Your music is never the same experience twice with iPod shuffle. The Shuffle setting lets you listen to your favorite songs in different combinations every time. Smaller and lighter than a pack of gum, iPod shuffle is a stylish, wearable, go-everywhere musical companion. It fits in the smallest of pockets and plays for up to 12 hours on a single charge. It also holds up to 240 songs. It's the easiest and most affordable way to mix up your music collection on the go. One-year limited warranty.
1 iPod Shuffle makes the way small and easy
I've had my iPod Shuffle for one week now. I think it is great. Its small, easy to use, and the battery seems to last a long time as I haven't run the battery out yet. I like the fact that I could play my music over the radio if I purchased the accessory. There are also many ways to carry the iPod with you, around the neck (which is how it comes), a couple of different arm bands or a couple of different clips that can attach it to a shirt, waist, or other place (but these are extra, and i haven't decided how I want to carry it around in the gym.) I also like that it plays a variety of music formats like MP3 or the iTunes format. I decided to keep a little space on it so that i can carry documents and files back and forth between the office and home, and I haven't even come close to using all the memory on it.
I like to load it with the songs that I want for that day, run, or what ever. It is pretty quick and easy to change the songs on. I've used both options for playing songs - shuffle or in order. It just depends on my mood at the time or with those particular songs that I've loaded.
Remember it is very small (I was surprised how small it is even though I looked at the pictures of it) and plugs into a USB port to load or change music as well as for charging up (no changing batteries, unless they wear out, and then a dealer would have to change them.) If there is any problem, I found that on my Gateway Desktop at work I could not plug the iPod Shuffle into the front USB ports. (I had an extra USB hub that solved the problem for me, so just beware that the edges of the iPod Shuffle may stick out just enough to cause problems with were you want to plug it in.)
The music quality is good and i can use it with the headphones or with computer speakers. I plugged it into the JBL Creature 2 speakers, as well as my regular stereo system via a headphone plug to RCA adapter, and both sounded good.
2 worth every penny
Is the iPod Shuffle perfect? No. Is it somehow still flawless? Absolutely. This little device has changed my life in the same way TiVo has changed it. I am freed from the constraints of technology and my life is better. My husband got me the Shuffle while I was in the hospital and it got me through some tough times, being able to listen to my favorite music. Now that I'm home it's no less valuable, allowing me to walk around the house early in the morning or late at night, or even sleep next to aforementioned husband -- listening without disturbing anyone else. Ten years ago I took a vacation and wanted to bring my favorite music, and wound up lugging around a bulky tape recorder with tinny speakers and a bunch of batteries; now I can just toss my Shuffle in a pocket and go!
As usual, the Apple Corporation has designed a beautiful and functional piece of technology with a vision rarely found in other companies. The design is superb, with intuitive controls that even a sick person can operate right away. While ads say you get 12 hours of music per charge, I tested this out. I let my Shuffle totally run out, recharged it in my computer for 2 hours, and then played it non-stop for 17 hours! I've also dropped it and the replay didn't even skip. The volume control has about 40 clicks, so you get the sound level just right. The earbuds are very comfortable and stay in place well; Consumer Reports recently rated tham as the best headphones on a music player.
This is a sturdy, well-designed music player with great sound quality, intuitive controls, huge capacity and .... it's beautiful!
The Shuffle will not be for everyone. I like it because I want to load it up with a couple of hundred songs and then just let it shuffle. I don't care if I see the title on a display. My husband wants to be able to play a favorite album or two, or have a mix ready for when he exercises, so he has the 512 Mb Shuffle. We are both very happy.
The Shuffle comes with a software disk, a reference card, headphones with adapters, instructions, Apple decals and a lanyard for hanging the Shuffle around your neck rather than tucked in a pocket. Many accessories are available, including many types of adapters, carriers, docks and speakers.
Superb. Couldn't be happier.
3 Hyped Junk by Apple
Apple has realized that most people would rather be "in" than get what is useful. It has been working unfortunately and that allows the company to peddle cheap items and a market up price.
There is almost nothing unique about the shuffle other than a minimalistic case which exemplifies the lack of features within. There is no way to navigate to any song you want to hear because Apple saved money in by not putting in an LCD display or navigational system. This glaring omission is hyped up the wazoo with "random is the new order" and other clever marketing slogans before the next version where random will be out and common sense will be in. Ever wonder how long it took to cycle through 300 songs, one by one?
You cannot control playlists either and the great portability for sports/gym workouts is also gone. You cannot regulate the tone quality either so you are stuck with how the sonic quality plays, which is adequate. What are the pros? None that are really unique to this device except for a pleasing shape, relatively good battery life, ability to play much of your music that you have in an iPod and that the battery can charge in your USB port. You are overpaying for an item with no radio either.
WHAT SHOULD YOU GET INSTEAD OF THIS OVERHYPED INADEQUATE DEVICE?
Well, I ended up settling on the Samsung YP-MT6Z. THIS is the new order and there are plenty of other similar devices. It's just a wee bit bigger than a single AA battery, which it takes and lasts over 40 hours. No, I'm not kidding as I've tested it myself. You get various different EQs, effects, truebass, SRS, WOW, ability to set playlists, random (if you really need to be in the "new order"), 1GB of memory to store songs in any format, an FM radio, a voice recorder, A-B repeat (cool!) and it also acts as a USB memory card. It also has cool colored lights if you're into that sort of thing. I can say that it is the best musical device I have ever purchased and it is a joy to use as an ultra portable music player. Look elsewhere. Don't support Apple's bottom line by buying into their marketing junk.
4 Start with the best
I bought a 15 Gig I Pod and love it. My mom bought a 128 Meg Audiovox mp3 player and its a joke to use. It has a small screen and you have to take a college course to understand the manual. I bought an Ipod Shuffle for her and it piece of cake to use. You do have to use Itunes to download music, but that is easier to use than the other programs out there. The size is amazing and there isn't small hard to read digital screen. It's either on or off and easy to understand. Rather than waste your money on no name brands, buy an Apple and it will be the last one you have to buy.
5 A Nice Small Device
It's time to review the newest gadget in my life, the 1 gigabyte iPod Shuffle. Overall, I have been very impressed with the device. The device does have a few drawbacks, but for what I've found it's perfect for my usage style.
I'll start with the positives and there are quite a few. Judging the size and weight, the device is amazingly small and light. I can easily shove it in my pocket or put it around my neck (with the including lanyard) and within seconds I'll forget it's there. This is a large plus for me, as I want to be able to carry it everywhere effortlessly. A nice feature that avoids bulk is the cover for the USB connector is an interchangeable piece that can either be a flat stub (how the device is often pictured) or the lanyard clip, like I wear it. Most of the accessories take advantage of this space for their connection to the iPod.
The storage capacity of the one-gigabyte version is perfect for my use. I have personally rated most of the music in my iTuneslibrary over the past year (8000+ songs) and use the autofill option to fill the device with music from the "My Top Rated" playlist. I can pick and choose music I would want to include and then autofill the rest of the space, but I rarely go that route. The autofill feature is flawless and ensures a steady variety of good music from my collection. I can go for a couple weeks at a time (or a sixteen-hour drive to North Dakota and back like last weekend) without hearing the same song twice, because I have roughly 220 songs on the device at any time. The battery life seems great to me, it lasts at least the 12 hours Apple says. The battery charges when plugged into any USB port, making it easy to charge anywhere you are. The USB drive function of the device is an added plus, I can carry a gig of data with me at any time if need be and I can play the music on the Shuffle in MP3 software on any computer I plug the device into (like I do at work).
My heaviest use of the device occurs in the car. I want to be able to sit-down, pull the device out of my pocket, plug it in to my tape-deck adaptor, and jam away. That's exactly what I am able to do with the Shuffle. The device pumps out some pretty good sound quality at a volume much higher than my previous MP3 device (Palm Zire 71). I think I would have a much harder time doing this with the other iPods and any larger MP3 player.
Comparing the device to the other iPods and most of the upper-tier MP3 players, it has that nice factor of not having to worry about it. If you're at all like me you want to take good care of your portable devices (PDA, cell phone, digital camera, etc), the iPod Shuffle makes this easy. The device is light but of decent size, this makes it a perfect size to stay in my pocket without annoying me. Because of the cost and size of the device ($150 for the 1GB version) I don't panic when I fall over and have it on, it's small and is not going to set me back a month's salary if it gets damaged. I have successfully (unfortunately) bumped the device into numerous things including the basement and my car door, and when I expected it to quit working it has kept on jugging.
On the negative side... If you're one that has to have your entire collection with you (I can only see this if you are gone for days at a time), this device is not for you. If you're one that needs the screen because you can't handle a random song, this device is not for you. If you're one that really likes big bulky device, the Shuffle is not for you.
If you are one that finds anything I said before remotely applicable to them you may be interested in the iPod Shuffle. It has been definitely been a great device for me, and I recommend it to anyone out there looking for an MP3 player to take jogging, carry in their pocket, or to replace their existing USB flash drive.
6 Great, but only if you have a new computer
This was a waste of my money. It is only compatible with computers running Windows 2000 or XP and those that have USB 2.0 ports. Nice of Apple to advertise that. Now I'm out $150 and have a music player the size of a gum pack. I've always hated Apple and their pretty but useless products. I got duped on this one, but never again.
7 What's the fuss about?
I got my Ipod shuffle a few days ago after weeks of agonizing over what kind of MP3 player I should get. Here's what I have decided:
Pros:
1. Small, cute, unobtrusive. Gets mega-points for form factor.
BUT it would be nice if the sliding switch on the back had a raised bar on it for traction, also the tactile feedback on the buttons is a little shallow, but livable.
2. Works well with Itunes, and Autofill makes quick work of usually a time-consuming task.
3. Flash based media won't skip
4. USB charging good for those who don't want extra cables (like me)
5. Can be used as a jump drive. In fact, you can adjust your settings to reserve space for music, and the rest for data.
CONS:
1. Can't tell if the darn thing is on.
In direct sunlight with sunglasses on, you can't really tell what color the indicator light is. It pauses for a second before playing the song, so I end up hitting the play button twice and it pauses. This is further confounded when I tried to hook my shuffle up with an FM transmitter, while driving. After nearly endangering my life and the lives of others in the car with me, I decided to just stick to the radio.
2. No multiple machines.
I have a laptop, and a desktop. The desktop has most of my media. The laptop has about 6 gigs of music that I use while I'm in school. Apple has a "One Shuffle, One computer" policy. How can you reconcile the two? Choose one machine, and migrate files regularly.
3. Itunes must be closed to use as a removable HD (aka "jump drive")
This is more of a "programming quirk" than a gripe. Once you get used to it, it isn't a big deal.
4. USB 2.0 is still slow
I know its the standard, but it still takes about 10 mins to load up your Ipod Shuffle with a gig of music. I understand its the best simple solution out there, but I'm impatient
5. Is it done?
I leave my machines on all the time, and when a machine is on and the shuffle is plugged in it will treat it as it is accessing a drive (hence, blinking orange light). Unfortunately, that's also the light pattern that tells you "charging". Who knows when your Ipod shuffle is fully charged? You got to unseat it and check the back, or plug it BACK in and if it blinks green, you're good to go.
This fares better than other mini mp3 players like the Panasonic SV-SD80 that I had becuase:
1. Itunes software is intuitive and elegant vs. Panasonic's clunky, slow andproprietary Real Player software that you can't re-download (which is why I had to get a new mp3 player).
2. Doesn't need a docking station to recharge
3. No proprietary media reader
Otherwise, they're about equal, and in many usability respects the SV was better.
Moral of the Story: There is no perfect MP3 player out there yet.
8 Not worth it...
The iPod shuffle is $150, and holds 250 songs. Its has no desplay, and has about 4 buttons. It's not worth it.
This is perfect if you have a big ipod already, and need somthing alot more portable, for sports or somthing. But You should DEFINETLY NOT get this for your only mp3 player.
I would suggest saving only $50 more to get an ipod mini, to hold 4 times that space, have a display, and a touch wheel. Cummon, they are only $200 bucks,(amazon is actually having a sale for even cheaper,) they look cooler, and you still don't even know it are in your pocket.
Unless you are using this for sprts and have a big iPod already, dont get this. Get the mini.
9 TERRIBLY painful earbuds! Ouch!
Apple's lawyers ought to review the design of these HARD earbuds. Really bad! If you wear these for an extended time, your ear canals will be quite sore...and any slight movement of your head will remind you.
Get earbuds you like (try some first), too bad they'll likely be BLACK while the iPod default is WHITE. Also, some earphone draw more power...my nice Sony Noise Reduction over-the-earphones (A must for flying) couldn't give me the volume I wanted....
The machine is fine, although it does not put out much volume. It would be nice if the ITunes software could equalize all the songs to the same loudness level. I found I had to frequently adjust the volume - perhaps no fault of Apple.
It's ok...it's cool (now anyway - everyone gawked at it on a recent international trip), and it fits in your pocket when not being used.
Battery life is not bad. I charged it up in an electronics store when it died... 5 minutes in a handy laptop USB port gave me about another hour of playing time. Wahoo!
It's good for me, an adult. I like it.
10 Perfect at doing what it was designed to do
I love this little gizmo!
I don't need a 40G ipod, because I use my computer to store my music. What I wanted was something tiny and light, something that wouldn't skip, something that I could stick in a small pocket, and that would hold enough music to get me through the day. This little number does the trick perfectly.
I don't mind the lack of playlists - I always use shuffle at home anyway. But for on the go, trekking around the campus, hiking, shopping, ignoring strangers on the train, etc, this is the perfect ipod!
Installing the software was a snap, and the earbuds are more than sufficient for my ears. Also, the lanyard is quite cute and useful - turning your ipod into a pendant and a handy conversation piece!
For the money, you would be hard-pressed to do better. Go ahead, spend the dough - you won't be sorry!
11 Shuffle beats all MP3 Players in sound quality
Recently I read an analysis by Bill Machrone of PC Week that showed the Shuffle's ability to maintain a perfect square sine wave even under load. For the uninitiated, a square sine wave means sound is being reproduced perfectly. Well, most -if not all- MP3 players on the market cannot reproduce the lower spectrum very well when a user plugs in earphones. So you end up with good middle and high range and varying forms of messed up low range reproduction. NOT THE SHUFFLE. It manages to go from a positive to a negative load in millseconds and maintain it perfectly for the necessary length of time. This is a marvel of engineering. So what does all this mean? Get a Shuffle and a decent set of earbuds like Sony's Fontopia and you have quite possibly the best audiophile MP3 setup available as of today. And you can have it all for less than $200 . Don't believe me? Try it!
12 The perfect companion to any hard drive based iPod.
Since the iPod shuffle lacks a display, I wouldn't want this to be the only MP3 player that I own but I think it's the perfect compliment to any existing iPod. I love the fact that I can drop it in my pocket and I can't even tell that it's in there. Now I have access to my music all the time no matter where I go. I was worried about being able to go back and relisten to a section of an audible book if I couldn't hear what was being said but you can just press and hold the back button and it rewinds a few seconds at a time so no worries there. If you really want to listen to something in order you do have that option but even on my larger iPod I nearly alwasy listen to my playlist on shuffle mode. I also use disk function to shuttle documents that are too large to email between work and home. I absolutely love this thing.
13 This changed the way I use iPods
The shuffle is my 5th iPod. Call me a fan. I had the original 5GB, and most of the models since then, and I have loved them all.
This one though, is so small, light, and unobtrusive, that I can have it around my neck all day. Then, when I find I'm in a place and needing music, I plug in. If it happens to be walking around downtown, I pull out the headphones. If in the car, I use a cassette adapter.
I bought this device within an hour or so if the announce, and used it virtually every day since, and the experience has been perfect.
Some have said that the lack of an LCD is a problem, but I rarely miss it. It's kind of a safety advantage when driving. There's no screen to distract you, and it's easy enough to identify the song when you get back to your computer.
14 Nice player but terrible compatibility problems
The ipod shuffle has big compatibility problems. Before you buy it be careful of the following: If you have a laptop, make sure that it has USB 2.0 and they are powered, or you won't be able to charge it. Also, look at Apple's discussion fourms and check the hundreds of people that have problems getting the ipod recongnized by windows and then by iTunes. Make sure your computer's configuration does not appear there.
The software provided with shuffle (as of april 1, 2005) does not work, so you have to go to apple's website to get a new one.
I have two computers, a hp laptop and a dell desktop. The ipod shuffle does not get recongnized by the laptop at all and only sometimes by the desktop.
If you are a previous ipod owner and did not use itunes to load your ipod, you can't do that with the shuffle. You can use it as a flash drive, but the songs won't get recognized automatically.
The ipod itself is a nice gadget, but because of drivers, software and firmware issues it's been a source of a lot of frustration for many users.
I'm returning mine.
15 Shuffle vs iAudio U2
Before I bought my Shuffle, I read every review here, and was disappointed that nobody had compared it with other flash players. So, I ended up doing some comparisons, and thought I'd post the info for others in their mp3 player search.
Let me first say, that if I were to buy a hard drive-based mp3 player, it would absolutely be an iPod; they're just the best. However, when it comes to the flash-based players, the Shuffle has a good deal of competition out there. The players I looked at were the Shuffle, the iAudio U2, the iRiver iFP 799T , and the Creative MuVo TX FM, all 1GB models. The first choice I made was whether or not I wanted an internal battery or a AA or AAA battery. There are pro's and con's to both, which I think are pretty intuitive. I ended up wanting an internal battery because I wanted the lightest player possible. However, the iRiver was a real contender for the simple fact that you can get a waterproof case and headphones, so you can actually use it while swimming! After looking at the iRiver, I didn't like how the player was designed. The buttons were hard to operate (I wear size 10 gloves-XL) and it appeared that it would be awkward to use while running. I didn't like the Creative because it felt low-quality and the design of it coming apart wasn't appealing. Thus, I was left with the Shuffle and the iAudio U2, both of which I bought and used, with the intention of keeping the one I liked more.
Accessories:
Shuffle - came with decent headphones, and a heavy string-like lanyard. Not included were a case $26, or an armband $30.
iAudio U2 - came with a sport case, decent headphones, a very nice lanyard (looks like a silver chain), firewire/USB adapter, firewire/USB corded adapter, and depending on where you buy it, a free armband ($7 retail).
Sound Quality:
I should start off by stating that I am an audiophile, so I used a pair of high-end Shure E3c earbuds ($180) in my evaluation. I also used the stock earbuds for both players briefly. Both work fine but just aren't up to the level of what I desire. Also, it should go without saying that the quality of the mp3's that you put on your player have the biggest impact on the quality of the sound.
Shuffle - Not bad, but could be better. It would have been nice to have been able to adjust the highs and lows. Due to the design of the Shuffle, you can not adjust the bass or treble.
iAudio U2 - Wow, to say it was good would be an understatement. It was very rich and deep, with excellent high and deep lows. Because the U2 has a display, you can go into the menu's and make an incredible number of adjustments to the sound. If you have an ear that can tell differences in sound quality, then take a hard look at this player.
Design/Features:
Shuffle - I like the shuffle design a lot, and I think their case is the bomb. We all know it doesn't have a display or a radio, so enough of that already... If you want a display or a radio, then get something else instead of venting on this forum. One feature that I do LOVE on the shuffle is the built-in USB port. It is VERY nice to be able to take the end cap off and see a USB port on the end. Also, because the Shuffle is thin, it's easy to plug into a laptop USB port without it blocking the other port. On desktops, you might need a cable since the configuration/design of desktop USB ports is hit and miss. Of particular disappointment is the on/off switch. If you use the shuffle in the gym, and you get sweaty in any way, you're not going to be able to work the on/off switch very well. It's very slick. Why does this matter? Well, if you're on random mode and you want to put it in continuous mode (perhaps you want to hear more songs from the current artist playing) then you inevitably turn it off. Of course, once you turn it off then you've lost being able to listen to that artist. I do like the control pad on the shuffle as it's attractive and easy to use. Whenever you shut the Shuffle off, the volume goes down to 0. Every time you turn it on, you have to push the volume up button about 15-20 times (not an exaggeration). Because of this, you don't know if it's playing or not, and it can take a few moments until you know if you're going to be hearing music. I'm sure with more use this would be less of an issue, but I used it for a month and it still bothered me. In this case, a display would be nice (okay, I said it.) Also, because I have over 500 cd's, it is nice to be able to look at the display when I forget the name of the artist/song. This would probably be much less of an issue for someone with a small audio collection.
iAudio - Very sleek and impressive. It has a FM Radio; recording from mic, radio, or line in; a graphic equalizer, many pre-set eq settings, date and time clock, fun visualizations, left/right speaker display, volume display, name of song display, and is backlit. The display crams a great deal of information in the small space, but because it's razor sharp, it's useful. The backlight is nice and very bright (it's not always on). The radio works fine, and the recording capability works well too. The menu's are many and go deep. The case is made to be more durable, and as a result is a neoprene-type material with rubber, but it has cutouts for the controls. With the case on, it makes the control stick a little more challenging to use, but it's not by any means difficult. It does not sheild moisture as good as the Shuffle case would. The U2 case is better suited to being dropped and looks as though it'd absorb shock better. The way you recharge the U2 is to use it's firewire port. It comes with a rather fat firewire/USB adapter, so you may have to unplug your other USB accessories for it to fit. However, that's if you use the small adapter, if you use the adapter that is corded (both are included), then this is not a problem. The U2 uses a control stick in addition to a few buttons. Most tasks are accomplished using the stick, which is very easy to operate. I was expecting it to be sensitive and difficult to use, but it is not, and I have fairly large hands.
Battery Life:
Both are internal and seem to get about the same 10-12 hours of play, however, the Shuffle can take an optional battery pack or an external adapter for plugging/charging it in a wall outlet. Both of those features totally rock. However, the iAudio can have the battery replaced for $40 as opposed to the Shuffle's $99.
Software:
Shuffle - It's iTunes or it's nothing. And not just iTunes, but iTunes format which is NOT mp3, it's aac. If you have all your audio files in mp3, then iTunes will convert them to aac, but you lose audio quality that way (not an option for me). If you want to reburn all your cd's into aac format, then you can retain the audio quality. If your files are already in aac, then the shuffle is the player you probably want. Also, when you burn a CD in iTunes, it burns it as aac. In order to get it to mp3, you have to burn it to CD, and then copy it back to the hard drive. AGHH!!! The madness!!! Why does Apple have to be so difficult?! The only positive I see with using iTunes is that its interface is nice, and it runs fast. If the Shuffle would play mp3's, it'd be MUCH more of a contender in my book.
iAudio U2 - The U2 shows up as a hard drive and you can drag and drop files into it (any kind of files), without having to install any software. However, if you have a huge audio library, then that just doesn't work as it's too cumbersome. The U2 comes with audio management software that will find your music files and you can manage it that way. It's fast, and works well, but it isn't as nice as the iTunes interface. I had read that the U2 was compatible with musicmatch, however, I have not been able to get it to work. Musicmatch is my software of choice, and it is very slow when compared to iTunes, but it's much more versatile for my use.
Overall Assessment:
The Shuffle IS very cool looking, and if we are buying the latest and greatest flash player, then we DO want it to be cool, right? However, even though I think the look of the Shuffle is awesome, especially with the cool case you can get for it, I still have to side with the U2. I really wanted to like the Shuffle, I really did, but when I took it into work to listen to some music, I couldn't because of the aac format of the files. And when I discovered what you had to do to change those files into mp3's, I was frustrated; it's just not versatile enough for my use. Also, because the audio quality of the U2 is a step above the Shuffle, that's what ultimately swayed me, so I kept the U2 and returned the Shuffle. The Shuffle's audio quality isn't bad by any means, it's just that the U2's is really, really good. If you have any doubts about my ravings over the audio quality of the U2, just search the web and look at other reviews. Also, because of all the accessories that came with the U2, it was also the better value.
16 Great, Smalll & Simple Shuffle...but Apple can do better...
Pros: Superb AAC audio quality(despite no sound enhancing equalizer), easy to use controls, THIN and LIGHT, long but a reasonable length that fits comfortably in the hand, nice lanyard that's included, easy to download, good download speed(but not the best), and it's a flash based player which provides skip-free playback compared to other iPods with a hard disk, better bass response than its predecessors, overall easy iTunes interface.
Cons: Easily scratched if not careful, no sound enhancing feature(ex: equalizer, sound check, crossfade), long unusual pause between songs, a daily battery charge might be needed(12 hr. life = a day), you could hear a small amount of noise coming from the 'processor' of the shuffle, headphone length is a bit long for even 5"5' people.
Overall, the iPod Shuffle is great and cheap! Its small size and simplicity packs excellent audio quality and has a reasonable battery life to size ratio. However, the LIMITED features Apple designed on the 1GB shuffle lures many people to the Mini (if you can fork over another $50, you mind as well get the Mini for an LCD screen and a lot more features!). Therefore it's either the $100 Shuffle or the $200 Mini you should be deciding...but I think that Apple could do better next year...
17 Not even close to being proven legit!
I'm sick of spam and I'll bet you are too.
Don't give online hucksters your email address by signing up for the "get-it-for-nothing offers" that are posted here!
Search sfgate.com or Google for "David Lazarus iPod not really free" and you will see the San Francisco Chronicle's report on what the people running these dishonest programs are really up to.
18 The pros and cons of i-Pod Shuffle
I LOVE my i-POD!!! It mixes up your music, but if you listen to it non-stop for a while, you can see that somtimes the music is played in the same order, even if it's on shuffle mode. If you load the software, which on the first computer took 3 times to load correctly, on two computers, and them put the i-Pod in, you lose the songs you had on the mp3 player. Overall, other than the software mishaps, you'll love it so much, you will want to name it, and you need to,for xample, mine is named Ippie. You need to let it charge for a few hours at a time,to let it work to it's highest potential.
19 Apple Fanatics Only Need Apply
This is one of the worst mp3 players I've ever heard! I currently have three other mp3 players not including this one.
First off, there is no built in equalizer. The music is the most important thing and it is flat and uninspiring. Even songs that have loud thumps when played on my computer are flat in this thing. You need to adjust each song individually within iTunes before loading them into the shuffle. With hundreds of songs, I spent a few hours adjusting the volume and equalization of about 50 songs. Now those songs sound like garbage played through my computer on iTunes but sound good in the shuffle. Why can't they sound good in both???
There is a pop/click in between songs. It is very slight, but audible when listening to it in anything other than a subway station.
No display is aggravating. This thing holds a couple of hundred songs and I sometimes have no idea what's playing.
Second, iTunes has to be one of the worst music management programs I've ever used. It is truly sad. Importing my mp3 library into iTunes was laborious and often failed. Most of my mp3's are on CD's because I simply don't have enough hard drive space to store them all. iTunes loaded mp3's from a CD, then promptly deleted those same songs the next time I plugged in my shuffle. Supposedly because the songs must be available when you sync your shuffle. Most of my mp3's are also ripped at 320k. So I tried to import them into the AAC format at the iTunes preferred AAC format so that I could fit more songs on the shuffle. Well now I have two of everything in my library. Whoever designed this program should jump out the nearest window and save us all a lot of trouble.
The design is simple yes, but not my style. White is not a color.
If you are not one of the Apple faithful, think seriously before you order this. There are several other players for around the same price. I got suckered into to all the hype and now I regret it.
20 iPod Shuffle - 5 Stars, Amazon delivery - 5 Stars
What a great little gadget!
- It weighs less than my BMW key.
- It took less than two minutes to set it up and start using it.
- The headphone/earbuds are better than I thought they would be.
- The 1GB model holds more music that I will be able to listen to during my commute.
- The lack of display doesn't bother me because neither my tape player nor my CD player have a display. Besides, I can keep the order of the 15 albums or so in my head.
All in all, the perfect little mp3 gadget. And Amazon was the perfect place to buy it.
- price discounted slightly
- no tax
- free shipping (option)
Why buy it from the Apple store or anywhere else?
21 be sure to avoid the ipod spam programs
Let's face it, you can't get something for nothing!
The San Francisco Chronicle recently exposed the real story behind the so-called "offers" that are continually being posted here.
Do a search on Google or on sfgate.com for "iPod not really free David Lazarus" and you will see what the con artists running these programs are really up to.
In a nutshell, it's just another way for spammers and other sleazy people to steal your personal information.
22 Really easy to use...
I picked this up with the sport case, since my ipod has been hijacked by my 4 year olds playlists, and bedtime song lists and so on, and I wanted something less fragile than the ipod's hard drive to take to the gym and walks. We already have a few ipods, so its a no brainer to pick this one, since you can use the same playlists etc...
CON: my 6 month old HP has a funky well shaped depression on which the front USB ports were inset, so I couldn't insert the IPOD shuffle straight in and had to pick up a powered USB 2.0 hub to be able to connect it.
I ripped most of our CDs in apple lossless format, and the nice thing about this shuffle, is that I can downconvert automatically to 128 bit to fit more songs into the shuffle, so that it works out to hold quite as many of the songs I want as I could on my ipod (given that I have to have raffi and pooh bear, and beethoven on hand for my son on my regular ipod as well, and lossless format worked out to upto half a gig per CD) Saves me from converting whole playlists to MP3 and then loading them etc...
This(setting yes to downconvert to 128) does mean slow transfer time, so maybe load it up last thing at night. Sport case is a good buy. no display is one less thing to get broken/scratched up etc...
Have owned various RIOs/archos etc in the past, and I'm hooked on the simplicity of the ipod, and now the shuffle's interface.
23 great player
Preview: You will likely notice there is a wide range of user ratings. I submit that you consider the "reviewer" when you read as people have a tendency to review the company, the brand and their own expectations instead of the PRODUCT. I will review the product here.
Review: The unit is small and light. The case is clean and the use of buttons is efficient. It hangs on my neck with no noticeable weight. Manipulation is easy, functional and fast enough. It holds plenty of songs and is easy enough to swap songs using the iTunes interface. It sounds very good and the volume manipulation occurs in small intervals, which means I can set it to my exacting taste without big jumps in volume. I do wish it had a grip of some kind on the on-off button. I'll stick something there; enjoy.
Note: I don't use Mac. I don't like the lock-in issues with the AAC format. I'm not happy that I can only import to iTunes and not export to MusicMatch or WMP or other player programs, but that about the program not the product. I point this out so as to help you consider the validity of my review of the iShuffle by itself. END
24 "Awesome" way to get spam
How can somebody give away cool, expensive gadgets just for signing up for some "no-cost" offers? Guess what, it's impossible!
Search Google or sfgate.com for "Free iPod not really David Lazarus" and you will see how the San Francisco Chronicle exposed what these hucksters are really up to.
Bottom line: spammers and scammers have found a new way to collect your email address and personal information.
25 Awesome
This is my first MP3 player. I wanted this because of the minimal size. I hook it up to my car stereo via an AUX input and listen to it for about 4 hours a night at work. it fits perfectly into my watch pocket of my Levis. People don't like the idea of no screen but for me it is a plus. I don't need to read what is playing since it is in my pocket most of the time and it is one less thing to break or scratch. iTunes works perfectly with this. Just pop in a CD and add it to the library then add them to the iPod Shuffle. It's really that easy. The ONLY thing I don't like about it is that it does not have a FF or REW function. Only play, pause, next track and previous track. Go here for more info on the iPod Shuffle. http://tinyurl.com/6gts8
26 Gum-stick sized shuffle way ahead of the curve
I bought the ipod Shuffle after being frustrated with different brand mini MP3 player (that had a small memory size) and have never looked back. I just love this little thing. I'm obsessed with midget-sized items. I travel often, and always with electronics and between the books, laptops, paperwork, phones and other things to carry, I don't want to load myself down with yet another item. But, having my music on these boring trips is essential, and the Shuffle is the ultimate solution.
The great thing about the Shuffle is that its virtually weightless, and fits just about in any pocket, It it can hold 1GB worth of songs, without burning a hole in your pocket. Granted, it has limitations to what you can do with it: you either play songs in order or in shuffle/random format. You have the option of blasting it loudly in your ears or playing it at a more decent level, and you can skip through songs (forward and back), but that's it. You don't get to choose your favorite song or artist as with the other ipods.
However, these limitations are greatly compensated for by the fact that I manage to squeeze some 270 songs on the gum-stick sized item, and that the battery lasts up to 12 hours (longer than the ipod!). I never, ever get bored listening to the songs on all my journeys because it takes so long to get through them all. And if you do finally run out of battery power, you just stick it in a USB slot of your (hopefully midget-sized) laptop or PC/Mac. And it won't burn out to be replaced like the ipod battery.
I use the Shuffle with my i-tunes and find it very easy. You stick it in the USB, and select "refill" to load it up with a bunch of new songs. Though I find that sometimes I have to erase everything on it first. You can choose it to fill up with more of your favorite songs, or you can just dump whatever you want on there (in case you aren't too keen on your partner's favorites as in my case). I don't know how it would work if you don't have a mac with i-tunes, so that could be a drawback.
The shuffle is my savior for all those boring, long trips, delays, study time, etc. I would no more choose to do without it than the books I read for pleasure.
27 iPod Good, iTunes Bad.
The Good: My Shuffle sounds great and does exactly what I want it to do, which is keep me entertained during workouts. I could not care less that it doesn't have a display. I went from an MP3 player with a display to the Shuffle, and I don't miss the display at all.
The Bad: I'd give the Shuffle five stars if I didn't have to use iTunes with it. Sadly, there is no other way to put music on a Shuffle. iTunes is truly a nightmare of a software package. Your MP3's must be added to the iTunes library, and this can take some time (#1 pain in the a**).
Then you must Autofill the Shuffle or drag and drop MP3's one-at-a-time to the Shuffle. You will be old and gray by the time you fill the 1G Shuffle this way (#2 pain in the a**). And getting the songs you want on your Shuffle using the Autofill feature is tricky.
Then, beware if you've changed anything in the iTunes library by the next time you plug in your Shuffle and open iTunes. The Shuffle synchs automatically. If your library is empty, your Shuffle will also become empty, and you will be powerless to stop it (#3 pain in the a**). If the song exists on your Shuffle, it also MUST exist in your iTunes library AND in your music folder - otherwise it's gone forever the next time you plug in the Shuffle and open iTunes. For this reason, I can see no way to share MP3's with friends who also have Shuffles without giving them the actual MP3 first. I understand why this is so (copyright protection, I'm sure), but it sucks the fun out of sharing a great song with someone else.
Importing new songs into from my music folder into my iTunes library is hit or miss. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't (#4 pain in the a**).
And for some odd reason, the same two songs on my Shuffle update every single time I make a change to the songs (not those two songs) on my Shuffle (#5 pain in the a**).
iTunes is garbage. Possibly the least user-friendly software I have ever used. Sadly, learning the hard way with iTunes seems unavoidable because the help files are less than helpful (#6 pain in the a**).
28 The little stick of fun...
The most amazing thing about the Shuffle, bar none, is its weight. Actually, it's weightlessness. You don't know that you are wearing it. If you pick it up, it feels like a piece of plastic holding air. At .78 ounces, that's the equivalent of 20 small paper clips.
The first time I held one in my hand, I knew I had to have one. Never thought I could convince my wife to spend three H's on a big iPod, and with a cell phone and a PDA already, didn't need another weighty device hanging off of me.
Enter Shuffle.
I've had it for the past few weeks. The lack of a screen is a small minus. Sometimes it would be nice to know what's coming next, or find a particular track. But it's easy enough to skip if you hit one you don't want to hear -- which is rare, because after all, it's your music.
Sound quality is fine. Battery life is OK, too, about 10-15 hours.
Now, for the quibbles. Charging the Shuffle is a pain. You have to have it plugged into a USB port. I don't know about your desktop, but mine is on the floor, and it's a pain to plug and unplug. It's no problem on the laptop. Also, it takes 4 hours to fully charge. That's weak compared to the competish. (It's like, who cares that you have USB 2.0? You could USB 0.000001 and still transfer the songs in 4 hours.) There should be a quick charge option, an adapter, or something similar. You can get a docking station, but that defeats the $99 price point. Sony's offering a similar enough player with 70 hours (!), although it's a bit heavier and doesn't work with iTunes.
Transferring songs is also a pain. There are hacks using the Shuffle in disk mode -- others here or on iPod web sites can tell you how to do it -- but directly uploading songs from Shuffle to computer is made difficult as a bar (albeit a low one) to piracy. I'm sure Apple is trying to keep the record labels happy, but it should be easier.
Anyway, the last few weeks I've rediscovered my music collection -- another plus of the Shuffle. Although you can set up playlists, I prefer random. I've listened to great tunes I forgot I had. Old Santana, Marley, Zeppelin and U2 mixed with a little Green Day turns my grocery shopping into a groovy concert. And I've had probably 20 people ask me what's hanging around my neck. (19 positive, 1 jerk who joked that it looked like an alarm for elderly people for when they fall and can't get up).
Final thought -- get the 512, not the 1 Gig. There is no point having more music (16 hours) than battery life (12 hours) without a screen. 120 songs is just fine 99 percent of the time.
Enjoy!
29 Awesome, by far
I didnt come here to write a full review..just to tell you some things about my shuffle:
most songs people ( i guess 17 year olds like me) listen to arent 4 minutes long, so as of this very second, i have:
248 songs on my Ipod
6 pictures
1 2 min. wma video clip of me biking.
and my ipod says that only 672MB of my 1000MB (1gb) are used so far!
this thing is awesome.
I can fit another 2 or 3 cd's on it
dont mind what everyone says about not having a screen. put songs and cd's you listen to. I haven' had to second guess what im listening to yet.
The battery is amazing. i havent charged it since i've had it, and thats been a week, and the battery still says its green (good)
the only bad thing i can think of is the fact that when on shuffle mode, you will sometimes get a repeat song before you hit a song you haven;t listened to yet.but you can just click and switch the song.
It also gets loud as hell. cd quality.
dont second guess. you will love it
30 Great depending on what you want
I love this little gadget. The size is great. It is incredibly light. The design is cool. With no display, a simple design and the ability to hold about 240 songs, this is great for sports, food shopping, or just walking around. The shuffle feature is perfect for these events. And with 240 songs, so long as you do not have a device filled with singles, you will be able to skip from artist to artist by simply not setting it to the shuffle setting and clicking through your lists (so long as your artists are arranged in alphabetical order). Just be prepared to manage your playlists actively. But realize the limitations. If you want to use this for travel where you can put some opera, some classical and some rock on one device, I say forget it. When I am running around, it would drive me mad moving from Bach to the Clash. Not only that, 1 gig is manageable with no display but at 2 gigs, I need a display of some sort.
Therefore, if you are looking to have a variety, say for that long plane flight, you will wish for one of the other iPODs instead. So the answer is you may need the shuffle and a regular iPOD. Depends on your budget. For me, size is critical and budgets should be adhered to so I will have to toss a Bach CD in my bag on the next long plane flight and for now be happy with listening to punk in the produce aisle at the supermarket.
31 Frustrating
First off, let me say that the sound from the iPod Shuffle is great. OK. Now that I have the one good point menitoned, lemme go to the cons. And to be honest, I have but one.
If you don't have all your mp3's in a constantly available source, you cannot keep songs on your iPod. I connected the iPod to my pc and finally figured out iTunes. Not hard. Once I got songs on the shuffle, I played them and felt good about the sound. When i plugged it back up to adjust the equalizer (not alot of bass on the default headphones) iTunes couldn't find the mp3's I had put on the shuffle on my PC (I have a server that stores my Mp3's that wasn't connected at the time) and removed the songs automatically. So i dind't have any music. When i tried to copy the Mp3's to the shuffle's folders manually (without iTunes) it played ONE song over and over.
To me, i do not see the point in having an MP3 player that won't allow you to keep songs on it and just add new ones at your leasure. This is a good player, but a BAD design. Too much copy protection BS and not enough usability.
This is my last Apple product. It is going back to Best Buy today.
32 Cannot share MP3 library with friends thru Shuffle
Bought a Shuffle and then realized that I cannot transfer music from my friends into my Shuffle or vice versa.
When I plugged the Shuffle into someone's else machine/iTunes, it said the Shuffle had been initialized from a different machine/library, and asked if it's ok to delete all the files in the Shuffle.
Fine. So I went ahead and delete the original files and copied some MP3s from my friend's PC. The catch was that I got to keep those songs only if I don't plug the Shuffle back into my own machine. Once I plugged back into my own laptop, iTunes deleted everything I had copied from my friend.
To me that's a ridiculous constraint from Apple, that a "mobile" device cannot be used to transfer files?! I mean, why shouldn't I be able to get music from my friends and copy them into my own library (especially music ripped from CDs we paid for)??
So the hack I'm using now is to format 30% of my Shuffle for DATA and 70% for music, copy as much of my friends' files as possible in the DATA partition, copy the files from the device into my iTunes library, AND THEN copy the music into my Shuffle. Hell of a work for something I shldn't have to be doing in the first place...
Other than that, the thing looks nice and is featherweight and all.
33 iPod Shuffle rocks!
Apple has released a ground breaking product in terms of mp3 players history. The shuffle is a fabulous achievement of Apple's engineering and marketing skills. The electronics inside the shuffle are very refined and its remarkable how this manage to fit it all in such small size.
Pro's,
1. Elegant, minimalist and ergonmic design.
2. Lots of memory for an affordable price (remember those 128MB players for same price last year?)
3. Built in rechargeable battery, hassle free.
4. Charging from a USB port instead of a bulky wall adaptor, unlike most other electronics items.
5. Very good sound quality.
6. Excellent build quality and full one yr of warranty support.
7. Works as a portable flash memory drive, plug-n-play.
8. Compatible with iTunes Music Store, the only reasonable & legal source of music downloads.
9. Very good battery life.
10. Easy to use during activities like jogging, gym etc. No skipping like CD or hard drive based players.
11. Perfect gift item. Comfortable to carry, looks attractive and a joy to use.
Con's,
1. Shuffle doesn't have a LCD display, depending upon your needs this maybe a disadvantage.
2. Only one color, unlike mutiple mini colors. Ofcourse this is just a cosmetic issue and would likely be fixed with next generation of Shuffle.
3. Priced very close to iPod mini 4GB, for only $50 more you go from 1GB to 4GB with screen.
Apple waited for the flash memory prices to become affordable and finally released the Shuffle with 512MB/1GB. Anything lower would have resulted in poor user experience as majority of other players out there (don't they end up in drawer?).
Buying an iPod Shuffle is a very easy decision to make. It looks great, works with ease, is competitively priced and easy to find at most retail stores. Enjoy!
34 Dont waste time on this
Just bought iPod shuffle. Looks sweet but is my most frustrating technology experience since ZX spectrum.
First, I was asked to plug in iPod shuffle for the first time, but when I did (yes, into a USB port) my computer just switched off.
Ok, s..t happens, I switch it on again. Start over, but then, iPod was not detected when in the front USB port. Ok, try the rear one, and amen! finally it was picked up.
Ok, after some fiddling with iTunes (duh!) I've managed to make it figure out where my files are. That was ugly and frustrating but at least it worked. Having said that, it only worked to an extent. I cant see the filenames anywhere and many songs are scattered randomly. I want to only see files and directories!
Anyway, time to get songs onto the iPod. How? After reading documentation, I see that iPod should appear in the sources. Unlucky, it's not there. Unplug, plug. Not there. Try again, on, off... Close iTunes. Plug in, open itunes, and finally it is there. My retrying expertise has paid off.
And this is where the most frustrating bit begins. iTunes starts blurting out Updating iPod. Update complete. Updating iPod. Update complete. Updating iPod. Update complete. Updating iPod. Update complete. Updating iPod. Update complete.Updating iPod. Update complete.Updating iPod. Update complete.Updating iPod. Update complete.Updating iPod. Update complete.Updating iPod. Update complete.Updating iPod. Update complete.Updating iPod. Update complete.Updating iPod. Update complete.Updating iPod. Update complete.Updating iPod. Update complete.Updating iPod. Update complete.Updating iPod. Update complete. . . . . .
I let it be for a while, assuming there really is something to update. But after 15 minutes of this, considering my nerves are already strained by the installation, I had enough.
It's not just that it shows these misleading messages, iTunes also flicks the whole user interface every few seconds. While "updating ipod" is showing in the top bar, iTunes shows library tab. When it shows update complete, it switches to iPod tab.
I can't use 'shuffle' without iTunes? Well, you know what? I am taking this back to the shop and getting a proper player that will actually work and not lock me into buggy software which I don't want to use.
35 Incredible sound - Almost nonexistent size !
I was using my AudiovoxSMT5600 for some tunes as an add on feature - I was never a bg mp3 listener. But I liked having some tunes available in a crunch.
Then I got my wife a Shuffle as a gift. I listened to it one day - and was hooked. The sound and bass response is incredible. And the thing is so light - you don't even realilze its there.
No LCD, no voice recorder, no games - just great sounding tunes with the flip of a switch - in order or at random.
On that note - a helpful hint - one way to get to a tune you want is to set options to 'shuffle by album'. Keep your songlist in iTunes by album. Then when listening to iPod, set switch to 'shuffle'. It will randomly go to the next song in another album altogether. Then set switch back to 'play in order', and then just back/next to the one you want. With the 1G model, you get about 20 albums. This makes it easier to find a specific song than going through 240 songs at random or in order.
Great for working out, running. I'd highly recommend. Go Apple.
36 Don't fall for the iPod "deals"
Beware of the fake reviews posted here promising "free iPods". These are spammers trying to harvest email addresses for their ridiculous offers.
Think about it for a moment: how can somebody afford to give away $150+ gadgets just for signing up for bogus trial offers? Answer: they can't!
37 Go with the MuVo-THIS THING STINKS
I was just about to buy this piece of crap when I realized that there are other producers of mp3's like Creative. The Creative MuVo TX FM has FM radio, a microphone, better battery life, and MOST IMPORTANTLY, HAS A SCREEN! I feel sorry for all the ignorant fools who bought iPods when Creative Zens and MuVos are ten times better at the same price or less. I'm definitely gonna buy a MuVo instead.
38 The iPod Shuffle is what I've been looking for...
I've never owned an MP3 player. I bought my iPod shuffle after doing a good bit of research on both hard drive and flash based systems. My primary interest was to have a device that provided quality music during a workout or run. Prior to this I was struggling with poor FM reception - both in the gym and outdoors. I was uncomfortable trying to adjust my FM headphones while at full run on a treadmill. As a result, the lack of a screen had no impact on my purchase. Navigation is intuitive and requires little effort.
What I've really learned to love is the fact that I am re-discovering my CD collection. Thus far I've converted over 3000 songs into iTunes. I let the system autofill my shuffle, and I personally love the random play. It's like radio but with no commercials and excellent should quality.
39 Why??
Why should you get this? I mean now that the Ipod mini is now just $200 you should just get that. You get 4 times the space and most importantly, a screen.
40 Who needs a screen?
Other reviewers have covered the Shuffle extensively, so I'm focusing on the most controversial feature: the lack of a screen.
As a Shuffle owner, it's become clear a screen is not necessary. The 1 gig Shuffle holds 250 songs and users have complete control over which songs are loaded. If you have trouble keeping 10 albums worth of music straight in your head, I don't know how you can handle the unintuitive and clunky interfaces of non-Apple MP3 players.
Not having a screen is the Shuffle's greatest strength. It allows an incredibly small and light player at a great price.
41 fine, but....
for another $50 you can get an iPod mini, which is almost as small, but holds 4 times as much music and HAS A SCREEN.
42 A blind ipod. Another arbitrary design decision from Apple
We've seen it many times. The iMac's round mouse went against all we knew about ergonomics but it "looked cool". The ipod shufffle does it again: 240 songs that you will have to guess their name/artist/album because this little devil ain't telling you. Hey Steve, one thing is to "think out of the box" and come up with really clever solutions as you guys have done in the past, but selling a blind 1GB monster is going to go down the same alley that the eMate and the Cube went. I guess these are the risks of "thinking laterally": once in a while you ignore commonsense and end up with plain blunders. Go Creative (MUVO) instead.
43 I Love My iPod Shuffle!
This is a wonderful little piece of machinery! My tiny, 1G-240 song iPod Shuffle has 270 songs on it, and that's more than enough. 17+ hours of only my favorite songs! It's like having a personal radio station that only plays what I like. And I don't care if I don't know exactly which song is coming up next because I know whatever it is, it's something I like listening to over and over anyway. This you use for songs that you absolutely love and never skip over when you play the cd (but there's a "fast-forward" button anyway). It's tiny, easy to load (and/or reload), and the sound is great. And let's face it, who's got time to sit and download and then listen to 600 to 1,000 songs all the way through? I've had my Shuffle for a week and still haven't heard every song I've loaded. I was slow to get on the iPod/MP3 bandwagon, but with the iPod Shuffle I think I'm on it for good now.
44 Straphangers new best friend
My subway commute is now forever changed. Thank you Apple! I love this iPod Shuffle. It is so small and lightweight, I can hardly believe it still sounds so good and has such good battery life. Basically, at the beginning of the week I charge it for four hours and fill it with my 240ish songs. It lasts for my commute to work, my time at the gym, and my commute back home for the entire week. Sunday night I charge it back up, burn a few more of my CD's into my computer, put a new mix in and I'm ready for a new week. The Shuffle is close to perfect. The only thing I'd like Apple to do is to ship Shuffle with the in-ear headphones. For $150.00, it sure would be nice to have the better headphones. I'm going to shell out the extra $40.00 for the in-ear headphones, but I wish I didn't have to. Other than that, bravo to Apple.
45 Slap The Apple Name On This Piece Of Trash....
and that's all you need to make a hit.
Pros: Small, cheap, and it doesn't skip.
Cons: Where do I start? You have no idea what song is coming around the corner. OMGz0rs WHAT AN ADVANTAGE. You can hear a song you don't want to listen to instead of a song you want to hear. The fact that Apple licenses the hell out of this fact is sickening. People don't want to hear some random song. They want to have an mp3 player that let's you choose a song from a menu. Every mp3 player has a shuffle feature. You don't buy an mp3 player specifically to use a shuffle feature.
The Creative MUVO on the other hand has a screen, supports WMA's and works with more than one music program, FM radio and recording, cooler looking, and cheaper.
Anyone who actually praises this over the MUVO is an idiot, plain and simple.
46 Give 'chance' a chance! (Yes, I stole this line from an ad)
Okay, people. First of all, you all need to keep in mind that for $99, you can't get everything you expect from the $300 models. I guess when it comes down to it, the iPod shuffle isn't for everyone. If you really feel like you can't live with ALL 15,000 of the songs on your computer (even the ones you NEVER listen to - come on, admit it!), and you can't stand it if you don't know what's coming next, then DON'T BUY THIS. But don't get upset with it for not being able to do that! I love my iPod shuffle for the following reasons:
1) I'm cheap.
2) I find that I listen to the same songs over. And over. And over. And over. And... (repeat).
3) It's tiny and light and adorable and you don't have to carry it!
4) You can put the *most* favorite of your favorite songs on it - good for when you don't want to keep pulling it out of your bag/pocket/wherever to change the song - oh, but wait: it's already hanging around your neck!
5) Did I mention that I'm cheap?!?!
6) In a way, you *can* know what's coming next - you can arrange the songs in a specific order on iTunes and (if you have a freakish memory like I do) pretty much know what's going to play and when. And if you get tired of that - shuffle!
7) If your most favorite of favorite songs change, wipe out your whole list and start again!
When it comes down to it, what do you really want? Your favorite music everywhere you go, the chance to dance down the sidewalk, chill on the subway, stay awake in class (etc etc) - the iPod shuffle lets you do this, only without the frills of all the other (ghastly expensive) iPods. For $99, it's an amazing deal. ^^
47 Great for What It Is
First of all, this is not tradition ipod. It does not have a screen, scroll wheel, or 20G hardrive. If you want that, go buy a different ipod.
The shuffle is very small and simple to operate. It has a switch on the back to turn it on and to switch between shuffle and playing the songs in order. On the front are five but-tons arranged in a circle allowing you to play, pause, fast-forward, rewind, and adjust the volume. The shuffle comes with two caps that can be easily and securely fitted onto the USB jack on the bottom. One that is just plain and one with a lanyard attached. You also receive the famous headphones along with all the software you need and instructions on how to use the shuffle.
Using the shuffle for the first time is fairly easy, but you will want to make that you will be able to plug your shuffle directly into the USB port on your computer. Otherwise you may be in for a bit of a wait before you can use your shuffle. The ports on your computer cannot be sunken in, because you will not be able to plug you shuffle in directly. If your ports are sunken you can use the USB port on the keyboard (this leads to very slow data transferring) or you can order a short length of USB cable. Apple also has some solu-tions, but just ordering a cable is far cheaper. Other than that using the shuffle for the first time is fairly straightforward.
I bought this ipod to replace my CD player and it does the job perfectly! It holds enough songs that you can listen to it all day before you start hearing songs again. The shuffle is so small that you can fit it just about anywhere. Making it easy to use while doing other things. You can quickly change the songs on it and its batteries last far longer than twelve hours. The worst complaint I have is the initial difficultly I had in operating the switch on the back. I found it a bit stiff and hard to put in the right spot. Other than that I have been fully amazed by this product and would recommend it to anyone with an ailing CD player.
48 You can't use it on multiple computers.
The title says it all. This *feature* was not advertised and I don't want to buy some add-on software like ipodrip just to use the product that I bought. The only way to use it on multiple computers is to erase it completely each time, which stinks.
49 Small, simple and convenient portable music player
I've owned several Apple iPods, beginning with a second generation 20GB Apple iPod. When the 3rd generation iPods came out, I sold my 20-gigger on eBay and puchased a 30GB unit which I still use today. I still love my 30GB unit, but it got more use when I worked in a cube farm and needed a variety of music at my fingertips (ear lobes?) during my workday. Now that I work at home, I listen to music on my PC via iTunes or on our home theatre system via a Slim Devices Squeezebox. So, what I really needed was a smaller, simpler, more convenient and LESS PRICEY portable music player I could use guilt-free for activities such as hiking, exercising, walking, gardening and so forth. Enter the 1GB Apple Shuffle. The cost is perfect, as is the size, weight and solid-state durability.
To detractors who complain about Apple's marketing hype surrounding the "Shuffle" aspect of the player -- save the sarcasm and actually look at how you typically listen to music on your music player or computer-based music player app. Most of us simply don't listen to albums as albums anymore, at least not once they're ripped on to our hard drives. Shuffle is not an Apple invention, it's THE WAY many of us listen to music. Due to this fact, the iPod Shuffle meets the needs of many music listeners while saving costs, weight and battery life by eliminating a screen and complex menuing system or rarely used PDA-type features such as notes, reminders, clocks or calendars. In short, you get what you pay for, and you aren't having to pay through the nose (as you do for a hard-drive based Apple iPod).
Simply put, my iPod Shuffle now gets far more use than my lovely 30GB Apple iPod. I still love my 30GB unit, and protect it in a lovely custom Argentinan leather case (Vajacases.com), but for real life, it's the iPod Shuffle all the way. My 30GB unit's more of a collector's piece now. ;)
50 Ok, everybody think of its actual purpose.
Will this thing play your songs out of the box? No, you have to use iTunes to set it up. But isn't that true about every iPod? Or for that matter every MP3 player. That's always hit me as the "weak link but not quite" in the MP3 player realm. If you can set it up beforehand on the computer then what's the point, as the capacity of MP3 players gets smaller, of setting up the MP3 player through the unit itself? I can see the need on high capacity MP3 players, but there's only so much you can set up on smaller capacity players that the setup options tend to get in the way since there aren't that many songs on it anyway.
How I think about this is this is like a portable radio with one station tuned in. Your own. And when you think about it, since you already know the names of the songs anyway you really don't need to know what's playing to enjoy it. You don't have, on traditional radios, anything more than the dial to show you what station you're on.
And again, there are a select few songs downloaded to this player to begin with. It's not meant to hold your entire library. It can't. Physically it can't.
The iPod Shuffle is for quick runs around the park, trips to the grocers, errands that don't take that much time, work that doesn't last more than 8-10 hours. that kind of stuff. It's certainly not for road trips, long plane flights or extended listening (over a week or more).
It has a very specific use that the original iPod is just overkill for.
And man is it tough. I must have dropped it more than 4 times in the time I've had it and it plays as well as it did when I first loaded it up. It's scratched a little, but I don't mind. I'm just handling it more gently now and I'm going to buy a "skin" for it. But despite it being scratched a little it still looks cool.
The sound is extraordinary! I found that the earbuds that it comes with are the best for it. My big earphones barely pick anything up. And my other various earbuds from other devices also barely pick anything up unless I turn the volume way up. Nice bass, nice tone.
The interface is logically possitioned.
The one gripe. The lanyard. It plugs into the USB plug. Not to the player itself. So if anybody comes along and snatches it it's pretty easy to do.
And if you want, get the "dock". It's not really a dock except in physical design. It's more of an extension cord. And I've used many other devices through it and they work just fine. It turns out to have a practical purpose beyond the designers' intention.
I just wish people had a better understanding of the differences between MP3 players and what dirty tricks other companies use to fit the claimed amount of songs on a 256MB player.
Just be aware that other companies are using dishonest marketing tactics to fool the public as Apple comes out with these products and services and gobbles up more of the marketshare than the rest are comfortable with. Last I heard it was 92% of the market.
51 well designed and fills in some of the gaps that ipod leaves
I had an ipod that died shortly after 1 year of use. The hard drive died. That was a big bummer for me as I thought the initial investment of $470.00 was worth it. Now I know better, albeit a week out of warranty. So, vowing never to purchase another ipod, I find myself with one.
My original ipod was well taken care of and was never dropped or even removed from it's case. The thing is that I run and walk alot. I walk at least 3 miles a day and run for 45 minutes. The hard drive on a regular ipod has movable parts and can skip. I didn't know this when I bought it. I thought, when I bought it, that I would be listening to all my CDS and needed to fit them in my pocket. What I found out was that I neither wanted to listen to the bulk of my collection nor wanted to wade through screens to get to what I wanted. Also, the battery life was dismal, I always had to connect to a computer anyway, and usually when I did I would just make my new playlists on there, as opposed to the ipod itself.
Since all my music was encoded in AAc format, I knew I had to get a player that would play my files. So, after looking at several other flash-based players, I did choose the ipod shuffle, begrugingly. Really, a flash player was what I needed all along, I just didn't know it.
What I like about the shuffle is that it has the one-handed, in your pocket convenience instead of a touch pad (I had the 30 GIG model). It is now much easier to move along to the song I want.
The sound was really, really crappy when I used my $100 Sennheiser headphones with it (sounded like mono spilt to stereo signal), but it sounds FABULOUS with Apple's earbuds, which happen to be too big for my small female ears. I've developed a callous on my ear from trying to shove it back in a million times while I run. Which brings me to: if it's meant for people who are active, wouldn't you provide more secure earbuds, like the ones that clip on to your ear????
There is no perfect product out there, but assessing what you essentially need a product for will help determine whether an ipod shuffle will fit the bill or another player. If I wasn't Mac-based, I would consider other flash players that use rechargeable batteries that you can replace without sending it in to Apple.
52 Ipod Shuffle is fantastic
I just picked one up for my son's birthday, being he's turning nine I figured I'd make sure I could figure out how it worked. It took me a minute to get everything firing on all cylinders, but I think that was mostly due to the fact that I've been rejecting Windows updates...once I updated windows things got easy.
Obviously, this is all of the good things that you already know: Portable, durable, affordable and really decent amount of storage for the price. Don't be put off by 'only' 1/2 a gig in the $99 model or 1 full gig in the $149...there are mp3s on the market upwards of 40 gigs, but you don't need all of that. I got the small one, put about 6 hours of music on there and it was half full..it's plenty.
This is my first mp3 player, but I really like it and plan on going and getting myself one tomorrow morning.
53 True Genius
Apple combines three brilliances in one: superb industrial design, excellent engineering, and perhaps most impressively, marketing that targets (and helps foster) consumer desire/need like almost no other high-tech company.
One the design front, Apple has reduced the already intuitive iPod interface to a level of simplicity that's just a half step short of a one-button mouse. The slider switch on the Shuffle's rear provides two modes: shuffle or linear play. The buttons on the front give you the sort of controls every tape deck or CD player makes familiar: play/pause, next track/fast-forward, previous track/fast-rewind, volume up, volume down. That's it - that's the entire Shuffle interface.
Deskside, the iTunes software is also very simple to use, and the linkage between iTunes and the Shuffle is effortless. You can create a specific list of songs for the Shuffle by dragging and dropping from your library (which you can populate by ripping your own CDs or seamlessly downloading from the iTunes store), or even better, you can let iTunes fill the Shuffle with a random selection of songs from your library.
The marketing brilliance is two-fold: on the hand, Apple has realized that many of us who own traditional iPods typically listen to them in shuffle mode. I rarely listen to albums on my 20GB iPod, and I rarely use playlists. Given that, and given that I've selected all the music on my iPod, I don't really need a display. I rarely want to look for a specific song, and I never need to be told what's playing.
Second, 1GB = 240 or so songs, which is more than enough for a cross-country flight (or an international flight, really, given that you don't listen to your iPod every minute), or a good day's roadtrip. I typically travel with a laptop that holds hundreds of CDs worth of material from which I can refill the Shuffle every day. If you're listening at the gym for an hour or two, you wouldn't even need to reshuffle your Shuffle more than every few days.
These marketing innovations - no display, and no moving disk - greatly lessen the load on the Shuffle's battery. That allowed Apple engineers to get enough of a play charge out of a small, very light battery. The result is that the Shuffle almost ceases to exist when carried on its lanyard or in a pocket. I now find it impossible to "lug" around my regular iPod.
Apple's entry price for the 512MB makes for flashy ads, but it's worth opting for the pricier 1GB model. As delivered, they're both usable, but most users will find charging the Shuffle off a computer's USB port to be onerous and slow; thus a $29 charger is needed. Those buying a Shuffle for use while running will also need to invest in an armband. Each of the increments is small, but before you know it, the flashy entry price point has more than doubled. Is it worth the final price? Absolutely.
54 Just Got My 1Gb Shuffle
Just got my 1Gb Shuffle and what can I say that has not already been said. This little iPod is beautifully designed, easy to use, sounds great and seems to run forever on a charge. I've run mine on the studio sound system all day long (14 hours) and it's still going strong! The documentation only claimed 12 hours per charge, but I'm guessing that I'll leave before this thing runs out of juice. It sounds great too, perhaps better than my Mini. Is there a negative? Not really, but if I were to grouse a bit it would be about how long it took me to get mine. I ordered it 6 weeks ago! As for the shuffle itself-the feature that converts high res mp3s to 128mb AACs took a longer than I thought it would-almost 1.5 hours. However the non-conversion auto fill ran acceptably fast (7 minutes). My hat's off to Apple-you guys make great things!
55 This player is awesome!!
And not just as an "entry level MP3 player"
If your looking for a player that you don't have to worry about damaging in hostile environments and takes up nothing for space, this is the one. The controls on this player are actually very conducive to being used while working with gloves on, mountain biking, skateboarding, etc. The control wheel is so simple; you can operate it through your pant leg while it's in your pocket. The battery has lasted me well over a 10-hour day.
I see complaints of NO DISPLAY here, why?
Why do you need a display?
You don't know what songs you've loaded?
You can't hear the volume level?
It has a button and an LED light on the back that checks the battery level.
It has an LED light that alternates colors/patterns based on what the player is doing.
WHAT A STUPID COMPLAINT!!
A display would only further tax battery recourses. I suppose you want it backlit too??
I'm not sure if the play list mimics the order shown in Itunes, but mine, when in non shuffle mode, plays in order based on artist, I know what I loaded in the player so I know how many times to push the FWD button to get to the song I want, HOW SIMPLE IS THAT?? There is NO need for a POWER DRAINING DISPLAY!! I use this player during all manner of work including construction (with only one ear bud in for safety) and only a few times has moving and leaning against framing or a ladder caused the buttons to be pushed unintentionally. The player is so light it can hang from the headphones and not come unplugged, it' so small and thin you don't even notice it in your pocket when your climbing a ladder or crawling through things. I bought a RCA Kazoo when they first came out and it only held 64MB WITH an expansion card, to get any decent number of songs on it you had to compress the songs into oblivion with MP3PRO and they sounded like poo. It HAD a DISPLAY and ran on 2 AAA batteries and they didn't even last a WHOLE DAY. The controls were such that you had to pull it out of your pocket and look at it to navigate. This Ipod Shuffle ROCKS!! You can wear it on an amusement park ride and the buttons are so easy to use, you can hit play right before or sometimes even while seated on the ride to start the music.
I rip all my CD's at 192kb and I use this Ipod for my car stereo now, it works great. In my truck I have a system with a crossover, 2 amps, 2 sets of mids and tweets and 2 10" subs, I took the AM/FM/CD deck out completely, and bought 2 cords from radio shack with RCA's on one end and a mini jack on the other, one for the car and one for my home stereo, the Shuffle plays perfectly in both environments.
Itunes on the other hand is not all that. I've been using Windows Media Player to manage my digital music files and Version 9 or 10 both flat smoke Itunes. Updating songs in Itunes is hit or miss, sometimes they show up, sometimes they don't, the spreadsheet style of sorting being the only option blows. The folder/tree style of Media Player is light years better and better emulate a computer's file handling style. I got no warning deleting a song from my library in Itunes, that it would also delete it from the physical disk. Media Player asks when you delete a file, "From the library only, or from the physical disk also"
The most annoying thing I found with my Shuffle experience is, during the installation of the Ipod software I noticed the Ipod becomes available as a "removable disk", so I thought COOL!! I can just tag the songs I want and drag them to the removable drive, what could be simpler than that?!?! Nope. Once Itunes loads it removes the "removable disk" icon from "My Computer", that's weak. I even tried to go around it and install the drivers and not Itunes, I can load the songs on the Ipod but they wont play, and I had to reformat the Ipod to remove them.
All in all, this is a great player if you're looking for a true pocket sized device that holds a lot of music, you have to think to yourself, self, remember when I owned a CD case and CD Walkman? Well, with this player, I can carry about 15 CDs and the Walkman in my pocket, and still work, or run or whatever. Once you get play lists worked out that you can load to suit your needs it's even better.
I would give the player 5 stars and the Itunes 1 star if that was an option.
I am running windows XP with all the current patches and transferring songs in Itunes works without issue. I had to get a USB 2.0 Card because my notebook only has USB 1.0, the Ipod works great on the USB 1.0 port, it's just slower.
56 Don't Bother
I own the larger iPod(10,000) songs and love it. No problem setting, downloading
software, etc. Thought I would purchase this to take with me to the gym. Huh???!!!
Forget it. It is a complete rip-off. Even spent some time with an Apple Genius-to no avail. So sorry I bought this. To see even more complaints go to Apple.com and
read what other 'I'm sorry I bought the iShuffle' people have to say. Apple should
have fixed the bugs before letting this out.
57 SHUFFLE ROCKS
Finally, an MP3 player that fits the "pocket". The iPOD Shuffle weighs only 20 grams, costs only 149.00 USD (1 GB), plays great music and doubles up as a USB (2.0) storage device.
Controls - Intuitive:
-------------------
Front:
A circular control handles the Volume Up, Volume Down, Skip, Repeat. At the center is the Play/Pause button. All accessible at the touch of the thumb.
Back:
A sleek slider control for power off, play shuffle mode and play continuous mode, ensures that you don't accidentally switch the player on/off. Also at the back is the battery status button.
Uploading Music - A breeze:
---------------------------
Uploading songs to your iPOD Shuffle is a breeze with the bundled iTUNES, an award-winning digital-jukebox software.
iTUNES:
- Library, a great music organizer. Add songs individually or by the folder.
- Drag and Drop the songs from your iTUNES Library into your iPOD Shuffle - that simple.
- Search songs in Browse mode by Genre, Artist and Album. The quick search filters the song list as you type which is very fast and effective.
- Import/Convert Audio CD into pristine-quality AAC file format.
- Burn custom playlists to CDs and MP3 CDs.
- Party Shuffle, which keeps a queue of songs at the ready that you can rearrange.
- Radio, more than 250 free Internet radio stations.
- Also nifty playlists being "My Top Rated", "Recently Added", "Recently Played", "Top 25 Most Played".
Charging and Battery Life:
--------------------------
Plug it into the computer USB port or alternatively via the iPOD Shuffle Battery back (sold separately) and you are ready for up to 12 hours of pure music.
Headphones:
------------
The signature white earbud headphones deliver a sharp sound quality.
I was looking for a simple yet sleek, light, inexpensive mp3 player that plays good music and the iPOD Shuffle delivers just that. Not having an LCD screen on the iPOD Shuffle does not bother me a zilch. I have been using the iPOD Shuffle every single day since my purchase (well almost) and not once has it jumped a song.
Simple is beautiful and Apple proved it once again.
58 A good buy for first time MP3 Player buyers
I've had my IPod Shuffle for about week now. The price is extremely decent if you're not looking to spend $300 on an MP3 player (I know I wasn't). I know there's a lot of rumors going around that you HAVE to play your music in random order, that is totally a myth. You have option to pick what goes on your IPod and whether you want it to play straight through or shuffled. Another cool feature is that you can have ITunes randomly fill your IPod with music from your library, but it's not necessary. The 1 GB size is plenty if you don't have too much music that you want to carry around with you, I don't think I've even manually filled up my IPod yet, but then again I don't have much music. As for the issue of not having a display screen, I can see how that would bother some people, but so far, it hasn't been an issue with me at all. If you're new to the MP3 player world, I would recommend the Shuffle as a starter, the price is right, and there is still lots of room for music.
59 It's so very wee!!!
I have a 20 gig iPod, and I often worry about messing it up by accidentally dropping it or something. I go running regularly, and it occurred to me that if I dropped the iPod while I was running It would be a goner for sure. With its moving parts and harddrive, it was way too vulnerable. I saw the iPod shuffle, which is a flash memory player, and I knew that I had to have it. It is not invincible, but it does not have the moving parts that my 20 gig has. Also it is half the price of the other, and it is so very portable. It is fantastic. Some skeptics commented to me about the lack of a screen, but when I am doing something, I usually don't have time to check the screen every time a new song comes on to see what it is. Also, wouldn't you know what songs you have? THis player holds around 200 songs and that may seem like a lot, but it is not. You should know what songs you have, it is not as if there are thousands like on a regular iPod. SO in conclusion, this mp3 player is totally awesome.
60 Had initial compatability issues with Windows
Out of the box this was very difficult to get working on a modern windowsXP machine - this for someone with a masters degree in computer science who's had absolutely no trouble using a variety of USB devices (including music players) with this computer. I won't go through all the gory details but in my case getting the latest copy of the "Apple ipod updater" put me on the path to success. It's hard to believe they did any serious windows testing, especially based on all the Windows people with similar problems on the Apple shuffle message board. Now that it's finally working I've liked it, has good sound quality, very easy to operate and especially easy to fill it up with music. Press one button and it will fill it with music from your itunes library or any playlist you want. I like that it charges itself from the USB port as well. Windows users, especially novices, might want to wait a bit for them to update the software that ships with the players - on my configuration there was absolutely no way to make it work using what shipped on the installation CD.
61 not worth it
The title says it all. This product, without a screen is simply not worth it. For the same price you can get a Creative Muvo with a SCREEN, FM radio, and voice recording. I got this as a present and exchanged for a Muvo.
Save your money and doesn't listen to Apple's advertising.
62 Does Exactly What Apple Says
The iPod shuffle is ideally suited for sports and uses where you just press play and go. If you really need a music player with a display then buy one with a display, do not show your ignorance by faulting a system for not doing something it was not designed to do.
People do not accuse the Porche 911 of not being an off-road vehicle or a boat, so why would you expect a music player designed around not having a screen, to have a screen.
63 this little thing rocks my world
I bought my iPod Shuffle after spending a week debating between it and an iPod mini. I'm an Mac-user, and I used iTunes long before I thought about buying the Shuffle, so there was no doubt in my mind that I wanted to buy an iPod of some type, because I feel from my experience that Apple products are very high quality. Luckily I had two friends: One with a iPod Mini and one with an iPod Shuffle, both of whom were very satisfied with their respective products. I didn't buy the iPod mini because I felt the Shuffle was exactly what I was looking for and the iPod mini was a bit too much for what I wanted, but the Mini's are very cool. However, I have not for one second regretted buying my Shuffle.
For a simple, cool little Mp3 player, the value of a Shuffle can't be beat. First of all, the value of using it as a flash drive is almost alone worth the price. 1GB is a huge amount of storage for something this small. It weighs next to nothing, and if you don't watch, you'll leave it in your jacket pocket and lose it. However, good things come in small packages and the sound quality is just plain awesome.
With their "Life is Random" slogon, it is amazing that Apple has launched such a great advertising campaign based upon what many see as a flaw: the lack of a screen. I feel that this actually benefits from the lack of a screen. It wouldn't be as light and the battery life wouldn't be as long if it had a back-lit LCD screen, and in my opinion the screen on most flash Mp3 players (telling you only the name of the song that is playing) is kind of useless and pointless. I've had my Shuffle for a month, and I've never felt that I once desired a screen. Sometimes I let the iTunes software fill it up with autofill and it's cool to listen to it on shuffle mode and get surprised with what comes up. iTunes will also let you set up a playlist in order which you can play straight through.
Other flash players in this price range do not have this much storage. I'd honestly take the extra space over a un-necessary screen anyday. All of my friends with non-Shuffle flash-based Mp3 players are jealous of my Shuffle.
Some people sometimes complain that the only way to charge the Shuffle is through a USB port unless you buy an adaptor from Apple. To be honest, there are computers everywhere today, and almost any one around will be able to charge the Shuffle. The battery life is really 12 hours like they say it is. The fact that the USB port is right on the Shuffle is much nicer than a real iPod if you want to use it as a flash drive. If you want to use a real iPod to transfer data, you need to carry a USB cable with you. The shuffle is much more convenient because it plugs right in. The connection may or may not be as fast as firewire, but if you've got USB 2.0 ports on your computer, it's plenty fast enough.
The only downside to any iPod is that while the earphones sound great, they're not the most comfortable earphones. Some people I know complain that they always fall out. I don't have this problem, but I find that they feel uncomfortable after a couple hours of being in my ears. It's not enough to make me buy a different set, but it's sometimes a bit annoying. Still, if you factor in an extra $20 for the cost of different set of earphones, it's still well-worth the price.
This is a great Mp3 player if you want something to run with, fit in your pocket at work, listen to on the subway, or use also as a quality flash drive to store data on. This is NOT for people who want to put all of their music on it with 70 different playlists to choose from and keep a calendar and everyone's addresses on it. Get a real iPod if that's what you want. If you want an ultra-portible, great-sounding, good-value-for-your-money music player that is easy to use, doubles as a convenient flash drive, has good software, and has good battery life, by all means go for the Shuffle and you'll love it.
64 Good choice for my needs
I have read several reviews of this player before purchasing. Some gave bad reviews for lack of LCD screen or FM player. It is obvious that they do not own this player, and are just giving bad reviews because of the absence of these features. Reviews should only be provided by people who actually have purchased and used the device.
I currently own an Apple iPod 20 gb 3rd generation, and I love it. I was going on a medical mission trip to Honduras, and I just didn't want to take my harddrive based player. I also wanted something to take to the gym from time-to-time. I purchased the iPod 1 gb Shuffle player. I have just returned from my mission trip, and I must say thet it met my needs as expected.
- Works flawlessly with iTunes and did not cause any problems on the computer where I have iTunes installed for my iPod 20 gb. I can just transfer the songs in my current library that I want to listen to manually, or it can chose songs for me automatically at random.
- Does not have a FM tuner, but so what. Not much FM music I wanted to listen to in Honduras or on an airplane.
- No LCD screen to see what I am listening to. So what, I am trying to relax on the airplane, in my room, or working out. Also, I should know generally what songs are in my library. I shouldn't have to look to see what I am listening to, and I wouldn't want to interrupt whatever I am doing just to check out the name of a song or the artist, etc. I can do that later if I want.
- It is very light.
- Controls are simple and easy to use.
- Battery life is very good, 11-12 hours of continuous playing. Recharges in about 4 hours.
Recommendations:
- If you own an Apple iPod, and want something light to take to the gym or commuting, than I would recommend the iPod Shuffle. Works flawlessly with iTunes and your current library.
- If you don't own an Apple iPod, and/or you want a flash-based player with an LCD and FM tuner, then go buy something else. Just don't provide bad reviews on something you have never tested yourself.
65 Wow...this is one hell of an MP3 player!!!
Best thing about this is that it plays AAC files, and also, it is small as hell. I'm so glad I purchased this thing because I totally love the shuffle aspect.
If you are looking for a new MP3 player, this is it. If you can find this thing around, make the purchase and you will fall in love.
66 AAC Misconception
I just recently recieved my iPod shuffle and am very pleased with it. Once again, Apple's attention to detail is readily apparent.
One thing I have noticed in some of the reviews is the misunderstanding of the AAC format which is the prefered format to use on the shuffle (although MP3 and other formats will also play). AAC in a nutshell is the next generation MP3 format. You could almost call it MP4. AAC stands for "Advanced Audio Codec" which just means it has higher audio fidelity with the same size files as MP3. Apple did not invent AAC as explained in the following quote from their website: "AAC was developed by the MPEG group that includes Dolby, Fraunhofer (FhG), AT&T, Sony, and Nokia-companies that have also been involved in the development of audio codecs such as MP3 and AC3 (also known as Dolby Digital)." [...]
What Apple did add is AAC with digital rights management, which is for songs bought on iTunes. It prevents excessive copying of the files to prevent pirating. Pretty much all online music stores use some type of digital rights management. The shuffle will play AAC with DRM, basically iTunes purchased songs, in addition to many formats for non DRM songs.
As for the person who had problems playing MP3's on their shuffle, I would suggest converting all their MP3's to AAC format which can be easily done in iTunes. Remember to set the import encoder in Preferences to AAC not MP3, and the select in the Advanced menu, Convert to AAC. Of course Apple should and probably will fix this problem with a software update for the iPod. These software updates are free and load into the iPod from iTunes. Sometimes Apple will even add features to existing products with software updates. I hope this was helpful.
Still loving my Shuffle.
67 Commuter's Dream
The 1 GB ipod Shuffle is my first MP3 player. What attracted me most was the small size and the reputation of Apple. I absolutely love this thing! The sound is great and i tunes is very easy to use. Loaded software fine. It rips CD's quick and no problems using this with XP. I did not want something complex and bulky. I have a long commute and have no problems with battery or the capacity. I would suggest the 1 GB unit. I also purchased the docking station and case for using the unit when skiing - which this thing was absolutely made for. Buy one if you can find one!!!!
68 The latest news about iPod family
This is not a review of iPod shuffle as such - great reviews are available already. Here is some information that might help in deciding which iPod to go for.
Apple announced a major upgrade to the iPod lineup today (23 Feb 2005).
The biggest advantage is the reduction in price ($ per GB) and improvement in battery life. Another significant change is that USB 2.0 is being emphasized although FireWire continues to be supported. AC adapter is USB based instead of FireWIre and the FireWire based AC adapter still sells as a separate product.
The impact on iPod mini:
> A new model, iPod mini 6 GB is introduced for $249
> iPod mini 4 GB now priced at $199 ($50 down from earlier price)
> Change in colors - now mini is available in new shades of Silver, Blue, Pink, and Green (the Gold color is discontinued)
> Major improvement in battery life - up to 18 hours (was 8 hours earlier)
> AC adapter ($29) and firewire cable ($19) no longer shipped with mini (you may not need them really)
> iPod mini 4 GB and 6 GB now ship with only three things: earphones, belt clip, and USB 2.0 cable
> The indicators on the click wheel now match the color of the iPod mini
The impact on bigger iPods:
> iPod 40 GB is discontinued
> iPod photo 40 GB is discontinued
> iPod photo 30 GB (new product) replaces the 40 GB iPod photo and the regular iPod 40 GB
> iPod photo 60 GB now costs $150 less -- $449 instead of $599
> iPod photo 30 GB costs $349 ($150 less than iPod photo 40 GB and $50 less than regular iPod 40 GB)
> iPod dock ($39), AV cable ($19), carrying case ($29), and firewire cable ($19) do not ship with iPod photo (you may not really need them)
> Now we get three things with iPod photo: earphones, USB based AC adapter, USB 2.0 cable
> In additon to the above, a firewire cable continues to ship with iPod 20 GB & iPod U2 edition
> iPod photo Camera Connector is introduced - this can be used for connecting your digital camera directly to the iPod
With these changes, there is an interesting $50 gap between:
> iPod 20 GB and iPod photo 30 GB
> iPod mini 6 GB and iPod 20 GB (as earlier)
> iPod mini 4 GB and iPod mini 6 GB
> iPod shuffle 1 GB and iPod mini 4 GB
> iPod shuffle 512 MB and iPod shuffle 1 GB (as earlier)
Price, size, weight, and ease of use are major considerations while buying an iPod shuffle. If price is the only factor, iPod mini could be a better choice over shuffle. I have all the models of iPod (shuffle, mini, regular 40 GB, and photo 60 GB) and I find myself sticking to the iPod photo 60 GB since it carries all my music and has a better, color-based user interface.
69 Wonderful little piece of little plastic :)
After weeks of waiting, I finally got my hands on an Ipod Shuffle. And I adore it. No LCD screen? Who cares.
1) If you haven't been living under a rock, you must know beforehand that the shuffle has no screen, so no need to complain when you look down and see nothing but white shining back at you! Most people put songs they know/like onto their playlist, so the lack of LCD isn't such a big deal. If you're looking for something with a screen, I don't know why you'd even consider buying the shuffle.
2) For those who bypass the worry of not having a screen: Apple sells the "Life is random" deal hard, but maybe you all don't enjoy constant randomness. I find the "nonshuffle" and "shuffle" to be fantastic at wiggling around to a set of songs I'd like to hear at the moment. (Beware: may take some patience, but out of 250 songs, which is enough for me, it only takes a couple of clicks.) When initially setting up my Shuffle playlist, I placed my songs in alphabetical order by author and grouped them all together. Simple enough. So when you put them onto the ipod, you know that songs by the same artist are together. (Note: if you typically like one song from each of your favorite artists, my method doesn't work. Sorry) Once that is done, say you're shuffling and feel like listening to only (insert band here). Find one of their songs, switch off shuffle mode and enjoy (insert band here) heaven. I said you have to be patient, but when dealing with fine things, patience is a must.
3) Who can resist the sleek look? Tell me! I couldn't. Call me a sucker but I have a weak spot for those beautiful Ipods.
So... yes you can find a similar product cheaper, I'm not going to lie. 1GB, that's nothing you might say, but I can't even name 10,000 songs, so 1GB is just enough for me, and maybe for you too. I've heard that the shuffle is great for people who exercise. I wouldn't know, you can ask someone who exercises. The shuffle also functions as a USB storage thing (you know what I'm talking about) that can hold files. Most laptops don't have A:/ drives anymore and a lot of people go out and buy those USB storage things to save or back-up files for around $50, give or take.
Function over form? Point is, the shuffle works and looks great. Sound quality is as good as a regular ipod and it just slides into your pocket. Say that the Ipod is "over-priced"? Buy a CD player then.
*Edit: woah, I just saw the guy's review above me. Apple really screwed over people who just bought an ipod recently. Good going Jobs... Anyway, I guess the mini is now only $50 more, not bad.
70 Great value for music on the go!
My friends campaigned me for several years to get an iPod. I was not a fan until I switched to the iBook and got iTunes, which helped organize my music tremendously. I saw this player the other day and decided to purchase it.
While it holds around 240 songs, it's perfect for vacation or jogging. FYI, this is not the iPod you want to hold your entire library. For that, I'd suggest the iPod mini or 40GB.
It's great for jogging or commuting on the subway. While there's no display, the weight(or lack thereof) makes up for it. Plus, at $150, it's a great value and you can partition it to store data files. So essentially, you have a 1GB flash drive with music player, definitely a great accessory for work or travel. I guess I've officially switched to Mac!
71 iTunes for the road, at the right price.
The Shuffle is a great product not only because it is a great music player (the sound quality is fantastic), but because it greatly reduces the mobile price point for users of the best music service around - iTunes. For $99, you can now export your iTunes library for listening. At that price you can buy one for you, your spouse, and each of your kids.
The unit works great. One thing which is mentioned in other reviews and worth repeating is that you do not need to play your songs in random order. Just add the songs you want to an iTunes play list and select that play list to fill your Shuffle. You can now play your Playlist in the order it appears in iTunes, or, if you prefer, in random order. Either way, the Shuffle is a great product at a great price point. So far I can fit more songs than advertised, and the battery life looks like closer to 14 hours per full charge.
This is a great product which substantially reduces the affordability price point for iTunes, and I highly recommend it.
72 It seems that some people don't grasp the concept.
First off, those of you who do not own the shuffle should not be writing reviews on the product. I've come across many reviews stating assumptions on the Shuffle's abilities/features. Just to clarify, the Shuffle does not have to play in Shuffle mode only! The idea of the Shuffle is to provide a cheap, effective flash drive media player and in this Apple has succeeded. Because the objective was to make it cheaper than other flash drive models, features were cut. There is no LCD and there is no EQ but do we really need to know the name of the song we're listening to? Despite the fact that the Shuffle lacks an EQ, the sound quality is superb. The beauty of the Shuffle lies in its simplicity. One of my roommates has an MP3 player by another manufacturer for which he paid more than I did and got 1/4 the song capacity of my Shuffle. The only difference between my Shuffle and his MP3 player; he has an LCD with 256 MB whereas I do not have an LCD but I do have 1 GB song capacity and paid 49 dollars less for my Shuffle. Decide for yourself if the LCD means that much to you.
I've had my Shuffle for a little over two weeks and the only foreseeable problem thus far is the USB guard (a small piece of hard plastic covering the USB) may become lost as it is not actually attached to the Shuffle itself; my roommate has already lost his and as the Shuffle hasn't been out for very long, Apple has yet to monopolize on the sale of extra guards. As for the Shuffle not being able to play some MP3's, the solution is simple; in the iPod options window make sure that it converts all other format songs to 128kbps AAC and all songs will play. Perhaps one other problem with the Shuffle (and I'm sure Apple will fix this with the next generation) is the play selector (shuffle or continuous) because it is flush with the rest of the Shuffle is kind of difficult to select the play style if your hands are wet or cold. Other than that the Shuffle is a great product in my opinion, but decide for yourselves.
73 The "Pet Rock" of mp3 Players
This is a stunning example of marketing creating irrationally strong demand for poorly designed product. Despite the obvious visual design flair of the shuffle form factor for which Apple is famous, this is also an example of form over function. The lack of visual feedback (screen)is a stunningly poor ergonomic design choice...and one that is completely unnecessary. Potential buyers need to be aware that there are superior light weight flash memory mp3 players with screens, tactile buttons, and other features. And they are from mature companies who started making such players before the iPod was a gleam in Apple's eye. Somebody needs to say it. Despite Apple's legendary marketing hype, this is a very poor showing for their first generation flash memory player. Next they'll be touting the "zen" computer that is only a thin alabaster cord of finest imported synthetic polymers that plugs into nothingness. Hey, but it weighs almost nothing! Caveat emptor.
74 Remember it is called a shuffle for a reason!!!
i see many people listing items like, no lcd etc. 1st i tell you to look at what this product is. If you desire a screen get a mini or a regular ipod. if no get a shuffle. You are paying 100 for a mac product. That is a 1st for mac!!!! it shows that quality and value do hold one anothers hands.... But do not compare this product to something that costs 2-5 times what this costs! because that is NOT A FAIR COMPARISON!
75 Practically Perfect...from a new iPod nut
I've had the 1gb iPod for a little over a week now, and this little thing has definitely changed the way I listen to music.
Not only is the design nifty, but it's INCREDIBLY easy to use, even without looking at it. The quality of the music is absolutely superb. I accidentally uploaded a sound check track from my home theatre system into it, and when I listened to the guys voice through the ear buds, it was *LITERALLY* 3-D sound. It raised the hairs on my neck! It's small and I wear it around my neck at the office (I'm a graphic designer...on the computer all day). The best use that I get out of my shuffle is at the gym. I can run on the track and use the eliptical with no problem, and then when I'm on the free weights and weight machines I can still listen to my music. Before, my jog-proof CD player was too cumbersome to keep up with when lifting. Right now I've got 260 songs, over 14 hours of music stored in here, and it's pretty much maxed out. I think there are 8mb left. So...maybe one more song. Ha ha.
As much as I'm in love with my new little toy, it's not without downfalls. My biggest concern is with the software and compatibility. I have Windows XP on my computer at home, and iTunes is CONSTANTLY bombing my system. I've read a few hints, tips and suggestions from others that have this problem, but it's still *very* tempermental. The only time it crashed is during transfers or iPod updates. The best tip I've learned is to uncheck the "connect to the internet if needed" box, but even with that, it's only at about 50% of what it should be.
Something else that's not so much a complaint as it is a mystery...is that you're unable to fast forward through some songs. For example, I'm able to fast forward through all of the songs from RENT, but when I get to John Mayer...nada. I don't know if it's the way that the songs are coded, but it's an enigma nontheless.
To some, the fact that it doesn't have a display is discouraging. I thought so too, until I was able to play with it. Even with 250 songs in mine, they're all alphabetical, and it's easy to locate them by toggling through them with the wheel. So, I can jump from Avenue Q to Jason Mraz with no problem. I rarely use it in the shuffle mode.
So, that's my honest review in a nutshell. Not without dissapointments on my end, but once the music is loaded, I'm in music wonderland.
76 DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY
BE AWARE IF YOU DO NOT HAVE AN APPLE COMPUTER. APPLE SUPPORT WILL TELL GO ASK MICORSOFT OR DELL WHY IT DOES NOT WORK.I HAVE WINDOWS XP. I TRIED EVERYTHING TO MAKE IT WORK. APPLE SUPPORT WANTED ME TO BUY ANOTHER USB CARD. APPLE SAID I NEEDED A NEW DRIVER. THEY TRIED TO BLAME EVERYTHING ON MY COMPUTER BUT IF YOU GO ON THE APPLE WEB SITE UNDER DISCUSSIONS YOU CAN READ ABOUT ALL THE PROBLEMS OTHER PEOPLE HAVE WITH TRYING TO MAKE IT WORK WITH WINDOWS. THANK GOODNESS THEY ARE LETTING ME SEND IT BACK. ALSO THE SECOND TIME I CALLED THE CUSTOMER SERVICE PERSON SAID YOU CAN ONLY CALL APPLE ONE TIME FOR FREE OTHER CALLS ARE 49.00. BUT HE WOULD HELP ME THIS ONE TIME AGAIN. (THE SECOND TIME IT WAS NO HELP HIS ADVICE CALL MICROSOFT OR DELL TO FIND OUT WHY IT DOES NOT WORK )
77 Best MP3 Player. Period.
I was a bit skeptical about the shuffle at first, but I decided to go buy the 1GB version and just try it out. I immediately fell in love with how small it is, which is a huge selling point for me because I only use it for when I'm walking around campus or when I'm at the gym. The iPod MINI is still too heavy for me-- I don't want it weighing down my pants (I'd put it in my pocket) when I'm at the gym, and I just don't want to deal with the belt-clips. The Shuffle doesn't weigh anything-- you could even just let it hang from the headphones if you wanted.
I don't need to listen to every single song that I have, so the 1GB gives me more than enough room for my favorite 130+ songs. I've had it for just over two weeks and I'm still not tired of the songs on it. You could also use the random-sync mode in iTunes to add songs at random to the player so that you get a surprise you turn it on.
Also, what's really incredible is that other than transferring the music to the device initially (it got a slight charge on the first day), the battery light still reads as "green." It's supposed to go "green, amber, red" to let you know how the battery is holding up. This thing has an incredible battery life, since I have been using it every day since I bought it for several hours a day. The specs say 12 hours (I think) until the battery goes dead, but I'm sure I've been listening to it for way more than that. My best friend bought one the same day (also the 1GB) and his battery has lasted a long time too. We love the shuffle.
The only complaint that I have is that you have to use iTunes to get the music onto the device. I'm not sure if there is any 3rd party software out there that will let you get around this, but I hate iTunes and so that's my only complaint. The way I see it though, I'm only going to sync it every once in a while, and it's something that I'm happy to put up with in order to use this awesome MP3 player.
My other complaint is about the white iPod headphones that come with the Shuffle. How can I put it nicely-- THEY SUCK. They have absolutely NO bass response and they flatten out the tone of almost every song. At first I was disappointed with the sound quality of the MP3s through the shuffle, but I switched to my good Sony headphones and there was a tremendous difference. The songs sound so much better, and I felt relieved that it wasn't something wrong with the player itself (because there is no equalizer on the shuffle, but it's not needed). Despite the fact that the iPod earphones look good and they have a short cord that doesn't get all tangled up all the time, I think that they are uncomfortable and don't sound good at all.
I've been looking for a great MP3 player for years, and this one definitely wins me over. If you are in the market for an MP3 player, and you want something for the gym or something active, or if you just want to be discreet and not have some clunky player attached to your waist, this is definitely the way to go!
78 I love this player!!
My husband got a 1GB shuffle this past weekend and I will be getting my own very soon. There's not much to love about this audio player. It's small (about the size of a thick stick of gum), it has great quality, and it look super-cool.
You can listen to songs in the playlist order or have the shuffle mix them up for you. You can fast forward and rewind a song. You can skip forward & backward to a new song.
Yes - there is no display, but it doesn't need one. If it's your shuffle, you know what music you have and with iTunes you can choose what songs to put on your shuffle.
I really think that if you want ALL of your music with you - buy and ipod mini. But, how many times do you really need that much music with you? The ipod shuffle is great for errnads, exercising, working around the house and sitting in your room, and it costs about 1/2 of what a mini costs.
Three cheers (again) for Apple. They truly are an innovator!
79 This thing is cool...
I just bought a Shuffle for my wife and I am extremely jealous that she has one and I don't. I almost bought the 20GB iPod, but decided that for what she needs, the Shuffle is much better. This is the perfect device to use if you are an active person...it is extremely small and lightweight and unlike the regular iPod, it does not skip. I am extremely impressed with the design and frankly think it is one of the coolest looking devices out there. Not only is this thing unbelievably practical, but it is also extremely hip (I was amazed at the irrepressible urge I had to dance around like the dude in the commercial when I first used the Shuffle). My feeling is that there are other flash devices out there, but none even approaching the Shuffle's level of cool.
80 Excellent value; Very Useful
This is my first MP3 player/iPod purchase. I couldn't be more satisfied with the 1G Shuffle. I am so tired of having to lug my cd player, carrying case and a selection of cds to the gym everyday. I have only had my shuffle for 3 days and have put 47 songs on it, which is over 3 hours of music and the memory is not even 20% full! I can't wait for the sport case to come in stock. For what I need it for the Shuffle is perfect. I would recommend this product to anyone.
81 Inexpensive, High Quality Player
The iPod shuffle is a great mp3 player for what it's meant to do. It isn't meant to store your entire music collection, but rather would you want to listen to more frequently, or a random selection of music that fits in a device smaller than a pack of gum.
As with all devices, there are pros and cons, and I'll try and go through those.
Pro - Inexpensive. Even though Apple is known for having very high pricing, this device competes even in the price category against other players, and often beats out other players in the price category.
Pro - Size. This thing will fit into your pocket, or almost anywhere, and it weighs in at just under an ounce. Bring it quite literally anywhere.
Pro - Simplicity. This device is very easy to use, very self explanatory on how to use it, and to understand the LED lights, Apple gives you a small little card with the iPod shuffle.
Pro - USB Flash Drive. You can easily set aside a certain amount of storage space on your iPod shuffle to use as a USB Flash Drive.
Pro/Con - No screen. Not having a screen can be seen as a pro or a con. On one hand, it gives the device a clean, simple look, but on the other hand, you can't navigate songs, or if you can't recognze a song, you can't look it up.
Overall, it is a very solid device that I would highly recomend to anyone who just wants some music in a very small device, easy to access, and use. If they want their entire music collection in one device, this isn't it, that's what the regular iPod is for.
82 wonderful product
I would recommend this to anyone who already owns an ipod. Easy to use, easy to carry, and makes the ipod experience that much more exciting. Ignore the reviews that talk of the pros and cons of owning this ipod... bottom line, Apple always makes a wonderful product, and the fact that it doesn't have a display isn't worth criticizing... its a beautiful design and if you want a display screen fork out the extra money for a larger ipod...
83 An Excellent Player.
This is an excellent product that I would recommend to anyone wanting a hassle-free way to take music on the go. I'm not going to write a full account of how the thing works. You will find all you need to know in the product blurb above.
But there are a few issues that need to be addressed.
The first issue I would like to address is the lack of a screen. Many people have criticised the iPod Shuffle for lacking a screen. In my experience this is not such a big deal. The displays on players of this size tend to be as useful as those on portable CD players: that is to say not very useful at all. Apple has decided to make the Shuffle as simple as possible: load it up with music and go - that's it. No fiddling about with playlists and selections, just go. While you can play songs in a predetermined order, in practice the Shuffle feature is actually a lot more fun. It is essentially like a radio station tuned to your own taste and without the annoying DJs or advertising. The controls are the simplest and most efficient of any player of similar capacity.
Other companies decided to make a digital version of th
