well its getting close to the time where apple releases its new cycle of ipods for this year and recently they have announced their new ipod shuffle.

smaller than a AA battery, and 4GB's memory allows 1000 songs to be stored on a a weird clip sorta thing, but what got me thinking is how they have made it to work.

by making it that small they removed the buttons and they have also threw in their new earphones with button controls on the earpiece to change song etc.

BUT since you can only change song with the controls on the earphones, doesn't that mean you are locked into buying apple only earphones with the control scheme on them? hopefully this is only kept to the shuffle and isnt put into future ipods as this is what may cost them. thankfully my ipod touch is still going good and im in no hurry to go get a new one.

So this is my second crossing with apple in the past month, where consumer money is highly wanted, but customer satisfaction and service seems to be out the door,

oh btw after viewing the guided tour video it also seems they are trying to promote mac's as well with the ipod, by giving two different tones to the voice over thingy. the pc voice sounds more muffled then the mac voice (well thats what it sounded like to me) i think apple are really trying to push their brand further now by making ipods only work with apple products or better at least.

anyway if you get time to read it and/or watch the video and see if i was correct in the different tones that were trying to promote mac then post your opinions.

(p.s in no way i am trying to endorse apple or promote its products in anyway)