Apple Releases New Talking iPod
— ♣Today, Apple Inc. introduced the all-new iPod shuffle, the world’s smallest music player at nearly half of the size of the previous model. The new Shuffle includes text-to-speech capabilities, making it the first music player with speaking features aimed at the general public. The new VoiceOver feature enables iPod shuffle to speak your song titles, artists and playlist names. The third generation iPod shuffle is significantly smaller than a AA battery, holds up to 1,000 songs and is easier to use with all of the controls conveniently located on the earphone cord. With the press of a button, you can play, pause, adjust volume, switch playlists and hear the name of the song and artist.
Unlike the speaking iPod Nanos released last year, the iPod shuffle can even tell you status information, such as battery life. With the ability to hold up to 1,000 songs and the VoiceOver feature, you can now easily switch between multiple playlists on your iPod shuffle, making it the first Shuffle to support iTunes playlists.
Also, according to the the press release, the new third generation iPod Shuffle speaks 14 languages including English, Czech, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish, which seems to indicate that the text-to-speech feature is handled differently than on the current generation of iPod Nanos, which are limited by the need to purchase third-party text-to-speech solutions to obtain speech feedback in other languages.
The iPod shuffle has a new aluminum design with a built-in stainless steel clip that makes it ultra-wearable. It comes in silver or black varieties and boasts up to 10 hours of battery life.
The new iPod SHuffle retails for $79. For more information, check out the press release.