iPod shuffle - review, and other things

[mattwatson1979]

My iPod shuffle came today, here are my first impressions.

I used to own a 3G iPod, I had trouble with the headphones, they spilt where the pair split into stereo. The first thing I noticed about the set which came with my shuffle is the little extra peice of rubber Apple have put there to stop this from happening. This is probebly on the 4G iPods too, but I never observed one so close up.

The thing is tiny! Bigger then a pack of gum in my opinion, but small for an iPod. I got the 1GB version, so I would have an excuse to wear it at work.. its for file transfers (I used the disk allication tool to set aside 10MB of space) He He one word file at a time

The LANYARD! that is my favorite part! It feels great just hanging there. The thing that annoyed me about the 3G was when i was listening to it, i just had to hold it.. now im typing (two hands), listening, and not worrying about it falling off my desk! I also think its the best way to wear the shuffle.

So the iPod shuffle, it can only hold a small ammount of songs and can shuffle them. This dosnt really affect me, it depends how you listen to your iPod. I used to make a playlist of my favorite songs and listen to it on random on my 3G.

No screen, you may screem... well this one got me, I finished transfering my iTunes from my Mac and pressed play. The first thing I thought was "whats this song", but it didnt bother me, i just listened about 10 seconds longer until the intro was through.

Well, to sum it up, i love my iPod shuffle, and im not going to be as worried taking on a train as my old 40GB iPod (wich I would never fill).

Ok, i could of bought any number of Flash music players, why the iPod shuffle? Well to be honist, you should know the question to that if you stumbled accross this review on Mac Rumors! Why are we all here?

My next iPod will be: iPod + iLife - OK it dosnt exist, but with movie support in iPhoto 05 I reccon its coming. Small movie clips on the iPod is all thats needed to make the iLife model.

And, just because its the season - G5 Powerbooks next Tusday - he he, sorry, but that is on every thread ive read today! I wonder how the new G4 modles compare to the G5 iMacs - Answers on a postcard...

By the way, ive ordered the shuffle dock now. The shuffle doesnt fit in the side of my CRT Apple studio display! USB extention currently in use.

Ordered iLife 05 and iWork (day of release) - shipping next month! when they come I will give my honist opinion (Never used AppleWorks).

If i missed anything out let me know!

Matt

 

[amemoryoncelost]

Sounds great to me. I should be getting mine later this week. Already paid for and have two on hold for me when they arrive. I'm only getting the 512mb versions, though I think I might buy a 1gb when I get there. When I get them, I'm going to sell the 3rd gen ipod I just bought. I don't see the reason to have two and I use it mostly while I'm riding my bike and if I take a fall while I'm listening, might be the end of that, but a shuffle hanging underneath my shirt my survive a bit better.

Anyways, I'm rambling now. Great review and now I'm even more excited to get mine!!!

dustin!

 

[iGary]

I love my iPod shuffle...

I originally thought the lanyard was dorky, but I now wear it all the time at work, and my headphones never come off. I can walk around, with my music - no problem.

I sometimes wish I could find a specific song without thumbing through what's on there - but for $99, I'm not complaining.

Ordered mine the minute it was announced. I have three coworkers waiting for theirs.

 

[madmaxmedia]

The biggest difference between the Shuffle and other flash players IMO is being able to use iTunes to manage the Shuffle. Not just the autofill feature, but simply the general superiority of iTunes vs. other players' software.

 

[debo]

Not to highjack the thread but, speaking of itunes, is there any other way to burn a cd than making a playlist and then clicking burn?

 

[rikers_mailbox]

Gotta agree. . . I love my shuffle. I picked up the 1Gb version yesterday at my school's computer store (can't believe they had them in stock!). I think the lanyard is totally dorky, which is probably why I love it. My only complaint is that the laynard is a bit too long, I'd like it more at chest level, not down by my belly.

The contols are pretty intuitive and the different colored light indicators are great, but I think it would be nice to have some audio cues as you press the buttons. Sounds like a firmware update to me.

Ok, I'm done rambling. Go get yourself a shuffle.

 

[BuckWright]

using it as a USB Key

My imac will be arriving soon, and I need a way to transport files to print at school. will the Ipod shuffle be able to do this? can I save a word file on my mac with the shuffle and take it to school and print from a Dell? that's my situation and a shuffle would be perfect if it could do that.

 

[iGary]

My imac will be arriving soon, and I need a way to transport files to print at school. will the Ipod shuffle be able to do this? can I save a word file on my mac with the shuffle and take it to school and print from a Dell? that's my situation and a shuffle would be perfect if it could do that.

Yes, you can.

 

[kaylee]

I was going to wait til the 1Gb shuffle became available here in Australia (could be months). But then Myer (big department store chain) had the iPod mini for $AU100 off bringing it down to $AU299 (about $US230, compared to $US307 at full price and $US277 at edu price at the current exchange rate). I've always liked the mini, but once the shuffles were announced, and I found out the 1Gb model would be about $205 (after edu discount, and $229 before), I couldn't justify paying nearly double for a mini ( I don't have a huge music collection - ~1GB of songs I listen to all the time). But at the sale price, I couldn't walk away from getting the iPod mini.

 

[PCMacUser]

I was going to wait til the 1Gb shuffle became available here in Australia (could be months). But then Myer (big department store chain) had the iPod mini for $AU100 off bringing it down to $AU299 (about $US230, compared to $US307 at full price and $US277 at edu price at the current exchange rate). I've always liked the mini, but once the shuffles were announced, and I found out the 1Gb model would be about $205 (after edu discount, and $229 before), I couldn't justify paying nearly double for a mini ( I don't have a huge music collection - ~1GB of songs I listen to all the time). But at the sale price, I couldn't walk away from getting the iPod mini.

I think you made the right choice. I intend to buy a 1gb shuffle soon, cos it's just about the cheapest 1gb player you can get in the UK and I only want it for running so I won't need a screen or extra buttons. But the fact remains (IMHO) that the iPod Mini is the best looking player in Apple's stable and has enough features and enough capacity for most people who just want to listen to music...

 

[dotdotdot]

Not to highjack the thread but, speaking of itunes, is there any other way to burn a cd than making a playlist and then clicking burn?

Well if there as, you wouldn't be able to pick the song order on the CD...

besides how hard is it clicking a little "+" then clicking anywhere w/o giving the playlist a name and then adding songs and clicking burn...

its easy as 1,2,3! (ok... 1,2,3,4, but whatever )