The next Generation…

I’ve got this huge addiction to shopping and more so to impulse buys. So last week after hearing about the new 3rd generation I-Pod at my friends place, I made a quick stop at Bescent Nager and grabbed one for myself. First thing that you’ll notice is the puny size of the device. Undoubtedly this is by far the smallest I-pod yet and perfect to plug on to for a morning jog or while working at office.

However unlike the other I-pods, the controls on this are through 3 buttons only. Two are for volume up & down. The 3rd one here in the trickiest- a single click for play/ pause, double click for next song and a triple click for previous song. Also note that there are no rewind and fast-forward buttons like the v2 and v1 versions. The biggest drawback is that the 3 button control panel is on the wiring of the headphones. This makes the headphones for the I-pod shuffle unique and in other words irreplaceable by headphones from other models in case of damage. On the good side, this key configuration removes the need for the 'lock keys' button. The toggle key for shuffle and series mode is the same as in earlier models. Battery back-up lasts for well more than 8hrs inspite of hearing at a pretty high volume. Decently priced at Rs. 4200 for 4GB it has a good value for money as well.