8CM AND IT STILL PUMPS OUT PLEASURE (Apple iPod shuffle 512 MB)

Name: Gingaro

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Product:	Apple iPod shuffle 512 MB
Date:	09/03/05 (423 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Compact, Light, Easy to use

Disadvantages: None

What do you buy the person who has everything? It’s quite simple really, an I-Pod Shuffle, a new portable MP3 players from those lovely people at Apple.

Although as rare as rocking horse s**t at the moment, these little beauties are available direct from Apple online at http://www.apple.com/uk/ipodshuffle/. There are two versions of the Shuffle and are priced dependent upon their memory and song storage capacity. The love of my life decided that I needed to move into the digital age and purchased the 512MB Shuffle for the princely sum of £69, making this significantly cheaper than the i-Pod and i-Pod Mini.

The 512MB version stores up to 120 songs, which roughly equates to 10 albums. Visually the Shuffle is minimalist, white in colour it has the simplest controls and looks as though it is a remote control for a larger i-Pod rather than an MP3 player in its own right. I actually thought my better half had lost her marbles and bought me a remote control!

Weighing in at just over 20 grams, the Shuffle is 0.8cm thick and 8cm long. It fits easily into the palm of my hand and makes it extremely portable. It sits neatly in my shirt pocket and isn’t noticeable at all. If you think of the weight of say 5 cash/credit cards in your top pocket you get some idea of some little this actually weighs.

Controlled via a plastic button circled in rubber, it has the basic controls of play/pause, forward and backwards. The circle is also used to increase and decrease the volume. Both practical and functional, this actually looks rather basic but it doesn’t need to have anything else. The people at Apple have stuck to their design plan and it has indeed paid off.

As for durability, what can I say? Although it is made of plastic, it doesn’t seem brittle at all and I can imagine this taking a good hammering prior to laying down it’s life. It is a well-built piece of technology that cared for, would last for years.

To keep the design and size to a minimum, the Shuffle does not have an LCD screen. In fact, it doesn’t actually have a built in hard drive it uses a flash memory. Songs are installed onto the Shuffle by removing the end to expose the built in USB port and attaching it to your PC. The software required to download the songs is enclosed with the product and it literally takes 5 minutes to install. Rather than use the i-Pod store, I copied my favourite CD’s to my PC and then installed them. Installing two CD’s onto the Shuffle took around 5 minutes and most of this was taken up by the time taken to upload the songs to my PC. The actual installation process to the Shuffle is almost instantaneous.

It looks the part and is exceptionally practical, but that would count for nothing if the sound quality fell short. It didn’t!! The sound quality is crystal clear and I hadn’t in fact heard such clarity or sounds for years and certainly not from a machine that cost £69.

The earphones that are supplied are adequate, and do have the potential to annoy those people around you. For the sake of keeping your hearing it is advisable to ensure that the volume is at a reasonable level prior to plugging them in. The volume does go very loud.

On the reverse of the Shuffle you have the on/off switch which also controls whether you wish to play your songs in order or via the “Shuffle” system. This basically selects tracks at random. Personally, I prefer to use the ordered system so that I can locate tracks easily. A battery light is also present to indicate the charge remaining. The i-Pod has a rechargeable battery (which charges when plugged into a PC) with a 12-hour life, and I have found this to be faultless.

So, overall this is a handy bit of equipment for commuters, fitness fanatics and those who wish to listen to music without bugging the people in the flat downstairs. It is everything you would want from a portable MP3 player. Ignore the lack of screen and the games that come with the i-Pod and i-Pod Mini. This is all you need. One the tunes are playing, you’ll drift away and forget about all the other players on the market.

Personally I have no reservations in wholeheartedly recommending this product but would point out a 1GB version is available which stores up to 240 songs. For my needs this is perfect, but for those with larger music collections I would suggest they look at the next model up. Regardless of this fact, you must look at the i-Pod Shuffle if you need a portable MP3 player. You will not be disappointed.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

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