The MP3 Players

iPod Shuffle Only Works with Apple Earphone?!

Mar 16, 2009 Apple, MP3 Players

Guys at Boing Boing dissects the earphones of the new iPod Shuffle, and found a tiny chip, coded 8A83E3. It could be just a normal chip that read and transmit a button click to a digital signal. As the new iPod shuffle has no button on the device, all the functions are controlled by its earphones. It seems Apple is making advantage from its 70% of the market share. The company can make a decent revenue by just turning the earphone chip into a licensing scheme!

By adding such a chip to headphones, Apple could force third-party manufacturers to pay fees to make headphones for its iPod Shuffle—after all, the device has no controls, so normal headphones are useless.

[ Boing Boing via CrunchGear ]

More reading:

iPod Shuffle 3rd Gen Reviewed by CNet

iPod Shuffle 3rd Gen Dissected by iFixIt

iPod Shuffle 3rd Gen Deals at Amazon

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