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iPod Shuffle Finds Its Voice

Posted by Soulskill on from the easy-to-use-easy-to-lose dept.

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."

28 of 379 comments (clear)

  1. And DRM in the fucking *headphones*. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Maybe consumers will draw the line when Apple requires its users to install DRM-equipped electrodes in their own frontal lobes.

    Maybe.

    1. Re:And DRM in the fucking *headphones*. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      And before anyone says the Voice function is innovative, Rockbox has had it for years. Luckily Apple prevented the installation of Rockbox onto iPods with the 6th gen Classic :/

    2. Re:And DRM in the fucking *headphones*. by broken_chaos · · Score: 4, Informative

      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.

      See also my reply with the definition of Digital Rights Management (short version - the music is entirely unaffected and can play through any headphones).

    3. Re:And DRM in the fucking *headphones*. by makomk · · Score: 5, Interesting

      You must've missed the iPod TV out debacle. All the recent iPods won't do TV out unless they can detect a special Apple authentication chip in the TV out adapter. There's no technical reason for this - they're quite capable of doing TV out via old-fashioned adaptors without the chip, and I think some of them even display a message via the TV out in this case. The sole purpose is to require accessory manufacturers to get authorised and pay a per-item fee to Apple - enforced by the requirement to put the Apple-supplied lockout chip in each one.

      It really shouldn't surprise you if they start doing the same things with headphones.

    4. Re:And DRM in the fucking *headphones*. by mrsquid0 · · Score: 5, Funny

      The thing that one needs to remember is that anyone, no matter who they are, who questions Apple or points out any problem with Apple's behaviour, is evil. Apple is always right. We are fortunate to be living at the same time that Apple exists.

      --
      Just because you are paranoid does not mean that no-one is out to get you.
    5. Re:And DRM in the fucking *headphones*. by Skuld-Chan · · Score: 4, Insightful

      This is debatable - what ilounge is claiming is that if you don't have headphones with controls all it does is play a loop of the playlist - because the player doesn't have any physical controls on the device.

      Apple is *forcing* you to buy their headphones if you want to control it and from what I understand is that 3rd parties cannot make these special headphones without a special chip only apple has.

      So yes - its drm.

      And while some 3rd party could reverse engineer the lockout chip apple could in turn shut them down with the dmca.

    6. Re:And DRM in the fucking *headphones*. by Firehed · · Score: 4, 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.

      --
      How are sites slashdotted when nobody reads TFAs?
    7. Re:And DRM in the fucking *headphones*. by 99BottlesOfBeerInMyF · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Apple is *forcing* you to buy their headphones if you want to control it and from what I understand is that 3rd parties cannot make these special headphones without a special chip only apple has.

      The problem being, this part is just speculation at this point and seems unlikely. No one has seen said chip or tried to reverse engineer the new interface from Apple.

      So yes - its drm.

      Assuming said speculation was true it wouldn't be DRM, but it would be intentionally enforced hardware component lock-in. If you want to call it DRM, go ahead, but it is inaccurate. Either way it is annoying and likely actionable if someone had the legal muscle.

      And while some 3rd party could reverse engineer the lockout chip apple could in turn shut them down with the dmca.

      ...if any such chip exists as opposed to the more likely scenario that Apple built a nonstandard interface and did not include a special locking chip. So far, all anyone has seen is the interface, not this supposed chip.

    8. Re:And DRM in the fucking *headphones*. by DECS · · Score: 4, Informative

      The EFF, and specifically Fred von Lohmann, is not only taking a shaky position here, but expressing it ignorantly. The group is getting good at going on witch hunts without really knowing what they're talking about.

      For starters, comparing Apple against Microsoft, Ford, Toyota is not just stupid, but apeshit retarded. Microsoft isn't a principally hardware maker, but its hardware IS all encrusted with DRM, from the Xbox to Zune. It also promotes WMA/WMV DRM on files and HD-DVD style end to end video output DRM on PCs, so von Lohmanns' comments are ridiculous.

      Ford and Toyota all use proprietary parts in their vehicles that can not be swapped out for third party bits from any supplier a user might want to pick from.

      But secondly, the guy doesn't even verify the information he's complaining about at full speed. Fred von Lohmann is a shoot first, gather details later kind of guy. He was the same EFF staffer who wrote, "Apple is among the worst offenders when it comes to messing around with stuff you've already paid for. But iTunes 7.2 is likely to be remembered for the especially wicked tricks it plays on iTunes customers."

      That's the same whiney moralist language he's using here, but he was wrong about iTunes 7.2 removing the ability to rip tracks to CD. That didn't stop him from prattling on about it.

      Von Lohmann thought iTunes could no longer burn and re-rip music after reading about it in a blog. He was wrong, because the blogger he believed was also mistaken. However, von Lohmann did not correct his posting accusing Apple of "removing the feature" from iTunes; he also cited [EFF's Peter] Eckersley's "previous revelations" [erroneous nonsense about metadata spying in iTunes] as proof Apple could not be trusted.

      Apple's 'Especially Wicked Tricks.'

  2. I Like It by CrankyFool · · Score: 5, Informative

    I suspect I was one of the first few people on Thursday to pick one up. This Shuffle is my first, complementing my 30GB Video, 60GB Video, and iPhone devices. Basically, I've gotten tired of lugging around the bigger devices while I bike.

    So far, I'm really pleased with it. Hate the headphone arrangement in principle, but I can live with it for now. It's tiny, as noted, and I've already lost it (and found it again) once. I suspect that's the biggest risk to owning a small, black device like that.

    1. Re:I Like It by hey! · · Score: 4, Funny

      Well, extrapolating from the trend so far, you'll be losing the next gen shuffle in your ear.

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
  3. Headphones by Ganty · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The inability to use your own headphones is a big problem, in fact this makes the new shuffle unusable for me as I can't use earbuds.

    Ganty

    1. Re:Headphones by mlts · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I'm not sure who Apple is catering to by forcing people to either wait for third parties to license the earbud chip, or use the "one size fits some" earbuds that are included.

      Children who are given this as their first MP3 player might not be able to use the earbuds.

      People who want an inexpensive iPod for jogging or campus won't be able to use these earbuds, because earbuds tend to fall out.

      Which leaves people who are just buying a really low end iPod for financial reasons. If someone wants a generic MP3 player, choices abound in this market segment. Apple has competition here, as opposed to the other models which the choices thin out dramatically, especially the high capacity iPod Classic.

      This is a head scratcher, because Apple tends to know better than this. Maybe they will make an adapter with the volume controls and button for $29 or so, so people can use their own cans.

      UI-wise, features seem to have been lost. Say I have a long DJ mix with no breaks in it. From what I've seen, I can't fast forward or rewind in a song, its either go to the beginning or skip, with no in between.

      All and all, I am disappointed. Yes, this is their low-end product, but there are some definite features that some people use everyday that are missing. At least the 2G Shuffle is still for sale. If I had to buy a Shuffle, I'd buy the 2G which has half the capacity, but allows me to do basic music navigation actions with a single button press as opposed to multiple triple-clicks.

    2. Re:Headphones by tsa · · Score: 5, Insightful

      For $29 you can get an MP3 player with a screen and no ridiculous headphones.

      --

      -- Cheers!

    3. Re:Headphones by commodore64_love · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It's called "lockin".

      You kill the third-party market by designing your hardware in such a way that people can only buy the OEM's product. It used to be common practice in the computer industry, until the mid-90s when generic PCs took over. However Apple has clung to that paradigm right up to the present day.

      --
      "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
  4. Rockbox by bcmm · · Score: 5, Informative

    I am surprised, with Apple constantly spouting "The first music player that talks to you", that no one has yet mentioned Rockbox's voice capabilities.

    It has existed for some time, and even supports it on some very cheap hardware, by calculating and storing the speech synth on a PC while the player is plugged in.

    So, Apple has, in fact, been fighting to keep speech synth off the iPod for years.

    --
    # cat /dev/mem | strings | grep -i llama
    Damn, my RAM is full of llamas.
    1. Re:Rockbox by CRCulver · · Score: 5, Informative

      Apple is not fighting to keep it off the iPod, they just don't care about supporting it.

      The establishment of encrypted firmware with the iPod Touch and iPod Classic was an intentional move towards preventing third-party firmware installations like Rockbox. Apple made an effort to ensure you can't install it, so the issue is a lot more than a neutral "lack of support".

  5. Its like miracle ! by should_be_linear · · Score: 5, Funny

    I always thought how big and clumsy my Shuffle is, thank god they finally addressed this issue !

    --
    839*929
  6. Re:Curious by Bertie · · Score: 4, Funny

    Yeah, it's almost like the Shuffle doesn't have a screen or something.

    Oh.

  7. My Sansa by B1oodAnge1 · · 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'...

    --
    RUGBYRUGBYRUGBY
  8. You can't use it with normal amplifiers by Anonymous Coward · · 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.

  9. Teardown by joelholdsworth · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ...and already someones pulled it to bits

  10. morse code controls by nloop · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I appreciate Apple trying to get rid of too many control interfaces. For the most part I am behind them all the way.

    However, the one button to control this thing is rediculous. On a shuffle I often end up jumping forward or backwords through a fair amount of songs to find something I am in the mood for. On this one you double click to go forward, triple click(?!) to go back. Fastworward/rewind? double click and hold, triple click and hold (but only if you are more than 6 seconds into the track, or the triple click restarts the track). Say the name of the song? Click once and hold for 1 second. NOT FOR LONGER, if you hold longer, then you go to playlist selection!

    This is not a step forward. Apple's approach to a simple design before made them accessible to nondorks. Grandmother friendly. My grandmother would need a cheat sheet to operate this. It honest reminds me of The Onion's coverage of The Wheel.

  11. Get a Sansa Clip instead by spike2131 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The 4GB Sansa Clip is a similar size, $18 cheaper, similar battery life, has a small screen, and doesn't lock you into the iTunes ecosystem.

    --
    SpyDock: Scientific Python in a Docker container
  12. NOT Digitial Rights managment by goombah99 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The headphones do not contain Digitial Rights Management. device will play just fine with ordinary headphones. in no way does it block access to your music.

    the headphones can contain a controller to tell it to advance to a given song or change volume. Were you somehow expecting unmodified headpones to do that? how exactly?

    --
    Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
  13. Re:Shiny and tiny! by gnasher719 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Thus we arrive at what is without a doubt the single worst product that apple has ever released.

    No, the puck mouse still has the nr. 1 place. The new iPod shuffle is at least usable, but it definately comes close though.

    Nowhere near close. The puck mouse did exactly what it was supposed to do. This Apple product _may_ be their worst ever, but maybe someone knows something worse:

    http://support.apple.com/kb/TA45469?viewlocale=en_US This was a tape backup device with 38.5 MB storage capacity. The Macintosh II at the time shipped with a 40 MB hard drive, so the tape was too small. You couldn't backup your hard drive on a single tape. Except if you stored your backup as individual files, in which case the backup time was so bad, it wouldn't be finished in the morning if you started in the evening - it used a tape drive to simulate a direct access device, with seek times in minutes. I bet 99.9% of its users tried it once and gave up.

  14. Re:Screen costs money and take up case space. by gbarules2999 · · Score: 4, Informative

    For $80, I can get the iPod shuffle with no screen, or a comparably sized Sansa Clip with a small screen, FM Tuner, voice recorder, OGG/FLAC support, and compatibility with every OS. The Sansa Clip also happens to be on sale at the Sansa store; it's only $60. So, where's that "screen costs too much," charge Sansa should be forcing on me, then?

  15. Re:The Voice function is innovative by Aranwe+Haldaloke · · Score: 5, Funny

    Most music already has this feature. You just gotta wait for it, and you'll even listen to it in the singer's own voice.