Apple iPod shuffle 512 MB White (1st Generation) OLD MODEL
by Apple Computer
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Apple iPod shuffle 512 MB White (1st Generation) OLD MODEL
Customer Review: I Now Know What That Pocket Is For
Summary: 5 Stars
Have you ever owned a pair of jeans with the little pocket inside your right pocket. That pocket is for holding YOUR AMAZINGLY SMALL iPOD SHUFFLE. This iPod is by far my favorite. I have had the first generation iPod and the first generation mini. I have broken both of them. I do alot of bicycle commuting to work. A twenty mile ride round trip. The other ipods never lasted. After about two months the hard drives broke because of all the skips and stuff. The iPod Shuffle uses flash memory which has no moving parts in it. While the ipod is a mini hard drive and if you hit that right bump the small needle like device that reads the data from the plate can put a scrath in the hard disk. This can sometimes be deadly for the iPod. So alot of sports and activitys should be preformed with a Shuffle. Now for the qucik pros and cons
Pros:
1)Its smaller than most flash based players, about the size of a pack of juciy fruit
2)Comes with a cool lanyard
3)Hold switch is pressing the Play/Pause button for 3 seconds, no annoying switch to slide
4)You can either shuffle or play your music in a playlist
5)Great sound quality with the included earbuds. It sounds better than my friends mini and my old mini
6)Replaced my ugly keychain Lexar Jump Drives
Cons:
1)No Screen is a con for most people, not me. I got used to not having a screen within the first hour of play. Its nice to not be attached to a screen and constantly looking at your ipod. It looks tacky to always be reading this device.
2)No Charger Inditcator to tell me when it almost full. You have a light on the back of the ipod that tells you if your charge is good, getting low, or really bad. But I wish when I plugged it into my computer it would tell me if it was just almost full so I dont walk away right when it finishes charging.
3)No dock, it should come with the extra dock because when I plug it in it hogs the space of two USB ports but only uses one. Small deal i know. You might benifit from buying a powered USB hub made for the shuffle. These normally have a port on top for a jump drive or shuffle. Great deal.
I would definatly buy another shuffle if this one broke tomorrow. But I think I would get the 1GB modle next time.
Customer Review: Neat idea--with limitations and glitches.
Summary: 3 Stars
Dependable people (even if they are my friends and relatives) say they've been very pleased with their iPods. Quite a few _Shuffle_ owners I've talked with, on the other hand, have been less satisfied.
In my opinion, the design is aesthetically and functionally elegant, I love the size of the thing, and it sounds terrific. It plays .aa files from Audible--but won't navigate them by sections the way "real" iPods can. And right out of the box, mine played a single song and then stuck. It wouldn't advance to other tunes I'd Autofilled. It would only repeat the first one.
The local Apple Store managed to get it to work--for a while. I took it back when it messed up again, and I've seldom used it since I got it back.
Even when it was working right, I found this model to be an exception to the streamlined ergonomics of other Apple and Mac products. When I first saw it, it looked easy to use, and I could feel the detents when I pressed the center button or any of the four positions on the ring. That's why it surprised me when operating it proved tricky. Maybe the button functions, especially advance and fast-forward, wouldn't seem uncertain if they'd worked correctly from the git-go.
"Gave it to my mother-in-law" might be a new way to give a product a low rating. That's what I did, but she kept it just a couple of months and never tried it. I took it back. At that time, it would still play, but I set it aside until today. I just loaded three Audible.com files for a long bicycle ride, thinking it wouldn't matter if I couldn't advance from one book to the next.
When I was a teenager, I soldered together a "hi-fi" amplifier from a Heathkit and built myself a speaker enclosure. I've built a few computers recently, and I used to work on my airplane engine--and lived to tell it. Yeah, I'm trying to imply that I'm a reasonably competent gadgeteer. I'm pretty sure my iPod shuffle problems aren't my own fault. It won't play at all now, and the battery definitely _is_ charged and the books are loaded.
The Shuffle has been the least satisfactory of four MP3 players I've owned. Maybe I got a lemon. I wouldn't hesitate to buy a Nano, but for today's ride, I'll load my books into my Rio Cali.
Customer Review: Great Device...Worth the Price
Summary: 5 Stars
Do you remember when walkmans came out? They were a must have for anyone. Same thing for portable CD players. Well MP3 players are the new Walkman, and I can't figure out how I lived without one. The IPod Shuffle is a darn good product. It is designed to be a portable source of music that doesnt require a PhD to figure out, and doesn't cost half your paycheck. Having resisted the IPOD craze for 2 years, I finally found something that fits my needs exactly.
Good Things:
1. Low cost: I don't know about you, but $100 for this and the software is well worth the money. Instead of dozens of CDs everywhere, everything is neatly organized on my computer, and my Shuffle lets me download what I want, when I want, in the space of two minutes, and take it anywhere I want to go.
2. Portability: This thing is unbelievably small and light. It fits in a pocket and you forget its there. Perfect for the gym or jogging, perfect for just sitting in the book store.
3. Ease of Use: This thing is incredibly simple to use. Play, Pause, Volume Up, Volume Down, Track Forward Track Back. Shuffle Play, Playlist Order Play. That's it. No scrolling through endless menus, no struggling to learn the functions.
4. Compatibility: USB port to upload and download music, acts as a charger, simple as that. Software is incredibly easy to use, and very well organized.
Negatives: Some feel that 512MB is not enough for a player and don't like not having a display, and while a FM tuner would be nice if I wanted a radio I would get a radio. It really depends on your personal tastes.
512MB is about 100 songs, or roughly 9 hours of music at a shot. Battery lasts 12. For those who want their entire catalog at their fingertips, then the memory and the the lack of display is a negative, but I don't miss it. I like being surprised by what the next song is.
All in all, for what it is meant to be, it is great. It's great as a primary player and great as a way to dip into the world of IPOD without shelling out a fortune. Postscript: One Month later, one negative: Loading from another ITUNES Set up you cant transfer to yours due to Flash Memory. A bit annoying that.
Customer Review: A clever gadget
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought one of these just before spending a week on the other end of the country. I was a little hesitant while I was standing in the store, but now I'm glad I took the plunge.
The first thing that will hit you about the Shuffle is its size. Everyone knows that it's small, but you have to see it in person to really comprehend its size. It's also feather-light and seems very durable, two issues I've had with other flash-based MP3 players. The Shuffle sounds excellent to this non-audiophile's ears; the headphones are classic iPod earbuds, with great sound quality for their size. I often use them with my laptop when I'm not listening to the Shuffle.
As mentioned previously, the Shuffle has no screen; I found this to be unimportant in my use of the product, as I know my songs anyway. Two colored lights under the face of the Shuffle are used to communicate the player's condition (like "no songs loaded" or "paused"). On the back, a button can be pressed which will turn a third light red, yellow or green depending on the battery's charge. Battery life is amazing; my Shuffle has never been below yellow, even after several days of heavy use. The Shuffle recharges by plugging into a USB port; I use my laptop for this, but I believe an adapter is available.
The relatively small capacity and lack of a screen are alright for me; it holds more than enough music for a day or two, and when I'm traveling I carry a laptop with my MP3 collection on it, allowing me to change songs if I feel the need. Shoppers who travel frequently without laptops might want to consider one of the larger, screen-equipped iPods instead.
As my computers run Linux, I use a program called gtkPod to load music onto the Shuffle; it performs fairly well. I used iTunes back when I ran Windows (before I got the Shuffle), and I have to say that it's the best music player out there; its organization is excellent, and I'm still looking for a Linux player that's half as good.
Basically, as long as you're not expecting to carry your entire music collection with you everywhere you go, you'll be happy with an iPod Shuffle. Otherwise, I'd recommend you buy one of its bigger siblings.
Customer Review: Perfect workout companion
Summary: 5 Stars
I needed an easy to use, lightweight mp3 player for working out at the gym and jogging, and the shuffle is just perfect for that. Its buttons are the easiest to navigate without looking. It's super light and feels like nothing in your pocket when running.
Instead of giving a full review and repeating everyone else's comments, I'll just list off some tips and features (both cool and annoying). In no particular order...
- iTunes is a big part of the package. The shuffle is a real simple machine, but iTunes is what makes it great. Once you have cleaned up your library and rated songs properly, etc, use smart playlists and autofill to fill your shuffle. You'll get a good enough variety of songs on there to last a week of workouts, jogs, and commutes. You can edit what autofill puts in your shuffle if you're not happy.
- Set your shuffle as a source in iTunes and you can put songs on it without it plugged in. Then plug in the shuffle and walk away while it's synch'ing and charging.
- The indicator lights can be confusing when it's plugged in. It will indicate activity instead of charging progress if the OS sees it as a mass storage device. After you're done filling it, if you're in Windows, go into Windows Explorer and right click on the shuffle's drive to eject it. The lights will now indicate charge progress and will be continuous amber until charged.
- There is a real shortage of good accessories right now. Both the weatherproof sport case and the armband are very hard to get (2 month wait). And what most active people really need is a hybrid of the two: a waterproof case that's an armband. It doesn't exist yet.
- The slider switch on the back can be hard to use sometimes because it's flush with the body.
- Pressing the big button for 3 seconds for hold/unhold isn't quite practical. It is also easy to bump a button when it's not in hold.
- Pressing the play button 3 times in continuous play will start the play from the first track. This is useful when you want only up-tempo tunes for working out. Place your workout songs at the beginning of your playlist for use in continuous mode and you can use shuffle mode during your commute, shopping, etc.