Simple, Small, Smashing
Written: Mar 11 '05
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Product Rating:
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Pros: size, ease of use, convenient lanyard, good sound quality, good storage size
Cons: no display for selecting certain songs, doesn't come in cool colors - YET!
The Bottom Line: Great little MP3 player, small, attractive, good sound quality, decent sized memory, I love it!
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| bphill1968's Full Review: Nokia N73 Smartphone |
The Apple Ipod shuffle is one great little MP3 player. It comes in 2 varieties, the 512K (99.00) and the 1G (149.99). I opted to purchase the 1G to get the larger memory.
This Mp3 player plugs directly into your computer's USB port to charge and to transfer files back and forth. My husband (the computer guy) tells me that you can use it to store all sorts of files like Jpg images and other things, although I have never personally tried this.
There is an indicator light on the front of the device that is Amber when charging, and green when fully charged. If your battery were completely empty if would take about 4 hours to charge. According to the Ipod specs the battery life is about 12 hours. Personally I am impressed I can exercise with it for a week, for at least an hour a day, and still have a green battery life indicator. I also love that I don't ever have to change a battery. With a 1G memory, the Ipod can store approximately 240 songs.
The display on the front of the device consists of a circle with a play/pause button in the middle, a ff/rew button on either side, and a volume control on top and bottom. The back of the device has 2 buttons. The top, and largest, of the buttons is the one that turns the device on and allows you to select either a sequential progression of your music, or a "shuffle" of random songs (hence the name, Ipod Shuffle). The middle position of the large back button would be the sequential button and the bottom the shuffle. I do not like the way this button moves in that it is easy to overshoot your mark when you are trying to select the middle setting, and have to tease the button back to the middle. The next "button" on the back is a battery charge indicator that you press down to see the green or amber color. It is actually quite a tiny little button that you almost have to press with your fingernail.
Now about changing music. I had trouble the first few days in that when I would change songs sometimes I would get the next song and sometimes I would just fast forward a few steps, so I looked up what I was doing wrong. If you press and release the ff and rew quickly you get the next song. If you hold it down a little you instead just FF or Rewind the song you are on.
The Ipod Shuffle comes with the device, a USB port cap, a set of ear bud earphones with 4 foam pads that plug into the top of the player, and a lanyard that plugs into the USB stick to hang the device around your neck. I do know there are some accessories available but they are hard to come by at this point - not available yet at most retailers. Frankly, the way the USB plugs into the lanyard concerns me a little because I know it fits well now, but seems like with repeated use it might not hold as well. The lanyard around my neck plugged into the end of the USB port could sometime, perhaps during an intense workout, disconnect allowing the ipod to fall. I did see a sports case to help hold it on Amazon (30 dollars), but it isn't available yet.
I personally could care less about having all the bells and whistles of electronic displays, and things like that. I am very impressed with both the size of this device, the ease of use, and the quality of sound. It takes 3 minutes, or less, to figure the whole thing out. I would have loved to be able to purchase this in another color but they just arent available that way - YET!
The guy at the retail store I purchased the device at tells me they can't keep them on the shelves, they sell out as soon as they get them in. So don't wait around for a later date thinking you will purchase one later for a gift - buy it when you find it or you might not get another chance for a while.
PS a few TECHNICAL specs, not covered in my review, for your enjoyment!
1.1 and 2.0 usb port compatability with integrated USB connector
Support MP3, MP3 VBR, AAC, protected AAC (from the ipod music store M4A,M4B,M4p) and WAV
Compatible with Mac OS X v10.2.8 or later (Mac OS X 10.3.4 or later recommended for use with low-power USB ports) and Windows 2000 with SP 4 or Windows XP Home or Professional with SP 2
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
bphill1968
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Location: Sooner country
Reviews written: 24
Trusted by: 0 members
About Me:
Wife, mother of 4. RN,stay at home mom, volunteer, seamstress
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