Ever since Apple introduced the iPod Shuffle, I've been sceptic about it since it does not have a screen to view and find the songs that one wants to play. Now that I finally got the iPod Shuffle (the 512MB version), I've changed my view. The selling point of the Shuffle is that it is very small and compact, but the key idea that it tries to sell is the random function that we commonly ignore on other MP3 or CD players. I always like to control what I like to play and never wanted to play the songs in random order; however, Shuffle invited (or rather forced) me to try it. It turns out that playing song in random order is quite refreshing, it simulates the un-predictability that one gets listening to radio and it's quite a nice change of scenary to play music. I guess I simply needed the push to try it out. One may still play the songs in the order that the songs are organized when they were downloaded into the Shuffle, if desired. However, I must say that playing songs in sequential order will become very predictable and boring quickly.
So, I for one like the random play idea and iPod Shuffle's simple and clean design. Though, I would very much like iPod Shuffle to have a built-in FM radio when you simply want to listen to different tunes outside of the 120 songs that one can fit in the 512MB version. Life needs a bit or un-predictability to make it more interesting. I like that!
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Today, there are three variations of player from Apple to target different types of users in the market. The regular sized signature white iPod that holds anywhere between 20GB to 60GB of hard drive space for someone who needs to put their entire CD collections on the go. That's me. :) The iPod mini, the size of a small cellphone, comes with a 4GB and a 6GB model with multitude of colours. It's a hit with the ladies and the most popular colour had to be Pink of course. Lastly, is their latest memory flash based player called the iPod Shuffle which comes in with a 512MB and a 1GB version. It's for the athletic players out there or for anyone who simply want the smallest screenless unit with the ability to charge it via a usb connection in a computer without an AC plug like the former two models. However, iPod Shuffle loses the ability to play songs in the order that you like and it plays your songs in random, hence the name.
Let us rewind back to the early 80's, back in my early youth when there were only two medium/format to play music; one being the very versatile cassette tape where one can listen and record musics on the go and the other being the vinyl records strictly for play back only. Both mediums have their obvious advantages over one another where cassette tapes are portable and recordable while vinyl records are great for DJ to play and scratch with on the dance floor. One thing of great interest in the record format is the packaging presentation of its cover and inserts. I had a collection of cassette tapes of a particular singer (remain to be nameless here) to listen to long ago with but I still have her entire album collection simply to own and see because of the great album cover and the extra photo booklet/calendar sheet inserts in many of her records. Even though I don't have a record player to play the records with. Cassette tape has some nice packaging but it was the vinyl record that wins here for its size and presentation. The hardware innovation for cassette tape changed over time from size reductions, auto reverse to play both side of the tape without manual flipping the tape, music search to skip one song to the next song on forward or reverse and other functional perks like radio and voice recorder. I've gone through quite a few cassette players myself before the next format comes along.
Now let us forward to the early 90's and we see the infancy of another superior format that ends the vinyl record album dominance in the music format and we called it the Compact Disk (CD). Why is it superior you ask? Cassette tape technology plays its music on a very long magnetic film where the music will deteriorates over time with repeated play or the film inside the tape gets tangled in the cassette player due to mechanical malfunctions during play. Vinyl record are more robust and has a longer play life than tapes but it's huge and the music quality will deteriorates eventually over time. CD is a new technology where the music plays back digitally using laser on a shiny spinning reflective disk in a contacless way. Hence music recorded on CD will theortically last forever and the quality will never deteriorates unlike the former two formats. Physically, CD is quarter the size of vinyl record therefore it's portable.
Now fast forward to the 20th century and we have a new kid in the block and it's called MP3. So what is it exactly, is there any physical size to it, can I buy it from my music stores down the street and what packaging will it come in? MP3 stands for MPEG layer 3 where it lives in a digital format in megabytes. Say what? That's right, MP3 is a digital music file that get stored in your computer to play. It is small in file size and though the sound quality is not in par with the CDs, it's better than the cassettes and vinyl records in the analog era. In terms of MP3 format goes, there is nothing for us to touch and feel like the formats before us and therefore no packaging to go with. So there is nothing physically to see or show our friends of our music album collections. We are truely paperless and formless here. That's bad for business in more ways than one.