Apple iPod Shuffle - 2nd Gen

I got iPod shuffle on Christmas and however I am not fan of Apple products it was nice surprise.It is really small and stylish but whats more important it can house 1GB of your music which is quite a lot if you commute to work, do gym session or run. Its clip comes in handy if you want to attach it. Battery life is fantastic, it needs just once a month and I use it almost everyday. Great stuff. With device you get yourself into the world of iTunes as well which good as for finding podcasts and buying music. (Not cheap though) I like my iPod and I would recommend it to anyone.

iPod unfortunately has its weak points which is its headphones. Quality of sound is just rubbish. That was just easyfix as I changed supplied headphones to plug-ones by Sennheiser.Another area for improvement is iPod registration with different computers (max 5) This causes just a headache and fact that music you bought can not be played anywhere else is just stupid.What happens if you forget to deactivate PC at your previous work. You may run out of activations soon then. This needs to be fixed as well as mp3 format should be enabled for iPods.

As a source of music for running Apple iPod Shuffle v2 is hard to beat - incredibly small and light. I run the cord from the headset inside my running vest which keeps it out off the way, and the shuffle goes clipped to my pocket. Battery life seems OK although with no gauge i recharge pretty regulalrly to avoid running out of power half way through a run.

Apple iPod Shuffle is excellent.......but sound quality should have been better

First, the Apple iPod Shuffle v2 build quality and design are unrivalled.Second, its minute size is practical.Battery life is 12 hours (amazing for a such a small device)The smaller memory capacity (1GB or 2GB) is sensible for the concept behind this player: you put your favourite songs on it only and shuffle them with i-tunes beforehand or with the random function on the player itself (push play 3 times). A screen on a player this size is pointless -- it would only drain the battery. With your favourite 240 (max) songs on it, if you're not in the mood for a particular song, simply skip to the next song or Shuffle!The sound quality is superb: crystal clear treble and deep bass are produced well by the earpods included, which don't share your music with others in the room either!Leave the docking station plugged into your PC's USB port and charge the unit whenever you're not using it, such is the nature of Li-on batteries (you don't have to run them down completely before charging them).

Very good get one! Although I only really got mine for travelling around, to school every day, a 2 mile bike ride there and 2 miles back. If you want an MP3 player with a screen then get an iPod nano or 30gb iPod video or whatever as iTunes is very helpful and easy.

HAPPY LISTENING!

I got the iPod Shuffle 2nd generation purely for using at the gym so I don't have to put up with the usual nonsense other patrons listen to. I got the Shuffle in green as there was nothing else but pink available. It is incredibly small in the flesh, even though I had often spied it in the shops and gazed through the plastic packaging with lustful eyes.

The Shuffle is all metal and feels solid in the hand and heavier than I expected. It synced with my Mac Mini with all the efficiency I expected (although it will work with Windows, my previous PC was Win XP and it worked fine with iTunes) and within minutes I had a handful of albums thrown onto it. My MP3's are always ripped at 192kbps and you can tick an option when putting music onto the Shuffle to convert the selection to 128kps AAC. This is a payoff between high quality audio and small file size to cram more tunes onto the Shuffle. I find the quality acceptable for the gym but beware, it takes a while to convert the tracks as its not a case of just moving them across. Anyway, the quality is okay, I use Sennheiser CX300's with the Shuffle and they are a damn fine set of headphones. I listen to an eclectic variety of music and the Shuffle does it justice.

The only fault I could mention is that there is a low level hum or hiss audible in track gaps or areas of silence. I have read that a lot of Shuffles have this and when the music kicks in to any level it totally disappears. Annoying but only a minor niggle.

The transfer process is very versatile with iTunes. It is a bit boring to bang on about software (this ain't what you buy a Shuffle for) but users of iTunes will know what a fantastic piece of software it is. You can transfer tracks from certain playlists in your library, picking higher rated tunes first, autofill the Shuffle randomly each time you dock it or drag tracks across manually. The process is user friendly, non-intimidating and a good way to fine tune your music. You will be looking at iTunes a lot, it is the only clue as to what tracks you have in the Shuffle and stats RE remaining storage space etc.

The 'shuffle' feature is something I never used on my full size iPod as its buried away in a menu but I use it all the time on my Shuffle. Its really quite cool, I have a few tracks I use to get me through my run on the treadmill then I flick it to shuffle and see what gets thrown my way. A handy feature that I had previously thought of as a gimmick.

The Shuffle is a difficult product to review, it is a music player and there is little more to say than that. It has been stripped back (and then some) to the absolute basics of what an MP3 player is. Some people are saying its more an experience rather than a valid product, I disagree but it is not far from the truth. Yet again Apple have come up with a product for which I had no previous need and somehow it has become indispensable.

If you partake in any kind of fitness activity this product is a must buy.

A loud hissing background noise, especially with good quality in-ear phones makes the shuffle all but impossible to listen to. I had it replaced twice but all three suffered the exact same problem. If you use the earphones that come with it and only use it in noisy environments this won't be much of a problem, but with better earphones the noise was audible even when cycling. Since the player has no obvious up or down, you never know whether you are turning the volume up or down, or going forward or back a track. There is no possibility to set the equalizer, even though I understand the chip has the capability - this could easily have been implemented in software (iTunes).

I eventually returned mine and got my money back.

It is an overall decent purchase but I suggest for paying the extra $90 or so for the nano is a much better purchase as you can get the screen and will be able to select specific songs as well as hold more too.

Got this in the States last year. WOW! Think it's a fantastic system. I didn't want to be another ipod person, but it really is great. I have so much music on HDD that to have a system which I can pull music onto is good. I got this as a replacement to my old MP3 player (which some one put between their legs while on the M25,on a motorbike!).

There are a couple of downsides;

1 - you need the apple iTunes to transfer the music. Yes, MP3 can be directly transferred as if the iPod is a usb drive, but it doesn't play the music.

2 - you have no idea who is singing sometimes!

I like the feature through iTunes to autofil the shuffle with songs - then I can hear songs I've not heard for years!

The sound quality is so good through this. I don't use the iPod headphones, I have some sound reduction headphones of my own. The volume does not have to be loud to hear great music. There is no graphic equaliser, so that'll be a bad side too.

Haven't yet run out of battery on the go - the battery lasts for 12 hours, and I have about 250 songs on it at the moment.

I would recommend it for a small, hidden easy to use digital music player.