Apple iPod Shuffle user reviews (512MB)

1.5 stars

"Apple's iPod rip-off reaches new lows" on May 31, 2005 by sleepydad

Pros: Sleek style and simple operations

Cons: One hundred bucks for the replacement battery

Summary: Let me preface this review by saying that I'm an avid Apple/Macintosh user. I own two Macintosh computers and tons of Macintosh periperals. That having been said ... I have a HUGE beef with this and other iPods that, had I known prior to purchasing, I would not have wasted a hundred bucks. Apple has put it's own battery, warrantied for one year with the option to purchase an extended warranty, in the iPod. You MUST send your iPod to Apple for the battery to be replaced. Bad enough, but you haven't heard the price yet -- $99. Yes, you spend $99 for the iPod then you have to buy a new battery within a one to two year span for $99, then another battery, then .. you get the picture. And, you have to send it to Apple to have the new battery installed meaning that you will be without your iPod for a week or two. Could it be any more inconvenient?! Buy any other brand of player than Apple. I have a Rio that I purchased for myself last year, and LOVE it! Tons of features (including replaceable AAA batteries available at your local drugstore or supermarket) for a few bucks more than this rip-off piece of garbage.

1.5 stars

"Shuffle didnt meet my Expectations" on July 16, 2005 by bonghodrum

Pros: Creative AutoFill feature, Good pricepoint, and stylish look.

Cons: Worst designed Apple product that I have ever purchased. Missing some essentials like a power adapter. Forget Using it to listen to Audible Books.

Summary: I am a gadget freak and I normally respect Apple products because they are well designed. Just look at the elegant Powerbook power adapter and you can see that Apple's product development team puts a tremendous amount of thought into every design detail.

That's why I had pretty high expectations for the Ipod Shuffle. Afterall I've owned several hard-drive based Ipods, and was accustomed to their brilliant user interface. The Ipod is not as feature rich as some of the other MP3 players, but it is unmatched in usabilty, design, and style, which makes it such a wonderful product.

However the Shuffle dissapoints because of its appalling lack of usability. I hate it not because of its simplicity, but because of its poor design.

I have four major annoyance with the Ipod shuffle which I find to be inexcusable.

First, The Shuffle was designed to be charged via a powered USB port. This may sound okay to some people, but apple really should include a power adapter at the very least. I dont want to keep a computer on for hours each day just to charge it.

Second, you can not sync songs from 2 different computers onto the shuffle. If you try to sync the shuffle to a second computer, all the music content on the shuffle will be erased before allowing any song to sync to it. No other Ipod has this limitation. Apple needs to get rid of this restriction.

Third, You cannot listen to the Shuffle while it is charging. It's unbelievable that Apple didnt envision that some of their users would want to do this.

Finally, listening to audible files on the Shuffle is pure torture. Apple has to come up with a better way of forwarding and rewinding through these long files. The forward and rewind functions are incredibly slow. I hope to see this fixed.

I like the simplicity of the Ipod Shuffle. I also really like the Autofill feature, where I-tunes can fill your shuffle with random songs from your music library if you want it to. I like the dimensions of it as well. I just hate the annoying details that Apple has completely overlooked. I like the Shuffle in concept, but its production is a subpar offering from Apple.

3.5 stars

"Simple, small, random??" on February 24, 2005 by Cnet_Jin

Pros: The design is simple...simpler than other iPods.. SMALL...about the size of a small gumpack! Great for people who look at the price...only 150$$ for 1GB great deal!!

Cons: the only way to listen to your music: shuffle..and on top of that you can't pick what song you want to listen to..you have to search through all your songs to get to your favorite song

1.0 stars

"You can get better for the money" on April 23, 2005

Pros: No USB cable necessary

Cons: No screen, unresponsive controls

Summary: The Shuffle is Apple's latest attempt at milking money from the wannabe fashion-conscientious and the slow of mind.

If you think getting a $100 flash player will give you the same prestige as a $300 HDD player from the same brand, think again.

$100 may seem like a good price-point, but remember that this player doesn't have a screen so you can't see what you're playing. Furthermore, the controls got hard to press after a few weeks.

The Shuffle doesn't have a screen, so forget being able to tell someone what you're listening to if you don't have the world's greatest memory.

Last thing, the stock Apple earbuds leave something to be desired. They are uncomfortable in my ears, and don't sound anywhere as good as a pair of Shures. Well okay, that's a bit unfair. Stock earbuds are never that great.
Still, these white earbuds will have people mistaking you for an I-Pod owner, and downtown your chances of getting mugged are high.

The Sony NW-E105 is a better bargain for $100. It has a screen, too - which is always a good thing.