We live in an era where devices get smaller every year, and smaller is always better. The new iPod shuffle comes to say exactly that. Apple on Wednesday launched world’s smallest music player (at least by their measurements), which is half the size of the previous model, and claimed it to be the first music player that talks to us, through a new feature called VoiceOver.
The VoiceOver is a veritable ‘genie in a bottle’ kind of feature, allowing the iPod shuffle to always keep its user updated with the song currently playing. From now on, the iPod shuffle will let it all out on the press of a button. In addition to unveiling the name of the song playing, it will also be able to give updates on the batter life for example.
In addition to that, the new iPod shuffle is also capable of holding 1,000 songs, and can speak 14 languages, including English, Czech, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish. The iPod also comes with all controls located on the earphone cord.
“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.”
The new iPod shuffle comes with a 4GB capacity, and sells for $79 through the Apple Store and authorized resellers. According to Apple, the iPod comes in two versions, silver or black, and can be synced with both a Mac and a Windows PC.
The iPod Shuffle was the first iPod to use flash storage - the first generation iPod shuffle was launched in 2005. The second-generation one was introduced in September 2006 (the 1GB model) and February 2008 (the 2GB model).
If the second-generation iPod was called “the most wearable iPod ever” by its creator, the third-generation one now competes for “the world’s smallest music player” and is also “the first music player that talks to you.”
Unlike the second-generation device, the third-generation iPod shuffle no longer has volume and track controls on the device itself. These controls are now positioned on the earbud cord. This however limits the use of the device with the original buds, although other headphones can also be used, but the user would no longer have control over the playlist, which would play automatically.
Last year, Apple slashed the prices of its 1GB iPod shuffle to $49 from $79, and introduced the 2GB model for $69. This happened in the context of a decline in shares and sales growth starting to slow down.
