Gadgetory

hey i'm donald bell and say we're taking a first look at the fourth-generation Apple iPod shuffle this is Apple's smallest most basic iPod offered with two gigabytes of storage and priced at $49 it comes in five colors and includes a pair of basic earbuds and a USB headphone jack adapter for syncing and charging with your computer this is a return to form for the shuffle made a detour last year with this buttonless design but now it looks very similar to the popular second-generation model aside from the obvious play pause skip and volume controls on the front all the other controls are located on the top of the player there's the power switch that also works to set the mode between shuffled and sequential song playback there's a headphone jack which is also used for charging and syncing music there's a teeny-tiny battery indicator light and finally there's a new button which triggered as a voiceover feature now voiceover is a very cool feature and it's a carryover from last year shuffle it gives you the ability to figure out what song is currently playing and more importantly it allows you to navigate between playlists genius mixes podcasts and audiobooks you just press the button wants to hear the artisan song info' neighborhood number 1 tunnels the Arcade Fire or hold it down to access the menu and use the buttons on the front to navigate through the playlist all songs all pop mix electronica mix hip hop rap mix this feature is a big advantage over the first and second generation shuffles which were basically only good for playing a random selection of songs you can now have separate mixes for your workouts or your morning commute or use this to play audiobooks without worrying that all the chapters are going to get mixed up the voiceover feature is also improved from the third-generation model since the button is now right on the player instead of the special headphone cable so you can use any pair of headphones you want finally let's talk about the clip the clip on the back feels sturdy and is made out of the same anodized aluminum as the rest of the player one complaint we have is that the smaller square design no longer leaves room on the front for where the clip gets pin as a result when you clip this on you're probably going to wind up squeezing the back button by accident overall it's a surprisingly decent little audio player with better sound quality than the second-generation model it resembles battery life is rated at fifteen hours which for something the size of a coke button is pretty amazing so that's it that's the fourth-generation Apple iPod shuffle an incredibly tiny affordable audio player perfect for anyone who goes to the gym or electric travel light for cnet.com I'm Donald