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Product: Flash based MP3 player

Developer: Apple

Minimum Requirements: USB port (some computers require either the optional iPod shuffle Dock or a USB cable extender (sold separately)), Mac OS X v10.2.8 or Mac OS X 10.3.4 and later (Mac OS X 10.3.6 or later recommended for use with low-power USB ports)

Retail Price: $99.00 (512MB); $149.00 (1GB)

Availability: Out now

I've been a huge fan of iPods since they first came out (I bought the original 5GB the first day they were available). I loved the idea of having all my songs on one device, ready for any mood I might be in. Back when that first iPod came out, the major MP3 players of the day were flash memory based and held a pathetic one or two hours of music. Having days of music in your hand just sounded awesome. Of course, 5GB soon proved inadequate and I eventually upgraded to a 30GB model.

But in recent years, my love of iPod has waned. Mostly, the iPod is just too big and heavy (and expensive) for me to carry it with me everywhere. I don't have a long commute (I work from home), and I have other ways of getting music to my stereo so I don't use iPod at home much. On long trips the hard drive based iPod is ideal, but I don't travel that much and for my lifestyle I find that I rarely use it any more. (I use it more as a portable hard drive than as a music player.) Also, on long trips I have my laptop with me (loaded with digital music) so the iPod is almost redundant.

It's frustrating, because many times I find myself somewhere with some time to kill and I wish I had brought my iPod with me, but of course I left it at home. An iPod isn't much use if you don't have it with you!

When I first heard of the iPod shuffle, I wasn't impressed. It seemed a step backward. While I loved the reasonable price and the tiny size, 120 songs seemed limited and the lack of visual interface a severe limitation. But since I'm a foolish early adopter and technophile, I knew I'd get one the first chance I got. Since this was to be an impulse buy, I didn't order one online because I wouldn't have been able to stand the long wait. So one day I was near an Apple Store and popped in on a whim and sure enough, they had about ten of the half-gig model in stock. I grabbed one.

To my surprise, the iPod shuffle turns out to be my favorite iPod!

Here's what I discovered:

A fully loaded 512MB shuffle holds over 8 hours of music.

For my lifestyle, that's plenty. I don't even like to listen to music for longer than that anyway, something I discovered with my hard drive based iPods. Even driving across the country I found myself getting bored with non-stop music and switching to talk radio. So the amount of music a shuffle holds is more than enough. It provides a nice variety without being overwhelming.

Size does matter.

The iPod shuffle is so small and light you really can carry it with you everywhere. That alone is priceless. I also found that the shuffle's so light I carry it around the house, listening to music a lot more. A few reviews have actually criticized the small size by saying the shuffle would be easy to lose, but I haven't lost a thumb drive yet, and those are even smaller than the shuffle. If you're the type that loses keys and stuff, though, you might keep that in mind. (Even if you do lose a shuffle, it's not as bad as losing an expensive hard drive iPod!)

Random is fun.

The lack of visual interface turns out to be a plus. Using iTunes' AutoFill to randomly fill a shuffle with music from your library is like creating your own radio station; when listening you don't know what's next, but, since it's from your library, you'll probably like it. Even after I got my original hard drive based iPod I found myself listening to the radio, and that puzzled me. Why listen to the radio when I've got all my songs in my hand? But the randomness of the radio broadcast was pleasing—not knowing what song was coming next was cool. The iPod shuffle gives you the same feeling of excitement and potential. Of course if you are more particular, you can load the shuffle from specific playlists or specify exactly which songs are installed.

The unknown is interesting.

While I was prepared for randomness with the iPod shuffle, I had not thought about a more significant problem with not having a display: you have no way of knowing who is singing a particular song. With my display-based iPod I can simply look to see who the artist is; with the shuffle, there's no way to know. At first this was annoying and frustrating. I'd hear a song from my own library and be biting my tongue trying to figure out who this familiar-but-not-familiar artist was! Then I'd scour my iTunes library, trying to find the song in question to satisfy my curiosity. It turns out, this mystery song business creates excitement and interest in music that I haven't experienced in a long time. It's a delightful way to rediscover your own music library! And since you can search just the shuffle's music, it's not really that difficult to find a particular song if you really need to do so.

Less required accessories.

Since the shuffle simply plugs into a USB port, you don't have to carry a connector, Dock, case, remote, etc., but it's still fully functional. Granted, you do need headphones and the optional USB power adapter might be needed if you won't be near a computer, but no matter what, the shuffle's requirements are less than a bigger iPod. I have a whole bag of iPod accessories! For me, if I'm going somewhere longer than the 12-hour battery life, I'm most likely going to have my laptop with me, so power's not a problem.

Of course the shuffle's not perfect. I did find a few negatives:

Recharging takes too long.

The shuffle recharges to 80% in two hours, 100% in four. That's a long time for such a small device. I'd like to see a fast charge adapter made available, one that could fully charge it in an hour (or less). Combined with the poor battery indicator (see below) which doesn't tell you if the shuffle's fully charged or not, you probably want to charge the shuffle before you head out the door—but two hours is much too long for people on the go.

Uploads are slow.

Filling a shuffle takes a while, especially with USB 1.1 (unfortunately the only option on my old PowerBook). While I didn't time it, it seemed to take as much time to fill my 512MB iPod shuffle as it would take to copy my entire 10GB music collection to my FireWire iPod (several minutes). This probably wouldn't be a problem with a faster USB 2.0 connector.

The battery indicator is inadequate.

While I was impressed that the shuffle comes with an indicator of battery life, it only has three modes: green (charged), yellow (low battery), and red (battery exhausted). Unfortunately, the green light does not tell you if the shuffle has 12-hours or 2 minutes left. I checked it before one song and it was green. After the song it was yellow, and after the next song, red. Not much of a warning! A better system would be a series of lights like on PowerBook batteries to indicate how full the battery is or isn't.

The battery's not replaceable.

All rechargeable batteries have a limited recharge life; since the shuffle's battery is not user-replaceable, that pretty much guarantees the shuffle will only live for a year or two. That's not great. Even worse, because of the limited information from the battery indicator, most people will probably get in the habit of recharging their shuffle every day or two—just in case it's low—and that will shorten its life-span.

Despite a few flaws, the shuffle has a lot going for it. The primary advantages, of course, are the small size and price. At $100, the shuffle's much cheaper than the $200-$400 iPods. Its primary competition is the iPod mini which holds almost ten times the songs for only double the price. But the mini's considerably bigger (four times the weight) and doesn't hold an entire library of songs like the full-size iPods. My feeling is that those interested in the mini are more concerned about physical size than song library size, and the shuffle will be adequate for their needs.

For my part, I found the shuffle to be a delightful change from iPods with displays. With my hard drive iPod I wasted hours of time trying to put together the perfect playlist. Since all my music was available, I had to sift through thousands of songs trying to find just the right combination for my current mood. Doing that completely killed any spontaneity of the music. Having my entire library available was actually more of a burden than a blessing!

Bottom Line
There's no question that the iPod shuffle is not for everyone. If you have lots of music-listening time on your hands, a huge music collection and are really picky about which songs are played, and don't mind carrying a half-pound brick with you, a hard drive model is probably best. For some, the combination of a shuffle and a larger model would be the best of both worlds.

But for those of us who like music but aren't obsessed with it, the shuffle's the ideal music player. Tiny (less than an ounce in weight), powerful (over eight hours of tunes), and simple, the iPod shuffle's the music player for the masses.

[For an alternative take on the iPod Shuffle, see Kirk Hiner's review.]