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This post on Engadget says it all in one picture:

www.engadget.com/.../the-new-ipod-shuffle-explained

Forced to use Apple's horrible Earbuds and I personally find the new Shuffle ugly.  I dont like this one.

as @rickhuizinga mentions, support.apple.com/.../HT3458 (engadget's image) - totally smacks the "simplicity" marketing messages of recent years from Apple!

You really couldn't make it up. oh hang on.. the spoof from Onion was fairly close!

This new iPod's synthesized voice on Windows sounds so bad compared to OS X.

This requires YET ANOTHER Apple adapter(in this case compatible headphones) to operate the controls. So if you've got premium headphones you are SOL. Unbelievable. As far as 3rd party support goes they are 'working' on it.(just like MiniDP)

I won't be surprised to see if they get more blowback like with the nano? I loved how they reverted from the 'revolutionary' fat nano back to the even more 'revolutionary' old one.

With the new laughable keyboards they're selling with the iMacs and this button less wonder it's as though the Onion doesn't need to parody them anymore.

This page has the samples of the Voice Over for Macs and PCs

www.apple.com/.../voiceover.html

What bugs me the most is that it will not work on cars with a standard iPod adapter. My wife has two iPods, the 2G shuffle for when she exercises and a 2GB nano for her car. The shuffle cannot be used with the adapters. Apple should have thought about it, but they probably did as they know suckers like me will buy both for the spouse. Our 4 Sansa's [for the kids] were cheap refurbs from Buy.com and have going strong for over a year. Even my iPhone will work with the standard car adapter. [The adapter enables control from the steering wheel. Obviously, using a standard 1/8 in jack in an auxillary port can be control only from the MP3 player, but then the iPod adapter would be useless].]

I don't get the attraction with the iPod Shuffle. I've got a 3 year old Samsung USB stick MP3 player that is about the same size as the new Shuffle, only cost $59, has 2GB of memory, has an LCD screen and I can play the songs/podcasts in whatever order I want. I can just drag and drop files onto it using any file manager so I don't need to sync it with any media management applications. Also, I've dropped this thing so many times, kicked it and even dunked it in water and never had an issue.

Ok, it doesn't talk to me but I never really thought, "Man, this MP3 player is great but I just wish it would talk to me."

In 6 months they will have 5 different colors!

I am with most commenters in that I don't like being tied to Apple headphones, but I think the reality is that people who buy nicer headphones aren't going to be buying a shuffle anyway. To me the real irony is that trying to remember the series of clicks to do anything with the shuffle ultimately makes it more complicated to use than the previous version. For the product that Apple wanted (small, display-less) audio player the previous shuffle's design was perfect.

That said, the inclusion of voice over is a big step up and I wonder if it will make it into other products. Opening up iPods to those who are sight impaired is certainly the right thing to do.

@kenmcnamee  - You can play songs in the order you want on a shuffle provided you create the playlist in the order you want to hear them before you put them on the shuffle. The options on the shuffle are the order of the playlist or to shuffle.

While you probably have never wanted an MP3 player to talk to you I am sure there are people who are sight impaired who will be really happy about this feature.

I guess unless you're using someone else's iPod shuffle, what's the point of VoiceOver? Don't you know the name of the song and artist when you added to the player?? Do you have to hear it to remind you that you're using a product that "talks to you"??

"The revolutionary new VoiceOver feature enables iPod shuffle to speak your song titles, artists and playlist names."

Worst 'feature' ever.

And now your tied to Apple headphones? My old Apple headphones broke pretty quickly because I worked out so much with them. It was no problem because I just bought better ones for cheaper.

Too bad you still can't drag and drop songs onto it. You still have to wait a year for itunes to boot up.

This is another useless feature Apple feels like people don't even know they want yet.

ModernDislocation: You're absolutely right about VoiceOver as a good accessibility feature - although Apple isn't exactly marketing it as such.

My wife isnt great with tech, and really never liked her 1gen shuffle, even with buttons.

If this was put in front of her, and had to do the whole Morris Code BS just to do whatever, she would take a hammer to the thing.

But it has been a laugh riot watching the Apple fanatics beating the crap out of each other over this thing.

Awww. I wish my mp3 player would talk to me more often. I just... feel so lonely.  

I think this is a great feature for the bonch-types. (Anyone remember his "honey"?)

I really love my shuffles and I'm not sure I'll like the controls on the headphones [pretty soon the shuffle will only be the headphone cable].  I have a mixture of podcasts and music [I always sort the podcasts at the top of the list] so if I want to listen to music I flip it to shuffle mode and it's smart enough to skip the podcasts.  When I go back to the podcasts I flip it back to straight thru and then press the play button thrice and it jumps back to the top.  Very straightforward.  This new shuffle will reverse the current track when play is hit three times.  I don't think I'll like that.  I guess my two gen2 shuffles will have to last for the future.  Or who knows, maybe the reviewers will like it.  I'll reserve judgement till then.

uh....why?

--tayme

This new shuffle sounds interesting but this will be another iPod that I'll pass because it doesn't have the feature I tend to use frequently.

Video.

This is nice for just music customers and a nice innovation. However, I wonder how many times this iPod will end up broken because someone accidentally sits on it? Yes I know it has a clip, but I still see folks playing their music, forgetting about the device, moving it to their backpocket and then CRUNCH!

Just a thought.

However, this smacks of hypocrissy. Apple fans and Microsoft critics rail against Microsoft's propensity to use proprietary physical device standards and software file standards. Yet Apple couldn't have taken a few weeks to create interoperability for car radios, home iPod music players, and other devices that are already on the market? How hard would it have been to create an adapter before launching the product? This is one of the many problems users like myself have with Apple. They don't think their designs all the way through. You can say that about previous Macs, current Macs, iPods, iPhones, etc.

This is the physical form factor vs functionality argument that many of us have against Apple. The design should not sacrifise functionality over form. If you walk into the PC section of any store, you'll find many peripherals with the Mac logo indicating compatability. However, its much harder to see the same reciprocation from Apple.

Nice design but not my cup of tea. I'll give them credit for the VoiceOver feature.

@sharky - There are probably only a few of us still here that remember bonch's love afair with his "honey"!!! Classic!

--tayme

oops...afair = affair...[SIC] hammer for me!

--tayme

Sub, those shuffles are pretty tough. Stepping on it or sitting on it won't make a dent. A guy soaked it in beer and it worked fine too. Finally, he ran over it with his truck. That killed it. My Sansa's can be dropped or sat upon, but stepping on it [someone my size] would certainly crush it.

"In 6 months they will have 5 different colors!"

....and come up with a matching lame advertising campaign to boot.

Lame.....just lame.

It's not really any smaller; they just split it into two pieces. Half the bulk is the iPod, the other half is the controller bud on the earphones.  Anyway, I need an iPod that works with my Etymotics.

This is kind of cutesy, but not interesting to me.

@drwam: Thanks for your previous note. Glad we patched things up. Hope you feel better soon.

@DRWAM,

I'll reserve final judgement until we have a test of this new designs durability. Until then, I can see these new pod's getting crunched.

iTunes 8.1 is out, probably before even one of these were sold.  

My kids have the old shuffle its ok, perfect for young ones.  I have never owned any mp3 player that came with good headphones.  In fact the kind I own now cost more than a shuffle.

Not one of us has actually used the product, so to comment on how easy it is to use is premature to say the least.  

Second to those railing against the proprietary head phones, give it a rest.  Can you buy head phones for an iPhone?  Sure, you can, how f-ing hard do you think it will be to reverse engineer a pair of Apple head phones.  Gee you guys are a bunch of whiners.

Regards

Joe Dokes

Anyone remember the old ipod mini that seemed to be built from solid titanium? Now that thing was a tank. I remember back in the day I thought mine broke so I threw it around on the concrete, just to find out a week later that it still worked, even after my beating. I still have it today.

@joe,

Long time since you've been on the boards. And you haven't missed a step. However, I'll chime in.

We as "consumers" have the right to make complaints or comments on an upcoming device based upon specs and previous models. You know the age old expression "The Customer is Always Right."

Second, in most cases, reverse engineering someone else's product is illegal and any business would be subject to criminal proceedings.

Third, whats wrong with voicing an opinion? Last I checked, this is an American based site in which the 1st Ammendment's freedom of speech and right to petition is still in effect. I would have figured from the reception that the last person who said anything about whiners got that someone would choose their words carefully.

What has happened where you can't even speak your mind these days without being labeled as something. Note I'm not labeling you as anything, I just think when we can't speak up, then there's a much bigger issue.

Thanks for the comments and have a good day.

Gee subzerohitman721 , I'm surprised you didn't run and get your lawyer. 'He called 'me' a whiner!!' He could tell you that you have no 1st amendment rights on a private message board.

Reverse engineering is perfectly legal and has a long history behind it.

en.wikipedia.org/.../Reverse_engineering

I'm not sure 'if you sit on it you might break it' is a valid criticism. Which mp3 player is sit-proof?

I hate the asymmetric headphone cable but I like the VoiceOver feature. When you randomly fill from 25,000 songs the number of times I hear again a great song but have no idea which one is very annoying.

Hopefully by the time my 1st gen shuffle dies non-proprietary headphone+controls will be available.

As for usability I find I usually just start and stop the music while working out and only occasionally skip forward so 1-click to play and double-click to skip won't be a problem.

If i'm only going to carry a small (1000ish) selection of my tracks this 3rd gen shuffle is perfectly adequate. We all know there are cheaper and more fully-functioned players with equal or better sound quality but I don't really care about the absolute sound quality (they never do sound comparison tests while sitting in a busy commuter train or noisy gym) and I like blank slabs of metal so I'd buy it.

Give it a rest, people. This is a great product. In fact, we're only three months into the new year and, IMO, we already have the invention of the year. *Applause* Apple took a metal slab, slapped a logo on it, and turned it into the year's most desirable product.

Now, let me go back and listen to "Track-01" by "Unknown Artist", from the album, "Unknown Album 08/28/08".

Gents, I found some inexpensive earphones at

www.handhelditems.com/iphone-iphone-earphones-c-4_5165_5174.html

They seem better than the stock Apple and Sansa ones, and fit better [me and the wife]. Also, Refurb MP3 players for kids at Buy.com work pretty darn well. As I posted, we got 4 Sansa's for the kids, who beat them up, but they all work fine for $10 to $20. They sound good too, although they are not Zune's or iPod's. The kids use them with their i-Dog Amp'd [not an Apple product].

I too fear that the control on the new iPod shuffle may be beyond my wife's abilities to figure out on her own, but I'm pretty sure that I can teach her. Still, the size of the old shuffle was small enough and the controls were kinda standard. Although the new controls are probably in a better location when clipped on clothing, some will need to get used to it.

"Not one of us has actually used the product, so to comment on how easy it is to use is premature to say the least.  "

I think we can make a pretty good judgment that is needlessly complicated.  Simplicity for the sake of simplicity, making it harder to use in the process.  It's a parody of itself.

"uh....why?"

Because choice is good, right? No one's forcing you to buy it, or even like it. You can always just shrug your shoulders, say "meh", and move on.

"How hard would it have been to create an adapter before launching the product?"

My guess is you'll see product announcements from third parties by the end of the week...before this thing even hits the stores. Having said that, I see your point. Clearly.  

"this will be another iPod that I'll pass "

Then why do you give it so much attention? Seven paragraphs on a product you don't care about? Weird.

Watching the video leads me to believe that the controls aren't any one complicated, just in a different place. Press and holding the play button now allows you to skip to songs or playlists. That's about it.

Sub, I don't think you can crush practically any brand of these tiny MP3 players, not even my cheap little Sansa. Especially these solid metal shuffles.But there is a very big problem by making them unnecessarily small. They are gonna get lost very easily, or washed with clothing, Although some report they going threw the washer does not break many of these tiny MP3 players of different brands. You would definitely agree that smaller things get lost easier. Also, they old shuffle was small enough. It was the size of a match book. People will be losing them left and right. I would bet on it. There may be an arguement that some things can be made too small.

"Reverse engineering is perfectly legal and has a long history behind it."

I'm sure Apple's lawyers would argue that with you:

"Important: Changes or modifications to this product

not authorized by Apple Inc. could void the EMC

compliance and negate your authority to operate

the product."  -- ipod shuffle manual

"Except as and only to the extent permitted by applicable licensing terms governing use of the Open-Sourced Components, or by applicable law, you may not copy, decompile, **reverse engineer**, disassemble, modify, or create derivative works of the Apple Software or any part thereof." -- Leopard install manual

Apple rules, the rest just sigh and wish.

:D

I wish I had a collection of music that was so large and filled with such crap that I needed my music player to tell me what was playing because I had no idea.

Oh, wait, no I don't.

That's very true Rostov, you oughta know the song when you here it. And if you don't, what's does it matter? But if you have different playlists, the voice prompt would be nice as there is no LCD showing you that you're on your workout playlist vs driving or whatever. Limited utility, but it has a little usefulness.

@ weedmonk:

"With the new laughable keyboards they're selling with the iMacs..."

Sure the new keyboard isn't for everyone, but you do know that they still offer the kb with the numpad? And when you actually buy a Mac, you can choose a kb with a num pad if you want?

Ah, whatever.

As for the new shuffle - I've never, ever been a fan of the iPod shuffle, so I'll pass this by :)

"With the new laughable keyboards they're selling with the iMacs"

...and you tried it WHEN?

I thought it would suck too, but it's the best keyboard I've used since the one I bought from Microsoft, and it's stone-dead quiet, which I love.

"...and you tried it WHEN?"

I know it's when I tried using a laptop keyboard for the first time.  I personally use a numpad EVERY DAY.  I know at least half of my customers that buy laptops ask about getting a keyboard with one too.  I second weedmonk's sentiment - the Onion already got it right.  It's not parody when it's true.

Waethorn said:

"Reverse engineering is perfectly legal and has a long history behind it."

I'm sure Apple's lawyers would argue that with you:

"Important: Changes or modifications to this product

not authorized by Apple Inc. could void the EMC

compliance and negate your authority to operate

the product."  -- ipod shuffle manual

You rushed out, bought the ipod and read the manual just for little ol' me? Breaking things is fun and legal. Shuffle meet hammer.

As for the OS we were neither discussing it nor its software EULA.