Hi, I’m Sean Carruthers and welcome to the third in the three-part series on the iPod Shuffle. Now one of the problems we’ve noted with the iPod Shuffle in previous episodes in this series is the lack of player controls on the unit itself. We’ve got a 2nd Generation iPod Shuffle, the previous generation here and you’ll note that it has player controls right down the front so you can interact the volume, you can play or you can pause, skip tracks, all of that stuff.
Now the news to the generation of the iPod Shuffle has none of that, all it is a clip on one side, headphone jack and the On/Off switch and that’s about it. So, how do you interact with this player?
That way you interact with it is, with the headphones that come within. Now the headphones are in earbud style headphones and they actually have this little dongle up here that has plus/minus which is volume control and track skip and then a button in the center which you can use to interact with your playlists. You can also use that to get the name of the track that you’re currently playing.
Now, this is good for interacting with the player but unfortunately, not everybody is a big fan of this style of the earbud. I know I’m not because what happens with this is, if you have ears that are shaped like mine, it’ll fall out which is definitely not a good thing especially because one of the main reasons to have a player small as the iPod Shuffle is to exercise. Is to start jogging a little bit and pow, this come flying out. So you want to try to figure out a way to keep them in your ears. And one of the ways that you can do this – that’s a relatively inexpensive is through a product like the Acoustibuds. Now the Acoustibuds are little silicon sleeves that fit over top of the earbud itself and will help isolate a little bit. So you pull on to the package and then put them on to your headphones and when you’re done, it’ll look pretty much like this. So, you’ve got – you regulate your buds here and then you’ve got them with the silicon sleeve over top.
Now, this flange here will actually seal your ear a little bit so that the sound will be a bit better. It’s not going to be anywhere near as good as you’ll get with the hundred dollar set of sound isolating headphones that are actually designed for that purpose, but for $15 it actually allows you to use the current earbuds you already have and not have to spring for much more expensive set of headphones that have the player controls integrated, it’s all there in the side. Just slips off so you don’t have to use them but it is there in case you want them and it is one way like said – to use the player controls on the ones that you have.
Now if you don’t mind spending a few extra dollars, one other solution you can use is Apple’s in-ear headphones. Now these ones actually come with the player controls as well, plus they’re sound isolating. So they will fit into your ears and stay in there unless your ears are extremely oddly shaped. They come with small, medium and large shaped of buds that you can swap out. We actually had a microphone on this side, so you can use it with an iPhone too if you want to use it as a headset for that.
Now there are some other solutions coming down the other road in the near future. Etymotic Research has already announced that they’re working on a set of headphones that will work with the iPhone Shuffle as we put this together. The company Oshkosh which does a lot of auto accessories for use with the iPhone is also announced that they are working a few sets of headphones and an adaptor. So the adaptor will actually plug in to the iPod Shuffle. Put the player controls on the adaptor itself but then have a pass so it allows you to put your own set of headphones. So if you got a set of headphones like big cans or small in your headphones that sound really good, they really, really don’t want to give up, this is one way to do with that. The price on that is to be determine but the product from Oshkosh are expected to start coming out in around June or so.
Anyways, that’s it for part three of this series. If you haven’t already checked out the other two parts, check them out on butterscotch.com. Thanks for watching.
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