Unpacking the iPod Shuffle
posted Jan 12th 2005 12:05PM
So immediately after the keynote finished, fellow
Engadgeteer Lenn Pryor and I decided we had to have iPod
Shuffles RIGHT NOW! It just made sense for the kind of iPod users we are to snap them up. I have too much music on
my iPod (25 Gigs, actually) to pick what I want to play, but with so much music on there, shuffle never comes out quite
right. Plus the iPod is too big, and too susceptible to crashing from being shook up for my active lifestyle, and so I
mainly only use it only trips these days. I figured the Shuffle was the answer to all my prayers — and if it
wasn't the 99 bucks wouldn't kill me.
But getting one was like the tasks of Hercules. First we had to fight our way out of the Moscone Center — since we
watched the keynote downstairs in the press room, we had to wait for the throngs to make the mad dash down to the show
floor before we could get up to the exit, and we were worried they would be sold out by the time we could make it up
the stairs and down the street. Then we had to persevere a long line out the door of the Apple Store and around the
corner. Our patience paid off the minute we hit the door, when the black clad employees were walking down the line with
crates full of the precious green boxes. We had nothing to worry about, Apple had planned for the high demand. Not that
there’ll be any left by tomorrow or anything, because while we just bought two each (one for ourselves, one for a
special someone), others were buying six to 10 of them obviously expecting to eBay them for fun and profit.
When we got to the register, our new main man Jesse hooked us up, and seconds later we were out the door, Shuffles in
hand.
We patiently kept our mitts off the box, biting our nails instead until we could get back to a good camera to bring
you these pictures.
Yes, you can turn the shuffle off with the flick of a switch if your playlist is in perfect order.
Some things never change, Apple still reminds us “Don’t steal music.”
The new Autofill dialog. We love this feature.
Now that it’s all charged up and we’ve had a chance to use it, here’s a few initial impressions:
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We love Autofill. It makes the shuffle even more random since you never even know what will wind up on your Shuffle. Sure, you can narrow it down to music from a playlist, or do it all manually, but where’s the fun in that?
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We’re spoiled by Firewire. The USB 2.0 moved the songs onto the iPod Shuffle pretty quickly, but it’s not the song per second speed of the regular iPod over Firewire.
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Apple claims 120 songs probably fit on the 512 MB version. We managed to fit 110, but we have lots of 160 and 192 kbps mp3 files.
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This thing is tiny — and light. You’ll never feel it around your neck or in your pocket. It’s like a stick of gum, not a pack. Just be sure not to leave it in your jeans when you wash them.
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The controls take a second or two to get used to, then you never think about them again.
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The sound is great. It’s easily as loud and seems to be more clear with better bass response than our 3G iPod.
wow.. I've thought about getting one ever since I first saw pictures of it yesterday during the keynote, now I'm sure I want one, even though I already have one. I want an iPod for listening to music between classes and such, and not needing to baby it as much as I do to my iPod
SO.... this has probably been answered somewhere, but it appears it can work with another iPod on the existing system, yes?
have you tried the feature to make everything 128 aac for transfer to shuffle only? with that how many songs?
excellent initial impressions, is this the first weg review?!?! I think so, I havent seen another. the comment about the sound quality really surprised me, I think im going to order one ASAP. thanks guys!!
So what was with the free music for your iPod? Was it a cd or an iTunes gift cert, or just a flyer for "free music Tuesdays"?
excellent initial impressions, is this the first weg review?!?! I think so, I havent seen another. the comment about the sound quality really surprised me, I think im going to order one ASAP. thanks guys!!
have you tried the feature to make everything 128 aac for transfer to shuffle only? with that how many songs?
so, do you have to install the software? can you not load music simply by drag-and-drop? does drag-and-drop only work for music?
Yep, those extra units have gone straight to ebay. Even better, I think someone photoshopped this one pink to make people a little more desperate ("A limited edition pink one? I'll pay $300!").
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=67839&item=5743976613&rd=1
Sad.
Does any one foresee any problems with the USB cap due to wear-n-tear?
Long time reader - first time poster:
I want one now. I have a mini but this thing is perfect for jogging and at the office when I don't need/want the whole library. I wonder if this could ultimately reduce my need for my mini?
Not only am I buying one but I am buying shares in apple like I should have done last year when I bought my mini...
At first I was like: "WTF, who wants an iPod without a screen?" but the more I think about it the more it makes sense... I have my iPod Photo packed to the gills with tons of songs and pictures, but sometimes I'm only out for a short while and carrying around the regular sized iPod can be a bit cumbersome. And when I'm at work, I normally have a 128MB flash drive (which is already kinda cramped) on a lanyard around my neck... I could one up as a second iPod and have a few hours of music with me and more room than my flash drive, wear it around my neck and hardly know its there... Oh boy, off to the apple store i go! and Jobs is right, i almost always listen to my ipod on shuffle!
edit to #5 -- sorry, i meant, does drag-and-drop only work for data files?
Because we are all moronic consumers...
First, Steve Jobs tells us, you need a better portable music player. Yeah, there are portable MP3 players out there already, but look, ours look so much cooler. And we go, yeah! Even though there are cheaper stuff out there, looking cool is just worth it.
Then he goes, oh, the iPod might be too big, so here's a smaller one, and we go, yeah, now that you mentioned it, it was all too much anyway, and the iPod mini has different colors. That's cool and we must have it.
Then they go, hey, but here's a U2 version, and here's some other version....and we go, yeah, collect them all, trade it with your friends...
They they go, well, the iPod and iPod mini was just too much music and you really didn't need all that, and who needs to be able to see the titles you are playing anyway? And don't you really want random shuffling to keep the music fresh? And we go, yeah, why did we ever live with those things that we didn't need anyway? This iPod shuffle thing is what we want, and plus it looks cool!
(And, in Apple's business plans for the iPod shuffle, there will be something in there about setting the price to capture the "novelty" buyer revenue. Exactly for those people who say, hey, it's ONLY $99, how wrong can you go anyway?)
here's the real question. if you turn it off on pause or mid-song (or podcast), does it pick up where you left off when you turn it back on?? if not, can you fast forward??
craig, yes drag abd drop is for data files only, you have to load itunes for music.
Answering questions:
Yes you can hook up more than one ipod on one computer. I've had at most 4 plugged in to mine at the same time.
The free music for ipod is refering to the weekly music downloads on the itunes store. So its free, but only once a week.
hum looks pretty ok! I still think that now apple is trying to build on the succes of the ipod brand. The no screen thing is killing. might get one tho.
what type of files r drag and drop?
Is it "audible-ready" like the ipods and minis, i.e. will it work with content from www.audible.com?
Answering another question:
It should, regular Ipods do that, in exception to docking it (at which point it stops what was playing b4), you reset it, or the battery dies :)
Personally I'd still rather a screen. Yes, the shuffle idea is neat, but trying to find a track (or even a set of tracks) in your 120 song collection with no indication of where you are is going to get annoying very very quickly.
Plus if it is on shuffle, sometimes I might actually want to know what it is that is playing. My memory isn't so great that I recognise and remember every song in my library.
The USB 2.0 transfer is slower than Firewire?
Must not be taking full advantage of it's faster speed.
well, i agree it "should".
just wondering if it does.
agreed, off may actually mean off in this case, hopefully they thought about this with all their 1337 research :)
People complain about no screen who cares. Second. This thing is great for those with an active lifestyle and don't want to take their iPods with them while say Mt. Biking or skiing. The iPod shuffle would work perfectly for these people. I'm getting one for that purpose alone for when I'm out being rugged and don't want to break my iPod Photo. When you're Mt. Biking you don't really need to look at a screen so who really cares that it doesn't have one. same when you are skiing and it's in your pocket or around your neck. If it breaks You also don't have to worry as much as they are not very expensive. I'd rather break one of these than my iPod Photo. No screen is not a big thing IMO.
Macs are really slow with USB2, see http://www.barefeats.com/usb2.html
It also can be that the 'shuffle can't write the files as fast as USB2 can transfer them.
Hrmmm... Interesting, I own a 40gig and a mini. I will (as a geek collector) more than likely walk into my local vendor and pick one of these up when it is available as well. At that price point, the marketing guys at Apple know that they have me. Even if I only keep a couple songs on that and use it as a flash drive its still a good deal for me. It just looks cooler than my current lexar flash drive, so that a winner in my books. As for music..
I like having the screen and seeing what is playing. I am also the type of person who often listens to half a song and gets bored and then searches through the thousands of songs on my ipod and makes on the go PL's all the time, so the screen to me is important.
My 40 goes everywhere, my car, my house, my office, it is attached to me. I like it. The Shuffle with be just a novelty. But my GF may like one... Damn, she's costing me money again...
#12:
Don't worry about it, dude.
I still hates apples, but I can't keep away from these stories!
re: #18 - nope usb 2.0's theoretical maximum through put is just that theoretical. because the computer has to handle data flow it rarely meets max. firewire on the other hand is a complete device to device transfer. it maintains a constant 400Mbps.
Can you fastforward through a track?
PLEASE PLEASE - Can you guys comment on how this thing works as a portable storage device too? How easy is it to size each portion?
I'm assuming you would have to "tell it" how much space to use for music and for other data.
So do I need to install iTunes to use this, or can I just drag and drop from my computer?
QUESTION: HOW DOES THE USB END CAP FASTEN ONTO THE iPOD SHUFFLE?
If someone who has actually handled one of these could comment, I would much appreciate it.
The only reason I am remotely hesitant about buying the 1 gig version of this is that the lanyard from which the unit hangs appears to go through the end cap rather than through the unit itself. If it does not snap extremely securely, I would be very worried about losing my investment. (Also, aside from losing the unit, I would also worry about losing the end cap. I lost one of the little rubber earpieces on my Sony in-ear headphones and they wanted $10 to send me a replacement. Hopefully Apple will not gouge its customers and will offer replacement end caps at a reasonable price. You know some will get lost.)
Thanks for any information you can provide.
My bf gave me a shuffle as a present yesterday and I've been playing with it all day.
I like the appearance and being able to use it with iTunes, but the player's not very durable. It detached from the laynard during my morning jog and it's VERY VERY easily scratched! The sound's so-so at best, but bearable from a player of this size.
I'm thinking of ebaying this and just sticking to my 3G iPod. It's a cute device but it's honnestly not that functionable.
My bf gave me a shuffle as a present yesterday and I've been playing with it all day.
I like the appearance and being able to use it with iTunes, but the player's not very durable. It detached from the laynard during my morning jog and it's VERY VERY easily scratched! The sound's so-so at best, but bearable from a player of this size.
I'm thinking of ebaying this and just sticking to my 3G iPod. It's a cute device but it's honnestly not that functionable.
Chris: In iTunes' prefs for the Shuffle there's a slider that has "More music" on one end and "More data" at the other end so you adjust it (check Apple's website for the pic). Now that I think about it, it is formatted for FAT32 out of the box?
I have a phone with an SD slot. It also has an MP3 player application on the phone. I went and bought a 1Gb SD card and loaded up about 200 MP3's on it. If I want to have a screen, I just flip open the phone and navigate to the song I want to play. If I don't want to have a screen, I just use the external controls on my phone to navigate my music selection. Oh, and another thing, the MP3 application also supports "Shuffle". Now, why would I want this new iPod?
From what I've heard, the cap has some spring loaded balls that "snap" into the little squares on the USB connector to hold it securely. The lanyard string runs through one of these caps, but you have to actually tug it a bit to get it off of the connector.
Based on Apple's new commercial ad and hype about its use, I think they've thought a bit about this lanyard connection and unless you're jerking it around on the end of the lanyard alot, you probably won't have the device pop off.
@jan:
512MB = 524288 kilobytes
mp3's/aac's @ 128kb/s
524288kb/128kb = 4096 seconds
4096seconds/60sec= 68.2666667 minutes
So about 70min of muziek. :)
And to Jerri, who had it fall off the lanyard while running - how much bouncing up and down do you do when you run? I think the armband accessory they have proposed selling is the intended means of wearing the shuffle during a jog/run.
You could always tuck it inside your shirt or something, though, as that would probably stop it from jouncing off of the lanyard.
#29: Your boyfriend gives it to you as a gift, well before anyone else even sees one, and you want to eBay it? For shame!!
Wait - and where do we get one of these?
@Kimmo:
I believe 128 kb/s is kilobits/sec, not kilobytes/sec. So multiply your 524288 kilobytes by 8 to get bits, divide by 128 and you get ~546 minutes of music. An average song of 4 minutes gets you 136 songs for that allocation.
70 minutes is between 15-20 songs. I have a hard time believing anyone would be buying a shuffle for $100 if it only played one album of music. :-)
What about the removable cover for the USB connector -- too easy to lose? I have to imagine we'll see 3rd party replacements for it that somehow attach firmly to the rest of the player. Retractable maybe?
And for those that want a little more feedback from their Shuffle: why not use a mic or text-to-speech app to make a wav file that speaks the playlist name, and import that into iTunes. Make it the first track on the appropriate playlist so the first song tells you what playlist you're listening to. Even if/when you shuffle it's only a couple of 2 second tracks you have to "endure" in between a bunch of songs.
Kimmo: You're wrong. It's 524288 KB storage (kilobytes), but 128 kb/s (kilobit). The correct calculation is:
128 kb/s = 16 KB/s
524288 KB/ (128 kb/s) = 32768 s
32768 s/(60 s/min) = 546 min
546 min / (60 min/hour) = 9.1 hours
So it's a little more than 9 hours.
I dunno about this player. I think if you have purchased a lot of music off iTunes, then this is a good flash based MP3 player for you.
If your music is from ripped CDs, then I think a unit like the Lexar MP3 player ( http://www.lexar.com/mp3/LDP600.html ) is a much better option. The LDP600 has a screen (and shuffle) a FM Transmitter and a FM Tuner which lets you record the music your tuning into. It also has an SD card slot in it so that you can expand it (and of course, havs a library of SD cards for swapping out your music quick). Oh, I just noticed it has a mic for voice recording.
If Apple were to have released the same thing that Lexar has here, it would be all the rage. It is amazing the marketing pull Apple has on people these days. But as it stands, Apple has a very simple MP3 player and suddenly it is the holy grail.
I had a similar reaction to iSight when I had to wonder if the drooling people around me had ever bothered to check out the webcam isle in CompUSA. Go figure.
My dream, when I grow up, is to release a product similar in nature to products that are already on the market, over price it, and claim it is the best thing in the world and then sell millions of them.
I concur with the additional bass response - I think they've beefed up the earbuds a tad on newer models... The old one's break so wasy.