How Rumored iPod Shuffle With Multitouch Might Work [Mockup]

Leander Kahney ()

How Rumored iPod Shuffle With Multitouch Might Work [Mockup]

Remember the recent iPod Shuffle rumor predicting Apple will shortly launch a new version with a 3-inch multitouch screen?

Well, here’s how it might look.

How Rumored iPod Shuffle With Multitouch Might Work [Mockup]

Our friend Graham Bower from MacPredictions made this mockup. He has some good ideas about how it might work. Graham predicts the device is a bit bigger than the current iPod shuffle. It has two buttons on the bottom: On/Off and Shuffle. The square screen shows nothing but album art.

In shuffle mode, it transitions quickly between multiple album covers, moving in different directions to suggest shuffling.

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Swiping your finger from left to right across the screen cues the next track, and in the other direction it goes back to the previous track.

Swiping your finger up and down controls the volume. Tapping on the screen toggles between pause and play. It’s that simple.

16 comments »

About the author

Leander Kahney

is the editor and publisher of Cult of Mac, and author of three books about technology culture: Inside Steve’s Brain, the New York Times bestseller about Steve Jobs; Cult of Mac; and Cult of iPod. Leander has written for Wired, MacWeek, Scientific American, and The Guardian in London. Follow Leander on Twitter @lkahney and Facebook.

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Posted in Apple, iPod, News, Rumors |

  • Seppel

    omg, this looks awesome.

  • kirkmc

    It’s a nice idea, but the whole point of the shuffle is that you _don’t_ look at it. The previous model with buttons was excellent. Apple should go back to that style. Even touchs-sensitive buttons are no good, because the shuffle is something you stick on your clothes, and you’d have to remember to be swiping in the correct direction.

  • Rodney

    What good would that do besides draining battery life?

  • Steven UK

    I would love to see this as a watch. That would be fantastic if perhaps there were different versions, pendant, clip, watch, the design could lend itself to so many different uses.

    Now, I am dreaming of iWatch, a sort of iPod shuffle and watch co-functionality.

    I’m drooooooling already!

  • Adam

    Right, here’s my take on it. The iPod shuffle should become the iPod Lite. “Made for Fitness.” It’s the perfect jogger/gym/player device.

    The iPod nano should keep its name, but gain the described touch device above.

    The iPod classic, iPod touch and Apple TV (yup, you read right) should be combined and become the iPod remote. Basically, a universal remote that will also be an iPod and Tunes/Movies in the cloud streaming device. Together with the Mac mini, which now has HDMI, it’ll make the perfect HTPC system.

  • Joseph

    If Apple isn’t making that, it should be.

  • Bob

    It’s not a 3-inch touch screen…it’s 3 cm x 3 cm, or 1.7-inch diagonal. Try doing multi-touch on a screen that size.

    Of course, Bower’s proposal simply uses it for display purposes…no input on the screen. So it’s just your description of the screen that’s rather inaccurate.

  • Bob

    You should probably also note that the mockup was published over two years ago, well before the actual screen part appeared.

  • http://www.macpredictions.com Graham Bower

    Hi Bob. Yes, I published it ages ago, so I got quite a surprise when that spy shot of the tiny square screen surfaced last month, associated with the shuffle. I’d love to think that Apple gets their ideas from reading my blog, but I realise this is just fanboy wishful thinking :)

    The gestures described in the description are single-touch rather than multi-touch. The screen is too small to use more than one finger at a time.

    In the original post, I also suggested a shake-to-shuffle gesture. This was before Apple announced it in the Nano – so we were obviously on the same wavelength.

  • http://www.gettafreebie.co.uk gettafreebie

    Looks really cute, the battery life would be a real problem though.

  • Sebastian

    Very prescient concept, Graham. Very cute design that’s sure to be a hit with the ladies. ;)

    On another note, where can we find your book, Secondomics? I see it’s out of print everywhere and regret not pulling the trigger.

    Keep up the good work with MacPredictions (rss subscriber here).

    Take care

  • http://www.macpredictions.com MacPredictions

    Hi Sebastian. Thanks for subscribing!
    I’ve withdrawn Secondomics from publication, because I finally have a proper literary agent, and on his advice, I’m now worked on a new (and hopefully much better) version…

  • Kelly Croy

    This will have to come with a wrist band that you can snap it into to act as a watch. Yep. You can clip it on to something or wear it like a watch. Love it.

  • porkchop1234

    I’ve ran across a few joke sites talking about Apple one day making a iwatch and I’ve always laughed thinking what a ludicrous idea. After seeing that mock up in the article above I’ve come to realize that it could be a glorious idea. Only thing needed now is a forward thinking dev or better yet Apple engineer to provide a watch app and everything would be good to go.

  • Dimitrie

    Wait, isnt the point of it so you don’t really have to look at it or touch it? Shuffles should stay the way they are for exercising’s sake

  • http://www.wheretotrain.co.uk Jerold Duell

    Nice post, gracias