Apple iPod shuffle 1 GB Silver (2nd Generation) OLD MODEL
by Apple Computer
|
Our Price: $149.00 Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Buy Used: from $29.55 (click here) Category: Network Media Player See more product details |
|---|
Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Apple iPod shuffle 1 GB Silver (2nd Generation) OLD MODEL
Customer Review: THE UNTENDED UNDERLING IN THE iPOD FAMILY
Summary: 2 Stars
I wanted to buy a no-nonsense mp3 player to keep me company while running. No video, no funky display menus, no labyrinthine software to work with. If I wanted to spend half a day getting my music in order I'd shell for the 80 gig iPod.
So I got myself a Shuffle, by far the sleekest small pod in the market.
But boy did I regret it.
After the one-time registration and initialization (which is not optional) the lemon wouldn't get the songs on it, thanks to the infamous "Disk not found error". Googled for it and discovered websites that are brimming with untended complaints; I'm on Windows XP, but the glitch seems to pervade operating systems.
Spent a day battling with the idiosyncrasies. Downloaded and installed an extra utility that Apple's Help site recommends. Enabled the Shuffle "for disk use". Reset it to factory settings and tried all over again, five times. And I'm a fairly persistent tech-savvy one. I did everything that's needed and more, but the stupid thing will still not remember the settings, will not let me change songs, and so on.
Tired with all of this rigmarole, I got a Creative Zen Stone Plus. It's a little larger than the Shuffle, but you can see why--Shuffle doesn't have a display and it uses the same jack for charging and earphones so you can only do one of those at a time. Stone Plus on the other hand connects through a small non-spaghetti USB cable, comes up instantly as a new drive on your PC, you copy the mp3 files from your music folder to this drive, and you're done.
I was up and running in 5 minutes flat. Can't help kicking myself for having fallen for the iPod luster.
Without becoming any clunkier in any meaningful way (both the doohickeys are pretty small), Stone Plus shows me the song that's playing, which I don't see on Shuffle. Stone Plus has an FM radio, a voice recorder, a timer, and a digital clock--none of which the Shuffle has. It charges in 5 minutes, which the Shuffle doesn't. I can use iTunes or any other tool or even nothing at all, but with Shuffle I am in an unhappy marriage with iTunes. The Stone Plus will hold about 1000 songs in comparison to Shuffle's 200 at the same bit-rate.
Because this is Creative, the company known among geeks for its speakers, the ear phones that come with the Stone Plus have a fabulous combination of bass and treble that will please the most fastidious connoisseur. After hearing them Shuffle's white thingies sound tinny and childish. I got my Stone Plus with a clip that makes it much more practical for running.
And all of it at 60% of the cost of a basic bare-bones Shuffle.
Sorry, Apple folks, in the small-mp3-player market Apple is simply the beautiful blond bimbo who trips on high heels at ten paces. If you're in the market for a nifty little mp3 player, skip the Shuffle. Even in the 3rd generation it's a 3rd rate contender.
Customer Review: Shuffle has come a long way
Summary: 4 Stars
I've been buying mp3 players ever since my first player, an Intel audio player, back in 2002. I bought a first gen Ipod shuffle when they came out and hated it. The thing locked up and the firmware went dead within the first month. Not a good introduction to Apple ipods.
But I decided to give the Shuffle one more try after getting a Nano, so I picked up one. These second generation Shuffles are a big step up from the first ones released, and at a decent price.
Pros:
1 gig is at the lower end of storage, but you can still carry around a ton of songs with it.
Shuffle mix option should be a must for all players. Who wants to have to scroll through every song in the list every time?
Audio quality is improved from the first gen models.
Small and even more compact than most other mp3 players, plus the belt clip is a nice addition.
The price is great for a ipod model, even if it is only the size of a quarter.
Cons:
As with all Shuffles, there is no LCD screen, no way to SEE what song is listed or use volume meters. That also means no video, no photos, no games. But considering its size, it's too much to ask for a unit this small.
A few minor volume issues. It's difficult to set the volume properly before you plug in the headphones, so in case you somehow set the volume level really loud the last time you used it, you really won't know how loud it is the next time until you plug in the phones and listen, which can be disturbing when you're expecting a nice quiet tune and it comes blasting out into your ears.
Itunes. Period. My Nano was compatible with several 3rd party transfer programs, but for some reason Itunes is the only one that seems to work for the Shuffle. Itunes has horrible sync rates and I just don't like the settings or really anything about Itunes. But this is more a gripe about Apple's software rather than the player itself.
Overall the second gen Shuffles are a very decent entry into the ipod family. Good sound, good price, good size, and so far it's been very reliable with no firmware or hardware troubles. Very recommended for the casual user or even as a backup for the bigger, badder units.
Customer Review: It killed my computer - Thanks Apple
Summary: 1 Stars
Well we bought one of these things for my fiance's birthday (because it was cute...as all Apple products are) and within 20 minutes my computer was completely inoperable. Following the super simple installation directions downloaded the required software, installed it on my XP Pro machine and everything seemed fine. I plugged in the ipod and began getting a nagging "USB Device not recognized" message. After a reboot the thing seemed to work. I copied a couple of songs to it and (safely) ejected the device and was able to listen to the songs. Great success! But after I returned it to it's cradle I again get the message about the USB blah blah blah.
Could it be that I have to reboot the computer every time I want to use the stupid iPod? That sucks. So then I reboot again. After the XP splash screen I get...nothing. That's right...nothing. I reboot again. Nothing. And again and again. I remove the ipod from the USB port. Same thing. Safe mode won't boot. ERD commander doesn't find anything wrong. I finally get it to boot into VGA mode of all things. I manually remove all (this was the only USB device I had) usb devices from the registry and reboot. It is noteworthy that with ZERO usb devices detected I am still getting the flashing "USB Device not recognized" error every 2 seconds or so. Moving right along.
The machine comes back up and begins detecting the USB Root hubs (as I expected) and then...USB DEVICE NOT FREAKIN' RECOGNIZED! So after a few hours of trying to fix this computer I decided to re-install
Windows. I'm in computer support and fix Macs and PC's all day long. I should have known to expect this kind of crap from apple. It really makes me wonder why these Apple Zealots are so high on overpriced garbage. I picked up a creative stone instead. And guess what? It works like a charm.
If I have convinced 1 person to shuffle on past this POS I've done my job.
Customer Review: Great for books and podcast
Summary: 5 Stars
I just got a job that requires three hours of driving a day. I love listening to books and podcast of NPR and other news shows in the car. One of my friends showed me his Ipod that he uses on long trips. I loved the simplicity of it. It did exactly what was needed. So I obtained a used one. Each morning before leaving, I load what I want to here for the day. It never takes more then 150 megs, so the 1 gig size is not an issue. I set the extra space for data, it is great for moving files between work and home. Also, I don't understand, but I charged it when I got it, and have used it for two weeks, without recharging it. It is only connected to my computer for 10 minutes each day when I update the content.
I don't know if other players work as well, the controls are very intuitive, the fast forward and reverse are great for books when you want to re-listen to a sentence that was missed due to driving requirements. If you accidentally hit the wrong button and loose you place, it remembers and will go back. A long pause, such as going into a store for coffee, has it automatically going back a sentence. That is nice to jog your memory. It does not need a screen.
The only thing that seems a little funky is the volume control. There seems to be a lag between pushing the button and the change, it takes me a long time to get the volume where I want it. At first, It was either to loud or to low. Now I mastered it.
I never used Itunes before, it seems to work without any problems.
Needles to say, I could not be more pleased with the product.
Customer Review: I own it
Summary: 5 Stars
I own the IPOD shuffle as well as an 80gb classic. I was reading the reviews of the shuffle and was somehow aggravated. The IPOD shuffle was not designed to be used as mass media music collection storage device. If you want that then you will need to purchase the big boy (classic). The IPOD shuffle is perfect for use when running, working out, or just a brisk morning walk.
It is smaller than a pack of matches and you never even know that you have it. It took me all of about 20 minutes to add the music from I TUNES to it. You can open i tunes and throw in your favorite cds, and it will copy the songs to the shuffle. I have 200 songs on mine and really did not pay a dime for any of the songs.
There is some negativity about not being able to copy music not purchased through I tunes into the i tunes library. Well I have an extensive music collection and not all of it was purchased through i tunes.
Solution to the problem, I just burn my favorite songs to a discs and then i tunes will copy mu songs into the i tunes library from the discs.
All in all the IPOD shuffle is a top of the line music player, it is not complicated and there is not onscreen display, that on most cheaper mp3 players is just plain aggravating to navigate through. If you are on the market for an MP3 player : buy the shuffle! Small, easy, and portable.
My children love theirs! They rock on road trips.Apple iPod shuffle 1 GB Bright Green (2nd Generation)