Apple's latest digital music device, the iPod shuffle, is shaped like a long, thin rectangle with beveled edges. Clad in white with a grey button interface laid out similarly to the iPod and iPod mini's clickwheel. It measures smaller than a pack of gum and weighs less than four quarters. Available in 512MB for US$99, or 1GB for $149.
"We are shipping them out of the factory starting today," said Jobs.
A cap on the bottom hides a USB 2.0 connector. You pop it off and plug it in to a PC or Mac's available port. An optional lanyard lets you wear it around your neck.
"Autofill" is a new feature in iTunes that will automatically build a playlist that will fit on your iPod shuffle.
iPod marketshare has doubled since January 2004 from 31 to 65 percent, while flash memory-based players have dwindled from 63 percent to 29 percent. "The iPod mini worked," said Jobs. And the next step is for Apple to go after the flash market, he added.
A tortured user interface, absence of click wheels, and very small displays are the hallmarks of the flash player, Jobs said, displaying an image of a Rio Sport.
"Shuffling" songs is an enormously popular way for portable music listeners to listen to their songs, according to Jobs, hence the name.
Same source as the $500 mac! topic's quote.
Posted by Scott R (Member # 567) on :
Grarh!
No images! Torg want images!
Posted by BannaOj (Member # 3206) on :
What is this? Apple discount day?
AJ
Posted by TheTick (Member # 2883) on :
It's Macworld, where they announce a bunch of new products.
Posted by fugu13 (Member # 2859) on :
The Macworld Keynote address.
These are newly announced products.
Other products include the next version of apple's presentation software (named Keynote, oddly enough), a new Apple word processor (Pages), some more details about Apple's next generation operating system, et cetera.
Posted by fugu13 (Member # 2859) on :
And Torg will have to deal with hot off the presses information not involving pictures (the servers with feeds are overloaded enough as it is) .
However, the Apple store should be back up and running any time now (they take it down during the keynote), and it will have pictures.
Posted by fugu13 (Member # 2859) on :
Correction, the store will be available once they've figured out a way to deal with the (I'd guess) unprecendented number of visitors (given the price range on the new iPod).
edit: okay, store's fine now. Pics right up front.
[ January 11, 2005, 02:10 PM: Message edited by: fugu13 ]
Posted by dabbler (Member # 6443) on :
here for iPod Shuffle, in case you want an easy link.
here for the Mac mini as well.
Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
"A tortured user interface, absence of click wheels, and very small displays are the hallmarks of the flash player, Jobs said, displaying an image of a Rio Sport."
So Jobs is "fixing" this by removing the display and making the only user interface a click wheel? *wry laugh*
I love the in-your-face audaciousness of Apple's marketing department: "Okay, we have this device that doesn't allow users to select what song they want to play next, since we don't want to put a teeny little screen on there. So they're stuck playing the songs in order or shuffling randomly. How do we sell this to them?" "I know! Let's call it the iPod shuffle, indicating that this was a deliberate design decision on our part to make their life both easier and randomly exciting!"
[ January 11, 2005, 03:37 PM: Message edited by: TomDavidson ]
Posted by dabbler (Member # 6443) on :
Compare it to a CD player.
Oh no! One CD! I can only go forward and back in the order of the given tracks or random! Size of a CD!
Tom, it's different from the iPod. It's geared toward someone who will toss on a few dozen songs and go running. Then they'll go put on a different set when heading to the gym.
Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :
90% of my MP3 player usage would be fore audio books. This would make listening to audio books --- different.
Posted by dabbler (Member # 6443) on :
You're not required to use the random function. You can listen to the playlist in a set order. You're just limited to a single playlist as far as I know.
Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
"Tom, it's different from the iPod. It's geared toward someone who will toss on a few dozen songs and go running. Then they'll go put on a different set when heading to the gym."
Yes, but it's also different from other flash players, which -- although they have tiny screens -- also allow you to pick from multiple playlists and select specific songs.
I don't see what Apple's bringing to the table here except the little scroll wheel, which isn't all that useful in this context.
Posted by dabbler (Member # 6443) on :
it's cheap, light, and supports an interesting "autofill" feature they made.
Posted by fugu13 (Member # 2859) on :
Given the extreme success of pretty much every apple UI choice people have poopoo'd for similar reasons as you're doing, Tom, I rather think I'm betting on apple being right and not you.
Posted by Quetzalcoatl the Burninator (Member # 7261) on :
Tom — quit being a curmudgeon.
**burninates Tom for free**
Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
"I rather think I'm betting on apple being right and not you."
Oh, as I've said before, I'm always surprised out there by the number of people who're willing to buy crap because it's cute.
Posted by Kwea (Member # 2199) on :
Not to mention the number of people who complain about something....just because everyone else thinks it is cute....
Kwea
Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
"Not to mention the number of people who complain about something..."
Hey, what I complain about is the hype. See, I wouldn't mind if the Second Coming of Christ was available in Quicktime format alone; it's only when the Faithful treat a crippled MP3 player as a work of design genius that I find myself rolling my eyes.
Posted by fugu13 (Member # 2859) on :
Perhaps I'll put it this way -- a lot of people said similar things about the iPod user interface when Jobs announced it, but not only did it sell a bundle, its glowingly reviewed by pretty much all the people who bought it.
I think you'll find there're a lot of people out there who don't use the LCD screen hardly at all on their mp3 player, but just put a bunch of songs on it they like/are in the mood for, attach earplugs, stick it in a pocket, and go. I know I see literally hundreds of people using it like that around campus.
I bet that the classic design adage is true here: less is more.
Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
This may be why I find the Mac aesthetic so unappealing -- and bafflingly sterile, even. In general, I LIKE having more options at my fingertips.
Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :
I use all 3 mouse buttons plus the roller on a regular basis. Can't stand Mac mice. I know the other mice work with them, but why a single-button mouse? And why one where the whole body is the button? That was just dumb.
Posted by fugu13 (Member # 2859) on :
Two reasons:
1) Steve Jobs is stubborn (this is why only 1 button mice on all macs).
2) User studies with new users consistently show that single button mice are adapted to far, far more quickly, and given my experience with tech support, where I had to teach some people to use the mouse (over the phone), I'm not surprised at all. This is why only 1 button mice should be on lower end (non-professional) macs, at least by default.
However, in this case all can rejoice, the Mac mini comes with no mice by default, and its page mentions it'll work plug and play with two button mice (with scroll wheel).
Posted by fugu13 (Member # 2859) on :
Perhaps thats your personal preference, Tom, but there's a long, long history of industrial design that verifies its not true for most users .
Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :
I've always hated UI design that cripples the advanced user in order to help the new user. Especially forced use of wizards - almost everyone is letting the multi-page wizard interface become the default. Edit: By default, I really meant "only option." Wizards are fine, but let me turn them off individually.
I like one solid page of options and a "Go" button. And if they let me use text configuration, even better!
Dagonee
[ January 11, 2005, 08:12 PM: Message edited by: Dagonee ]
Posted by fugu13 (Member # 2859) on :
That's actually one of the things OS X has done best, Dag. For instance the defaults system in OS X, particularly because app writers now use Cocoa Bindings, its possible to customize huge amounts of stuff about applications from the command line, even if its not exposed to a user in the GUI.
As far as the new iPod, they wanted to make it really dang small, as cheap as possible, and really easy to use. A screen would get in the way of all of those.
Its sort of like the iPod. When it came out, people started saying how there was no way a single button could replicate all the functions of the older multi-button setups -- and it doesn't. Instead, it replaces many of the functions with new functions, which work better.
Similarly on the iPod Shuffle. Those people who want to find a particular song likely have an idea where on the playlist it is, and then only need to audially scan quickly through a few songs. I bet your typical user will find it in about the same amount of time as it would take someone scanning through choices on a screen, particularly if the conditions aren't good for reading the screen, as they so often aren't.
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