The 3G iPod shuffle: What Were They Thinking?
March 12, 2009 by Rico Mossesgeld
Filed under Portable Audio
To be fair, no one can fault Apple for making their new iPod shuffle as small as a clip (1.8″ x 0.7″ x 0.3″), nor can they call out the company for providing 4GB of storage. And while the VoiceOver feature, which reads out song or playlist names, uses imperfect synthesized text, it’s still a great way to make up for a missing display.
But why make the playback controls available only on the earphones that come with the product? Everyone knows default iPod earphones aren’t the best out there, so what if you wanted to use your own earphones or headphones with the latest iPod shuffle?
I understand the earphone controls are great for those who want to change the music while keeping the player in their pocket, but again, what if the user doesn’t use the bundled earphones?
In any case, this represents another Apple shortcoming that third-parties can take full advantage of. Expect lots of accessories to be available for this tiny media player, which is available in dark or light gray (or is that black and silver?) from Apple.com at $79.
Another feature I’d like to see Apple engineer back into the shuffle: the USB plug found in its first-generation predecessor.
(image from Apple)
If the ability exists to build accessories that will control the player, in essence an open source, then this will result in a lot of new earphones. If Apple controls this instead, then there will be problems.
I tried the budfits too and they worked great! I have noticed that the ear phones do fall out of my ears a lot while I am working out.
Well i like the ipod 3g shuffle. But the headphones didnt fit in my ears right. but i got budfits and they worked great. especially since those headphones are the only ones it the market.