The New IPod Shuffle: It Talks, But is Has No Buttons

Yesterday Apple released the third generation Ipod Shuffle. It is the first MP3 player that talks, which is really cool, but it is also the first MP3 player with no buttons. In order to make the shuffle smaller, they decided to make all the controls attached to the ear buds.

Now,I am sure you are all thinking that the blind community should be rejoicing. We are and we aren't. Let's talk about the pros and cons of this new device. The first is that the shuffle talks. Before this was released, if a blind person wanted to use an Ipod they had to get a nano, which is almost twice the price of the shuffle. The VoiceOver features on the shuffle seem really cool and I think that Apple is finally realizing that people want to be able to interact with their MP3 players without having to look at a screen. The second pro is that the shuffle will now hold 4 gigs, and let you import playlists. This means that you get the functionality of the nano, minus the screen, which the blind doesn't care about anyway.

Those are the pros, but here are the cons. The first is that there are no buttons on the device itself. All of the controls are on the earbuds that come with the device. This means that you have to use earbuds to control your Ipod. I don't know about you, but I hate earbuds. They don't fit in my ears, and if I where them too long they hurt my ears. I understand they were trying to make it easier, but I am not sure they succeeded. The second con is the size. Smaller is not always better. The shuffle does come with a clip so that it stays on your person while you're listening to it, but what happens when you put it down and you can't remember where you put it? And if you're a woman with a big purse, you're going to have to put it in it's own special pocket or it will surely be lost forever.

So here are my conclusions. I applaud Apple for continuing to make their products accessible. I am writing this on my Macbook, and I am really starting to love VoiceOver. But the whole no buttons thing, and it being tiny enough to easily lose means I probably won't spend my money on the new shuffle. I am wondering what the response will be.

You can read about the new shuffle and all of it's features here, and you can read another cometary about the lack of buttons here.