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Jeff Jarvis expresses reservations about the iPod Shuffle:
: Has the iPod jumped the shark? The entire point of the iPod is that it gives you control. Hell, the entire point of media that succeeds these days is that it gives you control. But the new, cheap, cute iPod takes that control away by shuffling the cuts you put on it. Gimmick. Off target. Doesn’t mean it won’t sell—it’s cheap; it’s iPod—but it corrupts the Apple/iPod message.
...: UPDATE: In a more careful reading of the site, I see that it has an in-order mode but they do deemphasize that to emphasize the shuffle shtick. I think that’s a marketing mistake, then. Glenn Reynolds had the same uneasy feeling.
However, I wonder if Jeff has had a chance to try iTunes/iPod Shuffle Mode yet. Because… it’s very cool. Per MacCentral:
“Shuffling” songs is an enormously popular way for portable music listeners to listen to their songs, according to Jobs, hence the name.
And here’s a report of a music critic who praises the feature:
One devotee is New Yorker classical music critic Alex Ross. Writing in the magazine a few weeks ago, Ross, 36, marveled at the way his machine “goes crashing through barriers of style in ways that change how I listen” when programmed to skip randomly from one track to another. His breakthrough moment, Ross says in a recent telephone interview, occurred when the shuffle mode on his iPod took him from a recording of Igor Stravinksy’s “Rites of Spring” to Louis Armstrong’s “West End Blues,” an unexpected yet inspired musical transition that “was exactly in synch with what I’d been thinking about,” he says.
#1
Jeff's attitude is so typical of tech punditry. He doesn't "get" shuffling so it must be bad.
When he actually takes the time to read the information, and finds out that an inline play mode was included, the Shuffle becomes a marketing mistake.
Get a grip, Jeff. Not every product is made specifically for you. If products are not made for you, they are not necessarily bad.