Third-Party Headphone Adaptors for New Shuffle on the Way

Stephen Wildstrom, for BusinessWeek:

What if you don’t like the indifferent ear buds Apple supplies or, if like me, ear buds just won’t stay in your ears? You can buy the iPhone In-Ear Stereo headphones ($79); the remote is the same. Apple says there will also be third-party adapters that will let you add a remote to your favorite headphones.

I’ve seen a lot of complaints about this today, all of them from people who use non-Apple headphones with their iPods. (I do too.) It’s good that adaptors are in the works, but clearly, today, the new Shuffle is not usable unless you’re using it with Apple headphones. But so then don’t buy it. It’s an odd decision not to include any playback controls on the Shuffle itself, but not the least bit surprising for Apple.

And for the time being, at least, the old-style 1 GB $49 Shuffle is still available.

★ Wednesday, 11 March 2009