Apple unveils redesigned iPod shuffle with speech technology
Apple on Wednesday introduced an all-new iPod shuffle that's nearly half the size of the previous model and includes speech technology, making it the first music player "that talks to you."
New Aluminum Design
The third generation shuffle (guided tour) is significantly smaller than a AA battery, holds up to 1,000 songs with its 4GB of built-in storage, and is controlled exclusively through buttons located on the earphone cord that ships with the player. It features a new aluminum design with a built-in stainless steel clip that makes it wearable like the previous-generation model.
VoiceOver Speech Technology
A new VoiceOver feature (demo) also allows the player to speak your song titles, artists and playlist names. With the press of a button (demo), you can play, pause, adjust volume, switch playlists and hear the name of the song and artist.
"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."
iPod shuffle is based on Apple's popular shuffle feature, which randomly selects songs from your music library. So when you can't remember the name of a song or an artist playing, with the press of a button iPod shuffle tells you the name of the song and artist.
The new iPod shuffle can also tell you status information, such as battery life. It speaks 14 languages including English, Czech, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish.
Dimensions and Battery Life
Available in silver or black, the new shuffles retain their crown as "the smallest music players" with a new 1.8-inch tall x 0.3-inch thin design the weighs just 0.38 ounces. Expected battery life from the built-in rechargeable lithium polymer battery is said to be "up to 10 hours" on a full charge. Depleted batteries will reportedly recharge to 80% of their capacity in 2 hours, or 100% in 3 hours.
Environment and box contents
In line with AppleÂ?s continuing environmental progress, the third-generation shuffle is made with a highly recyclable aluminum enclosure and is free of Brominated flame retardants and PVC.
Inside each iPod shuffle box, which is similar to the previous generation's plastic capsule, you'll find a pair of Apple Earphones withÂ*Remote, an iPod shuffle USB dock sync cable (1.8 in/45 mm), a quick start guide, and the player itself.
Pricing and Availability
The third generation 4GB iPod shuffle is now shipping for $79 (US) through the Apple Store, Apple's retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers. Each model comes with the Apple Earphones with Remote and the iPod shuffle USB cable.
iPod shuffle requires a Mac with a USB 2.0 port, Mac OS X v10.4.11 or later and iTunes 8.1 or later; or a Windows PC with a USB 2.0 port and Windows Vista, Windows XP Home or Professional (Service Pack 3) or later and iTunes 8.1.
iTunes 8.1 Due Shortly
The most current version of iTunes is 8.0.2, suggesting iTunes 8.1 will arrive momentarily.
New Aluminum Design
The third generation shuffle (guided tour) is significantly smaller than a AA battery, holds up to 1,000 songs with its 4GB of built-in storage, and is controlled exclusively through buttons located on the earphone cord that ships with the player. It features a new aluminum design with a built-in stainless steel clip that makes it wearable like the previous-generation model.
VoiceOver Speech Technology
A new VoiceOver feature (demo) also allows the player to speak your song titles, artists and playlist names. With the press of a button (demo), you can play, pause, adjust volume, switch playlists and hear the name of the song and artist.
"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."
iPod shuffle is based on Apple's popular shuffle feature, which randomly selects songs from your music library. So when you can't remember the name of a song or an artist playing, with the press of a button iPod shuffle tells you the name of the song and artist.
The new iPod shuffle can also tell you status information, such as battery life. It speaks 14 languages including English, Czech, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish.
Dimensions and Battery Life
Available in silver or black, the new shuffles retain their crown as "the smallest music players" with a new 1.8-inch tall x 0.3-inch thin design the weighs just 0.38 ounces. Expected battery life from the built-in rechargeable lithium polymer battery is said to be "up to 10 hours" on a full charge. Depleted batteries will reportedly recharge to 80% of their capacity in 2 hours, or 100% in 3 hours.
Environment and box contents
In line with AppleÂ?s continuing environmental progress, the third-generation shuffle is made with a highly recyclable aluminum enclosure and is free of Brominated flame retardants and PVC.
Inside each iPod shuffle box, which is similar to the previous generation's plastic capsule, you'll find a pair of Apple Earphones withÂ*Remote, an iPod shuffle USB dock sync cable (1.8 in/45 mm), a quick start guide, and the player itself.
Pricing and Availability
The third generation 4GB iPod shuffle is now shipping for $79 (US) through the Apple Store, Apple's retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers. Each model comes with the Apple Earphones with Remote and the iPod shuffle USB cable.
iPod shuffle requires a Mac with a USB 2.0 port, Mac OS X v10.4.11 or later and iTunes 8.1 or later; or a Windows PC with a USB 2.0 port and Windows Vista, Windows XP Home or Professional (Service Pack 3) or later and iTunes 8.1.
iTunes 8.1 Due Shortly
The most current version of iTunes is 8.0.2, suggesting iTunes 8.1 will arrive momentarily.
Comments
Sounds cool, might pick one up for the gym.
Shuffles look SWEET btw.
hmmm, so it cant be used with anything other than Apple headphones?
That is NOT cool. Apple must be making a ton off headphone sales. Ugly move.
Looks cool! But, now you're locked in to Apple earbuds for basic control? I like to use my current Shuffle with Etymotic ER-4Ps at the gym...better sound quality and blocks off the gym music being played too loudly. There are times when I would like to check on song and artist info though, that's a plus, and double capacity.
Here's what I just posted on the other thread about the new shuffles
How many of those are there? Does anyone make an adaptor that has controls and a socket that any third-party headphones can plug in to?
I know that a few V-MODA, SHURE, and others have playback controls (with a mic).
And Griffin has something like what I think you're talking about. I didn't look into it too much, but here's a link. Maybe you can research more.
hopefully the same functionality of the remote will work on the Shuffles too
the only thing im not sure of is if they changed the remote headphones too (because of how the new voice talk feature works)
Uhhhh, that's not significantly smaller than a AA battery.
AA battery volume is .39 cu. in.
Apple says volume of the new Shuffle is .26 Cu. in.
That would make the shuffle 2/3 the volume of the AA battery
And, (I think) qualifies as 'significantly smaller'
By the way, surprise surprise surprise! Apple really does think that they don't need event so much anymore to announce products. They are still going to need the WWDC to announce the new iphone though.
Here's what I just posted on the other thread about the new shuffles
hopefully the same functionality of the remote will work on the Shuffles too
the only thing im not sure of is if they changed the remote headphones too (because of how the new voice talk feature works)
Thanks for the link! I'm glad there's some options out there. I think I'd be more likely to use one of those for my iPhone than a Shuffle. I like the simplicity and small size of the current shuffle, without having to carry around an adapter.
Here's what I just posted on the other thread about the new shuffles
hopefully the same functionality of the remote will work on the Shuffles too
the only thing im not sure of is if they changed the remote headphones too (because of how the new voice talk feature works)
I don't know if Shure updated their product, but the version I bought didn't have any volume controls. I didn't see any mention of volume controls with the ones linked at iLounge either. The items don't appear to have them.
I need to replace my Shure mic adapter, I miss it. It's easy to lose. The weak link on that product is that clip fell off and it's hard to use the product without a clip, and I lost any motivation to find it because of that. I would like to see some conventional headphones with those controls built into the cable.
Wow. Wow wow wow.
An amazing bit of tech in a small package.
At first I thought they borrowed this from the Nike+ system, but I believe that's recorded snippets, this has to be engineered from VoiceOver.
Umm.....it would seem the new player talks to you and you don't have to talk to it. So why do you all believe we have to use an Apple set of earbuds?
The controls, including play button, are built into the earbuds. There are no control buttons on the player. Without an adapter, you'd have no way to have it play music, nor pause, volume control, etc.
Looks nice but i can think of nothing worse than an Ipod trying to speak the names and titles to the music i would keep on there...
It looks like it doesn't do it by default, only on request:
Quoting Apple.com:
VoiceOver. It speaks for itself.
With the press of a button, VoiceOver tells you what song is playing and who's performing it.2 It tells you the names of your playlists, too.