march2009ipodshuffle10

Completely redesigned to look like a fancy cigarette lighter (just kidding) Apple has introduced the brand new 4 GB iPod Shuffle.  The design which is pretty nice, brings more space for more music and a new way to select the songs, playlist or artist you want to hear.   You may have noticed that there is no click wheel.  Apple did away with it to add “VoiceOver” which is how users select.  A voice will tell you what song, artist and all the rest that you are used to seeing, through the earbuds.

Introducing VoiceOver.

Musically speaking, the new iPod shuffle is brilliant, thanks to an exciting new feature called VoiceOver. Say you’re listening to a song and want to know the title or the artist. With the press of a button, VoiceOver tells you as the music dips down. It even announces the names of your playlists. And when your battery needs charging, VoiceOver tells you that, too.

Multiple playlists.

You’ve probably made multiple playlists in iTunes. One for your commute. One for the gym. One for just chilling out. With the new iPod shuffle, you can sync your playlists and always find the perfect mix for your activity or mood. VoiceOver tells you the name of each playlist, so it’s easy to switch between them and find the one you want without looking.

Multi-music-lingual.

A French love song. A Spanish bolero. An Italian cantata. Your music library has songs from all over the world. That’s why VoiceOver speaks 14 different languages. So it can tell you song titles and artists in the correct languages.

Shuffle. Straight. Stop.

The shuffle switch has three positions. Flip it to the left, and your music shuffles for a “whatever happens, happens” flow. Flip it to the middle, and your songs play in order. Or flip to the right to turn it off.

Not too shabby for $80.  The new 4GB iPod Shuffle is available now.

Apple Store