What's inside the new Apple Shuffle?
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.
See more pics after the jump.
(Credit:
iFixit)
(Credit:
iFixit)
Hunkered down in New York City, Executive Editor David Carnoy covers the gamut of gadgets and writes his Fully Equipped column, which carries the tag line "The electronics you lust for." He's also the author of "Knife Music," a novel. E-mail David. Follow David on Twitter. 
Apple sells ipods, they make money, they make more products, they hire more people, more people are happier.
If $79 is too much for you, don't buy one. If you can't stand paying that much and getting so little, buy the innards and make one.
If enough people don't buy them, they'll drop the price or drop the item.
Any guesses what the mark-up is on toothpaste? Beer? Don't buy those items? How about perfume?
There are a lot of forces that determine the retail or street price; cost of materials is not one of them.
Am I right?
Oh? How much would you say those components cost, then? Are you speaking as a person with a significant professional background in procurement and logistics, or are you speaking as someone who says "Well, I see a bunch of little tiny black rectangles,a nd they're so small they can't be very expensive"?
Are you speaking as a person with a significant professional background in procurement and logistics, or are you speaking as someone who says "Well, I see a bunch of little tiny black rectangles,a nd they're so small they can't be very expensive"?
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LOL, no he's speaking as someone who says "that's only 4 dime sized parts there, I can throw that together for 40 cents, I tell you what!"
NOW do we see why inbreeding is bad?
There is probably a hefty margin on this and Apple could stand to cut the price some but if people are willing to pay it, as has been shown, why should they? Goal of a BUSINESS is to maximize profit.
I'm willing to bet you don't use the cheapest perfume/deodorant, drive the cheapest car and live in the cheapest house you can find. Also I would guess that their markup is only slightly above the industry standard.
Lame Apple. Really lame.
I suppose that's even better when you're skiiing and can lose it in a snowdrift.
Lame? Hardly.
Yes. iPods are about convenience. But they are also about other things like sound quality. The standard earbuds that Apple includes with their iPods are probably acceptable to some people. But they do not compare to sound isolating earphones (Anyone reading this should seriously give some a try. I use Shure SCL5. You'll never go back, unless of course, you have the new iPod shuffle and don't want to use a dongle....).
I'm sure that there are many activities where this feature will be useful (like skiing), but why not give us the option of having controls on the earbuds AND on the iPod???
The answer to that is of course, profit margins. Buttons elevate the cost of the unit, hence, Apple left them out and tries to sell it as some kind of "awesome new feature." And it's not.
It's just lame, Apple. Really lame.
The headsets I am using are so much better than Apple's earphones. And I can change from my earphones on the street to using a noise-canceling headset when flying.
Fun..
Real techies rather subscribe to the Unix style of things: have specialized tools that do one thing, and do one thing good.
The 2nd gen shuffle was a good player. The 3rd gen would also be, except for the lack of button in the device.
No alternate Headphone option. Couldn't they make a control 1/8" adaptor?
Looks cool, but I already have Shuffle 1&2.
They're fine, for now.
$79 isn't too much for this kind of inovation though, IMHO. Go Apple!
- by agj333 March 14, 2009 5:06 AM PDT
- XP SP3 REQUIRED! Not Going there w/o a track record. CD DOS REPAIR CONSOL? WIN XP SP2?
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(21 Comments)No alternate Headphone option. Couldn't they make a control 1/8" adaptor?
Looks cool, but I already have Shuffle 1&2.
They're fine, for now.
$79 isn't too much for this kind of inovation though, IMHO. Go Apple!