“Apple’s new iPod Shuffle is about to be the next must-have product… Now, critics contend that’s a reverse psychology thing, aimed at covering up a big drawback in the Shuffle — the lack of a display screen that lets you see and choose the songs you play,” Mike Wendland writes for The Detroit Free Press. “But the criticism doesn’t take into consideration the way most people I know use personal music players. Shuffling is the way most of us like to play CDs. We like randomness.”
Wendland writes, “The lack of a display screen is a nonfactor, I believe. The Shuffle offers the simplicity and ease of use that Apple engineering is so justly famous for… Those who run or walk or work out, I predict, are going to be the most avid iPod Shuffle users. Because there are no moving parts — remember that flash memory on a chip — the Shuffle is totally skipless. I put the Shuffle on when I hit the treadmill Monday morning. No matter how jarring the exercise, my music played as strong and steady as ever… Way to go, Apple. You did it again. The Shuffle is one hot new product.”
Full article here.
More info about Apple’s new iPod shuffle here.
I am buying 4 this weekend!
Are you gonna sell ’em on ebay, doc?
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Apple is facing its biggest challenge ever: educate people on how to capitalize the letters in their iPod and Mac product lines.
effwerd, you mean not capitalize the letters?
iPod shuffle, not, iPod Shuffle
Better hurry, Apple just announced a four week wait.
Right, DanK. See even I’m confused.
I ordered my Mac minis and iPod shuffle the day after MacWorld Expo. Good thing.
This guy became such a total Machead. Gotta love it.
My 1st Gen iPod never skipped either.
Not for audiobooks. Chapter 12… Chapter 3… Chapter 8… Chapter 1…
Thetic, LOL,
Though I’m sure you know you can turn shuffle off. Can a book fit? 120 songs at 4 minutes, 128Kbps (512 model) – that’s 7 hours. Hmm, checking the Audible section on the iTMS, most audiobooks are longer than that, so you’d need to get the $149 1GB model.
I wonder how many iPod competitors with screens sell for $99? That’s not a comment or criticism, but an honest question.
DaddySteve, there are a bunch of them, but I believe that their capacity is typically around 128 MB.
Don’t get me wrong, iPod shuffle is a cool product, but I still think it’s funny how some journalists rave about the small size and no moving parts of flash memory, as if it were some amazing new innovation. Really shows you how much impact all those flash players have had, huh? (i.e. none…) No wonder the folks at Rio and Creative are feeling a little grumpy…
Rio’s cheapest 128 MB player costs $115. http://www.digitalnetworksna.com/shop/_templates/item_main_Rio.asp?model=259&cat=73
iRiver’s $99 128 MB player: https://secure3.nexternal.com/shared/StoreFront/product_detail.asp?CS=iriver&RowID=9&All;=
Creative’s Muvo $99 256 MB player: http://us.creative.com/shop/shopcategory.asp?category=213#215
DaddySteve,
I posted in another thread about how the Sunday papers here in Houston had loads of ads for flash players, however none could match iPod shuffle for price/capacity.
Some had screens but none had as much storage at the $99 price point. Likewise, there were some at the $99 and $149 price, but they had nowhere near the capacity of iPod shuffle.
Plus, don’t forget how iPod shuffle is part of iTunes and iTMS.
Good question, maybe someone else knows about a product that has the same storage and a screen at Apple’s price.
~M
Ryan.. I don’t get that impression at all.
No body thinks flash memory is new.. SJ’s talked about flash memory for ages.. Portable 128MB flash keychains are pretty much mainstream…
What Apple is getting credit for is finding a way to not put out a frustrating device with a tiny screen.. They took a leap of faith with the shuffle design. That is new and innovative. They did it brilliantly.. I can imagine, next time I’m at school, and I put my iPod shuffle into the side of the computer, to get some files off it.. somebody is gonna see it and think.. what the hell is that thing? (ahem, it says iPod on the back)
“That’s an iPod?!”
It’s masterful.
As I stated on the other message, the genius behind the shuffle is Autofill.
I’m sure we’ll hear more about the joys of Autofill in the next few weeks as columnists become more familiar with this overlooked feature.
As is always the case with a new tech product, the only things people initially look at are 1) price and 2) hardware specs.
The secret to the Shuffle’s sauce is Autofill, plain and simple, and I’m guessing that only a few weeks of actual, daily use will bring the serendipity of Autofill to light.
Let’s see. I wonder how many iPod shuffles I can fit in my mouth… 22…23……24……….25! HHHHEYh lllllooookk I’vvveee gottt gulp! Uuh oh….
Uncle Fester, the Audible audiobooks are encoded at 32 kbps and 22kHz, so you could fit a lot on a Shuffle, I guess about 35 hours on the 512MB version.
However, without a scroll wheel I think it could be hellish if you lost your place in a book.
Also, I’ve grown addicted to the regular iPod’s high-speed playback, which lets you get through an 8-hour book in 6 hours, so I don’t think the Shuffle is for me.
Newtype,
I think Apple knows Autofill is the key too. I think it was reported elsewhere that Apple has Autofill under patent pending. Just like the click wheel…
Keith in Tokyo,
Apple has a knowledge base article are being able to bookmark audiobooks. So it may be not so hard…
Oh, and I should have mentioned that Audible has three different encoding rates for its audiobook files. The 32kbps rate is the highest-quality. If you downloaded your books at the lowest-quality rate, 8kbps (still listenable for spoken audio) then you could fit about 140 hours of audiobooks on a 512MB iPod shuffle.
Kev, the problem isn’t the bookmarking, the problem is when you accidentally lose your bookmark. On the regular iPod, if you press the “back” button just once by accident, then it takes you back to the beginning of the book and you have lost your place. This happens to me from time to time and I can imagine it happening more on an iPod shuffle because there is no other way to switch from file to file (on a regular iPod it’s best to avoid the “forward” and “back” buttons when listening to audiobooks and to instead use “menu” to get out to the playlist and then select the song you want from there).
If you do lose your bookmark on a regular iPod, then you can easily advance several hours into your audiobook in just a few seconds using the click wheel. After a few tries it’s generally easy to find your place again. On an iPod shuffle, if holding down the “forward” button is the only way to advance through a file, then my guess is that it could take thirty or forty minutes of holding down that button to find your place if it is near the end of an eight-hour audiobook file.