SPeedY_B
I may actually be insane.
- Joined
- 31 Mar 2002
- Messages
- 15,807
Well it arrived 
Click on the images for a bigger version, or view them in a Gallery
It's much nicer being able to put the Shuffle in my pocket (or round my neck) than my 3G 40GB iPod, on the trip to work every morning.
Upon first removing the Shuffle from its packaging, I inserted it into the USB port on my keyboard and let iTunes fill it up, blatantly forgetting that this is a USB 1.1 port, that was rather painful, but shows that the device is compatible with USB 1.1 ports, always a plus for those who haven't upgraded yet.
After it had finished sync'ing up, I promptly removed it and placed it into a USB 2.0 port, and re-sync'd again, just because I can, a much more pleasant experience this time.
Un-like the larger iPod, the shuffle has the option to Autofill the iPod's librrary, clicking this button can either replace all of the existing tunes in the playlist, or optionally just fill the remaining space with random selections from your music library (or any other playlist you've created), a very amusing feature which when first used gave me a strange mix of Nustyle hardcore, happy hardcore, hard house, hardstyle, classical, breakbeat, drum and bass, metal and rap. Reminded me just how varied my library actually is.
Again, unlike the larger iPods, the Shuffle also has the option to remain in iTunes even when disconnected.
(Note: Shuffle not connected, yet still in the source list.)
I'm not overly sure why Apple hasn't included the option of doing this for the normal iPod's. As shown in the image above, you can see I have a playlist simply called "iPod" which is what I use to fill my 40GB pod when connected. Having the iPod Shuffle always in my sources list allows me to create a playlist at my leisure without having to have the device connected, then connection is only needed to sync up the files.
On the use perspective, it really can't get any simpler, there's a slider on the back with three positions.
1. Off
2. On / Play
3. On / Shuffle Play
under the slider is a small button to check the battery life, pressing this lights the (very) small LED on the left which indicates whether your battery is in good (green) low (orange) or very low (red) health, obviously no light at all means the battery is dead.
On the flip-side we have the large play button, surrounded by the volume up/down and the next/previous track buttons. The first thing I had to consult the manual for was how to actually activate a 'hold' feature, so the buttons would not be knocked whilst the Shuffle is in my pocket, this is done by simply holding the play button down for ~3-Seconds, an orange LED flashes a few times to indicate you've enabled hold, this changes to green when repeating the process to turn hold off. These same LED's are used to indicate when a button is pressed (green), and when the device is busy (orange + flashing) or just charging (orange).
The headphone socket lies on the top of the device, of course, the Shuffle comes with the trademark white Apple earphones, so you can walk around with that true "Yes, I'm a whore" feeling, or in certain area's the "Oh sh*t, I hope I don't get mugged" feeling.
All in all, it's a very simple device with a very simple concept, which is to load it up with a random selection of tunes from your music library, hit play and stick it in your pocket. For that purpose, it does a very good job.
Any questions etc, post away
Click on the images for a bigger version, or view them in a Gallery
It's much nicer being able to put the Shuffle in my pocket (or round my neck) than my 3G 40GB iPod, on the trip to work every morning.
Upon first removing the Shuffle from its packaging, I inserted it into the USB port on my keyboard and let iTunes fill it up, blatantly forgetting that this is a USB 1.1 port, that was rather painful, but shows that the device is compatible with USB 1.1 ports, always a plus for those who haven't upgraded yet.
After it had finished sync'ing up, I promptly removed it and placed it into a USB 2.0 port, and re-sync'd again, just because I can, a much more pleasant experience this time.
Un-like the larger iPod, the shuffle has the option to Autofill the iPod's librrary, clicking this button can either replace all of the existing tunes in the playlist, or optionally just fill the remaining space with random selections from your music library (or any other playlist you've created), a very amusing feature which when first used gave me a strange mix of Nustyle hardcore, happy hardcore, hard house, hardstyle, classical, breakbeat, drum and bass, metal and rap. Reminded me just how varied my library actually is.
Again, unlike the larger iPods, the Shuffle also has the option to remain in iTunes even when disconnected.
(Note: Shuffle not connected, yet still in the source list.)
I'm not overly sure why Apple hasn't included the option of doing this for the normal iPod's. As shown in the image above, you can see I have a playlist simply called "iPod" which is what I use to fill my 40GB pod when connected. Having the iPod Shuffle always in my sources list allows me to create a playlist at my leisure without having to have the device connected, then connection is only needed to sync up the files.
On the use perspective, it really can't get any simpler, there's a slider on the back with three positions.
1. Off
2. On / Play
3. On / Shuffle Play
under the slider is a small button to check the battery life, pressing this lights the (very) small LED on the left which indicates whether your battery is in good (green) low (orange) or very low (red) health, obviously no light at all means the battery is dead.
On the flip-side we have the large play button, surrounded by the volume up/down and the next/previous track buttons. The first thing I had to consult the manual for was how to actually activate a 'hold' feature, so the buttons would not be knocked whilst the Shuffle is in my pocket, this is done by simply holding the play button down for ~3-Seconds, an orange LED flashes a few times to indicate you've enabled hold, this changes to green when repeating the process to turn hold off. These same LED's are used to indicate when a button is pressed (green), and when the device is busy (orange + flashing) or just charging (orange).
The headphone socket lies on the top of the device, of course, the Shuffle comes with the trademark white Apple earphones, so you can walk around with that true "Yes, I'm a whore" feeling, or in certain area's the "Oh sh*t, I hope I don't get mugged" feeling.
All in all, it's a very simple device with a very simple concept, which is to load it up with a random selection of tunes from your music library, hit play and stick it in your pocket. For that purpose, it does a very good job.
Any questions etc, post away
