Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Apple takes it too far on form-over-function

Today, Apple announced the new iPod Shuffle. It drops the navigation buttons in favor of making it slightly smaller.

New iPod Shuffle


Your first question upon hearing this was probably the same as mine: "How do you switch songs?" Simple: the controls are on the cable of the prepackaged headphones.

New iPod Shuffle Headphones


Do you listen to your iPod with the headphones it came with? Most people I know don't. Admittedly, I don't know anyone who owns an iPod Shuffle (my mom used to, but that's it), so it's possible that iPod Shuffle buyers often stick with the default headphones. But be warned: if you buy an iPod Shuffle, and you want to use your own headphones, get ready to not be able to switch/skip songs.

I understand choosing form over function, up to a point. But to me, this just seems ludicrous. The difference in size between this thing and the last-gen iPod Shuffle is minuscule, and the functional sacrifice immense. But maybe I just don't get it.

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