apple requested it, but because it’s easier for the manufacturer to put it all into a standard chip instead of having many different kinds.
Sounds good to me!
To bring up another hairy old chestnut!!
I’ve been reading about these pop-under ads and admit to having the occasional one in the past, that I merely closed.
And I’m sure I read somewhere on here that MDN were doing something to eliminate them until the issue can be resolved.
Well, I’m here to say that rather than eliminate them they seem to have multiplied. Everytime I go back to the main page after reading an article I am getting a pop-under. 3 for 3 so far. It’s becoming an epidemic.
Well If all you need is an antenna for FM there is no reason why one couldn’t be made into the laynard.
Maybe the Shuffle version two?
Apple is well known for adding features then not turning them on until later for an upgrade.
Where format becomes an issue is when Walmart someday puts albums on sale for $499 and iPod users won’t have the freedom to take advantage because iPods can’t use any other download service.
Apple should set the iPods free – remember the old saying iff you love something set it free and if it comes back…
You should not imprison your girlfriend to ensure she won’t go out with another man and the same is true for the iPod
It also leaves the door open for people to do add ons to the shuffle. You never know, someone might product an FM module for the shuffle, turning it into a FM radio. Or an after market LCD screen for those who want it. They leave it open ended like this so they can either pull it out of the hat, or someone can do it for them, thus people support Apple more with third party adapters and what not.
I need my FM radio! What ever will I do without radio ads????
maybe the lcd output chip will be used for a new lcd remote/add on?
Jobs is pretty good at removing features too – iPod Firewire cable seems to be sold out BTW on the Apple Store – 7-8 wait for one and the power brick is even longer …
Brando/Nathan,
I was thinking the exact same thing! Imagine if Apple made an optional lanyard that had a screen and FM radio in it that you just snap your iPod Shuffle into and voila! you got a screen and a radio.
That would be freakin’ brilliant! Opening it up to third party screens, FM tuners, etc. would be even more brilliant.
—
Magic word: wish. I think I just did!
I do not have one WMA file that works properly on my Mac… not ONE. So the only reason I guess Jobs would add WMA support is to entice more PC users… I believe the regular iPod also has WMA support built in, but not turned on.
Tyk,
I don’t think that feature is “turned on” in the iPod shuffle, just like the other iPods, it just happens to be a capability that is in the chip but not used. If people want to use their WMA files, isn’t there something that will convert those to mp3 format in iTunes?
I don´t think Apple would ever add WMA support for an iPod…
what’s the point? They wanna get Microsoft out of the way and adding support for WMA would only help Microsoft.
How can Apple benefit from that?
WMA, RM, RAM should all die. Too much pron in WMV though. WMA users should switch to a real format, and I don’t mean Real format … uh, you know what I mean. I don’t expect WMA to die though, upteen billions of monopoly-money should see to that.
Sorry, it is slightly off-topic…
Does anyone else who has used both an HD iPod and Shuffle to listen to the same songs from the same computer feel that iPod Shuffle has exceptionally “clean” sound?
Maybe I just had it up louder, but it seemed I was hearing parts in the music and vocal I had never noticed and that the vocal seemed very true.
I was wondering if maybe Apple “kicked-up” some frequencies to make up for the small size.
It just doesn’t sound little.
~M
In the keynote Steve Jobs did say that they experimented with the Flash-based iPod’s design so it is likely that at some point a version with a screen did exist. The same chip could have been used for that.
WMA on the iPod is a non-issue. iTunes features unprotected WMA to AAC or MP3 conversion so anyone with a large library or ripped or stolen music can allready use it in their iPod. If Microsoft and its hardware partners are not going to feature AAC playback in their music products then why should Apple feature native WMA playback on theirs?
the writer’s inability to grasp basic economics calls the rest of the her so-called discoveries about the iPod Shuffle into question.
i’m talking about her suggestion that the product has a 40% profit margin — a calculation based on what she believes the component parts cost.
has the writer ever heard of research and development, marketing, labor, and oh, salaries? 40% my a$$.
Go to SigmaTel’s site and check out their D-Major chip (i.e. the STMP3410). It is an all-in-one type chip. It is a standard offering, so what King and Daddy were saying above is what is going on. Steve Jobs had no hand in what that chip can do. It’s called good design practice to use common, readily available parts. Yes, it does leave open many paths that can be taken, but the chance of seeing those extra features that are part of the standard chip become real features on the shuffle is a long shot at best.
Check out the link:
http://www.sigmatel.com/products/stmp3410pb.htm
Mozfan: Weird! I have been thinking the same thing! I have a 40 GB iPod and the new shuffle, and think the shuffle just sounds a bit cleaner in its sound–perhaps it’s because there are no moving parts in it to create any RF interference? Or maybe the sigmatel component is just better than what’s in the HD version?
In any case, you’re not alone there!
For WMA->AAC conversion you can’t use a Mac version of iTunes (which is stupid, IMHO!), you have to have the Windows version.
However, there’s a great little product called easyWMA that converts the music _and_ retains the title/track/etc. tags with the music (which is nice if you convert several hundred songs or something).
I really hate the way WMA sounds, but a friend of mine had some old songs I wanted to “borrow,” all encoded in WMA, and this product did a yeoman’s job of translating them for me.
If Apple ever adds FM capability to its iPods, I hope it also includes AM.
– Mark