A poor show from Apple (Apple iPod shuffle (2G) 1 GB)

Member Name: Fiver29

Product:	Apple iPod shuffle (2G) 1 GB
Date:	25/06/09 (48 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Small and attaches to clothing

Disadvantages: No display, no control over the sound

My children both have an iPod Shuffle, my son has a silver one and my daughter has a pink one, they also come in red, green and blue (there may be other colours, but these are the only ones I've seen).

The shuffle is a 1GB mp3 player, this equates to about 230-240 songs as far as I'm aware, so more than enough for their needs.

This 2nd generation Shuffle is very compact, it measures just 41.2 x 27.3 x 10.5 mm, and has a clip at the back so you can attach it to your clothing. When you buy the Shuffle you'll also find a charging cable in the box, the cable is specifically designed for the Shuffle, so it can't be used by any other mp3 players. The charging cable is also the data transfer cable, so you can only charge your Shuffle by attaching it to a computer, which is fine for us because there's always a computer on, but I can imagine it's a pain for anyone who only uses the PC on occasions.

Our Experience.

My son was the first to get a Shuffle and everything was fine for a while, but then the Shuffle suddenly decided it wouldn't sync with the computer. So we tried it on another computer and still had no joy, then we went through the Five 'R's as stated on Apple's support site (Reset, Retry, Restart, Reinstall, Restore) but still nothing. So I decided to try resetting the Shuffle to factory settings, which would mean losing the songs already loaded, but that wasn't too much of a problem because they could always be put back on again. So I downloaded the restore programme to the first computer, but when I tried to use it the computer didn't recognise the Shuffle when it was plugged in, so the programme couldn't recognise it either.

So I downloaded the programme on a second computer, unfortunately that one uses Vista, and the restore programme only works on XP or Windows 2000. Ever so mildly irritated by now, I decided it was time to phone Apple. I managed to get through quickly enough, without loads of options to press, and after some messing around turning the Shuffle on, turning it off (pretty much doing the 5 'R's again) the operator concluded that it must be the cable.

So she arranged for a new cable to be posted out that day, I could have taken down a reference number and gone to an Apple Store to pick one up, but the nearest store is about 50 miles away. Before she would send it out, she took down details of my credit card, because the old cable had to be returned, and if they didn't receive it they would charge for the new one.

Once the new cable had been received the Shuffle was recognised by the computer immediately and all was well again.

Both the kids love their Shuffles, but I am not particularly impressed. The sound quality is no better than their previous mp3 players, and my daughter had a lovely player that had a display which let you know what you were listening to, and it had a graphic equaliser (just one of the preset ones that let you change from rock to pop to classical etc) as well as a lot of other little bits and pieces on it. Why she wants to go from that to one where there's no display and no control over the music apart from the volume is quite beyond me.

I can understand that they're good for joggers or cyclists as they clip onto your clothes, but since neither of them are great joggers I think it's a poor example of an mp3 player, and for the price (which is in the region of £30) there are much better players out there.

Summary: For the price, you're better off looking elsewhere.

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