Apple revamps the iPod Shuffle

Apple has announced a new version of the iPod Shuffle that seeks to overcome the biggest drawback to the company’s pint-sized player: The lack of a screen to display information on what’s playing. The fix?  The new Shuffle, available now for $79, will read that information to you.

Squeeze a remote found on the cord for the right earbud, Apple says, and a synthetic VoiceOver feature will read the name of the song that’s playing, and the artist. And where the old Shuffle allowed for only a single playlist, the new one allows multiple lists; you select among them also using the remote. VoiceOver will speak in 14 different languages, including Mandarin, Swedish, and Greek.

At 4 gigabytes (GB), enough to hold about 1,000 songs, the new Shuffle doubles the capacity of the old 2 GB Shuffle. The 1GB, $49 version will remain available but will seemingly be unchanged; that is, it won’t talk to you.

The 4GB Shuffle is also about half the size of the old models, at 1.8 in. x 0.7 in. x 0.3 in., and is also lighter (at 3.8 oz. vs. 5 oz. for the predecessors).

We'll try out the Shuffle’s new features soonest, to report back on the degree to which they compensate for what have always been significant snags to Apple’s pint-sized iPod. In the meantime, check out our Ratings of iPods and other MP3 players (available to subscribers), including the older Shuffle that remains available.

—Mike Gikas

Comments

[Kim Price]

What a disappointment. The controls integrated into the headphones is a deal killer for me, as I actually like to do stuff, like go to the gym, with my MP3 player and cannot keep the Apple ear buds in my ears.

My husband doesn't listen to music at the gym, but requires after market ear buds to block out the typical noise on the street or on transit, otherwise, he is forced to turn the volume up to an ear damaging volume to hear his podcasts.

Once again, Apple thinks they are better than they are, but thousands of Apple fansters will think this iPod is the coolest thing yet - especially with the newfangled multiple playlist option.

For the record, we do own hard drive based iPods (Touch, 5th generation video + 2 others), but no Apple product has ever been one of my many workout MP3 players because I require a flash based product, because with those, Apple has always been at least one, and usually more, steps behind. Heck, my Blackberry is a better flash MP3 player than what Apple puts out.