What A Rip Off!! (Apple iPod shuffle (2G) 2 GB)

Member Name: Shaaza

Product:	Apple iPod shuffle (2G) 2 GB
Date:	03/11/08 (457 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: 12 hours battery life, comes in different colours, very light, has a clip which is handy.

Disadvantages: can't store picture or videos, rather expensive, have to download itunes, does not have mains chager

I'm the kind of girl who has never really liked anything to do with the ipod. But I must give them some credit for the ipod shuffle. I moved to University so I always wanted something small and easy to carry some of my music on rather than my normal mp4 player.
I therefore bought a 2gb Blue Ipod shuffle from amazon for £45 which I thought was a lot. I only bought the shuffle as it's the only small mp3 player with a clip on it and is very light in weight making it easy to carry around, and can be handy for girls like me who don't wear clothes with pockets all the time or when I go to the gym.
The ipod shuffle is called a shuffle because it shuffle all the music on the mp3 player, rather than playing them in the order of the folder.


There are a couple of things I like about the ipod shuffle and a few thing which I hate.
*** The shuffle has a built in rechargeable battery, this is very handy as I don't have to buy batteries every time the battery runs out or worry about losing my batteries. The shuffle's battery lasts for about 12 hours, I never have to charge the shuffle during the day as I only listen to it for less than ten hours each day. Recharging the shuffle's battery does not take more than two hours, which I think is ok.
However, the shuffle does not have a digital screen to show you how much of the battery is left, so I am always cautious at times when I need music the most e.g. long journeys, in the gym etc.


***As I mentioned my shuffle is a 2GB model, therefore it keeps around 500 Mp3 songs or up to a thousand tracks if I save in a WMA format. I only have about hundred songs on the shuffles as I have not had enough time to upload the songs onto it.
Talking about uploading. It is rather confusing when it comes to uploading as you need to have itunes on your computer. Itunes will scan the whole of you P.C/ Laptop for audio files and all you do is chose the music you want to synchronize into the ipod shuffle. Itunes does take quiet a lot of the disk space, which is annoying, and it always pops up with new updates almost everyday which really does me heading. Some people may be worried about ituenes and see it as a place of purchasing music, yes you can purchase music, but you really don't have to, you can always upload the music which is already on your P.C. Itunes can be useful if you are feeling lazy to go to HMV or Zavvi or if you are tired of breaking the law (downloading free music) etc.


***The ipod shuffle comes with white headphones. To be honest I don't like white headphones as they are too bright I prefer something dull like black or grey. The headphones produces good sound and does not distort the music, however I gave up on them as they are not comfortable at all (not even mentioning the colour) and now use my sony ericsson mobile headphones (the upper piece), as they are grey coloured. I sometimes use the ipod headphones indoor or when I wear something white.


***The ipod shuffle comes with a USB cable which is useful for transferring audio files unto the ipod shuffle and recharging the ipod. The ipod does not come with a mains charger, and a mains charger for the ipod is an extra £25, which I think is over priced therefore I never bothered buying one, instead I just use my other mp3 player's charger or just charge via my laptop which does not bother me. The USB charger can be unreliable if you visit a friends house for a sleep over and they don't have a PC or laptop (has not happened to me yet).


***Like some Mp3 Players this ipod shuffle does not keep picture or videos. This does not really bother me as I bought it for music, this might not be for you if you like viewing movies on the go.

I do kind of recommend the ipod shuffle to those who just want to listen to music and nothing extra. The shuffle is easy to carry around and has a long battery life. It is fairly easy to unpack and set up. The buttons on the shuffle are soft and pretty straight forward to follow, as a first time user I was not confused at all. Uploading the music onto the shuffle is pretty fast.
However, if you don't want to waste your money paying £45 you can get a different 2GB mp3 player for less the price you pay for the Ipod shuffle. I feel like I paid at least £20 for the brand (apple) and had to pay extra for replacement headphones and would have to pay more for the mains charger which I think is a rip off!


==Note==

***The ipod shuffle comes in different colours including silver, purple, green, pink, blue etc. However, some shops sell the ipod shuffles at different prices as some colours have higher demand than others.
***You can buy the ipod shuffle from many retail shops (prices do vary)
***Like any other electrical good, the ipod shuffle comes with a one year manufacture guarantee.
***for more information about the shuffle just visit the apple website (you will also find other apple products).
***To download Itunes you will also need to visit the apple website (downloading itunes takes at least ten minutes).

Summary: A little mp3 player, from Apple which stores upto a 1000 music

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