So Apple anounces it’s latest offering of the shuffle… now mind you I had the last shuffle and really resented not knowing what song was on, I’m not sure if I want to wait and have someone speak it to me.  I really don’t want one of those wonky apple voices from the “speak it” feature of the OS.

What really is a design tipping point is the light weight of the shuffle, I would bet that the weight ratio of the ear buds with cord is almost equal to the weight of the player.  So what?  Well I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve slapped my headphone cord while running only to real them in with the player still safely in my pocket. Now with the weight ratio the same I am willing to bet that the player will be flying out of pockets everwhere.

I personally like a bit of weight to objects in my pocket, substantiality is a quality that is overlooked these days in a race to… well I guess embedding things in our body.  I had a really beautiful phone in 2001 made by sony - small for it’s time, light and really wet when I walked into a salt water pool in Monte Carlo because I forgot it was there.

I like bullet proof too… a solid knock around quality in personal objects.  I recently found a nice design object in a thrift store uptown for 10 bucks, it was a folding Sony AM/FM/PB radio with dual antennas and even an analogue signal meter… it’s a solid brick like steel object that looks like it could survive a trip through the jungle.
So you can keep the stick of gum concept, I didn’t like it the first time and I doubly hate it now. I don’t want to scroll through verbal descriptions either, I can scan and read faster than I can listen. I hate to say it, but this is the first post Steve product that may be a bust. Just my 2 cents**

There is very interesting work being done at the MIT Medialab on context aware devices that sense how you are holding them and adjust their utility according to what they think you want to do.

Watch the video, it’s quite promising:

http://labcast.media.mit.edu/?p=66

I would be interested in how the researchers arrived at what was considered standard ways of holding objects according to their use. When I had a Nikon FM years ago, one of my favorite ways of holding it was to cradle the lens in the upward turned palm of my left hand while my right was on the shutter release button and frame advance lever.

I would imagine there are any number of contact points for an objects and I guess that the next step would be not a predefined set of contact points but for a customized set that would be learned by the device from a hisory of past use.

Also, having the object give an auditory response to the way the device is held “Camera”… “Phone” etc. would be great as well… otherwise we are changing our hands to view what the LCD is telling us about the mode the device is in.

Kudos to MIT MediaLab… This is very interesting stuff indeed and worth every bit of research we can give over to the subject.

It’s been awhile since I’ve used my blog, probably due to the channels for shorter expression like Facebook and Twitter…  Tomorrow I will be taking delivery of a pair of Nike + shoes to pair with my new accessory for the iPod, the sensor and receiver that Apple and Nike developed together to track excercise and chart progress on Nike’s website.

It will be interesting to evaluate the data that I will be getting back and also the whole experience of using sensors to track my progress.  Will the system encourage me to do more or will it inhibit my movements with a feeling of giving away too much about my relatively poor conditioning.

I will be following up in coming weeks to relate the whole experience, but if anyone out there is currently using this system please let me know your experiences and observations. I don’t really know what comes next but I hope to let technology help me keep my New Years resolutions.