shuffle

September's annual iPod announcement was met by the usual hoopla as Steve Jobs ushered in new Shuffle colors, an updated iPod Classic capacity list, redesigned fourth-generation iPod Nanos, and a minimal iPod Touch redesign and price reduction. Check out photos and more details in this gallery of the 2008 Apple iPods.

If you're an iPod owner searching for a way to share tunes, there's no shortage of iPod speakers from which to choose. The problem is distinguishing them from one another, and one of the easiest ways is to look for something with a unique or innovative design. Creative Labs manages to do both with the TravelSound i50 for Shuffle, an ultracompact speaker that sells for $60 and gets surprisingly loud. It's only compatible with second- and third-generation iPod Shuffles and it doesn't sound great, but it's cute and travel-friendly, so it's still a solid … Read more

Donald and Jasmine take on eMusic news and nail down the Top 5 online music stores. Also, find out what accessories make the grade for your iPod Touch or Shuffle. Listen now: Download today's podcast

eMusic's makeover

Rhapsody-friendly MP3 players

Accessories for the iPod Touch

Accessories for the iPod Shuffle

Top 5 Online Music Stores

So, you've managed to get your hands on one of the world's most popular MP3 players, the Apple iPod Shuffle. Accessorizing the littlest of iPods presents a special challenge because it doesn't share the same dock connector as its larger siblings. But that doesn't mean it should be left out in the cold, sad and caseless. To that end, I've rounded up a handful of that will work perfectly with both the second- and third-generation Shuffles. Check 'em out.

A couple weeks ago, I pondered if early adopters of the iPod and other MP3 players were starting to lose patience with the random shuffle function. Too much black and white, not enough gray.

Almost on cue, start-up Instinctiv came out on Thursday with its first application, an iPhone and iPod Touch application called Instinctiv Shuffle that will derandomize the random iTunes-shuffling feature.

Instinctiv Shuffle uses an algorithm similar to that developed by Pandora and other taste-tracking sites to select the perfect song to play next--like having a professional DJ sift through your collection.

There's a catch: Instinctiv Shuffle … Read more

Since the rise of the iPod as a cultural icon, writers and music fans have written countless tributes to the random shuffle function. The argument goes that human curators are no longer needed, the random switches of style to style are bracing and interesting, and albums are absolutely a thing of the past.

Today at the barbershop, the house sound system played "21st Century Schizoid Man" by King Crimson, followed by some unrecognizable metal, followed by Alicia Keys, followed by some female-fronted punk that sounded a little like X but wasn't, followed by "No Quarter" … Read more

Tabbed browsing is one of those software features that didn't seem like a big deal at its inception, but later went on to become more popular than sliced bread. It's simply must-have functionality for any respectable Web browser. Who among us hasn't had 40 different Web sites open in one browser window...and loved it?

Fans of Mozilla Firefox and Opera might claim that their favorite browser invented tabs. However, according to most accounts, tabbed interfaces have been around since the 1980s and in browsers for at least 10 years. Arguments will persist as to the first … Read more

More than six years into the iPod era, Apple still stands atop the music player landscape. But what comes next?

Apple is at a crossroads in the evolution of the product that arguably saved its bacon. Without the iPod fueling Apple's profits and investments, we probably wouldn't have spent the past year talking about Apple's surging Mac business or its game-changing iPhone.

After years of double-digit gains, iPod growth has finally trailed off. The market is arguably saturated: do you know anyone who wants to take their music on the go who hasn't bought an MP3 … Read more

I had a problem. Years ago, I bought Microsoft's now-discontinued Digital Media Plus Pack for converting my LP records into digital files. Because it's a Microsoft product from back in the day when Microsoft was gung-ho about Windows Media, it only rips to Windows Media Audio. And of course, it's Windows only. (Other than that, it's a great tool--very easy to use, never messes up line leveling, and has a good algorithm for removing pops and scratches.)

Back when I used iTunes and my iPod exclusively, I'd simply rip the album into WMA, then import … Read more