[kugino]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cyclone sorry guys but i only believe objective reviews. im not going to believe anything from people who were at mac world cause they love macs too much to be objective and certainly not from ipod lounge, cause... well do i need to explain? untill someone like pcmag or the like gets a hold of one of these things its all warped.

how is pcmag more "objective?"

 

[BigFil]

I just got one on Friday and just used it all day snowboarding today. It has been running for 12.5 hrs now on it's first charge and the battery indicater is still on orange so it appears that it is going to run far beyond the stated battery life. I believe it was CNET who got 15hrs 44min on their initial charge.

Initial sounds quality impressions are that it sounds quite good and extremely close but ever so slightly harsher in the highs compared to my 3G. I used identicle files encoded in 320kbs AAC and just swapped the headphones back and forth while the files played. I'm guessing this is that the amp/DAC in the 3G is probably as big as the whole shuffle and apparently the DAC is made by different manufactures. That being said the sound quality was more than acceptable for the environment i'm using this thing in and the thing has the classic ipod sound (for better or for worse). The Shuffle went quite loud, much louder than my old MD player, and I would say the same as my 3G. Keep in mind that i don't use the Shuffle or my 3G with great headphones just Portapros and EX71SL's so take this for what it's worth. I also did not hear the clicks and beeps in any of the files as a previous poster reported.

When you are in shuffle mode and switch to continuous mode it stays on the same song that was playing and everything stays in order of the way the playlist was set up. You can go back and forth between modes seamlessly.

One other interesting observation. When the Shuffle is mounted on the desktop you can go into the iTunes folder and access all of the song files unlike on the regular iPods where they are all hidden unless you use third party software. Also you don't partition the hardrive for a certain amount of data. Whatever free space is available can be used for data. The slider in iTunes is basically set up to Autofill a certain amount of music and leave you extra space as needed for data. I'm assuming that you can erase song files and make space available if needed in a pinch since the files are accesable, but I havn't actually tried.

 

[kugino]

Quote:

Originally Posted by BigFil When you are in shuffle mode and switch to continuous mode it stays on the same song that was playing and everything stays in order of the way the playlist was set up. You can go back and forth between modes seamlessly. One other interesting observation. When the Shuffle is mounted on the desktop you can go into the iTunes folder and access all of the song files unlike on the regular iPods where they are all hidden unless you use third party software. Also you don't partition the hardrive for a certain amount of data. Whatever free space is available can be used for data. The slider in iTunes is basically set up to Autofill a certain amount of music and leave you extra space as needed for data. I'm assuming that you can erase song files and make space available if needed in a pinch since the files are accesable, but I havn't actually tried.

bigfil, thanks for your observations. the first, about shuffle/continuous modes, is pretty much what i suspected. nice to know that it works that way.

i like the fact that you don't have to allocate in advance how much you want for data and how much for music...if i needed more room for data, i'd just have to autofill less...pretty nifty.

the observation that all the music files are accessible via the desktop is intriguing...i wonder if it's possible to add to the playlist just by dropping another song in there...

sounds very versatile and promising...looking forward even more to getting mine.

 

[BigFil]

One other thing. The tactile nature and the way the buttons are laid out with the raised up ring surrounding the play/pause button is well thought out. I was adjusting volume and changing tracks all day through my snowboarding jacket with gloves on. I had it on the lanyard around my neck on the inside of my jacket. Also I had absolutely no problems with the lanyard cap, but if I was running with it loosely to where it can bounce around, or in a position to snag it on something i'd be worried. If you swing the lanyard with enough force, centrifical force will cause the shuffle to separate (yes i tried). This is can be remedied by the sport case or what will probably soon to be a hundred different third party cases. On a funny note, my 128mb Lexar Jump drive snaps securely into the lanyard. Also headphones with the short cable like the EX71SL's are a perfect match for the Shuffle when hung from the lanyard.

 

[blessingx]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cyclone sorry guys but i only believe objective reviews. im not going to believe anything from people who were at mac world cause they love macs too much to be objective and certainly not from ipod lounge, cause... well do i need to explain? untill someone like pcmag or the like gets a hold of one of these things its all warped.

You're too funny. If you attend a conference your bias. That stature is pretty unbias, huh?

Hate to have an interest in computers and actually attend a Macworld. Damn if we can't trust anyone at Macworld, I guess the same applies to much of CES. Man oh man where to get unbias news? Oh yeah, PCMag, cause they have such a spot on history of accurate audio reviews!

Anyway, I was there. Between environmental noise, lousy ibuds, bad dance music on it, and likely severe compression, I wasn't impressed. Then again had the same feeling last year with the mini (and I know that was screwed up). Not the best place to test (besides all the biased Mac Too-Much-Lovers Society hanging around).

 

[yyoo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cyclone sorry guys but i only believe objective reviews.

You believe that reviewers can be objective? Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.

There are very few if any objective reviewers around here. The folks here are either fanatically pro-iPod or vehemently anti-iPod. There are a few people who might not fall into those camps, but then they have their own strange axes to grind. You might as well toss a 100-sided coin to see which reviewer you should trust. I tossed my coin and, fortunately, it ended up on the side that indicated "me."

 

[Cyclone]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kugino how is pcmag more "objective?"

ah well is see your point but you get mine. its probobly best to read all of the reviews out there to get a good understanding of how good it is. if there is one person who has an opinion no one else does you can throw that out the door. but if all or most believe that there is static, lack of volume, etc then you can probobly believe that. and the most important reviewer should be yourself so i'll see if i can get a hold of one to test out. my friends are idiots and will probobly buy one so i'll just steal one of theirs for a couple of days to figure it out.

 

[kugino]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cyclone ah well is see your point but you get mine. its probobly best to read all of the reviews out there to get a good understanding of how good it is. if there is one person who has an opinion no one else does you can throw that out the door. but if all or most believe that there is static, lack of volume, etc then you can probobly believe that. and the most important reviewer should be yourself so i'll see if i can get a hold of one to test out. my friends are idiots and will probobly buy one so i'll just steal one of theirs for a couple of days to figure it out.

sounds good to me...don't worry about reviews. if you like it, great. if not, then that's fine. we should all trust our ears and if we like what we hear, who cares what ipodlounge or pcmag or stereophile or any other head-fier says.

 

[Underdog311]

So do you need itunes to use a shuffle? is that the only way you can add music to it? Or can I drag and drop? Thanks!

 

[kugino]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Underdog311 So do you need itunes to use a shuffle? is that the only way you can add music to it? Or can I drag and drop? Thanks!

i'm not sure, but it seems that your song files are visible/accessible via the keychain-drive on the desktop, something that the regular ipod does not allow without using some hack or other software. this leads me to believe that it is possible to drag and drop, but not certain about that.

 

[mrkangpae]

Does anyone know if the amp on the Shuffle is the same as its bigger brothers? Feel free to bash me if this has already been addressed in another thread.

 

[viator122]

Hope this isn't too off topic, but CNN reports that Apple is estimating a four-week wait to get your hands on a shuffle.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/ptech/0...eut/index.html

I think they must do this on purpose to keep demand up. Either that or they've made some serious miscalculations. Either way, this is good for Apple, since people always want what they can't have.

 

[Evoz]

The funny thing is, I walked intothe apple store the first day it was available, at about 11am, and it was empty, I walked up, asked for one, walked out, took about 3 minutes. And yes, iTunes is necessary to loadmusic onto the shuffle.