My girlfriend had been trying to get an
iPod Shuffle for the entire month of February. The Apple stores in the LA area had them sold out every time she called. Finally, we were able to pick one up (512 Mb version) from the Pasadena Apple store for $99.
What is iPod Shuffle? The
Apple iPod Shuffle is a small MP3 player that has no screen of any kind and stores songs in the MP3, AAC, protected AAC (from iTunes store) or WAV format in the internal flash memory.
The iPod Shuffle is available in 512-MB and 1-GB flavors. The
review of iPod Shuffle 1-GB is available here.
You can see pictures of the iPod Shuffle's front and back panels that I took at
http://www.review-shop.com/iPod_Shuffle/iPod_Shuffle_1.html You can copy and paste the address above into your browser's address area.
The player is compact, stylish and easy to use. I will go over its controls and usage below.
What's in the Box? The little green box contains the iPod Shuffle, the small headphones (earbuds), lanyard (all in white color). It also contains the CD with software (iTunes), the black pads that you can put over the earbuds, the small card with instructions on iPod Shuffle's operation and the manual.
Manuals I found the small card with instructions sufficient to operate the iPod Shuffle with no need to read the actual manual. The card describes how you can switch the Shuffle off, on and into the "Shuffle" mode, how to change volume, play, pause, skip, check battery status as well as how to engage and disengage the "hold" mode.
The larger manual describes installation of the software, the battery charging and more.
iPod Shuffle Controls The iPod Shuffle has compact rectangular shape and is made of white plastic. It is compact and lightweight without feeling cheap. The front panel houses a circular control cluster with
Play/Pause button in the middle,
+ and
- volume control buttons up and down of it,
Skip Back and
Skip Forward on left and right.
There is a LED above the controls that shines through the plastic in orange or green color. The blinking green light means the player is in the pause mode. The orange light when you press a button means the player is in the
Hold mode and the buttons cannot be operated until it is unlocked.
The player is locked or unlocked by pressing and holding the
Play/Pause button for three seconds.
The
Skip Forward and
Skip Back buttons skip to the next or previous song (I will complain about some of this functionality later). When held, they fast forward or backward within the song. Again, I will express my complaints below.
The top panel of the player has a standard 3.5mm headphone jack. The bottom part is a USB jack cap. It can be removed to revel the USB jack.
The rear panel houses the main mode (slider-type) switch with
Off,
On and
Shuffle modes. It is stylish, but could have been more functional. Details will follow.
Below it, there is a battery check button with a small LED in it. When pushed, it makes the LED light up indicating the battery status (green light means good, orange means low charge, red means very low charge, no light means... you guessed it - no charge at all).
Software Installation The software is compatible with Mac OS X v10.2.8 or later or Windows 2000 SP4 or XP SP2.
The CD with software auto-starts when inserted into the CD-ROM (or in my case, DVD-ROM) drive. The manual states that you have to install the software before connecting the iPod. I connected the iPod first anyway. It registered on my Windows 2000 machine as a removable USB device with no files on it. I didn't risk to experiment with direct file copying.
After I removed the iPod, put the CD in the drive and installed the iTunes software (it took a couple of minutes), I was ready to connect the iPod and start loading tunes. The reboot was required after the software installation and I had to register with Apple and enter the iPod's serial number (found on the iPod itself as well as on the outer carton box).
During the software installation, I was prompter to attach the iPod to the computer's USB port to see if formatting is needed. It wasn't needed.
Connectivity The iPod has a removable USB cap. With it attached, it has rectangular shape. Without it, it has a shorter rectangular shape with a USB plug at the bottom end (similar to the USB storage devices, a.k.a. USB drives).
You plug the iPod directly into your computer's USB port. It the access to the USB port is obstructed, you can get a cable from Apple (and from other vendors/manufacturers).
Battery and Charging The iPod Shuffle has an internal battery that recharges while the iPod is connected to the powered USB port. When I connected to my computer, the light on the back panel started blinking indicating that the iPod is charging.
You can also get an Apple power adaptor if you want to charge the Shuffle without a computer. You can also get a cheaper USB charger designed for other devices (PDAs) from other manufacturers.
The full charging supposedly takes four hours. It seemed that the Shuffle we got was charged since it was only charging for several minutes before the batter got full.
You can (according to Apple) have up to 12 hours of continuous playback time on one charge. I have not validated this claim to its entirety, but it definitely lasts more than 10 hours.
Accessories The Shuffle has a bunch of accessories designed for it. The carrying cases are available, but were not yet available at the Apple store we went to. The USB chargers, docking stations and USB extenders are all quite overpriced (armbands, chargers and cases are about $30 each), so you might want to check out "aftermarket" accessories.
Music Transfer You can select an option in the iTunes software that makes the iTunes automatically start once the iPod is connected. The iTunes software looks cute and easy to use. The iPod appears as one of the folders in the left pane of iTunes and you can drag and drop the songs you want from the "Library" folder that represents your music library.
As soon as you drag the songs, the iPod icon/folder turns red and the status bar appear in the top portion indicating that the songs are being copied to iPod (including the progress indicator). The message is also telling you that you cannot disconnect the iPod at this stage (for obvious reasons).
The light on the iPod is blinking while data is written. That is another indication that you should not disconnect the iPod at this stage. Once the data is written, the light stops blinking and you can see a message in iTunes that says you can disconnect the iPod.
I have discovered that unfortunately, you cannot drag the MP3 files directly from Windows Explorer into the iPod folder. You have to drag them into your music library in iTunes first and only then you can drag them into iPod folder.
Worse, if you delete songs from your music library while the iPod is connected, they are getting deleted from the iPod as well.
And what if you have iTunes installed on two computers (e.g. at home and at work) and you copy some songs to your iPod on one computer and then connect it to another one, where these songs are not in the Library? I am glad you asked. These songs will magically
disappear from the iPod! That is annoying!
You can also have iTunes "Autofill" the Shuffle every time it is connected with either random songs or with songs based on your selected playlists.
The iPod supports USB 2.0 (as well as USB 1.1) and files are copied relatively fast. The iPod version we have is 512Mb and that defines how much music it can fit. Depending on song length and the bit rate, you can fit anywhere from 120 songs (Apple claim, probably at 128 kbps bit rate) to 50 songs (if you want better sound quality and use, say 256 kbps VBR).
Not all of 512 Mb will be used for music. Some amount of memory seems to be allocated for other functions. Still, you can fit about 100-110 songs at 128 kbps.
The Shuffle supports Variable Bit Rate (VBR) for better sound quality at the same bit rate as CBR (Constant Bit Rate). It also supports AAC, protected AAC and WAV.
Sound Quality The sound quality is very important to me. The iPod Shuffle did not disappoint me. It is difficult to expect much from the compact device that is so cheap, comes with small earbuds and is used with MP3. But even with the supplied earbuds, the music sounded good. The earbuds definitely lacked bass and sounded "bright" overall with slight metallic treble, but the imaging was good, the clarity was very good too.
I connected my large headphones to the Shuffle to test the sound quality of the iPod itself. The bass appeared along with warmer, more natural sound. The MP3 decoding quality was good and approached CD quality at higher bit rates, although at 128 kbps there was slight lack of treble. But that was expected because of the low bit rate and no player would be able to do much better.
The supplied earbuds look stylish and match the iPod in color (white), but putting the supplied black felt pads on them was a pain. Overall, I am pleased with the Shuffle's sound, especially paired with better headphones than the ones supplied.
The Shuffle has no equalizer, but it is not a problem for since the MP3s I have are usually of good quality (ripped from CDs or downloaded from a paid web site).
Skip Protection The iPod Shuffle needs no skip protection as it has no mechanical parts and will not skip.
No LCD The Shuffle has no display of any kind, but I found this to be of no concern. The songs can be played sequentially or in random order (Shuffle), based on the main switch position. The main switch on the back panel has flat upper surface, which makes sliding it difficult if your hands are even slightly wet.
The blinking lights work well and the small capacity of the shuffle makes lack of LCD almost mute point.
Control Annoyances In addition to the stylish, but less than functional main switch, there slight annoyances with the main controls. The skip forward or backward involves a pause that lasts at least a second. The fast forwarding or reversing within a song (by holding the appropriate button) is very choppy with silences in between music. Nothing major, but there is room for improvement.
Summary I like the iPod Shuffle overall. It is stylish, compact, inexpensive, does not skip, provides good sound quality and battery life, needs no charger, has "HOLD" functionality, comes with good software and is easy to use.
There are things I dislike. The iTunes software deletes the songs from the Shuffle if it is connected when you delete the same songs from the iTunes library, the main mode switch is flat, the skip to next or previous song is slow and cue/review is choppy.
The Shuffle's capacity is small and there is no screen, but it corresponds to the Shuffle's purpose: compact, inexpensive music player on the go that is easy to use. The lack of screen is a mute point since you cannot store much in Shuffle's flash memory.
The cons are small and the pros are in the important areas of performance. I highly recommend the iPod Shuffle. Just don't expect too much. See also:
iPod Nano 2 GB review
