At its special media event held at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, Apple took a step away from last year’s buttonless iPod shuffle and revealed a new yet familiar design for the most affordable iPod.
That model was controlled with inline controls on the cable of the bundled earphones, but the new model has buttons on the front face to control playback. It also retains a clip on the back for attaching it to clothing. However, the new shuffle is smaller and squarer than the second-generation design that it resembles.
In terms of software, there’s little new. The VoiceOver feature is still used for helping you to navigate playlists in the absence of a display. That first appeared on last year’s model. Apple says the battery will last through 15 hours of music.
The big new software feature is Genius Mixes, continuously looping, genre-based playlists that iTunes compiles from your music library based on the libraries and listening habits of millions of iTunes users around the world. Other iPods have supported Genius Mixes since September 2009.
The fourth-generation iPod shuffle will be available starting next week and is already available for pre-order from Apple’s online store, with orders expected to ship within five to seven business days.
It is available in five colours: blue, link, silver, green and orange. There’s no sign of a 4GB model that in the previous range was exclusively available at Apple Stores. The 2GB model will retail for £39 including VAT in the UK.
Apple also unveiled a strikingly different iPod nano and an updated version of the iPod touch. Steve Jobs said that the whole iPod range had been updated, but no mention was made of the iPod classic during the event. However, the existing model is still available in a single 160GB capacity for £193.
