A Brief History about the ipod :
It was January 2001 when Apple came out with iTunes, a software that could convert audio CDs into compressed digital audio files. Work then started on the first ever ipod and it took just an incredible 6 months of development before Apple released the first ipod.
It was a 5GB version, worked only on Mac machines and cost 399 dollars. By end of 2001, Apple had already sold close to 125, 000 ipods. Since then, the ipod has come a long way with support for PCs, increased capacity, smaller size, a mini and cheaper version of ipod and here we are with Apple releasing its smallest low-end version of ipod, called the ipod Shuffle.
The Product
The new ipod Shuffle is an amazingly small, easy-to-use mp3 player that plays mp3 songs in random order. The player can be infact played in 2 modes i.e the shuffle mode where songs are played in random order and a normal mode where songs will be played sequentially.
The player needs to be plugged into the USB port on the computer for transferring songs as well as for recharging the battery. The battery lasts for approximately 12 hours and needs 4 hours complete recharging time. It weighs a mere 22g and hence extremely easy to carry. Now, as far as transferring songs on the ipod is concerned, its again no hassle as well.
The kit comes along with a CD of the iTunes software that supports the ipod shuffle. iTunes is pretty easy to use as well with a lot of flexibility to the way you can maintain your music library or create playlists. In just one click, one can have his playlist copied onto the ipod. There’s even a provision to maintain your ipod playlist when the device isnt connected.
One just needs to create the desired playlist on iTunes and when the ipod is connected, it would automatically update the ipod with the list that you have updated. A playlist can be transferred in the order you have created or in random order. There are a lot of other useful features with iTunes. The ipod shuffle supports the following formats :-
The sound quality of shuffle is fantastic for such a small player. I have even read that the quality can be matched to that from the bigger ipod.
Apart from using the ipod as a mp3 player, it can also be used as an external disk to store non-music files as well. You can set aside a specific amount of space for storing data and it can be extremely useful to transfer data across computers.
The ipod shuffle kit comes along with the now identifiable Apple earphones, a laynard that enables one to hang the shuffle around your neck and the iTunes CD.
The ipod shuffle costs 69 pounds over here in London for a 512MB model and 99 pounds for a 1GB one. It hasnt yet been launched in India but my guess is that it would be priced in the range of 6-7K for a 512MB model and 9-10K for a 1GB one.
The price is what makes this little product absolutely worth buying and its no wonder its disappearing off the stores with increasing demand with each passing day. On a ’’price per memory’’ ratio, the shuffle is very competitively priced and infact cheaper than most of the other brands available in this segment.
The drawback of shuffle is that it lacks a display and one cannot browse the collection on the shuffle. It can be a pain at times if you have to listen to a particular song and if you dont know where the song is placed on the list. Also, it doesnt have a FM tuner which most of the other competitive brands seem to have these days. Still, the Apple brand name and the quality of shuffle for that price makes up for its drawbacks.
My verdict :
Its definitely worth its price. It looks good and it sounds good. To summarize, the ipod Shuffle is ’’Value For Money’’.