When I first saw the iPod shuffle, i was a little disappointed, and thought "who in their right minds would want one of those?" however the more I think about it, and the more rumours i hear from various sources make it seem more tempting. I have a set of questions that I want to put out here to existing owners in order to "set the record straight" on what it can and cant do.
1) Does the shuffle cache files into local memory like big ipods?
It is known that regular hard drive ipods like to have songs of something like 6-8Mb in size, any bigger and it has to play them off the hard disk and drains the battery more etc. I mostly listen to recorded radio shows, usually between 100-150Mb each, and don't fancy cutting them into smaller chunks. This has been one factor to put me off buying a regular ipod so far (along with lack of radio), so is this still the case with Shuffle?
2) Can you choose what bitrate itunes downsamples to when transferring music?
I have read here and there that when itunes puts a playlist of say Apple Lossless onto the shuffle, it will convert it to 128Kbps AAC files on the fly. This is perfect for me because the few cds that i do actually own are all in itunes as lossless and there is no need for that quality when i am cycling to work. Are you stuck with just 128 AAC or can you go lower?
3) Can you scan forwards and rewind through songs, or is it just next/previous only?
Answer these questions to my satisfaction and i just may treat myself to one of these cuties on payday... Of course i could go up to the apple shop and play with one first, but others may be wondering the answers to these questions too.
1) Does the shuffle cache files into local memory like big ipods?
It is known that regular hard drive ipods like to have songs of something like 6-8Mb in size, any bigger and it has to play them off the hard disk and drains the battery more etc. I mostly listen to recorded radio shows, usually between 100-150Mb each, and don't fancy cutting them into smaller chunks. This has been one factor to put me off buying a regular ipod so far (along with lack of radio), so is this still the case with Shuffle?
2) Can you choose what bitrate itunes downsamples to when transferring music?
I have read here and there that when itunes puts a playlist of say Apple Lossless onto the shuffle, it will convert it to 128Kbps AAC files on the fly. This is perfect for me because the few cds that i do actually own are all in itunes as lossless and there is no need for that quality when i am cycling to work. Are you stuck with just 128 AAC or can you go lower?
3) Can you scan forwards and rewind through songs, or is it just next/previous only?
Answer these questions to my satisfaction and i just may treat myself to one of these cuties on payday... Of course i could go up to the apple shop and play with one first, but others may be wondering the answers to these questions too.
