So, Friday afternoon, my 1GB iPod Shuffle arrived. It's nice and I like the interface. I just wanted to note a few things that I haven't seen mentioned elsewhere. Everybody has been talking about how insanely light the iPod Shuffle is, so much so that I was afraid it would feel too light. I was worried it would not feel substantial, but rather flimsy because of its light weight. This is not the case. The 'Pod Shuffle has a nice feel to it.
I like the controls. They are rather intuitive like the regular iPod, but easier to navigate without a screen. For example, the Pause/Play button is big in the center, so if you are outside shoveling snow with your iPod Shuffle zipped up underneath your coat and your neighbor shouts something at you, you can just sort of push in the middle of your chest, and pause the music, so you can shout back, "WHAT?!" and listen to the answer.
Also worth note, I never would've taken my regular iPod out in the snow with me. It is simply too big of an investment and I would be too worried it would be damaged. In comparison—and this is where the iPod Shuffle really shines for me—the iPod Shuffle is constructed in such a small wear-around-the-neck sort of way that it is perfect for this sort of thing. No worries and less chance of damaging it, and even if something bad were to happen, it's priced low enough where it could be replaced with relatively little pain. It's the disposable iPod (not really).
It has a hold function, surprisingly. You have to hold down the Pause/Play button for three seconds to initiate Hold. A little orange light blinks three times to let you know that Hold is turning on, and then holding the button for 5 more seconds turns it off and this is indicated by a blinking green light.
Apple packages it with a little credit-card-sized information / instruction card with all the different control functions. Very nice. They should have this little card for all the iPod models.
Go with the 1GB. I can see this was the right move. If I'd bought the 512MB, I would've had a difficult time choosing how much space to give to songs and how much to files. As is, the 1GB is like 2 in one: it's a 512MB MP3 player and a separate 512MB USB flash drive.
Plugging the iPod Shuffle into my USB port blocks a port on either side of the iPod Shuffle on my Powerbook. Some people are going to be very annoyed by this. Just invest in a USB extension cord.
The sound quality is really good and it has a good internal amp. I actually like that there is no iPod-software-brain playing interference between the raw track and the output from the headphones as there is with the built-in equalizer and sound check functions on the iPod. I hate the regular iPod's equalizer. It's there, so I think I should use it, but if I use it, I feel like I have to continually change it for different songs. Really annoying. The iPod Shuffle eliminates this dilemma for me.
And finally (at least until I get a chance to read things over later and update this post), there is a very slight noise between tracks. I'm not sure if it is the internal workings of the device, or if it is the sound cutting out for a millisecond, but I notice it.
UPDATE: Two other thoughts occurred to me. 1. Unlike the 4G iPods, the iPod Shuffle does not auto-pause when the headphones are accidentally unplugged. This is a mistake, I think, and a feature that I would say is more needed in the iPod Shuffle, considering its design, than in any other iPod. 2. There is a little plastic slider on the headphones so you can choke the slack up to your chin. Is this a feature of non-iPod Shuffle headphones that I just happen to have missed?
*x-posted on Sample the Web
