iPod Shuffle - It's very small and it talks to you (Ipod Shuffle 4GB)

Member Name: TheRedTower

Product:	Ipod Shuffle 4GB
Date:	04/07/09 (42 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: tiny, light weight, good battery life, voice over is great

Disadvantages: you have to have headphones with the controls inline

An iPod with no physical controls? Madness.

Certainly what I first thought when I saw the latest incarnation of the Shuffle. It certainly put me off for a long while. The click wheel on the previous generation was so integral to my use of it I couldn't image using anything else.

In an impulsive moment, I bought one. I haven't regretted it at all.

It's control system (inline remote on the ear phones) is very clever. One click to Play or Pause, two clicks to skip forwards, three clicks to skip back, click and hold to have it talk to you.

Yes. It talks to you. Well, says what it is playing currently. If you have 'Voice Over' enabled, iTunes also includes computer generated names and artists for each track on your Shuffle (I'm not sure how much room this takes up, but it must be relatively negligible, you can still fit a lot on this diminutive iPod.) For Mac OS X Leopard users, you get the 'Alex' voice talking to you, for Mac OS X Tiger and Windows users you get a typical computer generated voice. It's particularly clever and overcomes the one problem the iPod Shuffle had, which ever model you were using - what track am I listening to now?

According to Apple, this Shuffle is the world's smallest MP3 player, I'm not so sure about that, but it is certainly the smallest iPod ever, it's small enough to lose in a bag. The build quality is excellent, the only physical controls on it are the 'On/Off - Play - Shuffle' mode slide switch. The clip is still present, and the whole unit is thinner and smaller than before. The battery life is pretty good, it's not quite as good as the previous model, but it's close, I tend to get more than the 10 hours Apple claim it lasts for playback.

In the (equally diminutive) box you get a pair of earphones (Apple's standard ear bud type) with the essential inline remote, a short USB cable for syncing and some instructions. Apple seem to be taking their pledge to use less packaging very seriously.

My main concern would be that you're very limited to what headphones you can use, third party manufacturers have started producing head phones and adapters with the inline controls on them. But the choice may be limited for now.

In all, it surprised me that I liked this little iPod (so much so I sold my previous generation model), it's worth it but it may not suit people who like to use non-Apple earphones or owners of the second generation Shuffle.

Summary: Great little MP3 player with some clever touches.

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