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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."

15 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 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.

    3. 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.
    4. 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.

  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.

  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!

  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. Teardown by joelholdsworth · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ...and already someones pulled it to bits

  7. 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.

  8. 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.