The new iPod Shuffle has got me thinking. It's got me thinking about other mp3 alternatives.
It is because of the remote on the cord thing and while looking through the other mp3 players, I noticed that the Creative Zen Stone Plus had built in speakers. This is not new, but the fact that the Zen Stone is tiny and to have tiny speakers is a great novelty.
Just playing it in the car, the shower, the.... well it's pretty neat. That was until I realized I already have the equipment. The player in the car already plays mp3, the showerproof CD player can play mp3 and so there is no real reason to use the Zen Stone speakers.
Aside from the speakers, it did have one thing that I found cute and missing on the shuffle. The tiny screen.
The screen has always been missing on the iPod shuffles, but the latest one made me wonder about other features it's missing, but available on other players. Radio, stopwatches, games and voice recording. They aren't must have, but they are nice to have and people will use them if they are built in.
Apple has done a good job in trying to lock everyone into iTunes so people will buy their great mp3 players. But for me and because of the new iPod Shuffle, I'm looking at alternatives to Apple.
It's a refreshing change.
