Compact, its limitations are a feature!

Author's Rating:

Pros: Small, has a built in clip, well engineered, and durable

Cons: Can't charge and play at the same time

The Bottom Line: 
This is a perfect player for the when you don't want to mess with buttons, but need something very small and durable.

Author's Review
When the first iPod Shuffle came out, it was finally at a price point I could accept, and I was struck by its sleek engineering, incredible marketing, and ended up ordering it the same day as the announcement. I was so struck by the fact that Apple was marketing the lack of screen as "freedom", and suggesting that the Shuffle was like a radio station that plays 250 of your favourite songs. I finally became an iPod person.

Since then, we've been through an iPod Photo (traded for motorcycle parts), have an iPod Video, and my wife has an iPod Nano. And then I got a 2nd generation iPod Shuffle. In green.

What is it?
The iPod shuffle is a tiny digital music player. It weighs around half an ounce, and is about the size of a match book. It has a built in clip, and easily clips onto a pocket, or a belt loop. It comes with a USB dock, an Apple earbuds. There are two switches on the bottom: one for play mode (either sequentially through your playlist, or shuffle mode), and an on/off switch. On the face of the unit is a "click wheel", but it's really only 5 buttons. Play/Pause, volume up and down, song forward and back. Some buttons have double duty, and can be used to "fast forward", or put the shuffle into hold mode. An indicating LED lets you know when the shuffle is on, paused, or what the battery level is.

How does it connect?
The Shuffle plugs into the dock, using the headphone jack, and the other end plugs into your USB jack on your computer. iTunes setup comes up. iPods use Apple iTunes as their library management. iTunes easy to use, has a great shop, and easily manages multiple iPods. But some people don't like it. It doesn't work well with other digital music players, and you cannot seperate iPods from iTunes easily. If you plan to support something other than iPods, import your CDs into MP3's not AACs, since it seems only iPods support AACs (as well as MP3s). AAC is a better compression format, but requires royalties, so most players do not build it in.

The Shuffle holds 1GB worth of music. That's around 240 songs. You can select in iTunes to randomly choose for a library to load onto your Shuffle, or from a specific playlist. Because I only use my Shuffle for certain activities, it has a bit of a higher octane playlist than normal.

How well does it work?
Music playback, especially for such a small unit, is excellent. Even though it could be higher volume, it blasts through my helmet speakers over road noise, earplugs, and wind noise. Not bad! A full charge does last around 12 hours as advertised, and it takes 2-4 hours to charge it from a dead battery.

How does it look?
The Shuffle has an anodized aluminum shell, and Apple has done a lot of marketing to make it and its brothers and sisters to be fashion accessories. The anodized shell is very durable, and my Shuffle has been rolled, dropped, in the rain, covered in sweat, and keeps going.

I really do have the green one, and it reminds me of wasabi, Triumph Speed Triples, and those green Volkswagen Beetles.

My Experience with it
I decided to get a Shuffle when I damaged the headphone jack on my Video by carrying it my pocket with a bulky extension cord to play it through helmet speakers on my motorcycle. Initially, I looked a Bluetooth systems, when it occured to me what I really wanted was something small I could clip, or tuck away on the helmet itself, that just plays music. I don't want to fuss with buttons. That's the iPod Shuffle! And at $79, it's worth it to not damage the iPod Video again. It'd also make a great running music player.

As it turns out, the Shuffle clips onto the chin strap of my helmet, and works great for that application. It makes a great running music player too, because of it's size, and I don't worry about messing up a harddrive with excessive movement, because there isn't one!

The Nano would work well as a running music player as well, but might be a little bulkier, or require something to carry it with (it doesn't just clip on like the Shuffle). It wouldn't be so unobtrusive with my helmet either. And it's quite a bit more money.

When I started envisioning long runs, I realized that an iPod shuffle might not last long enough. I'm talking runs of 24 hours, or more. Anyways, I looked into battery chargers for it, or battery packs, and didn't find anything! Because the headphone jack also serves as the charger, you can't play and charge simultaneously. I don't know if it's impossible, or if we just need someone to design it, but if you think 12 hours followed by 2-3 hours of charging will be limitation, then you might consider an alternative.

Summary
For what it is, it's perfect. If you have an application that requires a small form factor, and don't mind it's lack of navigation, the Shuffle is great. But it serves a better function as a "stunt player" when your more elaborate one might not stand up to the rigors of your activities. At $79, it's not a big price to pay.