Apple’s Shuffle -- A Chip off the old iPod
Written: Dec 09 '06 (Updated Dec 09 '06)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Smart and small as a player can be with Apple quality. iTunes always a winner.
Cons: Might get tossed in a change counter.
The Bottom Line: The iPod Shuffle is the essence of what many want in a music player. Its size, quality, and value are unmatched. Music and podcasts are now ultimately portable.
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| sweeper's Full Review: Nokia N73 Smartphone |
Three years to the week after posting a review on my very first digital music player, I purchased my sixth one. I had bought the first one, an RCA Lyra (http://www.epinions.com/content_121434050180) as an impulse buy. However, the intervening purchases including three iPod models were made with much deliberation. A recent trip to the Apple Store for a video cable culminated with my grabbing a second-generation iPod Shuffle smartly displayed at the checkout counter. Another impulse buy and another reason to post a review to “justify” owning a complete half dozen digital music players.
My name is Dave and I dig music and podcasts.
It's, and I mean, really small
The latest iPod Shuffle model replaces the first gen Shuffle which is a hard act to follow.
That model was lauded for its size, price, design and quality. Sounds typical for Apple, don’t it? As diminutive as the first Shuffle was, the current model is just about half the size and is its most salient feature. Indeed, Apple claims it’s the world’s smallest digital music player. But before I go on, I must say I’m no fan of the epidemic consumer electronics design philosophy of “the smaller, the better” for its own sake. Far too many electronic devices are what I describe as “stupid small” meaning they become a burden with their tiny displays and hard-to-use controls. The new Shuffle, on the other hand, has shrunk smartly without compromise. At about 1.6 inches wide and .4 inches thick including the permanently attached clip and weighing only a half ounce, this guy is not only pocketable but try not to lose it amongst your loose change.
The Shuffle has achieved the essence of the digital music player. To paraphrase a slogan for a popular SUV, it’s everything you want in a player and nothing you don’t want.
It's nearly perfect for my use
Here I want to discuss some points that make me believe the Shuffle is a near perfect music player. Firstly, at a non-expandable gigabyte of storage it will hold up to 240 songs which comes to about 12 hours. This spec matches many flash-memory based players. Lacking a display to indicate title or artist, some have criticized Apple for this deletion. Yet, the common practice for listening to smaller capacity music players such as the Shuffle is to set the thing on shuffle and let it play a randomly mixed set of songs. Surely, this is the method I’ve used with my other two smaller music players. While they both contain an informative display, I’ve never, ever consulted them nor have I ever wondered what was playing and who the performers were because, what the heck, there are only a couple hundred songs and I’m the one who put them on there. There is a reason for a display on my iPod models with scores of gigabytes worth of music but one is simply not needed on the Shuffle. By eschewing the display, this eliminates its cost and vulnerability to damage. And allows me to buy it at $79 as an “impulse” buy. Indeed, it’s the cheapest music player of any type I’ve ever owned.
As with all of its hardware, the owner experience begins with the packaging. No one, at least not in America outside of Tiffany’s, knows how to package its goods like Apple does. I still can’t find myself a reason to throw away the boxes in which my Apple Macintosh and iPods have come in. In the case of the Shuffle, it is neatly presented in a clear acrylic box seemingly floating within on a nearly invisible plane of clear plastic. You’ll feel nearly as good giving the Shuffle as a gift as you would receiving it. Also included in the box are a dock, a quick start guide and the high quality earbud earphones that still don’t fit my Apple incompatible ears. This is the first iPod to be delivered without an included iTunes software CD. Not a problem for the typical computer user who is connected to the Internet.
It might be obvious but to use your Shuffle, you’ll need a USB equipped Macintosh or PC. And you’ll have to use the free iTunes software 7.0.2 or later available from the Apple Web site. The Shuffle comes with enough electrical charge to get started. Inserting the Shuffle onto its dock and plugging the cord the computer provides a full charge in 4 hours. The USB connection also provides the downloading capability.
User Experience
Thankfully, the Shuffle is initially set so that downloads are not started automatically. If it were, the iTunes software would try to pour 56 gigabytes into a one-gigabyte hat. Instead, users can “autofill” randomly selected songs from a user-selected set of playlists. In my case, however, I chose to manually place songs into the Shuffle. By clever sorting in my iTunes music library, this isn’t as daunting as it might appear. I simply sorted so that all my workout tunes are collocated and did a shift click to select a number of tunes at a time and dragged them onto my iPod icon. I had filled my Shuffle to capacity in short order and began testing.
Rather than use the supplied earbuds which I cannot abide I pulled out my Panasonic closed system studio headphones and had a listen. I was expecting good results and wasn’t disappointed. As with my two hard-drive based iPods and the Nano, I heard excellent fidelity. Unlike listening to my non-Apple players, I heard no sampling artifacts or noise even during the critical portions betweens songs. If I can’t hear that underlying noise on the Panasonic, I certainly won’t hear it on my $10 clip-on earphones.
The aluminum silver finish is similar to that on Apple’s PowerBook and new MacBook Pro and appears to be just as impervious. Unlike glossy plastic sided iPods, this finish shrugs off smudges and gym sweat. A ring shaped control panel echoes the click wheel design of that on the larger iPods. However, the white plastic ring simply covers push buttons at the 12, 3, 6 and 9 o’clock positions controlling, respectively, volume up, skip ahead / fast forward, volume down, and skip back / fast reverse. In the center is the play and pause button which toggles with each press. Happily, as with the other newer iPods, the so-called “touch sensitive” buttons have given way to the older, mechanical versions which provide positive tactile feedback which is far more reassuring to users. On the bottom of the unit is the shuffle slider switch. If not engaged in the shuffle mode, the player will play the tracks in the order they were downloaded. This is an important hint for those who truly need to hear music in a defined order. Another slider on the bottom acts as the off selector and “lock” which renders the other controls useless until unlocked. When locked the unit cannot turn on inadvertently and drain the battery which Apple claims will last for 12 hours per full charge. Use of all controls, especially for iPod users will be familiar and intuitive. There’s not much more than that so those wanting to fiddle and visually engage with their music player might be let down. But this, more than any iPod before, is meant for action.
The typical buyer will be established iPod owners and others who enjoy their music more than they want to show the world “Hey, I’m an iPod owner.” The ubiquitous Apple billboards depicting silhouettes dancing with iPod in hand, notwithstanding, this model is the one that is truly all about busting a move. Which is why the clip is so dang useful. Its no-nonsense, spring-loaded, and almost aggressive design is meant to remain clipped on to whatever its attached. No longer are armbands needed. The Shuffle can be clipped to a T-shirt collar or waistband. I simply attach the Shuffle to one of my earphones; it’s that wispy.
With “only” 240 songs, one will tire of the same old repertoire in a week or two of gym time. Thankfully, with iTunes ease of use, the tunes can be replaced as easily as they were initially downloaded. Without doubt, the success of the Shuffle and all of the iPods are as much due to iTunes and its integration with the iPods and the Apple iTunes Store as it’s due to the actual iPods themselves. Other digital music players have come into the fray as “iPod killers” only to have faded away. While boasting greater capacity and cheaper prices, none of Apple’s competition have been able to claim iTunes’ elegance and seamless integration of the interface between player and the outside world. Furthermore, iTunes is a system aggregator or as some say “podcatcher” in that it provides the receiver and directory for podcasts. As simply as plugging in the Shuffle to charge, I can automatically download all my podcasts to listen to while I’m at the gym or while riding the train or when I’m eating lunch.
Conclusion
While a quiver of six digital music players might be excessive, there are compelling reasons to own any of latest Apple’s iPod models. Even if the Shuffle weren’t as inexpensive as it is, it would still be a great buy and a perfect match for those whose music is more than just a fashion statement.
Recommended:
Yes
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Member: David Burckhard
Location: San Jose, CA
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