First off, the good. It’s incredibly cool—so futuristic, it does not have a single button. We get it. And most of us, grumbling aside, would love to run out and buy one. But coolness aside, there is a larger question arising from Apple’s refresh to the iPod Shuffle line: how do we connect it to other stuff? Cars, speakers, TV…anything that accepts a line-in connection can play music from an iPod. But what do we do with this new Shuffle?
For right now, only Apple’s included headphones can control the device. Speakers with a USB port as input might be able to control the Shuffle using the included Shuffle USB Cable (the same one used for synching/charging), but most speakers lack such a port. Another use of the USB cable could be in cars; Ford’s SYNC system has the ability to control/connect with devices using a USB cable, so the steering wheel controls could be used to control the Shuffle. Shuffles, in fact, make excellent car MP3 players, because they are small enough to hide out of sight easily, and they do not represent a huge loss should your car be broken into!
But what to do with the larger number of speakers sold for iPods, many of which include a standard dock connector and a line-in cable? Perhaps Apple could redesign the headphone control as a dongle+headphones. This way the control, plus a short length of cable, could be plugged into the Shuffle for controlling the music, and regular headphones or a line-in cable could be connected to the other side of the control. This would also reduce the unique number of headphones Apple is required to make—currently there are unique headphones for regular iPods, iPhones, iPod Shuffles, and the high-end earbuds. Complexity equals overly expensive products!
Until there is a way to hook up the new Shuffles, it is easy to imagine many users sticking with their older generation models. (These can still be purchased from the Apple Store. Does this herald a change in Apple’s policy of intentionally depleting inventory ahead of a product launch?).
Will you wait to see what types of controls are made available before purchase, or will you buy a Shuffle with only the included headphones for control? Any bets on if we will see a Shuffle-to-Dock converter?
I've been told that any device connecting to the new shuffle must have Apple's proprietary authorization chip in it. Sorry, I'm not interested.
Is there any shuffle-to-dock a bridge to make it controlled by ipod speaker?
It is over 6-months without solution on this device.
I love shuffle 3G but it allows me to use only for outdoor. VoiceOver function is new experience to those iPod users and perfect to let me control it well to select song without display. If there is shuffle-to-dock, I dream to use IR remote to operate shuffle with my Bose sound dock at dark night when I am in bed.
No waiting, I bought and expected the new nano 5G featured VoiceOver which is able to work on my Bose but NOT. I also found radio function is only when earphones connected. Radio is a basic function on my very old Sonyericsson phone W810i when I dock its original speaker dock, I can listen Radio without any problem,
Apple's concept is to let me down……… when I want to use OverOver and upgrade my Bose featured FM Radio with nano 5G. The funny result is nano radio is not with iPod speaker!
Ugh. This is exactly the problem I'm having right now trying to find a car connector or mini speakers for my mother's freshly purchased shuffle 3G. Yes, we can just connect a regular line-out cable, but it won't give anything beyond on/off control. Looks like we're going to be returning it and buying something more honest from Sandisk, Philips, etc. I think it says something about my chances of finding something that's going to work the way we want from the fact that this blog was the only vaguely relevant thing on the first page of google results for "ipod shuffle 3g speakers". (Plenty of sites purport to offer compatible items… actually they just take regular line in. Thanks for wasting my time, you utter heroes…)
The comment saying that things that connect to the new generation need some kind of authentication chip just makes my blood boil. What Apple are basically doing is enforcing a monopoly on (working) accessory creation for their aggressively marketed music players (to the point that anything non-apple is seen as somehow inferior by most people, on no other evidence than the ads), along with the blackbox software you HAVE to use to update it. Surely we don't allow that kind of BS any more in commercial operations? Even Sony don't bother with it any more – that must surely be saying something, given THEIR past track record for being price-gouging control freaks. I have an old minidisc of theirs which has controls and a radio on the headphone lead… however that control block has a plain 3.5mm jack on top of it, into which you can plug anything you like but still have control. And their more up to date MP3 players work like every other non-apple type; you add files to it like a USB stick, and use in-house or third party management software to look after it IF YOU WANT TO.
Please Apple, I'd love to actually like your stuff, but this kind of crap makes it impossible at the moment.