All sound, no sale: iPod Shuffle

Just played around with the new iPod Shuffle, and I gotta say, I don’t get it.

Maybe it’s just my fuddyduddyness talking, but in an age when we can cram more and more information into personal mobile devices, why would I want one that takes me back to the dark ages?

The $79 iPod Shuffle, for those of you who haven’t seen it, is a tiny device full of coolth. About the size of a domino, it comes in black or silver, has an integrated belt clip, an earphone jack and a little mechanical switch to set playing mode. That’s it.

Obvious question: How the heck do you navigate playlists, songs and volume if there are no controls?

Less obvious answer: You use the earphones. The crummy, lousy, I’ve-got-scabs-in-my-ears* earbuds that Apple supplies with its mobile devices. The new Shuffle puts play and volume controls on the earphone cord and you tap different places to do different things:

• Tap the top, and it gets louder; tap the bottom, and the volume drops
• Tap the center, and you start or pause
• Double-tap the center, and you change songs
• Tap the center and hold, and it tells you which song you’re listening to
• Tap the center and hold for awhile, and tells you which playlist you’re on, then recites a list of your playlists. Tap again to choose a new list.

Do you see the problem(s)? First, this thing holds 1,000 songs–do I really want to stand there and listen while a 1990s computer voice recites all the titles? When they do that to me in voicemail, I hang up and find another company.

BTW… for reasons I can’t quite fathom, the sex of the Shuffle voice changes with platform. If you synch with iTunes on a Mac, you get a boy. If you’re using Windows, you get a girl.

Second, the first thing any smart person does after buying an Apple musical device is go buy another headset. A good headset is not cheap, and Apple has now ensured that the ones you’ve got won’t work with this device.

As for positional tapping, I bought a Jawbone Bluetooth headset for Gigi-the-iPhone and I love it, but the positional tapping drives me crazy. I’ve learned not to try to adjust it during a phone call, even if it feels as if it’s falling out of my ear, because I *will* hang up on my caller.

Moot point, really, because Gigi supplies all my music, although the blurbly Apple saleschick suggested that I’d want a Shuffle, too, “for when you’re running or rowing and working out really hard, because you don’t want your iPhone to get wet.”

Hmmmm. I think I’ll sit this one out. BTW, Apple’s got a good deal on the old, bigger-with-controls Shuffles on its clearance site: $59. Seems like a reasonable deal.

_____________

*Not that you needed to know that…

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