Apple 512 MB iPod Shuffle MP3 Player M9724LL/A

Rating:
Summary: No screen, overpriced, and it downloads spyware!
Review: A hundred bucks for a MP3 player with NO screen? Are they out of their f***ing minds? What the f*** am I gonna do with a player that won't display what song I'm listening to? Apple is a bunch of greedy, money hungry hogs that sell overpriced s*** to gullible consumers. Yeah, it's small and cute, but so what? From now on, I will ALWAYS buy Windows products. Avoid.

Rating:
Summary: Great Product
Review: I have never owned an Mp3 player before but because of the low price I decided to buy this one on valentines day. I think the product is great and the sound is great. I hooked it up to my car stero (with an accessory) and transfered all my cds to it. As far as not having a screen, I think that it is not a big deal. If you just put your songs on it in the order you want them why do you need a screen? I love it and find it easy to use. If you want something simple, small, and easy to use this is for you. Where else can you get an Mp3 player that has 512mb for $99?

Rating:
Summary: Surprisingly disappointed
Review: I thought Apple was an oasis of ingenuity and performance in a world captured by the mediocrity of Microsoft. I was wrong. I had problems right out of the box. First off, the unit would not fit into my USB port and the package did not include a extension cord. In my humble opinion, a piece of equipment that is required in order for my shuffle to work should NOT be an accessory. All other players such as MPIO and IRiver include this equipment. Secondly, the software was painfully slow and never recognized the player. I installed and re-installed the software twice with no luck. And I thought this was Apple's strongpoint.

I've never had these problems with other manufacturers and this trashy product is going right back to where I bought it. This experience helps me to realize why Apple never made it big. I never thought I'd say this but "Thank the Heavens for Microsoft".

P.S. The previous reviewer was right. The switch in back is poorly designed and needs a textured surface to grip your thumb while you switch modes. Excuse me Apple but DAAA!!! Have any of you guys ever used your products??? Get out of your ivory towers and figure out how to design a world-class product!!!

Long live Microsoft!

Rating:
Summary: The iCult has gone far enough
Review: I was never a real big fan of the iPod. Many say it's just because I cannot save 300 bucks to buy one of them. I personally would not want to make such a stupid move as that. The iPod is nothing more than a white plastic fad that will come and go just like many other gizmos of our past (i.e. Tamagachi, Mini CD players, etc.). Personally, I think the iPod Shuffle proves the point that this iPod business is nothing more than a costly cult.

I actually took some time out of my life to try the iPod Shuffle, and I wasn't surprised. It is an overpriced jump drive. For those who do not know what a jump drive is, a jump drive is a USB "key" storage device that can be directly plugged into a USB port to save data and other things. Realistically, the iPod Shuffle does not differ from other USB key players out there (i.e. Ridata OLE3000 MP3 USB Pen Drive WITH DISPLAY, Apacer AS820 MP3 USB Pen Drive WITH DISPLAY AND LINE IN, Transcend JetFlash MP3 USB Player with DISPLAY AND LINE IN, etc.) Keep in mind that the models that I just listed are just as small, if not smaller, than the iPod Shuffle with the DAMN LCD included. They also have those in White if you desire that color.

Let's talk about the most important part of the player; it's battery life. Most of the iPod's listed before had mediocre at-best battery lives (8 to 16 hours compared to others clocking at 32 or higher). This averages at around 12 hours of battery time. Of course, there are several other USB MP3 players that clock higher play times, even though some of them may use a AAA battery to operate. All-in-all, the battery specifications and performance of the iPod shuffle is satisfactory.

The audio quality of the iPod is nothing special. I could never understand why most people would get the iPod based on its audio quality when there are so many other players that can much better audio quality on all fronts. The iPod shuffle is no exception to this paradox. All of the iPods use a SigmaTel Audio processing unit to process the sound, which is alright for a portable device, but doesn't really product great sound like the Creative Zen or iRiver MP3 players. The chipset is also supposed to have bass and treble control, but this iPod locked that capability because of the lack of screen, meaning that your music is going to sound a little better than flat most of the time. The only way to set it is through iTunes, but that still shows its crippling dependency on the computer.

In order to do ANYTHING on this thing, you need a computer. It pretty much has no purpose other than looking pretty without a computer to connect to.

The iPod shuffle, in my opinion, is a worthless buy and the money can be spent accordingly elsewhere.

Rating:
Summary: Conveniently Small and Bare Bones
Review: If you absolutely need to look for a particular song you want to hear, then this is not for you. I have a 4G iPod (with view window) and I never even look at it except to find a playlist. Then I put the thing away and zone out. With a Shuffle, you set up your playlist and load. You can play through the list or random play your music. Of course there are always people who stare at their big iPods all the while, looking for specific songs to play, rotating the wheel all over the place and burning up precious energy. Set up your playlists the way you want to hear your songs on iTunes on your computer, load and you'll be good to go!

Woof, the lights and buttons and switch takes some getting use to...

If you're wondering whether to get the 512 or the 1gig... I don't know if I'd ever listen to 1 gig of music in one sitting before the juice runs out... Believe me, you can get an awful lot of music onto a 512. However if you're also thinking of using the device for file transfers, then the 1 gig would serve both purposes well.

A very excellent 2nd iPod for traveling light. And also easy to lose!

Rating:
Summary: Yes, yes, a triumph of design
Review: It's true. This is another brilliant Apple product. I ordered one for my wife and it finally came this last week.

Kind of like the regular iPod, the Shuffle is hard to quantify. I mean, it's just not that easy to explain why this product is better than comparably priced mp3 players with screens and Napster compatibility.

But holding that little, tiny thing in your hand is cool, and that's always tough to beat.

The software for iTunes that comes with this is easy to use, and if you take the time to line all the songs up you can get what you want, but that kind of seems to defeat the whole shuffle idea. I definitely prefer mine with a screen.

I haven't figured out any way to gauge the battery life, and if you have an older computer without a USB 2.0 port you will need to buy a power adapter.

I would recommend this for someone who likes the iTunes model over Napster's and doesn't want to spend a lot of money on their MP3 player. It's also a way to get a fun little piece of Apple cachet for $100.

Rating:
Summary: Great for Sports!
Review: Lots of people have complained about the lack of LCD screen and other features. But the simplicity of the unit is one of the most appealing things for me. The lack of an LCD screen is great for those of us who like to run and bike with music and have dropped/broken other portable electronics over the years. What you give up in features with the ipod shuffle are made up in the simplicity, durability, and smallness. You can't beat the ipod shuffle for running or biking, you can't even tell it is there it's so light and small! I would highly recommend this mp3 player to anyone looking for a unit for sporting activities. If you're looking for a jukebox with all the bells and whistles, then this mp3 player is not for you. I agree with other reviews that charging and transfering music is easy with iTunes and the sound quality is great. I also agree that the head phones suck! Overall, a great player for athletes!

Rating:
Summary: Apple has the MP3 player market sewn up, top to bottom
Review: My first impression was not about how small the iPod shuffle is (plenty of MP3 players are small), but how light. When it's in a pocket or bag or around your neck, you just don't notice it's there (which will, I'm sure, lead to many people losing their iPod shuffles, or having them stolen, and not finding out till much later). It is, I expect, the lightest way to carry around 120-150 songs that has ever existed.

Like online columnist James Lileks, I've found the iPod shuffle experience educational. He wrote that, "when you have 10,000 songs you are always compelled to see what's next, whether it's better than this. When you have 100 songs, and A) have no idea what comes next and B) haven't heard 60 of them in a long long time, if ever, you tend to listen."

The lack of a screen is fine in most circumstances, if you're just listening as you would to the radio or a CD changer. But it can be a pain if you're trying to find a specific track, or move on to the next album in a set, or simply figure out what that song you never knew you had is called when you're away from the computer. Still, it prods you to enjoy the music rather than analyze it.

What's most striking, after you've used it a bit, is the iPod shuffle's minimalism. Apple obviously spent considerable time and effort figuring out what to take away, rather than what to add, and how to make the remaining stripped-down essentials as easy and basic as possible. Here is everything you can do with it when it's not plugged into a computer:

* Turn it off.
* Switch it to regular play.
* Switch it to shuffle play.
* Check the battery status.
* Plug or unplug headphones (or another audio line for the 1/8" jack).
* Start music playing.
* Pause music playing.
* Lock the front-panel controls (so they don't press accidentally), or unlock them.
* Go back the beginning of the list of tracks.
* Skip to the next track.
* Start the track over, or skip to the previous one.
* Fast forward or rewind (in choppy increments).
* Raise or lower the volume.
* Remove the end cap, to pop on the lanyard cap, or to plug the iPod in.

I don't think I missed anything. And neither did Apple.

But that last task is the key. Besides the shuffle's appearance and good sound, its ability to plug in and synchronize with iTunes is what makes it an iPod. That's regardless of whether you buy songs from Apple's store, which I don't, or just use files ripped from your album collection, or those you make with GarageBand, or whatever. Much of the intelligence and power of the iPod brand--more than I realized, especially for this model--comes from that piece of software. Little touches make a huge difference, like the ability to transcode tracks to good-quality 128 kbps AAC files if they are stored at a higher, larger-file-size bitrate--or in an incompatible format--on your computer.

My previous MP3 player is nearly as small, and almost as light, and it has a screen (see photo). But it is profoundly inferior: it doesn't work seamlessly with iTunes, its interface and appearance are clunky, it has been a bit flaky since I first got it, and over time firmware upgrades have actually worsened its performance, even degrading the sound quality significantly. Plus it holds many fewer songs, and was more expensive. I speculated that Apple would own the entire MP3 player market after the shuffle was introduced. Now that I own one, I'm sure of it.

Here's a tip: If you use the Autofill feature of iTunes with an iPod shuffle, set it to pick from a Smart Playlist that excludes stuff you don't want to take along. My "Mostly Rock" list, for example, is set so that it contains only songs where the Genre does not include terms such as Christmas, Spoken Word, Children's, Holiday, and Sound Effects, among others.

Rating:
Summary: Good entry-level iPod
Review: This is the first Apple MP3 player that I've purchased.
I was drawn to it by it's size, simplicity and cost. I don't need the LCD display or any complex controls since I'll be using it while motorcycling and with my limited song library, I figured the 512MB will be plenty for the tunes I may want to carry with me.
PROS: I haven't tried the included Apple earbuds yet, but find that this small unit (about the size of a pack of gum) has extraordinary sound when coupled with my Bose QuietComfort 2 headphones. The iTunes software (included) is easy to use and the online store has an immense library.
CONS: The only fault I can find with this player so far is that I find the on/off switch to be difficult to use. It's just a slider on the rear of the unit and I wish that some form of finger-grip was built into it.
ALL-IN-ALL: I'm so impressed with the sound quality that I'm already thinking about the 1GB version (or a regular iPod).
You can't beat the deal for the price!

Rating:
Summary: Simply Awesome, but Not For All
Review: Yesterday I purchased my first MP3 player, the iPod Shuffle. I was extremely excited about this purchase, and when I got it home, opened up the fancy green and white packaging quickly. The minute I saw the size of it, I was amazed. In many pictures and advertisement, the size of the iPod shuffle seems a bit bigger. Its not, Amazingly light and thin, I was perplexed of how music and complex music files could fit into it. I read the little cheat card that comes with the packaging, got myself familiar with the device and got readt to plug it in. I have an iBook G3 laptop Paris 2004 LE edition, and along with the iMac/eMac(some models), it has a plastic 'case' for embelishment. Now the whole point of the iPod Shuffle is that its plug and play, you are able to stick it into your USB port, autofill from iTunes and go listening for up to 17 hours.(thats how long it went for me, Apple underestimates their products battery life) But because of the plastic casing around my laptop, there was no way for me to stick my little buddy iPod Shuffle into my main computer, and only computer with iTunes. Disappointed, I headed over to the Apple Store to pick up the dock, and that flashy sports case. The store, to my amazment, was jam-packed. There were two more iPod shuffles at the counter, and people were fighting to get to them. I looked around and found one of the helpful employees there. They did not have the docks, or cases. Instead I got a USB re-direction port, just a cord with a USB port and a USB plug, so I could Shuffle. Its a simple problem with a simple solution, but Apple should consider the many thousand people who still have their older products. Just because a company evolves, doesn't mean that all of their customers will upgrade. When I finally got my iPod Shuffle hooked up to my laptop, iTunes quickly filled it up with the 123 (perfect for the product) songs on my library. Autofill is an amazing new feature to iTunes, and its very nice how the iPod can update itself, and not re-load songs onto itself. When I put the earbuds in, and turned the little rectangle on, I was amazed at the sound it had. It sounded just as good as by Bose sound system downstairs. The sound quality is awesome, and some mediocre songs sound fantastic on it. Some new, more comfortable earphones, and your ready to go. Some people here complain about the lack of LCD, well Apple was trying to reach a more leanient part of their customers. I, and I assume many others, listen to their songs in iTunes on the Party Shuffle mode. The price is very nice, and there was no way I was going to buy another iPod for the ridiculous $300 they were expecting. Some people are not as money safe as I, but many are. Apple iPod Shuffle is your own private Radio station on the go, with only the songs you want and the choice to skip a song. Many mention the difficulty that is brought up when trying to find a song. The whole point is not to find a specific song, but to mix it up. Also, a big up for this iPod is the motion. Shuffle, is no skip, unlike the other iPods where if you shake it a bit, the music goes crazy. You can do all the crazy moves the people do in the Shuffle commercial and it wont skip even once. Overall, this little baby is for those who are fine with not knowing whats coming next, and not knowing what their listening to. And who needs a voice recorder, FM radio and other things in their MP3? Their just useless add-ons to a music player. Overall, iPod Shuffle is for people OK with not knowing what's coming, athletes, and people with few favorite songs. I recommend this product to those kind of people. Happy Shuffling