LuxPro Copies iPod shuffle with "Super Shuffle"

March 9th, 2005 at 2:00 PM - News by Bryan Chaffin

A new flash-based digital music player called the Super Shuffle borrows more than just its name from Appleis iPod shuffle. Taiwanese manufacturer LuxPro designed the Super Shuffle to look almost exactly like the iPod shuffle, including the white plastic and white headphones, though the company did add both an FM radio tuner and voice recording capabilities to its unit.

The LuxPro Super Shuffle is slightly larger than the iPod shuffle (Super Shuffle tech specs, iPod shuffle tech specs), but features a control interface on the front that mimics Appleis control interface. According to images of the unit published by Engadget, which first broke the story, the Super Shuffle has additional buttons on the back of the device for switching functionality between the radio, music player, and voice recorder.

The Super Shuffle supports MP3 (8~320Kbps), MP3-VBR, WMA, WMA-DRM (5~192Kbps), WAV (ADPCM) music formats, and is works with both Mac OS X and several flavors of Windows. The device also features 12 hours of battery life, the same as the iPod shuffle.

Apple has a long history of protecting its design work, having successfully sued eMachines, FuturePower, and other PC manufacturers who attempted to imitate the original Bondi Blue iMac.