New Shuffle Shrinks More?

Today Apple released a new form factor for the Shuffle with even smaller (!) physical size and larger capacity, plus a new VoiceOver function for navigating. The (3g?) Shuffle has shrunk to smaller than a typical house key, and is so tiny you can only control it via the included Apple earbud’s cord (yuck!). This suggests that you need to use Apple’s crappy earbuds, or some 3rd party head phones with compatible controls. The new Shuffle also has a 4GB capacity, the same as my old 1G iPod Nano. Apple currently is only offering two colors, grey and black. The Voice Over feature will announce the upcoming tune, and (for the first time) allow you to navigate through different playlists via CG voice choices. VoiceOver works in 14 languages, apparently.

My take - I haven’t seen or used one of these yet (nor do I have a shuffle), but I feel shrinking the shuffle further seems pointless. With the current monochrome color choices, these will be easy to misplace or lose entirely if you drop it. Limiting users to certain headphones with inset controls (or just Apple buds) also feels like a bad move. Those buttons on the Apple Earbuds look pretty tiny to me! The last gen Shuffles seemed just right for manipulating controls with average sized fingers, plus the color choice was good for individualization. My guess is the cost to manufacture the new Shuffle is considerably less, with very few moving parts in a one piece shell. However, until I can see one in person, I’ll hold further judgement.

UPDATE: Looks like you MUST use the Apple Earbuds, at least until 3rd party controllers step up. Plus using the new Shuffle ain’t no party compared to the last one. Engadget’s send up of the situtation is priceless. It’s seems analogous to using QuickSilver on a Mac with no keyboard or monitor - just audio output.

Nano and Classic - Inferior?

A friend of mine took some time to look over the new iPod Classic and iPod Nano at Bic Camera in Shinjuku today. His comments were a bit surprising, but not unexpected.

He sent me a phone message saying that the new iPods were very sluggish, with a 1 second delay when trying to browse via coverflow. I sort of expected this new UI would tax any processor, but assumed Apple would use the appropriate components to avoid this. I asked him for clarifications on sluggishness with Coverflow turned off and this is part of the email he sent me. Keep in mind that this was someone who was set to buy a high capacity classic after seeing the product introductions on the 5th.

"Now that I've had a day for the new releases to sink in and actually touched 2 of the 3 new releases, I think this was a very poor, if not terrible set of updates. The nano is pretty much unusable, especially with my man-sized hands. The scroll wheel is very narrow, and slick, and unresponsive, then add in the frequent delays even in non-graphical menus like settings, never mind when you are looking at album art and other stuff, and you get a very poor user experience. Cover flow is just one option once you click on Music, along with the usual albums, artists, songs, etc. The edges on the nano are razor sharp as well, not something you want to hold and fondle in your hand like the 4g iPod and all earlier versions."

Wow! I don't think he will be the only one to have this impression on the UI and reponsiveness. If this is the case, Apple has made a huge boo-boo. Perhaps some of this can be addressed via an update to iPod firmware.

I'm also surprised about the click wheel. I don't have big hands, but fairly thick fingers and I can use my 1G Nano's click wheel easily. Did Apple use a smaller click wheel on this fatter Nano? He goes on about the edges on the Nano and the Classic.

"I read an article online by some guy who said one of the big subconscious reasons why people wanted an iPod so much was that it was so comfortable and sexy to hold with it's totally round and smooth edges. I love that feature of my 4G iPod and that was one big reason why I was unmotivated to buy a 5G, sharp edges.

The silver classic looks great, like a true Powerbook accessory, but again, has rough edges. And the UI is possibly even slower on the classic than the nano, also the clickwheel is very unresponsive and slick, but at least its a decent size.

I put hands on both classics on display, both sluggish UI's, and one nano, also sluggish..."

I kind of like the shape of my 3G iPod too, but I never had a 5G or used a 5G long enough to have an opinion about the edges. My 1G Nano has sharp edges and I sort of like that form factor more than the 2G Nanos. I'm very surprised to hear that the Classics may be more sluggish than the Nanos. You have to wonder what Apple has done here. Maybe these new hard drives' access speeds are not all that great?

He goes on to disparage what others did about the 3G Nano even before they were released - the shape.

"The nano fatty just looks bad. In person it looks like a horrible square. In hand it feels cumbersome. The rectangle is the ideal shape for an iPod. They've screwed themselves now with the nano. It has a silver metal back as usual, I read somewhere it was all aluminum like the 2G nano and mini, but that's not true, highly scratchable steel on back as always."

If someone like him (a Mac guy) dislikes these new iPods, I can't help but wonder if others feel the same way. Combined with what I feel are awful colors, maybe Apple has lost its aesthetic edge.

If others have seen these units in person - let me know.

Update:
I had a chance to look at new Nano and Classic at an electronics retailer in Machida. I have to second the comments above. UI is sluggish with both iPods, worse for the Classic. And the edges are definitely uncool, unpleasant even. You won't want to hold these for long. The problem is the bevel on the front - the corner is just awful. It gives these iPods a cheap, unfinished, poorly designed feel. I can't understand why Apple would do this. I'm hoping that the Touch has a nicer feel to it.

I also spoke with my brother (Windoze User / Mac Hater) about the Touch to get his impressions. He didn't pay attention to the event or even bother to look into these units. When I explained a few details about the Touch, he sounded impressed with the screen but was very disappointed about the storage limitation. He wanted to know why Apple couldn't at least make the thing upgradeable with flash memory cards or something like that. You see this in plenty of phones these days, and some mp3 players had slots for this. I can see his thinking - but wonder if compatibility issues with flash cards (like I have with my SD card) are one reason for omitting these slots.

New iPods - Oh My

Greetings from Typhoon Central! We are taking a direct hit from typhoon #9 (they are numbered in Japan) in a few hours. Since I'm inland, it won't be so bad.

Stayed up last night to watch the product intros. Most of you probably know the basic details. So, I'll give you my take.

iTunes Ringtones for iPhone
Apple is making it possible for folks to use parts of or make their own ring tones from their purchased iTunes audio content. $0.99 per pop.

The Good
Apparently, this price is cheaper than usual ringtones. (I wouldn't know, as I wouldn't pay much for something like that).

The Bad
Wait a minute - don't we already own these songs?

The Ugly
Profiteering at it's worst. First, they want us to pay for the songs TWICE. Second, isn't the whole purpose of a music phone to be able to use your own music however you like on the phone? It's inconceivable Apple would hose its customers as such. My bet is that ringtones sales are lack luster.

3G Nano "phatty"
Stubby design with wider screen (2"), can now play vids. Kinda like a sawed off 5G iPod. Curves of the nano and the new iPod classic remind me of those old Airstream metallic trailers.

The Good
Can play vids, comes with 3 free games, same price points. Coverflow (if you like that nonsense).

The Bad
Screen horribly small for vids, same size options.

The Ugly
The stubby wide design is fugly to some. The new colors for nano and shuffles are gawd awful over all.

iPod Classic
5G design goes to higher capacities and 'Airstream' stylings.

The Good
180Gb upper size option! Thinner than predecessors. Coverflow. Relatively cheap.

The Bad
Lack of imagination in this design. Apple sticks with the old form factor that was successful, but horribly out of date at present day.

The Ugly
Can't justify the purchase of this for video viewing. The old classic was too small for viewing vids and this one is no different. This design should have been flushed in favor of migrating entire line to iPod Touch (see below).

iPod Touch
New iPod based on iPhone with multi-touch screen interface, but lacking phone functions.

The Good
Gorgeous styling, thin and relatively light weight, has WiFi that can be used with a Safari browser, iTunes store, and Starbucks iTunes store. 20 hour audio play time, 5 hour video time. PDA-like functions, 3.5 inch screen which shifts into landscape mode when you turn the phone. Only real iPod option for viewing movies. We've waited too long for this, Apple.

The Bad
8 & 16Gb only! For the perfect movie iPod, one would expect more storage so we can cram more vid content. Even without video, 16Gb is way to small for many people's audio collection, forcing us to choose between the piss-poor screen Classic and the piss-poor storage Touch. Perhaps the cost and availability of flash memory is the reason for this. Or perhaps the added size from a real hard drive would make it less sexy. Price is a bit steep at $400

The Ugly
Nothing really ugly here. I've pre-ordered mine already, and expect it the first week of October. :-)

I do have questions about whether you can see flash and java content via the browser, as well as pdf files. And doing webmail (gmail!) would rock, but wonder if that will fly.

iPhone Price Changes
Apple decreases 8Gb phone $200 and 4Gb phone drops off the map.

I could care less about this, however, as we aren't gonna see this phone here in Japan for a while. The Touch is the best we can get. It would suck if you bought the 8 gigger at $600 - but you probably have the money to throw away anyway if you bought that.

No Beatles Catalog on iTunes
To be honest, I could care even less about this. The Mac media have spent too much time fretting and fanning the fires over this. We can get Beatles content from other places, ya know. And the iTunes store has survived long enough without it.


Summary
I would give Apple an overall grade of B- for this event. Improving nanos is fine, though I question the utility of such a small screen. Boosting the 5G iPods (iPod Classic) without changing the form factor is a horrible mistake. This old horse should have been put to pasture long ago. The shining star of the announcement is the iPod Touch, which makes up for much of the other iPod line. Let's hope that capacities for this increase substantially in the next year.

Woo - colored iPod Shuffles

Big bleeping deal.