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Sources: Macworld, Marco.org
Macworld Article, Marco.org article

Both sites mentioned above speak about the lack of buttons on the new iPod shuffle, among other things. They both bring up a valid, general question: Is Apple going too far with the whole form over function business? Take the point on Marco.org, for example:

There’s a lot of value in simplifying controls, to a point. But nobody was complaining that either the laptop trackpads or the Shuffles had too many buttons before. In both cases, the devices are now worse off than they were before, but they look a bit cooler.

I don’t know about the laptops being worse, but I would agree that the shuffle is worse at least at the slightest due to the lack of buttons. The shuffle’s buttonless design and the diagram they have to put up to show you how to work the thing (see the third picture of the Macworld article) is crazy. I guess one could get used to it, but to throw such memorization at the average user and to oversimplify something just for the sake of getting rid of buttons that looked just fine? Isn’t this unnecessary? People don’t generally go through all that reading to figure out how things work; intuition is key. Tapping something three times to go backward is not intuitive. A button marked with two backward, tailless arrows, though? Anyone that’s operated something that works with playback will understand that has something to do with going in reverse.

The point that got me the most on the Macworld article:

The decision to put the controls on the headphones means that unless Apple opens up the controls to third parties, you can’t even play music on the iPod without using Apple’s own earbuds. What happens if, as is also not unheard of, Apple’s stock earbuds break? Your iPod is completely useless until you get another pair of approved headphones.

Not that I’m an iPod shuffle person anyway, but this wouldn’t make me any more of one nor would it make me want to tell anyone else to get one. It’s prettier, sure, but a step backward overall.

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