I have to admit, I’m getting sucked into the whole iPod thing. It looks snazzy, and, um… it’s an iPod. Well. Might have something to do with my no-name flash based mp3 player giving off this soft high pitched whine that’s driving me batty. AND, it’s 512MB! That’s gotta be good… and um, it’s got, um, a shuffle mode!
[sub]okayokay, so it’s because it’s an iPod. sheesh[/sub]
So, iPod Shuffle owners, is it any good?
Seriously, take the leap and get a proper full-on iPod. You won’t be sorry.
I’m considering getting one for the gym. I have a 40 gig iPod, but don’t like taking it to the gym because of the price (if it gets lost/stolen) and it sometimes looses its place when I’m bouncing on the treadmill. The shuffle should address those issues.
I say, if it has you salivating, and you have the money, go for it. You are very unlikely to regret it.
No, because there’s a six-week waiting list for the damn things…
If you just want one for the gym you can get a TDK Mojo for around forty dollars or so. Only 128 and 256mb models but even the smaller one will hold most CDs at a high bit rate.
I’m not a big fan of convergence but I’m pretty happy with my new PDA that works as an MP3 player. I have to use RealAudio and it uses an SD memory slot so it’s limited to 1GB AFAIK but it was a good fit for me.
Saw one on Saturday – would’ve bought one, but they were sold out.
The thing is damn small. I swear, you could inhale it in a nostril if you weren’t careful. The controls didn’t feel as solid as I was expecting, but maybe that was necessary given the lightweight heft of the unit.
The only question is whether to get the 512MB or the 1GB one. I like the idea of holding more music/data on it, but my computer only has USB 1.1, so filling the whole 1GB would take a half-hour or so…
You can add a USB 2.0 card to your PC pretty cheaply to get around that problem. I’ve had to deal with a 1GB microdrive for my cameras and I agree that USB 1.1 is agaonizingly slow.
Even with my innate Apple-whore-ness, I don’t have any interest in the iPod Shuffle. It doesn’t have anything I personally like about the iPod, and it’s not that much less than a “real” iPod or an iPod mini.
But here is a funny semi-review of the thing. (Not much info, but it talks about some of my favorite things – Apple products, chest hair, and 70’s TV shows).
Well, as a PC-ite I’ve got a problem with the main iPod’s dependance on iTunes. I personally never want to install it, generally prefering not to install any excess software that I can help. And iTunes sounds like one of those excess softwares that I don’t really need. Affer all, I don’t have 20GBs of music, and hardly listen to more than 3 albums at once anyway. I’m doing okay with my dinky no-brand 256MB player now, and don’t really see the need to get a few GBs.
And it’s expensive…
And it’s a HUGE target for unsavoury characters…
And it’s basically shooting a gnat with an elephant gun.
I will admit, though, that if I had unlimited money, I’d get an iPod for the coolness factor if not for anything else.
It’s actually a common misconception that you have to have iTunes to use your iPod. You can download extensions for winamp and other major media players if you’d rather. Or you can just download some freeware from ipodlounge.com and use that instead. iTunes is just supposed to be a convenient bit of software for you to use, and although Apple probably loves that most people think it’s essential, it’s really not.
Maybe you should move. I mean, that’s a lousy reason for choosing what toys you buy.
Whistlepig
I’ve got a 20gb iPod and I am in the same boat as the poster that worries about it getting stolen… and I got mine free. There’s also a free ipod shuffle pyramid type site out there, and they do work, but they’re probably on back order there as well :smack:
I bought a 1-gig iPod Shuffle last week, and it’s replaced my old iPod. Yes, the lack of a screen means it’s harder to pick an individual song, but since I only have 120 on it (not because of lack of memory, I just picked that few as my favourites) it’s really not an issue.
It worked beautifully with iTunes, so there was no messing around with multiple devices. As for theft; well, I’ve never liked the earphones supplied by Apple – I use old Panasonic earphones – so nobody can tell what device I have anyway. The thing’s so small I can hold it in the palm of my hand without anyone seeing it.
Cons: it feels a bit lightweight, perversely - I’m not sure I’d notice if it fell out of my pocket. Equaliser and volume boost settings don’t appear to work either.
I’m pretty sure the Shuffle doesn’t support equalizer settings or volume normalization. What you hear is what you get, as it were.