The Controls Should be on the Face!

[ハイドン]

I know it's been argued before, but was there really any need to move the controls into the headphones? Why not just put the new control method on the face of the device? It would fit perfectly. Just take a look at this photoshopped version. Really, it'd work much better, be compatible practically every set of headphones, and face much less backlash.



I just don't get it.

So what do my fellow iPod owners/fans think?

[iFone]

i totally agree. anyone who has bought their own headsets can now not use them. WTF is wrong with apple? i love them but where is this weird design coming from? i wrote on another thread that the buttons should be on the shuffle but what i thought was not the same way as yours. i think your design or where ever you got it is better than what i thought before.

Apple wouldn't of made it their smallest device ever, granted 99% of the device has been attached to the headphones.

Does requiring a special adapter/headphone to USE the device count as being the smallest?

Apple fails, reason why I only own an iPhone and used a Creative and Zune.

[paranoidxe]

Originally Posted by ReyZero

Apple wouldn't of made it their smallest device ever, granted 99% of the device has been attached to the headphones.

Does requiring a special adapter/headphone to USE the device count as being the smallest?

Apple fails, reason why I only own an iPhone and used a Creative and Zune.

ironic you mention the iPhone. I remember a fuss about the port being incompatible with some head phones.

[spot1701]

Jump on that band wagon !

Personally I think it's a cunning plan by Apple to deflect people away from whinging about no copy/paste on the iPhone.
It's damn cool. They'll sell millions. End of...

[Code Monkey]

Originally Posted by paranoidxe

ironic you mention the iPhone. I remember a fuss about the port being incompatible with some head phones.

And most of the damn headphone industry followed suit to make their headphone jacks iPhone compatible .

Potentially a truly monstrous sheep action since wire breakage at the headphone jack is where more than 90% of headphone failures occur. Now, I don't actually think making the jacks thinner has a much to do with this, seems rather it is that they don't use a reinforced yet flexible sheath that's long enough because they're cheap, but it is still ironic that a product that represents so few of the headphone jacks in the world in total can have such a profound effect because of who is changing the rules all on their own.

The only bright side I can see to the new shuffle's control scheme is since adapters will now become readily available and the newer iPods already support these inline controls that I'll soon have the option of pausing and starting my nano from a tiny dongle outside of my pocket.

[ThisisCraigP]

I did a ten minuet photoshop job that if Apple didn't loose their minds should have done.

[paranoidxe]

Originally Posted by ThisisCraigP

I did a ten minuet photoshop job that if Apple didn't loose their minds should have done.

Well I honestly think this product will have a big enough back lash from the public that they will change the style on it when the main line gets updated in Sept/Oct.

[Sid32]

Why not just place the headphone controls right on one of the sides of the player? Easy and it keeps the plain jane front that for some reason they seem to like.

[ThisisCraigP]

God I hope so. Hopefully they will fix the shuffle, bring back FireWire for Macbooks and iPods. Easy things to do Apple....

[ThisisCraigP]

Okay moved controls to the side. Apple if for some reason you see this photo go ahead and use the control ideas! Just send me a MacBook Pro as consolation.

[paranoidxe]

Problem with apple is they are a bull headed company [as in they rarely acknowledge their mistakes] and unfortunately if they did a fix for the issues on this the people that already purchased this particular model will cry like babies.

That being said I can't wait to get mine just to see if its really as bad for me IRL as it is on paper.

[Code Monkey]

Originally Posted by paranoidxe

Problem with apple is they are a bull headed company [as in they rarely acknowledge their mistakes] and unfortunately if they did a fix for the issues on this the people that already purchased this particular model will cry like babies.

Correct on the first part, but I expect the backlash to be more than they'll be able to duck their heads in the sand over. I mean, look at iLounge's review. Look at CNet's review (how long has it been since CNet came this close to panning an Apple product?). Consumer Reports' first look concluded that users should consider non-Apple competitors before buying the "cool but compromised" player. BoingBoing soundly panned it. PCWorld only has two similar players rated lower. Gizmodo gave it a solid "meh". It is a bad product, no getting away from that.

The 3G shuffle is what happens when a company gets so fixated on showing what they can do, they forget to ask if there's any good reason to do what they can. They've been distinguishing their products more and more with the sort of stuff you see on concept prototypes at a tech conference, but stuff that never show up, at least without significant alteration, on commercial products. When you have a company that has placed increasing emphasis on showing off and less emphasis on making products people are asking for and polishing them in the way their reputation claims is their strength, we were bound to see what happened when taken to its logical conclusion: an $80 music player not much bigger than the music player you find in a greeting card, and about as practical. Like the touch, it's basically a tech demo, but unlike the touch it does nothing new or well other than show you can make a decent sounding audio player with electronics that could be shoved in a greeting card. Cool, yes, on the list of what the majority of people were hoping for, not even close.

Unless there is some surprising success of this 3G shuffle, I don't see how Apple cannot react to fix this problem. I've said it too many times, but it's still true, if any company should know what happens when you are not addressing customer concerns, sitting on your laurels, and wasting all your time on weird projects nobody cares about while competitors do the opposite, it should be Apple. The home computer market was pretty much theirs to lose at one point, and boy they did through nobody's fault but their own.

As for the babies whining, when has this ever stopped Apple? This is a company that has made upgrading products that come complete with a big middle finger to prior customers their very business model. Besides, if you buy the 3G shuffle, you know exactly what you are (not) getting.

That being said I can't wait to get mine just to see if its really as bad for me IRL as it is on paper.

I look forward to hearing your take.

[davea]

No way I will buy the 3G Shuffle. In fact, when I found out about it I went out and bought another 2G, so now I have 3 ea. 2G shuffles; 1 is 1GB and 2 ea are 2GB. I don't want to use those awful Apple earbuds and I don't want to get an adapter to use my Koss headset. Apple can be so BONEHEADED sometimes. I'm sure that comment will incense fanbois...TOO BAD, so sad! lol! A bad design is a bad design, no matter how many apologists are out there in buy-everything-Apple-makes-land.

[Bernardo Gaetani]

The next generation of iPod Shuffle could have bottons like the 2nd generation, but with square design. I think the 5 buttons style (maybe a 6th to activate playlists, i dunno) fantastic, much better than 3 buttons in the headphone.