The New Apple iPod Shuffle and Apple In-Ear Earbuds

I have been away from the blog for a couple of weeks now. Work has been kicking my ass, so I’ve had to focus on that. I’ve found sometimes it helps to listen to music to focus on work. I recently heard about Apple’s new iPod Shuffle, so I thought I’d pay a visit to the Apple store to look at the old shuffles before they went away. I kind of like the old Product (RED) iPod Shuffle, but had put off getting it. When I got to the store, they already had the new $79 shuffles in stock, so I took one for a test drive. I loved it and immediately bought one of the new ones. Here’s my review.

Here’s why I bought it:

It’s tiny. I keep my earbuds in a bag on my keychain, and this will fit in with them without adding any bulk. It’s like I’m carrying nothing at all. This allows me to free up space on my iPhone for video, photos, apps. etc. Or it lets me keep special playlists handy for special occasions (like my “Friday is almost over and it’s time for the weekend” playlist) or things I don’t listen to often but like to have handy, or podcasts or audiobooks.

The controls and the Voiceover is cool. I love being able to change the song with just a click from my chin. As always with Apple, the use is natural highly intuitive once you browse it for a bit. The Voiceover feature – the feature that allows you to gently hear the name of the song or playlist over the playing music – works great as a simple way to navigate without a screen. I can also use the headphones on my iPhone. Though the controls don’t work 100% the same on the iPhone, they still are useful.  (With the iPhone, you have to activate the phone by clicking the phone’s home button first. Once you do that, you can use the headset to start the iPod program, advance songs, fast-forward, go back,  and rewind.)

The New Apple iPod Shuffle in silver and charcoal

Apple haters are hating on the new iPod Shuffle because of a variety of reasons, all of which are nonsense.

Haters: “The controls are in the headset. What a stupid idea. Fail.” You must realize the headphones are not just a swappable accessory with the new Shuffle, they are part of the core product. These new remote-controlled earbuds have been around now for a few months in the form of Apple’s new two-driver in-ear earbuds available for $79 (pictured below right). They were introduced for use with iPod Classics, iPod Touches, and iPod Nanos.They allow the user to click a few buttons on the earbud in order to control the playback and volume level of the iPod. This means no more fishing into your pocket to advance to the next song, rewind, or change the volume. Until now, these controls have been a happy bonus accessory. The primary controls were still on the iPod, but the new earbuds gave you additional controls.

New Apple In-ear Earbuds

The new Shuffle, however, takes this one natural step further by removing the controls from the iPod while keeping them on the headset. For a compact iPod like the Shuffle, this is perfect. This allows the Shuffle to be unbelievably tiny in size and weight. It also has a strong durable clip on the back making it a handy iPod for clipping on and forgetting – perfect for commuting, running, working, etc. The controls on the earbud cable make this all possible.

Haters: “But I have a pair of ‘favorite’ earbuds that I can’t live without.” A remote control accessory will be available soon, if you must have a Shuffle. Don’t complain, either. If you can afford to commute with $300 earbuds, is a $30 remote really gonna kill you?

Haters: “But I shouldn’t have to have a remote.” And you don’t “have” to have a Shuffle either. But if you want a new Shuffle and you want your existing earbuds, you gotta make a choice. Or stop complaining and buy something better suited to your needs.

Haters: “Apple is just trying to make extra money. Third party manufacturers will have to pay for a chip.” Apple is innovating. They are creating something new. It’s unique, and that is why the haters hate and even feared it.  Nobody is “forcing” you to buy a Shuffle. And if you do nobody is “forcing” you to buy another set of headphones. Apple isn’t “forcing” any headphone manufacturer to make headphones for its products. If a headphone manufacturer wants to create a set of remote controlled headphones that can be fully used with the Apple iPod Shuffle, it only seems fair that they pay for the technology that makes it work. When you go to work each day, don’t you want to get paid for your innovation? Apple has had this technology public for months now. But with the introduction of the Shuffle, the demand for it has finally enticed headphone manufacturers to get on the ball.

Haters: “The controls are too confusing.” When you want to try the next song, you simply reach for your chin and double-click. Fast-Forward? Double-click-hold. Back? Triple-click.  Rewind? Triple-click-hold. Pause? Click. Want to know what you are listening to? Click and hold. As I said earlier, the use is natural and highly intuitive once you use it for a bit. Haters using this excuse are just looking for drama. Sure the controls aren’t ideal for navigating a huge library or constantly looking for a specific song. If these are what you want an iPod for, you should get something with better nav controls and a screen like a Nano or Classic. A Shuffle is for simple playlists and simple continuous use.

Haters: “It’s not the perfect player for everybody.” It’s not supposed to be. Your 80-year-old grandmother or dumbass uncle with fat fingers may not be able to use this particular product with ease.

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The new iPod Shuffle has other benefits, too, that you don’t read much about.

Now it’s just a module. What I haven’t seen much of on the Web is talk about how the new Shuffle size and external controls will revolutionize the iPod accessory market. Now you can create a set of headphones that are just headphones – no cord, barely a player. Just plug in the tiny iPod Shuffle and it sits lightweight on your ears. (I know this exists for the old Shuffle, too, but in my opinion that was too bulky. This will be like nothing at all.)  Or you could create a small high-quality stereo amplifier or clock radio with the iPod controls built in – all you’ll need to do is swap out your iPod Shuffle for different playlists (this would be perfect for an office desk). Or someone can create a dock with a remote control to use the new voiceover feature so you can plug it into your stereo or car.  Will there be some way to visually read the playlists within an accessory? The tiny size and external controls makes it more of a module component for use in other products. This opens up countless ingenious possibilities.

The ipod Shuffle automatically compresses your high-quality files for use on the Shuffle. This I love. I want higher quality files in my iTunes library so when I play it on the stereo or make CDs, it has a better file. But that better file takes up more space. I don’t necessarily need these high-quality files for my commuter music. The new Shuffle will (if I choose) automatically reduce my files to 128 kbps AAC upon the transfer to the Shuffle. This leaves the files in my library at a high quality while allowing me to max out the space on my Shuffle (with perfectly-fine if not high-quality files).  This is really cool. I hope Apple retrofits 1st gen iPhone software so it will do the same. As of now, it does not.

You can skip through the names of songs and playlists, even when paused. When you are listening to the voiceover, you can tap the volume buttons to move bewteen and quickly hear playlists or song names. There is no need to listen to the whole name of the playlist in order to move to the next. Just click. You dont even need to be playing the song to use the voiceover. It works when paused too.

It’s an iPod for the blind. Voiceover isn’t perfect, but it works pretty well.

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The new iPod Shuffle has a few drawbacks.

Remember: It’s not ideal as your primary player. It’s best used as a secondary player or for commuting, jogging, etc. when listening to your favorite playlists.

It doesn’t stop. You can only listen in “shuffle” or “loop” mode. This is fine for continuous use, but if you wanted to just plug and play an album or playlist and stop when complete, you can’t. To stop, click once to pause or flip the power switch on the Shuffle.

You can’t browse by album, artist, genre, etc. But then again you’re not really meant to on the Shuffle. It’s not an iPod to browse; it’s an iPod to plug, play, and forget. You browse by playlist though, so you can always just create a playlist in advance for a specific album.

Switching on and off to hear the battery level isn’t all that easy. It works, but it’s not simple. And you may have to try it a few times to get it right.

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Ultimately I decided that the Shuffle was pretty cool and will come in handy provided I don’t lose it. I ended up splurging on the in-ear earbuds too because they fit better (and I needed better quality buds anyway since my Sennheiser IE4s died). They sound at least as good as the $50 Sonys I’ve had that melted four months into owning them, plus they have the new controls that will work with the Shuffle and my phone and a microphone for use with the phone and the voice recording feature in some iPods.

Time Out: History of the Internet

Pam’s House Blend Host Hacked: SoapBlox Closing Up Shop

Pam’s House Blend Host Hacked

See PageOneQ story

Host SoapBlox Closing Up Shop

Fate of the Blend at stake. Pam says she’s “feeling like I want to hurl.”

It was a good ride, but it’s over.

Thanks for all the fish.

All these hackers messing with our stuff, and we here at SoapBlox have no clue what to do. We don’t have enough knowledge, time, money, or care to fix it.

So I hope the Hackers are happy.

If you want the data from your blog, we will get it. But we are not going to try and restore anything.

Consider this the “We’re Out of Business” post.

Most of the servers have been taken off line because they were being used to hack and exploit other websites. The hackers install this crap on servers after they get in. SoapBlox’s ISP then takes the servers off line.

We do not know when they will come back online.

We do not know if they will come back online.

SoapBlox :: Building Online Communities.

Time Out: New MacBook Wheel!

Apple Introduces Revolutionary New Laptop With No Keyboard

I’ll buy almost anything if it’s shiny and made by Apple.

iPhoto ‘09 Knows Your Face

iPhoto ‘09

Building on its predecessor which introduced a feature called “Events” that let you organize photos around specific events, iPhoto ‘09 introduces “Faces.” The software incorporates facial recognition features. The software identifies faces of people in the pictures you take. You can assign them names, then iPhoto adds a snapshot. It uses facial recognition to identify the same person across multiple photos.

Expo: Apple introduces iLife ‘09 | Macworld.

Apple Announces New MacBook Pro 17″, DRM-free songs

From Macworld 2009

It’s getting close to time for an upgrade. I may just have to get one of these laptops.

10:12AM “I’m proud to show you the new 17 inch MacBook Pro — it’s the world’s lightest and thinnest 17 inch notebook.”

I stopped buying from the apple store because of the digital-rights management. Apple noticed:

10:28AM “By the end of this quarter, all 10 million songs will be DRM free.” About time!

Read more at Engadget.