New iPod shuffle

[Robert]

See http://www.apple.com/ipodshuffle/

4 GB for $79.

Interesting that the play controls are on the headphone cord. Can't use your own headphones then!

It also talks to you. Voice-over announces the title and artist of the current track, name of playlists, etc. I guess that is a workaround for having no display, huh?

[Tone2TheBone]

Don't all shuffles auto sync by default? I don't think you can set one up for manual management like you can the others.

[sunvalleylaw]

My kids have the last one. It does auto shuffle, but you can also set it up to play in the order of the playlist as set in iTunes. I personally would prefer the controls on the unit myself, and like my kids' units for what they are. You cannot manually manipulated playlists like on regular iPods on the old ones either though.

[Ch0jin]

For the small ipods you can strap to your bicep I think cord controls are a bit redundant, but for the larger ones like my Gen5 80GB, it's be awesome to have controls on the cord.

I do a bit of on and off road mountain biking and I used to strap my old nano to my arm and away you go. With my 80GB though I have to stow it in the small pack I ride with and that makes it impossible to adjust volume and change songs without basically getting off the bike. Any of you that ride will understand what a PITA THAT is. Luckily though a mate just gave me his old Gen1 shuffle for free so that'll be what I use now, strapped again to my bicep or to the strap of my pack.

Oh and a tip! The new nano's (and shuffles too I think) have a feature whereby you can shake them to shuffle the tracks. I've been told it's a good idea to turn that off if you doing rough downhill runs haha.

[markb]

You have to shake the Nano quite hard to get it to change tracks. Actually it's such a smooth and slippery little b*gger I'm scared it'll go flying. For remote iPod control you can try the Apple radio remote (http://store.apple.com/nz/product/MA070G/D?fnode=MTY1NDA3NA&mco=MjE0NzczMg). It adds a neat FM tuner function as well as giving the controls of a 2g shuffle on a remote. Don't be put off by the price, those are our puny NZ dollars.