Apple iPod shuffle 512 MB White (1st Generation) OLD MODEL
by Apple Computer
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List Price: Our Price: $49.99 You Save: $20.00 (29%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $15.00 (click here) Category: Network Media Player See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Apple iPod shuffle 512 MB White (1st Generation) OLD MODEL
Customer Review: Not far from perfect
Summary: 4 Stars
Apple was aiming to produce an elegant, tiny personal digital music player with only one standout feature (shuffle play) and they succeeded almost perfectly. It's amazingly compact and lightweight, simple to use, and hassle-free except as noted below. Battery life is excellent. The i-Tunes software that comes with it is the state of the art in flexibility, functionality, and ease.
There's no compelling reason not to buy this, but here are a few cavils to consider:
* The on-off switch needs a groove, notch, bump, or something to make it easier to grip. I have to squeeze the unit to get traction on the on-off switch. Annoying.
* After powering it on, I almost always have to press the play button twice before it decides to play. Why?
* In my experience, this requires USB 2.0 on the PC platform, and I get uneven results on the five different USB 2.0 ports I've tried. On some, the performance is great. On others, it is very slow. I have never gotten a USB 1.x port to see this device.
* The headphones are uncomfortable and prone to falling out. Inside-the-ear headphones are not a one-size-fits-all item, because one size does not fit all. Chances are good you'll be purchasing replacement headphones, as I did.
* For how much is Apple going to gouge me when I need a replacement battery? (Begs question: is this actually made to last? Begs further question: is anything made to last any more?)
* I wish they would produce this in other colors. I could see it in black especially. Someday, man may yet learn to dye plastic.
Cavils aside, if you're looking for a simple, no-nonsense personal digital music player, this is a great choice.
Customer Review: Good for what it is -- a dumbed down Ipod in a small package
Summary: 4 Stars
This is an amazingly small version of an Ipod that can hold a fair amount of music (about 8-10 CDS or so) and play it back with the really great sound that Apple's much pricier Ipod players have. The great thing about an Ipod is that you can essentially load your CDs onto it though Apple's Itunes software and then use your Ipod to access the CDs or lists of songs you create from these CDs on your computer. The negative of the Shuffle player is that you basically load a batch of CDs or lists of songs from your computer and have pretty limited control on how you access them - either just shuffling though them on a random basis or skipping through them in order. Is this a bad thing? It depends on what you want. If it is a chance to have a good batch of songs to play through without a lot of need to select specific songs, it is great -- kind of like a super radio station that can play selections you want to hear, either randomly or in some basic order. If you want to create a music library in your pocket to easily select from a mix of songs, the Shuffle doesn't work well.
The unit is great when you want a mix of music (say for a plane trip or for a week of daily runs) or a program in a certain order (say a talking book). The unit is incredibly easy to load up (just plug into the USB port of your computer -- also charges here) and Itunes software is a cinch to use to import music from CDs (or purchase music files from Apple).
Given the price, it is (by the standards of Ipods) a good deal as a way of getting great sounding music in a small unit. It presents a nice alternative to a heavier and much more expensive Ipod -- good things as long as you accept its limitations.
Customer Review: I'm cool!
Summary: 4 Stars
I bought my iPod Shuffle almost 2 months ago and have no regrets.
Before Shuffle, I had no intentions of buying an iPod but one day my floppy drive on my laptop broke and decided to buy a pen drive instead. While searching for one, I decided I wanted a pendrive integrated with mp3 player.
I was about to buy the one from Sandisk until I learned it needed a cable to connect to the USB port. I don't want to carry a cable in my bag everyday!
So, I decided I'd rather use iTunes than carry a cable. :)
At first, I didn't like the idea of not having an LCD display nor FM tuner. I was thinking if I could get used to not having those features and realized I hate the LCD light in my Sony CD player because it is too bright (I listen to music before I sleep) and it consumes too much battery. Also, I never listen to the FM.
Then, why did I want those in the mp3 player? Because others have it, therefore I couldn't imagine one without it.
I must confess, I chose it also because of its simple design. I don't own any other products by Apple, but I always loved their minimalistic design. Am I shallow? Probably, but I'm happy with it.
I had never used iTunes before buying Soufflé (I named it that way, hehe) but it is very easy to use and so far I had no problems with it.
I can live without it, but life is easier with it because I use it everywhere and it is more practical than carrying a floppy disk.
Then why 4 stars? Because I wish it included a pouch to protect it from dirt and maybe it will prevent the earphone cords from tangling.
I recommended it mostly to students and athletes.
Customer Review: Broke in about 2.5 months - may have been a fluke with that one
Summary: 2 Stars
The sound, file transfer ability, and battery life between recharges are all great, but I would give this product 1 star because it just stopped working after about 2.5 months, and neither customer service nor their warranty are very helpful. Since I was just over the 90 day service policy when I called Apple customer service, they told me that just to talk to someone about the problem over the phone was going to cost me $49 dollars. That would be charged me even if it turned out that the problem was for software which is not covered by the 1-year warranty. Furthermore, even if they were to agree to fix it under the remaining 1-year warranty, there is a mandatory fee of about $25. That means even if they agree with you that the problem was totally their fault and covered by their warranty, you would still need to pay $75 to fix a product that cost $95. Finally, the casing and the on-off slide in the back are made of cheap plastic that is showing sorry signs of wear after 3 months of use. I see that other people's shuffles seem to have lasted much longer than mine did, but I think it is important to know that it can fail without cause, and if it does you have very little recourse under their warranty.
*update* Amazon replaced my old Ipod with a new one, which has worked really well. People can go in person to a Apple service center (genius bar). I had a really bad time experience going there because they basically told me they couldn't replace my broken one, but that I should invest in their highest end $300 ipod. I asked around, and I think that was just particular to the Soho, New York Apple center, so I think a little better of Apple now. New rating would be a 4.
Customer Review: Awful software! you've been warned.
Summary: 1 Stars
I really looked forward to using the ipod shuffle for workouts etc....I consider myself to be pretty experienced with computers. Also, media coverage had reported an ipod craze, and apple has a decent rep...but when I bought this gadget, here is what happened:
1)Installed iTunes, Quicktime, ....error -3- error 1628 failed to install.
2)Went to apple.com to try to fix the issue, no fix, no support (no phone number), no contact, discussion forums unanswered just a bunch of frustated users. See for your self at apple.com/support discussions.
3)Fortunately, I found an older version of itunes quicktime and ipod to install into my system........btw current itunes, ipod software has no uninstall so it has to be done manually, and it lingers in the registry...unable to reinstall because it recognizes itunes already installed in computer....so after I found a program that would do this..it finally worked.
4 WEEKS LATER
4)the Ipod shuffle starts blinking orange when connected to my computer........I'm not even going to go into the two days wasted trying to fix this I/O device error/ unrecognized by windows, by itunes....etc.......
5)No happy ending here folks..ipod still not working...eyes are sore from reading and looking at my computer.....feeling very dissapointed in this product...
In conc. this is very awful software, and hardware, with no hope for fix and very easy to break.
It is better to go with another brand altogether and avoid apple in general for their horrible customer service and support.
I will not give this company my business again.
Hope this helps.
Jose