The third iteration of the Shuffle product was a great leap forward for the visually impaired only in the voice command and song announcement, VoiceOver, portion of the device. The remote on the ear bud cord made it nearly impossible to upgrade to better sounding ear buds or headphones. Oh, how in the world would a visually impaired person be able to tell the the stock ear buds are absolute shit? I know. They hear better than you or I!
One engineering blunder in my opinion was the Lotto pencil size. After touting its tiny tech, they completely forgot to mention that consumers were going to retain this device as long as they would a toothpick in a holey pocket. Unless you kept the ear buds plugged in all the time, there was a good chance you would lose it the first time you changed your pants. At least with the cord attached you could pretend that you were a very small-mouthed bass searching for the lure.I must add that the $49 price of the fourth generation Shuffle makes it nearly impossible to compete against in the low end of the market. Nevertheless, I believe they could have pounded the nail in the coffin of all competitors at the low end, if they had made them all 4GB at the same price. A Sandisk Cruzer 8GB thumb drive retails for less than $20. Extrapolating from there, I think the build cost would have been increased buy a few quarters. Alternatively an included SDHC slot would have sealed the fate of the competition as well.
I could have only been more pleased, if they had gone all the way back to the first generation, stick-of-gum, design with the built in USB connector for charging from just about anywhere. A flip out or slide out USB connector could have eliminated the need for the gen one cap.
Your Average Idiot
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