There are few moments over a lifetime when you stop and think, “I cannot understand how I lived without this before I knew I needed one.” I had a moment like that this week when my new Apple iPod Shuffle showed up on my doorstep and I began dragging heavy songs onto its hardy, tiny, metal body.

iPod Shuffle


The iPod Shuffle is the newest, tiniest, itty-bitty beauty from Apple
and I will never be to live without one again! The Shuffle clips to
anything so you wear it all day long like a totem of love and joy
shining into your ears.

The iPod Shuffle is a microscopic 1.62 x 1.07 x 0.71 inches and weighs
less than a quarter: The earbuds weigh more than the Shuffle! The sound
is incredible. You can shuffle your songs or play a Playlist in order.
I’m beginning to understand the beauty of shuffle play: Pick only your
favorite songs to add to your iPod Shuffle and you’ll never be
disappointed.
I have 275 songs on my iPod Shuffle — Apple says you should be able to
store at least 240 songs on the device. I can listen all day long and
all night without recharging.

The battery is rated at 12 hours. I was
able to squeeze at least 18 hours of play from a single charge.
The iPod Shuffle costs less than $80 — the best money you will ever
spend to make yourself a whole new person — and it is shaped by an
Apple artistry and aesthetic that is becoming rarer and rarer in this
modern life where cash crushes creativity.
My only argument with the Apple iPod Shuffle is the instructions and
user manual use a tiny font and a lime green print on a bright white
paper making it impossible for older eyes to read the text even with
great magnification.

I get the cutesy “green Apple” synchronicity of it
all, but sometimes function needs to trump form.
The Apple iPod Shuffle is a beauty to be held and you can do no wrong
buying one for your most beloved — plus an extra one for your own
insatiable satiety for joy and everlasting happiness.

49 Comments

  1. I saw the news commercials for this with the thing clipped to all sorts of clothes. Doesn’t it make things saggy?

  2. Hi Anne!
    Yes, you can clip it to anything! It’s funny that the Shuffle itself is lightweight but the earbuds and wire sort of dictate the heft of the experience.
    😀
    I’ve read reports where people clip their Shuffle to their front pants pocket and when they sit down the clip bends and there’s no way back from that because you can’t fit it in the charging base with a bent clip, so be careful out there!

  3. I think the commercial even showed it clipped to a front pocket. How’s the sound? Can you hear anything out of that tiny package?

  4. Yes, Anne, the television commercial does show it being clipped to the coin pocket on a pair of jeans. I think that’s what one person did — imitate the commercial — and the result was bending the clip.
    Sound is great. You can even turn on a sound limiter using the iTunes interface if you want to protect your hearing. It is definitely VERY LOUD for such a small form factor.

  5. Yes, Anne, the television commercial does show it being clipped to the coin pocket on a pair of jeans. I think that’s what one person did — imitate the commercial — and the result was bending the clip.
    Sound is great. You can even turn on a sound limiter using the iTunes interface if you want to protect your hearing. It is definitely VERY LOUD for such a small form factor.

  8. I know you know I buy everything from Amazon…
    😀
    I waited for weeks for Amazon to get stock and gave up and ordered direct from Apple and then the moment I was done ordering from Apple, Amazon magically had the Shuffle in stock! Doesn’t it always happen that way?

  9. I know you know I buy everything from Amazon…
    😀
    I waited for weeks for Amazon to get stock and gave up and ordered direct from Apple and then the moment I was done ordering from Apple, Amazon magically had the Shuffle in stock! Doesn’t it always happen that way?

  10. Less than $80 is great!
    I have an ilo MP3 player I picked up a couple of years ago from WalMart that cost about the same, but doesn’t have the chachet that this little Apple player has.
    The one good thing about my little player is that I can slide a 256MB SD card into a slot for extra storage and use it as an additional drive on my computer. I wonder if the larger capacity Ipods can be used for that since some of them have ample storage space?
    My wife said she wants a MP3 player for Christmas. I might have to pick up one of these new Ipod shuffles since they are a great price, small and lightweight.

  11. Less than $80 is great!
    I have an ilo MP3 player I picked up a couple of years ago from WalMart that cost about the same, but doesn’t have the chachet that this little Apple player has.
    The one good thing about my little player is that I can slide a 256MB SD card into a slot for extra storage and use it as an additional drive on my computer. I wonder if the larger capacity Ipods can be used for that since some of them have ample storage space?
    My wife said she wants a MP3 player for Christmas. I might have to pick up one of these new Ipod shuffles since they are a great price, small and lightweight.

  13. Help! I’ve been shuffled into moderation. 😉
    Probably too many references to Ipod and MP3 made the spam guardians angry.

  14. Chris!
    Yes, the price is made to sell! I think the Shuffle, and its abnormally incredibly low price, is a Steve Jobs jobbing of Microsoft’s awful Zune player. Why own a brick when you can own a tiny piece of art?
    😀
    All the iPods can be used as a drive. You can enable storage mode on the Shuffle, too, but you only have a Gig total to play around with for storage and delighting in music.
    Your wife will go crazy for the Shuffle, Chris! It should be able to do MP3s, but remember the whole idea of an iPod is to seamlessly interact with iTunes and the Shuffle requires iTunes for interaction and software updating and such.
    I forgot to mention yesterday I think it is SUPER GREAT you and your will do the Pinoy project together. That can only make you stronger and happier as a creative team!
    😀

  15. Katha!
    I do appreciate the idea of Shuffle play now and I can always listen again and again by adding more and more copies of the song I want to my iPod Shuffle — and I can also hit the reply button.
    😉
    Do you have an iPod Shuffle?

  16. Chris!
    Akismet does seem to love you and only you!
    Perhaps you should do an “Akismet Loves Me” niche blog?
    You’d probably get a lot of hits if you can ever get your comments out of the Spam cache.
    :mrgreen:
    I would seriously go into your WordPress.com Admin panel, click on FEEDBACK and tell them Akismet keeps catching you here. They can fix some magic backstage and prevent this from happening in the future, I think.

  19. Good question – I guess I have music in the house if I want it and in the car if I want it – if I am out walking around here I enjoy the sound of nature and if I am in town I guess I need to hear what others are saying and if traffic is coming !
    So- I guess “I never saw the need really” is the answer.

  20. You must live in a quiet place, Nicola, where you don’t have to drown out the music of others, the shouts in the street and deal with the thinness of walls betwixt neighbors.
    😉

  23. I have been thinking – it almost sounds as though they are more to keep pther noise and people out, rather than listen to your music ?

  24. Nicola —
    Oh, no, they’re definitely for listening to music.
    They can serve as a privatizing wall, though. I wear mind during the day inside and outside the house just to drown out what I don’t want to hear.
    In many American offices there are people talking and laughing and making lots of noise – silence is no longer golden — so people use their iPods to bring music to their ears so they can concentrate on their work and not the noise.
    Most people, however, use their iPods for pure listening pleasure and many use their iPods as their only music station and plug them into sophisticated sound systems.

  25. Nicola —
    Oh, no, they’re definitely for listening to music.
    They can serve as a privatizing wall, though. I wear mind during the day inside and outside the house just to drown out what I don’t want to hear.
    In many American offices there are people talking and laughing and making lots of noise – silence is no longer golden — so people use their iPods to bring music to their ears so they can concentrate on their work and not the noise.
    Most people, however, use their iPods for pure listening pleasure and many use their iPods as their only music station and plug them into sophisticated sound systems.

  28. Gosh, that’s a sad songbird story, Nicola! I printed out a copy for Janna.
    Isn’t big city light pollution also making stars in the night sky hard to see even in the wild country?

  29. Gosh, that’s a sad songbird story, Nicola! I printed out a copy for Janna.
    Isn’t big city light pollution also making stars in the night sky hard to see even in the wild country?

  36. I had to jump in…
    The way I saw “milky way” on a new moon night on a country road in a 35 below zero temperature is just beyond words….
    There was no moisture in the air – that increased its brightness more!!!
    I saw “shooting stars” in this amazing show for Free!!! 😀

  37. I had to jump in…
    The way I saw “milky way” on a new moon night on a country road in a 35 below zero temperature is just beyond words….
    There was no moisture in the air – that increased its brightness more!!!
    I saw “shooting stars” in this amazing show for Free!!! 😀

  42. Northern Wisconsin…we were coming back from a ‘get lost’ trip!

  43. Northern Wisconsin…we were coming back from a ‘get lost’ trip!

  46. All,
    Just a quick tip — don’t hope (or even try) to pick up a new shuffle (during this crazed shopping season) at “heavyweight” stores such as Target, Best Buy etc. After striking out a whole bunch I found mine today at a “relatively less frequented” Radio Shack.
    Cheers.

  47. All,
    Just a quick tip — don’t hope (or even try) to pick up a new shuffle (during this crazed shopping season) at “heavyweight” stores such as Target, Best Buy etc. After striking out a whole bunch I found mine today at a “relatively less frequented” Radio Shack.
    Cheers.

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