[Jahn]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oliver Check http://www.apple.com/support/itunes/index.html & http://www.ipodlounge.com/articles.php (-> iPod 101)

Hey that was helpful! I had no idea the Snapback Arrow existed!

 

[blessingx]

First review comes in -
http://ptech.wsj.com/archive/solution-20050112.html

 

[Rodent]

Is it possible to browse between albums with the Shuffle, or not?
Only place I've heard about it is here.

 

[blessingx]

I just got back from Macworld, and according to the rep (who couldn't answer many of my questions), did say you should think of the shuffle as playing a singular playlist. You can order the import however you want (including album/track), but I didn't get the impression you could jump to the next album, etc. Again, she didn't see to know the player that well, but I have the feeling you can order, but not browse, by album.

Listened to it a bit, but with pretty bad music, likely high compression and ibuds, it was difficult to know how well it sounded.

 

[Krishna]

Quote:

Originally Posted by blessingx I just got back from Macworld, and according to the rep (who couldn't answer many of my questions), did say you should think of the shuffle as playing a singular playlist. You can order the import however you want (including album/track), but I didn't get the impression you could jump to the next album, etc. Again, she didn't see to know the player that well, but I have the feeling you can order, but not browse, by album. Listened to it a bit, but with pretty bad music, likely high compression and ibuds, it was difficult to know how well it sounded.

So your saying that an Apple rep didn't know how to use it properly? How can that be when there are bassically only 6 buttons?

 

[Jahn]

Key pts for me -

Various colored lights tell you whether the device is on play or pause, and the status of the battery.

A simple three-way switch on the back turns the new iPod off, or puts it into the default shuffle mode, which plays its contents randomly, or into a linear mode where the songs are played in order.


---

It has an off switch. Why doesn't my 3G ipod have one? Grr.

 

[Zuerst]

Quote:

Originally Posted by doomlordis JUST SO YOU KNOW if you want to use the shuffle as a flash drive you have to set a partition IN ADVANCE on itunes - this to me is a big mistake , if i have a shuffle and need to add say a 300mb filei better have had set that up before i left for work. This alone puts me off.

Hmmm... This completely killed any consideration that I might have in possibly getting one before.

Are you sure of this?

 

[MD1032]

Just finally got around to reading this thread.

Smart move by iPod retailing it at $100 for the smaller size version. Realistically? What a useless piece of junk. OK, so it's a nice little screenless flash player. Not bad. Add the fact that it shuffles your music; it's instantly useless. NOT a smart move by Apple. Add the fact that the competition already has screens and you've got one useless unit.

Add the iPod cult factor and it'll sell - that's the sad part.

Still, compared to some of Creative's and iriver's nice offerings that I'm sure are about the same size, have a nice screen and an FM tuner, and cost about the same street, this iPod "shuffle" is just a complete flop.

 

[AdamWill]

yyoo - come on, I'm a geek. I've GOT rechargeable AAAs and a charger already for my LCD flashlight.

 

[viator122]

I'd say, based on a quick Amazon search of flash mp3 players, that these are priced very competitively. Anything I saw that was close to $99 (amazon price, not list price) was only 256mb or less. Sure, on amazon you can get the iRiver iFP-190T 256mb flash player for $99 ($129 retail) and you get a screen and FM tuner. With the iShuffle you lose the screen and radio, but you get an extra 256mb. The 1gig player is even more competitively priced. This is perfect for casual listeners, people who listen for short periods of time, and workout people who want to load up 512mb worth of "Eye of the Tiger" type music for their workout.

iTunes integration means that they can sell these to people buying music from ITMS and it will also appeal to some existing iPod owners who can't use the regular/minis for certain applications.


The iTunes integration, competitive pricing and attractive iPod branding means that they'll be selling these faster than they can make them. The 10cc song comes to mind and I say Apple will once again be doing "The Wall Street Shuffle".

 

[Oliver :)]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jahn It has an off switch.

That was actually the first thing jumping in my face when I saw the site - O-M-G, you can turn it *off*

As nice and smart as the real iPods sleepmodes are, the hold-switch could easily be transformed to double as a true powerswitch, and I would appreciate it. Trouble is: About 256 whiny bloggers, 3 clueless tech "journalists", and one analyst combining both qualities would complain about their iPod not starting up fast enough, causing a storm of bad reputation...

 

[Kirosia]

Not sure if it's been said or not (I ain't reading 8 pages), but people's asses are gonna get mugged. Seriously. They can just rip it off your neck or arm or whatever. Good player or not, it's useless if it ends up in someone else's hands.

 

[Oliver :)]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kirosia Not sure if it's been said or not (I ain't reading 8 pages), but people's asses are gonna get mugged. Seriously. They can just rip it off your neck or arm or whatever. Good player or not, it's useless if it ends up in someone else's hands.

Time will tell. I see plenty of folks here with cheapo flashplayers around their neck (last year it was cellphones, and this year the very brave ones have their keys, phone & flasplayer dangeling from their neck - madness), there seems no air of unsafety to it. It just looks daft

Maybe Ives got sick of having to see so many misshapen players dangeling about so he thought "if people have to show off their tech, let's make it less appalling to the observers".

 

[Kirosia]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oliver Time will tell. I see plenty of folks here with cheapo flashplayers around their neck (last year it was cellphones, and this year the very brave ones have their keys, phone & flasplayer dangeling from their neck - madness), there seems no air of unsafety to it. It just looks daft Maybe Ives got sick of having to see so many misshapen players dangeling about so he thought "if people have to show off their tech, let's make it less appalling to the observers".

It's more specific to ipod-type products. They're just thief magnets, compared to other players.

 

[doomlordis]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zuerst Hmmm... This completely killed any consideration that I might have in possibly getting one before. Are you sure of this?

Thats what the guy at apple store told me, i would have thought you could at least delete contents of drive then fill but he said no? Maybe only specified part of the drive is formated for data use?