Thoughts on the new iPod Shuffle.

The voices on the new iPod Shuffle are different for Tiger, Leopard and Windows.

I suspect that the voice isn't produced by the shuffle from the tag text in the sound files. I think it's added by iTunes as audio. This audio could be embedded as a new tag or it could be added as a separate resource file. I assume it'll take a while to process a whole library to add this data.

Edit: the Shuffle needs a new version of iTunes. I think this supports my hypothesis about the metadata.

Overall impression is good, but I'd like to pick some nits nits...

The control is on the headphones. What if you want to use other headphones ? (I never had a problem with the headphones that came with my old iPod, but the ones that came with my new one simply don't stay in my ears).

The control is on the cable for the right ear. What about the sinister left handed people. It would make more sense to have this on the main cable before the split.

The obvious fix is for some third parties to make a cable with an inline control and a headphone socket. The problem that introduces is that the combined cable will be too long, and the position of the control in that length of cable might not be ideal. Of note, the last pair of Sony headphones I bought came with a very short cable (about 18"), and an extension cable which adds another 2 feet.