Apple 512MB iPod shuffle

• Shuffle-play iPod with 512MB memory; holds up to 120 songs
• Up to 12 hr. of continuous playback
• Plays MP3, MP3 VBR, AAC, Protected AAC (from iTunes Music Store, M4A, M4B, M4P), and WAV files
• USB 1.1 and 2.0 compatible; integrated USB connector
• Earbud headphones, lanyard and USB cap

Who’d have thought a music-listening revolution could come in such a sweet, compact package? Apple, again, leads the charge with the new iPod shuffle, a digital audio player about the size of a pack of gum that mixes things up with the new random”Shuffle Songs” play mode. The iPod shuffle offers the songs you’ve selected in a different order every time. Or, when you want to assume DJ duties, switch back toPlay in Order mode. Available storage capacity may vary. Imported. 3-1/3Hx1Wx1/3D”.

Rating: (out of reviews)

List Price: $ 69.99

Price:

More power to Apple and its legion of accessory makers. Asking people to pay $20 to use your own headphones with an $80 MP3 player is ballsy — brass ballsy. Such is the story of the new iPod shuffle, though, and I’m willing to bet that people will indeed pay for an inline headphone adapter.

If so, Belkin’s now got one for $19.99. Called, very simply, the Headphone Adapter for iPod Shuffle, it’s a 3.5mm plug that sits between your headphones and your iPod shuffle, and features the requisite controls for playing, pausing, skipping forwards and backwards, and invoking VoiceOver to hear the song title and artist read aloud.

Can’t fault Belkin for capitalizing on this gaping void that Apple’s created, although the $20 price tag might be a lot easier to stomach if it were, say, $10. Time will tell, though.

Belkin : Headphone Adapter for iPod® Shuffle [Product Page]

Use Any Headset with Your iPod shuffle with Belkin’s New Headphone Adapter [Press Release]

Want to break Apple’s hegemony over your headphone choice when using the new iPod Shuffle? This $18 dongle adds all of Apple’s functionality into a little thing that sits on top of the Shuffle rather than inline on the headset, thereby freeing you from the shackles of fear that hold us all down and, in the end, will kill us. After all, even the birds are chained to the skyway.

Anyway, it’s a really simple little dongle. This thing had to appear sooner or later.

via iLounge