News Report #5

"New, smaller iPod Shuffle gets the power of speech"
Ben Patterson, Yahoo
3/11/09
http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/patterson/43468

In this article, they discuss the new iPod shuffle. The new shuffle features many add-ons and on the surface appears to be a top notch innovation. It is about a half the size of the old shuffle and is actually a little smaller than the size of AA batteries. It no longer has controls for the play/pause or volume on the face. Instead there is a new in-line remote on the earphone cord. Also the shuffle offers a VoiceOver application. Since the new shuffle doesn’t have an LCD screen to tell you what song is playing and who the artist is, if you just press and hold the center key of the shuffle's in-line remote to hear the VoiceOver speak. The VoiceOver will also tell you a list of play list and after hearing the one you want to listen to, just click play. There were a few negative draw backs noted. Third party earphones for the shuffle will not work properly, until someone creates additional earphones with in-line remotes. The other problem noted was the VoiceOver sounded robotic and you didn’t have the option of choosing a man or woman’s voice. The new shuffle comes with 4GB of storage for just $79.

I am in love with this new gadget. I am amazed at how small they have made this, “the size of a AA battery” blows my mind. My only concern would be that I would lose something that small. My current iPod is the original iPod that came out in 2005. It is the same size of my cell phone and has 4GB of storage. This new shuffle is ten times smaller and has the same amount of storage and even for a better price than I originally paid for mine. I see the authors point about the earphone situation, that can be a problem but I’m sure apple will have a solution for that. Overall, this sounds like a good item and shows our advancement in technology today.