Two Sides of the New Ipod Shuffle

If you are a regular to my blog you would have realised it by now.Nevertheless I will say it up front,"I am Microsoft Biased"

However, I wont argue over the fact that Apple is the Greatest when it comes to product design and one of the most innovative companies in this planet. Apple's new Ipod Shuffle sure stole my eyes. For starters, its half the size , 4 times the memory(4Gb). At $79 its not too pricey either, considering other Ipods.Apart from the new multiple playlist support, the coolest feature is that this player talks!!

The VoiceOver feature announces the name of song or playlist, notifies about the battery life in 14 languages!!.

Surely Apple knows how to be Invincible.I felt "Wow" really belongs to Apple and not to MS... remember Vista wow :(

But again my Microsoft biased mind was desperate to find something wrong about Apple. I was having thoughts that Why Apple does not always give out their best at first?? May be Apple had this design before itself, but planned to release only when the sales slowed down.May be it wants to skim the market as much possible, before release a better version(like the case of Iphone 3g). But then came my saviour.....

Dan Leahul points out in Brand republic's Digital Blogger

"...the volume and tracking controls have been moved to the iPod earphones.The earphones, proprietary earphones... why Apple, why?

Seems like a kick in the shins to devoted iPod users, just what happens if (when) you (eventually) lose the earphones, besides obviously shelling out £40 for another set?

An explanation? Are we granted an apology? A hand written letter from Steve Jobs with a dab of his Apple musk sealed in the envelope?

Since when is the World's Nicest Company^TM so mean? "

Aha ...looks like Apple is not so innocent after all and Microsoft is not just the one which is blamed all the time.

I am Microsoft biased and I can sleep peacefully tonight....