Small flash MP3 Players

Remember when small flash memory players first came out? I do, because I had one. It was a Sony 1GB Atrac player, which used Connect3 software instead of drag and drop. It was fantastic, with a battery life of over 70 hours and ogg support so I managed to fit on around 400 songs. Ever since then these small flash players have improved, or have they? The battery life of the iPod shuffle decreased between the 3rd and 2nd generation models. This is definitely a step in the wrong direction.


But not everything is negative, the memory size has been steadily increasing. The first iPod shuffle had 512MB, then it worked its way through the gigabytes and now it is at 4. Judging by this progress, the next generation iPod shuffle will have 8GB of storage. The SanDisk competitor already has 8GB with MicroSD support. I hope the memory sizes do increase, since an 8GB player would be a lovely upgrade for me from my ancient 4GB Nano.

But memory size isn’t the only change. The controls have also changed as well. On my old device the controls were very simple. But on the modern day iPod shuffle the controls are hard to use, as they are through the headphones. Hopefully the style of hardware on these devices will return to the way they were, simple and easy. My idealistic device of this style for the future would be of at least 8GB, with simple controls and a decent battery life of at least 40 hours.