iPod Shuffle Finds Its Voice 379
theodp writes "Steve Jobs wasn't around to convince you that you should be impressed, but on Wednesday Apple unveiled a 4GB Shuffle that's half the size of its predecessor. Holding up to 1,000 songs, the pre-shrunk Shuffle sports a 10-hour battery life and also adds a new VoiceOver feature that can recite song titles, artists, and playlist names, as well as provide status information. Even without a show from Steve, the new player is generally leaving folks dazzled, although there are some complaints."
Update: 3/14 at 14:10 by SS: Reader Mike points out some disturbing news that the new Shuffle contains DRM which, according to a review at iLounge, prevents it from fully working with any headphones that don't have an Apple "authentication chip."
big deal (Score:2, Interesting)
I don't know why anyone is impressed by this at all, even though I'm a mac fan, this new shuffle is lame and isn't all that innovative. If you are going to make it that small, it's dumb to have a long cord dangling, why don't you build the ipod right into the headphones, that would be innovative, and illiminate the annoying need for chord tangles.
Oh Joy... (Score:3, Interesting)
As if iTunes wasn't already bloated enough...
I'd be curious to see how accurate that statement actually is. "Apple Mobile Device Support", which as far as I can tell is only needed for iPhone or iPod Touch, is installed automatically with iTunes. Sure enough, I just checked in Apple Software Update, and the new version "Supports syncing with iPod shuffle (3rd generation)." If Apple insists on installing half a dozen other unrelated or semi-related software packages with iTunes, it would be nice if they would provide an interface to only install (or update) the ones that you actually want. At the very least, I'd appreciate it if the iTunes installer would recognize when certain components aren't installed so I wouldn't have to uninstall Bonjour every single time I upgrade. (Why anyone ever thought it would be a good idea for system level network autoconfiguration and application level sharing to be handled by the same program in the first place is beyond me. The only thing I find more baffling is that anyone else in the world thought it would be a good idea to follow their example. avahi, I'm looking at you...)
Re:And DRM in the fucking *headphones*. (Score:5, Interesting)
It really shouldn't surprise you if they start doing the same things with headphones.
My Sansa (Score:4, Interesting)
Man I love my 25 dollar, 2 gig Sansa with a 4 gig microSD card.
I've had speech functionality since I installed Rockbox in January of '07.
Plus, I can play doom and gameboy ROMs in class.
Did I mention I got it brand new for 25 bucks?
Jus' sayin'...
You can't use it with normal amplifiers (Score:4, Interesting)
You can't play it through normal amplifiers without losing the ability to change tracks.
You can't plug it into a cars MP3 port, you can't plug it into previous iPod docks.
This is useless without its headphones, you're stuck with those crappy Apple ones.
Teardown (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Rockbox (Score:3, Interesting)
Even so, people do buy mp3 players JUST to install Rockbox on them. They fall into two categories:
1. People like you and me who read /. all day.
2. People with physical impairments.
Check out the rockbox mailing lists sometime. You'll be amazed at the number of posters looking for help who have almost no technical expertise at all. Somebody brings a rockbox to a school for the blind or whatever and suddenly 50 people want one - because there is almost no market for this sort of thing. I'd suggest creating a company to pre-install Rockbox on a suitable player, but I'm guessing when making devices for the blind there are 500 regulations to comply with (which don't apply if you just make some firmware and toss it on a website without specifically advertising it to blind people).
Look, Rockbox isn't the nicest packaged piece of software out there. However, in terms of feature set you're not going to find anything commercial that comes close. If somebody comes out with a Rockbox-based player for my android phone I'd use it without hesitation (my rockbox-based player just went through the dryer and is no more).
Half the size = BS (Score:2, Interesting)
By that logic I have a full blown PC the size of a USB memory stick. Just ignore the big beige box attached to the stick, that's only the power and reset buttons.
Re:And DRM in the fucking *headphones*. (Score:5, Interesting)
That's going, as I've noted in another reply, on a single iLounge review. Not exactly a technical analysis of what's going on inside the earphones. It sounds more like a non-standard control chip, as opposed to a DRM chip.
According to iLounge, even Apple's own previous headphones with remotes built in (for the iPhone and recent Nanos) refuse to control the new shuffle properly. So non-standard that it doesn't even work with your existing products seems pretty unlikely, though I'll happily be proven wrong if someone smashes open the remotes on either set of headphones and finds out what's in there.
See also my reply with the definition of Digital Rights Management (short version - the music is entirely unaffected and can play through any headphones).
Is the music player not also a digital device? It may not be DRM to the letter, but it's still technology to prevent you from freely interacting with your purchases.
Re:And DRM in the fucking *headphones*. (Score:3, Interesting)
Apple may make kick ass hardware devices, but their software plays to the same tune that M$ does.
Re:And DRM in the fucking *headphones*. (Score:3, Interesting)
As a techy, I consider that a feature ;P
Seriously though, why would I want an interface that was dumbed down to the lowest common denominator?
Re:And DRM in the fucking *headphones*. (Score:2, Interesting)
Ignorance. Or arrogance. Hubris either way.