When the Apple store went down this morning, there were rumors swirling that a new iPod Shuffle would appear when it went live; those rumors were right. The latest iPod shuffle comes equipped with 4GB of memory priced at $79.99 and a sleek case that’s reminiscent of the first generation. Best of all, the shuffle now speaks the name and performer of the song since there still isn’t a screen on the least expensive iPod. Expect the new iPod to ship 3-5 business days after purchase.
We also have a modest proposal for radio DJs: Sue Apple! They’re stealing your jobs!
Apple Announces Incredible New iPod shuffle
World’s Smallest Music Player Now Talks to You
CUPERTINO, California—March 11, 2009—Apple® today introduced the all-new iPod® shuffle, the world’s smallest music player at nearly half of the size of the previous model, and the first music player that talks to you. The revolutionary new VoiceOver feature enables iPod shuffle to speak your song titles, artists and playlist names. The third generation iPod shuffle is significantly smaller than a AA battery, holds up to 1,000 songs and is easier to use with all of the controls conveniently located on the earphone cord. With the press of a button, you can play, pause, adjust volume, switch playlists and hear the name of the song and artist. iPod shuffle features a gorgeous new aluminum design with a built-in stainless steel clip that makes it ultra-wearable.
“Imagine your music player talking to you, telling you your song titles, artists and playlist names,” said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s vice president of iPod and iPhone™ Product Marketing. “The amazingly small new iPod shuffle takes a revolutionary approach to how you listen to your music by talking to you, also making it the first iPod shuffle with playlists.”
iPod shuffle is based on Apple’s incredibly popular shuffle feature, which randomly selects songs from your music library. And now, when you can’t remember the name of a song or an artist playing, with the press of a button iPod shuffle tells you the name of the song and artist. iPod shuffle can even tell you status information, such as battery life. With the ability to hold up to 1,000 songs and the VoiceOver feature, you can now easily switch between multiple playlists on your iPod shuffle. iPod shuffle can speak 14 languages including English, Czech, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish.
The new iPod shuffle comes in silver or black and features a sleek and ultra-wearable design with a built-in stainless steel clip. iPod shuffle is the smallest music player in the world and is incredibly easy to clip to almost anything and take with you everywhere you go. iPod shuffle features up to 10 hours of battery life.*
Pricing & Availability
The third generation 4GB iPod shuffle is now shipping and comes in silver or black for a suggested price of $79 (US) through the Apple Store® (www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers. iPod shuffle comes with the Apple Earphones with Remote and the iPod shuffle USB cable. iPod shuffle requires a Mac® with a USB 2.0 port, Mac OS® X v10.4.11 or later and iTunes® 8.1 or later; or a Windows PC with a USB 2.0 port and Windows Vista, Windows XP Home or Professional (Service Pack 3) or later and iTunes 8.1.*Battery life and number of charge cycles vary by use and settings. See www.apple.com/batteries for more information. Song capacity is based on four minutes per song and 128-Kbps AAC encoding; in 256-Kbps AAC format, song capacity is up to 500 songs; actual capacity varies by encoding method and bit rate.
Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Today, Apple continues to lead the industry in innovation with its award-winning computers, OS X operating system and iLife and professional applications. Apple is also spearheading the digital media revolution with its iPod portable music and video players and iTunes online store, and has entered the mobile phone market with its revolutionary iPhone.
Polish, Chinese, Greek… Where is Russian?
its quite cool. but would be hard to find if yuo lost it. how does it turn on?
New Shuffle……..No way will I buy an iPod that REQUIRES a PROPRIETARY earbud that houses all the controls! You will be locked into having to purchase Apple Earbuds or wait till 3rd party manufacturer come out with an equivalent. The point is that something thats suppose to be as simple as a shuffle, now your left having to buy “special” earbuds.
Hey, Apple!.. Where are the keys?! What if I want to use my own earbuds?
I personally like the old design better…
Actually, I kinda like this one. It reminds me of first generation.
As is often the case, CrunchGear has missed the real story in its breathless product release announcement. The Shuffle is now tied to proprietary Apple headphones. Others have tied music players to custom headphones in the past, and paid dearly for it. Ear canals are different, listening preferences are different, etc. Dictating headphones and then (hey, wild guess) offering them in only one style is a recipe for disaster.
I’m guessing Apple will declare it a breakthrough product yet abandon the proprietary headphones for the next Shuffle.
that is just an amazing … looking cool that ipod
“Apple introduces the most ugly iPod ever”
This is terrible! I’ll use headphones of my choice, thanks. I’m surprised Apple didn’t go a different direction with the Shuffle – what I was expecting was a Shuffle identical to the old model except with both an input and an output jack. You could use it either by itself just like the old model, or plug it in between your headphones and iPod to use as an in in-line remote.
I’d buy that in a heartbeat. Not only would it make my iPod Touch easier to control, but I’d have a backup iPod for when it runs out of batteries.
I dunno what you guys are talking about, I think it looks really nice, especially in that matte black. I’ll probably pick one up for the gym.
Henry
http://newsolareclipse.com
Proprietary earbuds? No thanks.
There was nothing wrong with the previous gen shuffle, i’ll stick with it.
It is perfect for working out in the gym, etc. Clip it to your shirt, controls are easy to fumble with while jogging…
I’ll pass.
I think Apple shot and missed with this one.
Ya, I think I like the previous one better. And I like being able to wear whichever headphones I choose.
What about plugging it into a sound system (or car modulator)? How can you change songs/etc when it’s plugged into something other than your headphones?
bah! proprietary headphones. Come on guys, nobody wants that. I’ll stick with my current shuffle thanks.
“What about plugging it into a sound system (or car modulator)? How can you change songs/etc when it’s plugged into something other than your headphones?”
Fail.
Fail +1
I love my shuffle. Use it for snowboarding all the time so I don’t have to worry about a screen getting cracked. But moving the controls to the headphones is a terrible idea.
So Apple introduces an iPod that has the controls on the earphone cable, that means the only replacement earphones that will work with it are the earphones sold by Apple. I guess that shouldn’t come as much as a surprise in Apple’s proprietary kingdom. I’m still trying to figure out why Apple is discontinuing the 2GB shuffle and not the 1 GB shuffle. Wouldn’t it make a lot more sense to dump the 1 GB and make 2 GB the new entry level? I guess it didn’t make sense to anybody at Apple.
The previous design was awesome, nearly perfect IMHO. If they simply increased the capacity and maybe made it a bit thinner or added touch sensitive controls, it would be a worthy update. This new one is just plain horrible. No buttons?!? Really? A robotic voice announcing the tracks that I’m currently listening to? Why!? I have to use those god-awful Apple headphone only?!
If they had done any market research they would have found that most people buy the shuffle to use for sports. Those Apple headphones are impossible to keep in your ear, being stuck using those is a deal killer for this thing.
Ideally they need to make a sports iPod which would just be a more rugged, waterproof shuffle and have some kind of control that could be easily controlled while running. For instance, instead of individual buttons, the user would control it using swipe or tapping gestures across the entire face of the unit. It would also be cool if there was an add on LCD screen, maybe in the headphone cable, that people could buy as an add on later.
I think this model is a major step backwards. I’m guessing the older models are going to be hot sellers on ebay.
Awful. I usually try not to criticize before trying, but I hate earbud headphones – especially Apple ones – and there is zero chance I would ever consider buying this. I love my current Shuffle for running, its easy to use and has a great battery. On top of that, I get to use my own comfortable headphones that don’t fall out and drive me crazy when I’m jogging.
Although I’m sure this was developed while Jobs was still running Apple, this doesn’t bode well as one of its first product releases in his absence. Sign of things to come…?
the shuffle now speaks .
Is this really an innovation ?
Rockbox , the alternative free firmware for mp3 player (including some Ipod) does it for a long time now .
So what is the deal, just another proprietary device working only with Itunes ?
Only 10 hours of battery life? Are u kidding me?
There is a way around this. I’m not an audiophile however I enjoy my comfort. I use the standard iPod earbuds but I had custom molds taken of my ears so that my iPod earbuds snap into these molds and then I put the mold into my ear which fits perfectly. There isn’t anything more comfortable then a custom mold. I purchased the iPod attachments at Earsound. http://www.earsound.com An unintended benefit is that I was able to use my custom mold with my cell phone’s hands free device.
Come on guys, do somebody remember the first generations? for external headphones and external use, there will be a cable with controls without earphones… this is nothing new and will come
中国公文网 中国皮肤网Come on guys, do somebody remember the first generations? for external headphones and external use, there will be a cable with controls without earphones… this is nothing new and will come
It sure is tiny..