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KingZorb

macrumors newbie
May 9, 2011
23
7
Why would anyone still own one of these? They were horrible to start with no screen
The iPod Shuffle was the first Apple product I ever bought. I was so amazed by how awesome it was, that it convinced me to buy an iPhone, which convinced me to buy my next iPhone... and then iPads, then Macs, then AppleWatch, etc...

Interesting that you would say it was horrible, it was so small, light and portable. I loved it!
 

msackey

macrumors 68030
Oct 8, 2020
2,516
2,940
The Shuffles were good. They were cheap, small, and could hold an entire playlist. Useful for just plugging into a car stereo or a outside speaker, especially the USB stick iPod Shuffles

It was the gumstick Shuffle that was horrible since it didn't have any buttons whatsoever.
Exactly!

I can think back to the time when we had our own mixed tapes. A shuffle can work like that. You don't have a display for the songs. You just press play.
 

lairdo

macrumors member
Sep 27, 2008
33
44
Really happy to see this small fix.

I have an aftermarket waterproofed iPod Shuffle I still use when swimming. The lack of a screen is not an issue since I would not be looking underwater. The super lightweight aspect of it makes it completely unnoticeable on my swim goggles. Buttons are stiffer due to how they reverse engineer them but it's a small price to pay. (These are still available if curious: https://www.underwateraudio.com/products/waterproof-ipod-shuffle - and yes it is a premium price for the manual changeover to survive swimming.)

I had been planning to use a windows instance to sync my old shuffle but would prefer to just do so on the Mac. I know a few (very few vs others) in this thread have question us owners, but there are still use cases, the devices still run, sound quality is reasonable. I have owned the buttonless iPods too and they just were not functional enough. This one hits the spot and just a joy still.

Fun fact: I had a friend who worked at Apple who told me that a larger capacity version was contemplated before the whole line was cancelled. 4GB would have been nice!
 

Digital Skunk

macrumors G3
Dec 23, 2006
8,100
930
In my imagination
Wasn't there a watch band for that Shuffle? Or a Shuffle?
There was, and I agree that the watch replaced the shuffle for at least a few of us who loved the shuffle.

One of the greatest iPods ever. I miss it in an odd way, because I can imagine that with not having the screen of a smartphone it would fun to have no clue as to what song was up next.
YES INDEED!

I loved the shuffle because I only ever used 1 playlist that was about half a gig in size with about 500-600 songs, and since it was all music I liked I didn't have to worry about skipping or selecting a track. I just pressed play and went about my day.

Additionally, I lived in Baltimore ... Park Heights no less, and didn't have to worry about "losing" a $150 Shuffle vs a $400 Classic. Since there was no screen I didn't have to pull the shuffle out for people around me to see, and it was easy to just clip to my belt loop ... SOOOOPER portable.

The one with no buttons at all was pure trash. I did have one of those as well, and quickly went back.
 

xthine

macrumors 6502
Apr 29, 2015
292
267
USA
Should I wait to sync an incoming 4th gen used shuffle until after the update is released?
 

topdownjimmy

macrumors member
Jun 6, 2017
31
50
macOS still natively supports iPods all the way back to the original 2001 iPod with firewire. Methinks maybe there's some iPod enthusiasts on the software team still :)

There's been a bug for a while where podcasts synced to an iPod (the 7th gen Nano, at least) (a) show up inside "Music" and (b) sometimes don't have artwork. Would be great if they fixed that as well, but not getting my hopes up.
 

ufgatorvet

macrumors 6502
Oct 1, 2010
265
360
Savannah, GA
animals-stable-horse-horse_has_bolted-businessman-closing_the_door_after_the_horse_has_bolted-wpr0436_low.jpg
 

speedyraf

macrumors member
Oct 10, 2007
90
46
Good news to me, as my very useful (for exercise, podcasts and audiobooks) 7th gen iPod nano is not "happy" with Ventura, so hopefully this coming update helps
 
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juballharshaw

macrumors newbie
May 29, 2010
6
5
I used to work at a place that had some areas where wireless devices of any kind were not allowed. These were very popular among people who spent a lot of time in those areas.

This makes a lot of sense. I wonder if there's an Apple employee in a similar situation and thus why this got an update.

I'm not complaining though as I've got one that I use for lap swimming and am dreading the day it gives up the ghost!
 

Henry S

macrumors regular
Feb 18, 2011
115
114
I think I still have one in a gym bag I don’t use anymore, I know one of the USB sync/charging dongles is in my desk drawer. I don’t think I’ve used it since I got my iPhone 3 GS.
 
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blodyholy

macrumors regular
Dec 5, 2012
171
203
Iowa
Man, these things (or any iPod, really) were great for bridging the gap during the weird time between physical media and USB connections for car audio.

I had one of these filled to the brim for use in my car, which at the time had a factory 5 disc changer that supported MP3 CD’s, had a 3.5mm jack, but no USB. Might dig it out for nostalgia’s sake.
 
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