http://www.apple.com/ipodshuffle/ And coming in at £69 and £99 respectively in the UK. I'd probably snap one up if I hadn't bought myself a 20GB model just before Christmas. I reckon it looks pretty nifty, especially at those prices.
Im sure they could've added a cheap little LCD screen on that thing. I think it sucks you have to seek through the whole Ipaq just to find a song.
that sucks if you cant select a song and it just shuffles them. if you can then its a great deal. how many songs does it hold? around 200 or so, face it even the ipod mini holds 1000, who has that many songs, and the regular one has 10,000, i couldnt even imagine having that many songs. and by the looks of things, it does just shuffle through your songs. just read the side, on the back you can decide if you want the songs in order, or shuffled.
LMAO. Anyone read the disclaimer at the bottom of the ipod shuffle page? It says "Do not eat IPOD Shuffle" - I suspect that's because the have a pic comparing it to various packs of gum. Amazing that we need to be protected like this....
You can select the song, it doesn't have to shuffle, you just have no screen to see what's being played. I guess it's designed for those who know what's on there rather than those with immense collections they aren't familiar with I imagine people will chuck an album or two on there for their journeys to/from work and change that every day. It'll sell millions.
I think it will sell alot. Ipod sales have gone up over 500% in the past quarter, and computer sales up 10%. As far as songs, with the 60GB ipod photo, if you have the recommended song size, you could play the ipod for 45 days, 24/7 w/o hearing a repeat song. But they are overpriced IMO.
You _can_ turn off the shuffling if you want, and move forward/back through your playlist with the buttons on the front. You can also skip songs in the shuffle sequence with the buttons. I think the concept is great. Just think about it - every morning, you plug the thing into your computer, and get a randomly selected assortment of songs from your collection (or some subset thereof) automatically downloaded to it. You carry it with you all day, going about your business, and, just after you return home at the end of the day, you run out of music (assuming you're been listening all day). Repeat next morning, and you'll get a different selection of songs. The whole point is the simplicity. There's another advantage, too. I have a 3rd gen iPod which I don't use at all, because it's bulky, heavy, and fragile. This, on the other hand, is small, light and durable. I'll be able to take it everywhere with little inconvenience - it's smaller than most USB memory sticks! Also, imagine if you could plug it into a USB port somewhere in your car, and then play songs through your stereo system... EDIT: And, it's a USB memory stick to boot, so you can also use it to store/transport files.
I think it only cheapens the brand a little more. I had an ipod before the thing got really popular (arrival of 4G + cheaper prices). Now I walk around and see tons of people with the white earphones (I have a pair of the in-ears, marginally better, more comfrtable, and bass vs. no bass in the stock ones, but definitely now considering a change to a different set). The arrival of this means even more of the white earphones. It seems to be the trend now though, with other companies offering white earphones as standard equipment (notably Creative with the zen micro, Olympus, and a host of others). The Ipod Shuffle's novelty is that it does not have an lcd. As Alex said, it shuffles the songs on its own and you end up getting a random song/playlist when you turn it on. As for it's USB capability, basically it's a flash drive with audio player capabilities. Not a bad price for one (you can get a 1 gig flash drive for about $60). Although some cars offer plugs to install in the cars to plug the normal ipod in (via dock connector) (not necessary to wire up a USB plug). An alternative to this would be the Creative Zen Micro. 5gb and it fits into the palm of your hand with room to spare. A friend got one recently and it's not a bad little thing. It has a resonably sized lcd and even a radio tuner.
You say this as if it's a bad thing. White earphones used to mean "iPod, stick a knife in his ribs and take it", now everyone's got them it doesn't matter .
