I decided to ditch my Shuffle for a Zune 8 because I started listening to a lot of Podcasts and found that adding and managing my podcasts to be a really serious headache without a screen and without a lock switch. I wanted to throw things when I’d bump the skip button on a 30+ minute podcast and have no way to find the spot that I left off.
In my opinion the Shuffle is only good for just that, listening to playlists on shuffle. Anything that requires navigation simply isn’t worth the hassle and small flash memory MP3 players are getting so small and cheap that the shuffle isn’t really that worthwhile.
Are you ME?!?!?! I listen to the exact same podcasts and had the exact same problems.
For me, I went into iTunes and discovered that it had created a “Podcasts” playlist on my Shuffle. I deleted it, and all was well. :dubious: You also want to make sure that your Shuffle is not on shuffle, and that you sync your play order on iTunes - that’s worked for me.
C3, yes, that’s the problem I’ve been having. I think if you ONLY listen to podcasts it’s be fine. For me, I have a lot of commute time every day (2-3 hours!) so I like to be able to switch between stuff. Up til now I’ve simply been syncing my Shuffle so my podcasts are all together at the beginning, but it’s still difficult to switch around between podcasts and songs without a screen.
I have one. I’ve been having problems with it (I had dropped it on a hard surface) and it tends to hang up. A reboot will sometimes fix it. It also skips ahead.
That’s it exactly…it had created a podcast playlist, and it would only play from that…even after I deleted the podcasts! (but not the Playlist). I’m still not comfortable moving around on iTunes, so I decided last night to restore it (silly term for Wipe it Clean) and reinstall the music and podcasts, making sure to put the podcasts in the music library, and not their own playlist (which I’d never intentionally created, by the way…it did that on its own). Then I moved the podcasts until they were items 5 and 9 in my playlist. Doesn’t matter, because when I switch it on (and I never use shuffle, BTW) it starts with the podcasts. But then all my music is there, too…finally! Don’t know how to synch my play order yet. I will have to explore that more. But now I can listen to Boogie Wonderland whenever I want to!
Okay…Boogie Wonderland is NOT my favorite song…but it reminds me of a friend who sent it to me, and it makes me laugh and think fuzzy thoughts about him…
I have a 160GB Classic and I love it. My only complaint is that it takes a long time to recognize and sync when I connect it, but that’s going to happen when you have freakin’ 160GB of music for it to sort through. (Yes, I almost have it full.)
I’ve only run the battery down once, and that was when I inadvertently left it on Party Shuffle for a couple of days.
I’ve only had mine for a little less than a year, but if it died tomorrow I’d replace it with the same thing.
Yeah, the Shuffle created the playlist by itself, the bastard. Or iTunes did. Whatever. I just right-clicked the playlist and deleted it. The podcasts weren’t deleted but the playlist was.
If you right-click the Shuffle icon on the left, there is a “Copy Order” or some such option. Then everything will play in the order you arrange in iTunes.
I have a Classic and an original Nano. The wheel on the Classic is definitely less responsive than the Nano, and it’s frustrating to use it. I don’t have any other complaints.
I like it much more than the next-gen Ipod. I dunno about other people, but I use my ipod for music, If I want Internet or Youtube, I’ll have a laptop better.
I bought an 80gb classic a few months ago and I love it. I hd a Creative Zen Micro before it, which I liked a lot except for the small storage. I settled on a pod though, after seeing a friends.
The screen is bright and the album covers show up well on cover flow mode. The wheel feels pretty nice to use. I like that it has other uses (videos and games). I’ve downloaded a few games, Mini Golf (its ok) and a music game called Pulse. Pulse is fun, hitting buttons on the wheel to notes, similar to GH, and you can load your own songs. I wish there were more strategy type games, or even a rpg.
I had to add about half of my album covers (I listen to some fairly obscure indie stuff that itunes found, but more mainstream stuff like Black Sabbath couldn’t be found). This is one of my few complaints - even after I’ve added album art manually sometimes it doesn’t show up in the pod. Not a biggie, just a little annoying that I have to keep redoing some of the covers.
I’ve heard people complaining about the sound on Classics but mine sounds fine. I do agree with most of the complaints about the artwork display when music is playing, I wish there was an option to just display it fullscreen.
I have a couple music videos but have been lazy about converting them. I did download one from itunes, and it is nice, very good picture and sound on it. Theres also movies and tv shows to d/l, might see if they have any classic Simpsons episodes or something.
Overall, I’m pretty happy with my pod. itunes is a bit difficult to work with at times but I was able to figure most things out eventually. The Classic has a nice screen, huge storage, it’s easy to use, and battery life seems ok. Theres also a lot of accessories out there for pods, which was a major factor in my decision to purchase one. I got an FM transmitter for $40 that send out my music as a radio signal, so I am basically carrying 400 cd’s around with me that I can listen to on anything with an antenna. The games are pretty limited, and don’t offer much in the way of options (except Pulse, since you can add your own music to make levels), but it gives me something to do while I listen to tunes. It’s become one of my favorite time wasters during dull moments at work or on the bus. Only question left is the reliability.