by JM Lane

Created on: February 10, 2007   Last Updated: May 27, 2012

Never to be too blinded by brand names, I've never really bought into the iPod hype, I much prefer to look at what a product offers me. It was by sheer luck that I found out about the Shuffle, when I got a chance to have a fiddle with a friends. It seemed so much more appealing than the MPMan that I already owned. So the next day I had ordered one.

So I purchased the 1 GB version, which will hold up to 240 songs, which in a way I thought was disappointing as I like faster, energetic music I have a lot of songs that are shorter than normal, hence they have smaller file size, so when putting them on the shuffle I got less minutes on and more spare MB space than maybe the average.

One of the things that appeals to me about the shuffle is its size - being 4cm long and 2cm wide (with a width of 1cm [including the clip.]) The disadvantage of this is there is no track selection as the shuffles gimmick is that it chooses any track that you put on the player - the good thing with this is that it does keep your music random, which I find does keep the music interesting and non-repetitive. On that point I do find the way it mixes is not random. Usually mixing a few artists from a few CDs in random periods. Also sometimes it does not seem to mix well, as quite a few times I hear a track, then another track or two later, the same track plays again.

The overall of durability I have found for the iPod is pretty good so far. It has flung from my shorts when I have been running, withstanding the concrete and still sounding finding. I have also jumped on it when it fell off again while I was skipping. I don't know how much it can resist water, but it has taken a good sweating from a gym workout, though I wouldn't recommend sticking it in the washing machine to see how much it can take.

As for the special trademark iPod headphones, what can I say but crap utter crap, as they stopped working in one ear after two days. Wasn't going to buy any of there rip-off over priced headphones to replace them either, so I used an old pair instead and they still work fine.

Another one of the features that appealed to me to ditch my old mp3 player - a charger. Before I was constantly changing batteries, which was getting quite expensive for the amount of time I spend listening working out and commuting, so with the Shuffles recharge option I just plug the charger into a USB port in the computer, stick in the iPod and it will start charging. The battery last for about the 12 hours

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>