Music to Move By

In being consistent with my iPod addiction, when the new Shuffle came out and the old iPod Shuffle models went on clearance, I bought.

Like any iPod I've owned thus far, I loved the iPod Shuffle.

Expectations
The first step toward being a satisfied iPod Shuffle owner is knowing what to expect, and what not to expect.

The iPod Shuffle, while an iPod, isn't like it's older iPod siblings.  It won't replace every other music player you own, unless you have very limited music usage.  It won't let you easily find a specific album to play through.  It doesn't have advanced EQ settings.  It doesn't play games, or movies, or show photos.

It's features are different, and it's strong as what it does.  My guess is that most people who buy an iPod Shuffle buy it for one of two reasons:
1) A first look into the digital music world on a cheap, easy to use, and reputable platform.
2) An athletic addition to another iPod or digital media player.

I'll let you guess where I fall.

For those things, the iPod Shuffle is perfect.

Features
The iPod Shuffle is small.  It's extremely small.  It's not much larger than a quarter, and not much thicker than a match book.

It's also good looking.  It comes in a variety of bright and cheerful colors.  Mine is a mint green.  It has a sleek, yet techy look to it.  It's trendy.

Perhaps the best selling feature, it's incredibly portable.  No clip or case or belt is necessary.  The clip is built into the device, letting it clip on to a shirt, belt loop, necklace, or, for the more adventurous, hair or ear.  The saw tooth clip design will stay put, too.

The iPod Shuffle is perfect for work outs.  The small size and built in clip make it good for work outs, but it also uses flash memory.  No moving parts, no skipping music practically no matter what you do.  It can handle your most intense work out with great durability.

Given that is has no screen or hard drive to run, you're also going to see wsome great battery life right here: up to 12 hrs on one charge.  Just dock it at the computer to recharge.  It cannot be recharged through traditional iPod accessories as the small size prevents it from having a dock connector.

The iPod Shuffle, is, first and foremost, an iPod, so durability and sound quality that are  typical of the iPod are there.

Use
The iPod Shuffle comes with a mini-dock that uses the iPod's headphone connector to attach to a computer USB port.  From there, the seemingly omnipresent iTunes (downloadable off the Apple website, not included) is used to load music.  At 2 gb it will hold aroung 500 songs.  This may or may not fit your entire music collection.  If it does, iTunes will just load up your music.  If not, you can manually select which playlists you want, or let iTunes randomly fill it, putting on new music with each docking.

The iPod Shuffle is the only iPod with an actual on/off switch.  Sadly, being used to using other iPod models, this confused me and I was holding the center button trying to get it to power on.  Once you figure out how to turn the darn thing on, operation is easy.  A switch lets you choose to play through the songs straight through, or turn on "shuffle."  4 buttons in a circle control song back, song forward, volume up, and volume down.  The center button is pause/play.  Very straight forward.

Cons
The downsides of the iPod Shuffle are also what makes it so portable.  There's no screen, so it IS difficult to navigate to a specific song.  Essentially, your only option is to skip songs until you get to it.

Also, if you want several genres on your iPod, it's hard to get it to stick with one genre (though turning off the shuffle feature should come close) so you may be stuck hearing Mozart on the treadmill.

The iPod seems durable, but definitely easy to lose given it's tiny size.

As previously mentioned, the Shuffle has no dock connector, so it will not work with most iPod accessories.

Typical of Apple, no wall charger, extensive documentation, or iTunes CD is included.

Recommedation
This iPod is ideal for work-outs or general exercise, the cheapest way you'll be able to get an iPod, easy to use, and beautifully small and portable.