Apple's latest iPod shuffle sells for $79 (direct)—twenty bucks less than the feature-barren original—and sports a laudable 4GB in its practically minuscule frame. The tiny player has learned some new tricks, too. Most notably, it "talks" to you in a charming robotic voice, using a new feature called VoiceOver that identifies songs at the press of a button, and informs you when your battery is low. Alas, there are drawbacks: The playback controls are absent from the player itself (they're relegated to the earbud cord) and in true shuffle fashion, there's still no screen or FM radio. For some, the price, storage space, and slick, minimal design might compensate for the shuffle's many shortcomings, but Sandisk's Sansa Clip is a better deal.
Measuring 1.8 by 0.7 by 0.3-inches (HWD) and weighing a feathery 0.38 ounce, this Lilliputian player looks a bit like a USB thumb drive, but even smaller and thinner. And it sports what Apple calls a "highly recyclable" black (which looks more like dark gray to us) or silver brushed-aluminum enclosure. A switch on the top panel toggles between three modes: Shuffle, Play in Order, or Power Off. The earphone jack sits right next to the switch, and a shiny metallic shirt clip (branded with the Apple logo) runs along the length of the back panel. That's all there is—talk about minimalist.
Because the earbuds house the controls that the player itself lacks, ditching them, at least for now, is not a possibility. Apple reps assured me that several third-party manufacturers, such as Etymotic Research, will be creating earphones with integrated shuffle controls, as well as adapters soon, but it's unclear exactly when. So buying a new shuffle today means accepting Apple's earbuds—for now. A way-too-short USB cable is included to connect the player to your computer—it plugs into the 3.5mm headphone jack.
A very welcome addition is the ability to load your playlists (previous shuffles didn't support this feature). VoiceOver will even try to pronounce your playlist's title for you, but anyone who's experienced Apple's previous text-to-speech efforts (or Radiohead's OK Computer) knows a forgiving ear is required. VoiceOver is actually more of an iTunes feature than a shuffle one, but this happens to be the first iPod to use it and Apple won't say whether it plans to add it to future versions of the touch, classic, or nano. When you sync your shuffle to iTunes, you get the option to enable or disable VoiceOver.
One cool thing about VoiceOver: If it detects that some of your music is, say, German or Italian (it knows 14 languages), it will announce the title in that tongue, accent and all. I got a kick out of it, but if it happens to irk you, go to the Get Info menu for the affected songs in iTunes and switch the VoiceOver option to English. Or, you can be nerdy and switch all of your song titles to Czech just because you feel like it. Sometimes, the voice gets it wrong, but it's still amusing: There's nothing French about Bernard Herrman's "Psycho Suite," but it was nonetheless endearing to hear it announced in a feminine French accent.
Operating the controls is a snap. The Plus and the Minus buttons adjust the volume, and the unlabeled button in between them controls everything else. One click of the central button plays or pauses, two clicks skips forward, three clicks skips backward (either to the beginning of the current song or to the previous tune, depending how far along in the song you are). If you hold down the button, VoiceOver announces the track and artist you're listening to, and if you continue to hold down the button, you'll hear a beep that signifies you are about to hear a recitation of all your playlists. When you hear the name of the one you want, click the center button once to start listening; if you want to skip through the names of the playlists more quickly, use the Volume Up button. When music is paused, you can still skip songs and hold down the button to hear the robotic voice tell you what's next. It might sound like a lot to remember, but I got used to it quickly.
Still, I wish I could see the buttons more easily—they're built in to the cable so close to your right ear that they're hard to see without craning your neck back. And it bears repeating: These are earbuds—they're not in-ear 'phones—offering an iffy fit and mediocre-at-best audio, so if you're a sound snob, you'll want to hold off purchasing a shuffle until those third-party earphones and adapters hit the shelves.
When your shuffle's battery life dips to 50 percent, 25 percent, or is about to give out, the handy robot voice will tell you so—a thoughtful inclusion given the lack of a screen. Apple rates the iPod shuffle's battery life at a modest 10 hours, which is pretty accurate: Our rundown test got 10 hours and 26 minutes out of the fully charged shuffle. For such a small device, this is a pretty reasonable number.
No FM radio, no screen, and vital controls built-in to mediocre earbuds. Sounds like a clunker, huh? It's not at all, but Apple might do well to realize that smaller and thinner is not always better. I'm willing to bet most people would sacrifice a bit of the frame of the shuffle for a screen or a radio. Still, the sub-$100 MP3 player market is crowded with abysmal devices destined for short lives, but Apple has slowly improved the shuffle—mainly by giving it more storage for less money—and it has become a more reasonable option. But players like the $50 2GB Coby MP705 provide what the shuffle lacks: an FM tuner, a screen, and the ability to upgrade you earphones. Creative's 2GB Zen Stone Plus sports a small screen and costs a mere $18. Neither player, however, is meticulously designed by Apple or can be synched with your iTunes library, and for some, this merits the extra cost. That said, you should consider both before paying $49 for one of the overpriced, last-generation 1GB shuffles that Apple will continue to sell. The same-price Sansa Clip is the real shuffle-killer of the crowd with its 4GB, FM tuner with 20 presets, and built-in mic. And, while it's not an Apple design, it looks pretty cool.
Source : www.pcmag.com
No comments:
Post a Comment