Apple iPod Shuffle General Review

The Apple iPod Shuffle is a USB Flash drive. It also has the ability to play music. There is not much more to it than that, apart from Apple styling.

Unlike other iPod offerings, the iPod shuffle doesn't have a micro hard disk whirring inside it. Instead, it uses solid state flash RAM memory which has no moving parts and thus uses less battery power and is very shockproof. Just as well as Apple intend it to be worn like a rapper's medallion, jangling around the midriff. It is very small, the size of a packet of (American size!) chewing gum.

These types of player have been around for years in various guises and capacities so Apple are hardly breaking any technological frontiers by producing one. However, they have managed to produce a player that pushes the envelope in terms of price and capacity. Two models are available, 512MB and 1GB (the latter has twice the capacity of the former) which equates to approximately 120 and 240 tracks respectively.

Allow us to reiterate: the big story with the iPod Shuffle is the price. It's so cheap. Cheap! In fact, when it was launched it cost approximately the same amount as a USB flash drive of the same size that had no MP3 functions at all. This has prompted a world wide reduction in the price of flash USB drives.

The fact that the shuffle has hardly any functions should not come as a surprise to people who have kept their eye on apple's MP3 players from the outset, but the fact that it's cheap is a miracle. Apple don't 'do' value-for-money. In fact, it was rip-off pricing that prompted us to ban iPod sales for a time. Not only that, the original iPods could not do Random Play. You could choose a playlist and listen to its contents randomly, but not just have random tunes from the full complement on your iPod. Nature and Apple cannot stand a vacuum. Value for money and full random are such important features for MP3 Players that if apple hadn't created the iPod Shuffle, it would have popped into existence anyway. Perhaps it did.

One way in which Apple have managed to reduce the cost of the Shuffle is by not giving it a screen to display track details. Apple's marketing gurus realised this may alarm potential buyers, as a screen is a pretty fundamental feature of an MP3 player, and so decided to make the theme of their advertising: "Random is the New Order". The Shuffle can play tracks stored on it randomly (hence Shuffle) so the premise is that if you don't know which song is coming next you don't need to know any of the track details either! That doesn't necessarily follow, but it is true that you usually recognise the song being played and if not, does it matter as long as it sounds good?

The option to play tracks either randomly or in sequence is made with a slider button on the Shuffle's reverse. The front contains the familiar iPod navigation control for play, pause, skip etc.

Transferring tracks to the Shuffle is simple; just pull the cap off the bottom to reveal the USB plug and slot it into a USB port on your computer. It is recognised as a extra storage via USB, so just drag and drop files across or use the iTunes software.

Battery News

The Shuffle's battery is built in. Boo. The battery will last for a moderate amount of time. 8 hours. Nothing to write home about. However, since you can only store about 8 hours worth of music on the 512MB model, not doubt you will have to plug into your USB frequently to update the music on your iPod Shuffle, and the Shuffle can recharge its battery when it's plugged into your computer like this.

Conclusions

The iPod. Shuffle is not much like the other iPods, in terms of features or storage capacity. It is intended as a very simple way to have a moderate amount of your favourite tunes with you at all times - even while doing sports as it won't skip. Similar players with more features are available, but on a pure current price per Megabyte basis the iPod Shuffle is superb value for money and on the whole, despite a complete lack of functions, we think it's great.