Last night I bought a third generation iPod Shuffle just for the heck of it. Yes that one with the VoiceOver feature, it’s pretty cool. First thing I noticed was the tiny size, not even half of the previous generation.

iPod Shuffle: what's in the package
In the package: iPod Shuffle, headset with remote controller, USB adapter. See that short and sweet USB adapter? It’s about bloody time Apple made it that way. The previous one I had (2nd generation Shuffle) has a ginormous dock and long-ass cable. Good job.
The headset somehow feels smoother than the previous one (compared to iPod Nano’s headset too) and the remote controller is easy to click. The clip is strong, I’ve clipped the Shuffle to my jacket’s side pocket for a 30+ minutes ride (approximately 70kmh) and it grips firmly. Nice.
This 3rd generation iPod Shuffle is the first Shuffle supporting multiple playlist, the previous ones were just put-em-all-in-and-shuffle type. The remote controller functions are:
- Single click to play/pause.
- Double click to skip track aka next.
- Triple click to go back to previous track.
- Press and hold briefly to announce the now playing track. We’ll talk about this a bit later.
- Press until you hear a tone (it’s a mild beep) and then release to announce the playlist list. When you hear the desired playlist name, single click to play it.
Sounds complicated? Wait until you get a hands-on on this thing. Very easy to get used to.
VoiceOver is most highlighted feature and it is, indeed, very cool. When first connecting the iPod to the computer, the VoiceOver is not activated. You need to download the VoiceOver Kit to make Shuffle talks properly, iTunes will prompt you to download this from inside iTunes. Worry not my friends, it’s very easy and infact, automated. However if you decide to turn the feature off, or simply not connected to internet at the moment, the VoiceOver will still run but the voice library is limited to “playlist one, playlist two and so on”. That happened to me last night.
After downloading the VoiceOver Kit, Shuffle will be able to announce the tracks and playlist names properly. I was wondering if the VoiceOver was able to announce foreign characters so I built this playlist to test it out.

- Insomnia by Wheesung, Shuffle announced it as “Insomnia”. Not sure why it skips announcing the korean characters, perhaps it can’t read it?
- Simple and Clean by Utada Hikaru, Shuffle announced it as “Simple and clean, Utada Hikaru”, the voice is different with the main voice, it was a voice of a Japanese woman.
- Domenica by Shimatani Hitomi. Shuffle also got this one right with the Japanese woman voice.
- Why by Ayaka, also announced correctly.
- Do’i by Kangen Band, (don’t ask where I got it), announced weirdly as expected. Imagine a bule saying that :p
All in all, this third generation iPod Shuffle is a work of art. Small, easy to use, serves exactly as it should (as an mp3 player, not a fully functional personal assistant like the iPod Touch) and it comes with just the right capacity: 4GB.
The only downsides are:
Even though it’s expensive I’d say if you want one then go for it. You might will be broke after, but the joy of having the coolest tiniest mp3 player around is worth it :p