War on buttons? WTH?

I don't particularly like the shuffle anyway. It's rather useless except for working out or a jog. The VoiceOver is just a compromise because there's no screen to even see what the heck you're listening to... and what if you want to use a different headphone? Oops...

I think the Shuffle fills a small niche and thus the impact is probably not that much. Most people probably would opt for at least a nano, which has a screen -- eventually they may all go the iPod Touch way with touchscreen, which is cool. But the Shuffle itself is already pretty useless to me -- I can only listen to the songs in a predefined sequence or in shuffle mode (I guess that's why it's called the Shuffle, uh?) I only got one as a gift and I use it mostly for working out.

But yeah, I think the "no moving part" thing is cool to an extent, but you're not really getting away from buttons -- you must move them to the headphones, and that means you're forbidding your customers to use any third party headphones. Monopoly much?

Sure looks like it's for real.

Here's one that takes the war on buttons a step further, but is NOT real.

Still funny though...

MacBook Wheel

I have a feeling that they want to make the Shuffle so annoying and useless that people will just upgrade to the Nano.

Personally I think they should just get rid of the Shuffle as an entry-level iPod and just stick with the Nano (give it a clip, though, so we don't have to buy a fraking armband). The Nano is small, light, attractive and actually USABLE!


p.s. separate news: did you hear that Bill Gates forbids his family to use any Apple products? Talk about paranoid or control freakish.

I learned to type for a reason. I demand buttons!

Meh.
The MP3/ CD player in my car only lets me listen to songs in a prefined order (or on random) so that doesn't phase me at all. Though, I might have a *little* more functionality with my car's cd player if I had a remote... but there's still no screen bigger than a line.

And once upon a time, CD players didn't even tell you what song you were listening to.

But I don't like itty bitty electronic devices. I have enough trouble being afraid of losing my precious... I mean,my flash drive, and that's even after I attached an old camera wrist strap to the end so it's easier to keep track of.

Of course, I don't own *any* MP3 player at all.

Kind of a dumb move on Apple's part. They removed the buttons and put them on a component (the headphones) which is most likely to fail at some point.

I mean, how small does the thing really need to be? Maybe they should just implant the ipod chip in our brains and be done with it.

BiggerBoat said:

I mean, how small does the thing really need to be? Maybe they should just implant the ipod chip in our brains and be done with it.

Click to expand...

I have a feeling in the future the whole thing would be built into the wireless headphones. Solid state storage and miniature circuitry is going to make devices so small that they'll fit into anything, and what's better than just a set of headphones? So, all you have to do is take your "headphones" with you and you're set.

I was reading more about the new Shuffle and really thought it was a step in the wrong direction. The specs sound awesome -- 4GB storage, etc. Ooooh, 1000 songs! Except you don't have a way of randomly accessing any songs. No screen, no buttons... (no EQ, etc.) You have to do everything (via playlists) on the computer first. That's so stupid. That's why I don't really use my Shuffle to begin with -- it's not self-contained.

Just dumb.

Wow, it looks awesome!

Ugh I hate the new shuffle especially since it has a proprietary chip for the controls. Yes it looks really nice, but what happens when my cat decides my headphones are the best chew toy on the world.

I'm a huge fan of Apple products, but I definitely think this time they went to far going for design over function.