Apple has now released their third generation iPod Shuffle and I don’t think anyone would disagree that it’s a pretty cool device all things considered.
The new iPod Shuffle comes with a 4 gigabyte flash drive that can hold about 1000 songs which is twice as many songs as the previous version.
Despite the fact that has twice the amount of storage space as the previous version, it is half the size in physical terms. In fact it’s now the smallest music player in the world at less than the size of a double AA battery.
An obvious disadvantage though is that as it’s so small you could easily lose it. The smaller size also brings up some other challenges too.
As the player is so tiny the control area is actually fitted on the headphone cord itself. Now is that a good idea?
Well I suppose it’s quite ingenious really, but I also can’t help thinking what will happen if you lose the headphones or if you want to use another set. I mean many of us have several sets of headphones.
At the moment you can only use this iPod with Apple’s headphones, if you want full functionality that is, but this may change in future. However, for me, it’s actually the functionality that makes it so cool.
I particularly like the new VoiceOver feature and the fact that it can tell you what song is being played at the moment. It can also run through your multiple play lists, did I mention it could cope with multiple play lists? It will even tell you how much battery life you have left.
No, it doesn’t tell you by text on the screen of course, as it doesn’t have a screen unlike other players. It literally talks to you and can speak an impressive array of 14 different languages. Talk about convenient!
“You previously couldn’t have multiple play lists on the iPod Shuffle because you couldn’t really switch between them as there was no way to know how you would switch,” said Greg Joswiak, Apple vice president of iPod marketing, told Reuters. “So now instead of seeing, you get to hear.”
So what we have is the very first talking iPod. Nice!
The iPod costs around £57 in the UK and $79 in the states and you can have it either silver or black.
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Well that is something interesting!