Crave

(Credit: Apple)

Amid the flurry of iTunes and iPod announcements yesterday, Apple quietly retired the 1GB iPod Shuffle. You remember it: that one that actually had buttons on it. Instead, the company is putting full focus on the teeny, tiny buttonless model, which is now available in both 2GB ($59) and 4GB ($79) capacities. The third-generation Shuffle is also newly available with blue, green, or pink paint jobs along with the traditional black and silver. In addition, Apple is offering a special edition version that is encased in super shiny stainless steel, available in 4GB only for $99. Besides the pricing, new color options, and 2GB capacity option, the third-generation iPod Shuffle remains the same. Read the full review.

The Archos Clipper gives the iPod Shuffle a run for its money, only four years too late.

(Credit: MyMemory)

Mobile phones and Netbooks may be nibbling away at the market for portable media players, but there will always be a demand for dirt-cheap, bare-bones MP3 players. Our grandchildren could be living in a post-apocalyptic waterworld or an off-planet Martian colony--but the cheap MP3 player will endure like some kind of technological cockroach.

It seems fitting, then, that the latest budget MP3 player from Archos bears a resemblance to our favorite end-times-surviving insect. The Archos Clipper is your basic clip-on MP3 player with 2GB of storage, priced at around $30. There's no screen, no frills, no fancy colors--nothing to save you from a robot uprising or nuclear annihilation.

In all fairness to Archos, the company has been on the sidelines of the MP3 player game for a few years now, focusing its efforts on the emerging Netbook and tablet PC markets. Unlike the Clipper, the company's upcoming Archos 9 media tablet is one of the more drool-inspiring products I've seen all year. I guess you've got to put your money where your priorities are.

(Via AnythingButiPod

An MP3 player with buttons? How novel.

(Credit: Scosche Industries)

The third-generation Apple iPod Shuffle has a ridiculously small and elegant design, but its lack of buttons can sometimes be a real buzz kill. The Scosche TapStick is a $29 case for the iPod Shuffle that bestows three buttons on the front of the device, mimicking the three controls used on Apple's headphone remote. A 3-foot auxiliary cable is also included with the case.

Frankly, $30 seems like a lot of dough to throw at an iPod that only costs $80. But if you received the Shuffle as a gift and just need a way to adapt the thing for your car stereo's aux input, the TapStick's relatively large buttons and snap-on design should do the trick.

Update: The retail price of the Scosche TapStick is $29, and not $39, as stated in the company's original press release.

The third-gen Apple iPod Shuffle and the SanDisk Sansa Clip are two of the smallest, least expensive, and most-talked-about MP3 players on CNET. Both devices share a clip-on design, but otherwise, Apple and SanDisk take very different approaches to their MP3 players, demonstrating a tug of war between form and function.

You may already know which MP3 player you'd choose, but when push comes to shove, which of these minuscule MP3 players is preferred by our CNET editors? Find out in our iPod Shuffle vs. Sansa Clip CNET Prizefight.

Getting chippy: Some bloggers think that the iPod Shuffle's accessory situation is a nightmare scenario for iPod fans.

(Credit: CNET)

In not-so-shocking news, iLounge is reporting that third-party headphones and headphone adapters for the new buttonless iPod Shuffle will require an Apple-licensed authentication chip.

This doesn't come as any great surprise to us because exacting licensing revenue from iPod accessory makers has become a brilliant way for Apple to add to the company's bottom line. But that "Apple tax," so to speak, does get passed on to consumers, and iLounge and others are now assuming that Apple headphone adapters will cost a minimum of $19 and possibly as much as $29. The handful of VoiceOver-compatible headphones that have been announced carry a starting price of $49.99.

The question, of course, is whether Apple has gone too far in requiring you to use only its headphones--or some sort of Apple-approved adapter or headphones for the device. (You can plug third-party headphones into the new Shuffle, and it will play music, but you can't control the volume or navigate songs).

iLounge is calling it a "nightmare scenario" for longtime iPod fans. "Are we entering a world in which Apple controls and taxes literally every piece of the iPod purchase, from headphones to chargers, jacking up their prices, forcing customers to repurchase things they already own, while making only marginal improvements in their functionality?" iLounge Editor in Chief Jeremy Horwitz asks in his review of the new iPod Shuffle. "It's a shame, and one that consumers should feel empowered to fight."

Meanwhile, over at Engadget, Nilay Patel is calling Apple's attempts to "lock down headphones" a sad new low that "makes the lack of physical controls on the Shuffle seem even more ridiculous."

What do you guys think? If the report is correct, is Apple going too far, or is this just a smart business move?

(Source: iLounge via Engadget)

Update: Gizmodo's posted a story going back and forth on whether the chip is an "authentication" chip or a "control" chip that's required for approval as part of Apple's "made for iPod program." It appears "control" is the correct description, but that hasn't been confirmed by Apple.

CNET's official, rated review of the third-generation Apple iPod Shuffle is up and ready for your perusal. I never thought it would be tough to review an MP3 player without any buttons on it, but the experience wasn't as cut and dry as you'd expect. In some ways, Apple's new Shuffle may just be the most intriguing MP3 player I review all year, even if its design paradoxically bores me to tears. You have to admire the sleight of hand Apple pulled off by adding song ID and playlist navigation to the Shuffle, while at the same time removing its tried and true navigation pad. I'm not crazy about the result, but the concept is fascinating.

A shot before the Shuffle got lost in my desk clutter.

(Credit: Donald Bell/CNET Networks)

The CNET review covers the nitty-gritty, but I'm here to offer a few of my own personal observations after spending a day with Apple's new Shuffle. Here's a list of ways the Shuffle surprised me.

Vanishing act. Over the course of just one day, I must have lost the Shuffle at least four times--just sitting at my desk. Nicole Lee can vouch for this. She heard all my screams from the other side of the cubicle. Now, I expected this thing would be easy to lose, but the surprising part is that the Shuffle's tiny size was only part of the problem.

The Shuffle's resemblance to a USB stick probably threw me the most. Since I typically have at least two or three thumb drives scattered on my desk at any given time, the addition of a nondescript black or silver $80 Shuffle is easy to dismiss.

Jasmine would actually wear it. If you've ever seen a First Look video from my MP3 cohort Jasmine France, you can get a sense of how much this girl likes fashion. I wouldn't have thought in a million years that she'd go for the new Shuffle's muted, stoic design, but it turned out to be her favorite feature. I guess there's something to be said for wearable tech that just blends in, and doesn't draw attention to itself. What's not surprising: I still don't understand women.

(Credit: Apple)

This week Apple quietly released a new, redesigned version of the iPod Shuffle, and for the most part, we don't like it.

The previous version was great. It was small, usable, and cheap. Apple retained the small and cheap aspects but made, well, a nub. We're not even sure where you're supposed to put the thing, and we know we'd lose it the first day out. So the question is: why did Apple do the Shuffle that way?

CNET tends to review products from the outside looking in (see Donald Bell's full review of the new Shuffle). But the good folks over at iFixit make it habit to start right from the inside. In the case of the third-generation Shuffle teardown, like with all recent iPods, Apple doesn't make it easy to crack the case. And although only one screw had to be removed, iFixit describes how it had to insert a "metal spudger into a crevice between the rear cover and the rest of the Shuffle" to get the device open. As you might expect, things are pretty simple--and tiny--under the Shuffle's hood.

There are a couple more pictures after the jump, but the full dissection (with lots more photos) is available at iFixit, where one unsatisfied reader writes:

"Have you disassembled the headphones with remote yet? Have you figured out, how the buttons work? Do they work by connecting two lines with a resistor? Is it possible to add such a remote to other headphones?"

As always, feel free to comment.

(Source: iFixit via Gizmodo)

See more pics after the jump. ... Read More