Apple's talkative new Shuffle

It's been an interesting time for Apple watchers and shows, to an extent, why Apple has dropped its attendance at the annual Macworld expo and conference in San Francisco.

At Macworld in early January, Apple showed off new versions of iLife and iWork and the new unibody 17-inch MacBook Pro. This was considered a little disappointing for Mac fans because, while they love new software, what really gets their (our) pulses racing is new hardware. And everyone was expecting new Minis at the least, but the iMac was due a refresh, and the Mac Pro was really trailing behind.

The 'missing' from Macworld Mac Pro I could understand, because professional hardware is usually reserved for debut at Apple's World Wide Developers' Conference, commonly referred to as WWDC (or DubDubDeeCee). And that happens mid-year.

Apple likes WWDC - it doesn't have the hype and pizzazz of a Macworld expo in relation to the general public, but the professional users love it and really get a lot out of it (I interviewed IT guy René Burton last year from AUT about his visit, when the iPhone 3G was introduced).

Apple likes WWDC because it's Apple's event, and Apple developers like it because they really like talking to other Apple developers, who come from all over the world in their thousands. I'd give my right arm to go. (That's not as bad as it sounds - I'm left-handed.)

Anyway, last week Apple suddenly debuted a new Mini, a refreshed iMac and an all-new Mac Pro (as I've already talked about). A year ago, Apple's engineers and marketing people would have been scrambling to get all this gear out at Macworld, not a month later, so I bet they're enjoying the evaporation of that constraint and the newfound freedom to release when they're ready..

Critics and fans of the Mac Pro, by the way, might like to read some benchmarks of the Pro and its new Intel Nehalem processors, at MacRumours. It looks like it will be a lot better when Snow Leopard (Apple's next OS) comes out, as its real strength is multithreading, but it still looks pretty good. And since the benchmarks are by Cinebench, you can compare them directly with PC benchmarks.

But then, out of the blue, Apple introduced a new iPod Shuffle, really taking everyone by surprise. I'm pretty fond of the Shuffle. My first-ever iPod was a Shuffle bought for my birthday a few years back.

It was the G1, a plastic thing that looked like a stick of chewing gum. With no display, the flash-based device was meant for people on the move. I loved it because it really reconnected me with music again. Critics said they were annoying because you could only play through the songs in the mixed-up 'shuffle' mode or in the order of the playlist you set in (and transferred from) iTunes. But for its purpose it was perfect. I even liked the sound quality.

The second Shuffle was better - more capacity and stronger. As it was made from aluminium, was smaller and had a built-in clip, it was even more suited to those who wanted to sweat to their own soundtracks at the gym, biking, jogging etc.

The new one is even simpler. It has even less controls and it's even smaller. In fact, it talks to you, telling you your song titles, artists and playlist names.

Video: New iPod Shuffles take small to new level

The third generation iPod shuffle is smaller than an AA battery and the body is smoother, because it has no controls on it at all, freeing up where you can clip it to keep it out of the way. What controls exist are located on the earphone cord - it's the first Shuffle with a remote in the earbud cord. Press its button to play, pause, adjust volume, switch playlists and hear the name of the song and artist.

It's the first iPod shuffle with playlists, in fact. It needs them the shuffle can now carry up to 1000 songs. It can tell you the name of the song and artist but also tell you status information, such as battery life. Oh, but you want your iPod speaking French? No problem, bebé. It speaks 14 languages including English and French - also Czech, Dutch, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish.

The new shuffle comes in silver or black and, like the last model, has a built-in stainless steel clip for those on the go. The price of NZ$155 includes Apple earphones with remote and the iPod shuffle USB cable for charging and syncing to iTunes on your Mac or PC.

And yes, people, there are cheaper players available. You can choose what you buy, you see. Good old Western Civilisation, hey?

Anyway, it definitely looks like Apple is using its revenues to keep releasing hardware - and there are rumours of additional events and releases in the near future, too.

- Mark Webster mac.nz