Audio Video News

This morning, with little more than a press release, Apple dropped a new $80, 4 GB iPod shuffle that's smaller than a single AA battery and has neither buttons nor a display. That means the controls are left up to some buttons built into the earbud cord and a text-to-speech utility that actually verbalizes information, like track, artist and album name, as well as remaining battery power. It's an interesting concept, but I can't imagine locking myself into those terrible Apple earbuds for the life of my player. Plus, listening to a robot voice describe my tracks is less appealing than just looking at a screen. I would be interested to see how it deals with some of the wacky artist names on my iPod, though. Something tells me it wouldn't have an easy time with Xiu Xiu, !!! or Sunn O))). More pictures after the break.