TIMEX Watches Out For IPOD

(From BusinessWeek.com -- By Arik Hesseldahl)

Raise your hand if you've ever felt like this.

You're walking along with an IPOD playing music in your ears, and the player itself is in a pocket, a purse, or the compartment of a bag -- a lousy song comes on and you'd like to either turn it down or skip it and go to the next one.

This scenario is further complicated if you're exercising -- when the player is likely in an out-of-the-way armband or fanny pack -- as the maneuver generally calls for stopping whatever activity you're engaged in.

You have two options -- wait for the song to end or wrestle the player out from wherever it is and advance the song yourself.

APPLE and other makers of MP3 players have tried to address this mild inconvenience in a variety of ways over the years.

Apple sells in-line remote controllers -- including one with an FM radio -- that give consumers a small, unobtrusive device to clip on clothes and use to advance back and forth through songs and to control volume.

The IPOD SHUFFLE itself is a player built in just such a shape -- it's about the size of a large money clip.

Even SONY, creator of the WALKMAN and DISCMAN portable music players, created matchbook-size controllers that extended the headphone cord somewhat and added a degree of on-the-fly control.

But as the billion-dollar iPod accessory business has proved time and again, there are many ways to get a job done.

Watchmaker TIMEX has come up with a rather elegant and straightforward solution that will have some appeal.

Why not control the iPod with a wristwatch?

Once you've tried it, as I did with the TIMEX IRONMAN ICONTROL WATCH for iPod, it seems a head-slappingly obvious trick that makes one wonder why no one ever thought of it before, even before the iPod.

Timex Watches Out For iPod

Kraig Bailey, thanks for the post.