Review: Apple's new, even-tinier Shuffle does iPod proud
— -- With apologies to Dr. Seuss, "An iPod's an iPod no matter how small."
The original $99 iPod Shuffle, released in January 2005, was smaller than a pack of gum and held about 120 songs. Its successor 20 months later dwarfed that to a money clip, and doubled song capacity. It cost $79.
Now we have the talking $79 iPod Shuffle that Apple announced Wednesday. It is closer to a tie clasp and holds roughly 1,000 songs.
Play, pause and volume controls are located in a small remote on the right earbud cord.
I've been testing the diminutive new model for just shy of a week. I like it despite a few downsides such as the lack of a display and the fact that for now you can't use your own headphones. And the first test unit Apple supplied inexplicably stopped working. To be fair, it was preproduction hardware.
Frankly my bias is toward larger players with greater song capacity and a screen that displays song titles, album art and photos. But the step-up to a 2,000-song (and video) iPod Nano is $149. And the Nano is practically a behemoth by comparison.
The lack of a screen is a shortcoming of all Shuffles. It's amazing how often I have no idea what I'm listening to even from my own collection. But a ballyhooed new VoiceOver feature that reads aloud the names of tracks, artists and playlists helps compensate, even if it's in a cadence-challenged robotic voice. The voice feature is available in 14 languages. It also tells you when battery levels are low.
Here's a closer look:
•Design.
It's hard not to be seduced by a player so tantalizingly tiny. Apple's claim for this latest Shuffle is the same as the last — that it's the smallest music player in the world. This time around, it is nearly half the size of its predecessor. It's made of anodized aluminum, weighs well under a half-ounce and measures a mere 0.70 x 1.8 x 0.3 inches.
Though Apple's previous Shuffles were relative dwarfs, too, the units practically screamed "notice me." They came in a variety of bold colors. The new 4-gigabyte flash memory Shuffle — it comes in black or silver — is almost muted by comparison. On the back is a shiny stainless steel clip with the Apple logo that lets you wear it on a lapel, shirt pocket or belt buckle. Or you can bury it in your pocket. Previous Shuffles were also wearable.
