14 DAY TRIAL // Not surprisingly, the kind people over at iFixit couldn't help themselves opening up a third-generation iPod shuffle, even though they knew there wasn't that much to be seen inside. However, few parts don't mean it's less interesting. In fact, there are quite some particularities to be mentioned in regards to Apple's latest iPod.
The team of tech-focused minds over at iFixit claim the new shuffle is fairly easy to open, although less experienced folks may end up bending the aluminum case in the process. “Turns out the Shuffle [sic] is easy to open and contains a single IC, a battery and some user interface components [...] There are not many parts in this iPod,” iFixit says.
“Amazingly, at least on our scale, both halves weighed five grams. That means the entire functional half of the iPod weighs only about 10% more than a single sheet of letter size paper,” the post continues. “The Shuffle [sic] does not say iPod (or Shuffle [sic]) anywhere. As far as we know, this is the first iPod that Apple didn't label.”
Upon putting the new shuffle to several tests, the team also discovered that normal headphones work just fine with the fresh player. As you would imagine, controlling the device is impossible, so there's no practical value to this find, but hey, at least we know. “Interestingly enough, normal headphones can still be used to listen to music. The only drawback: without Apple's proprietary headphone playback control, you will not be able to change songs or adjust the volume,” says the team.
Additionally, iFixit found that the VoiceOver feature in the new shuffle requires to connect the iPod to a computer and sync with iTunes before using it. “Upon connecting the shuffle to a computer, we learned that the voice-over feature must first be downloaded via iTunes,” reads the post. Head over to iFixit for how to open the third gen iPod shuffle (not that you should), and more findings.