Apple iPod shuffle 2 GB Green (4th Generation) NEWEST MODEL - get the cheapest ipod

By 

D. Bodington –

  

I just got my new shuffle in the mail today. I needed something for running and dreadmilling when it is too snowy/icy to run outside.
My initial impressions:

Pros
Great little thing (small)
strong clip
easy to use (hooray for buttons!)
simple, multi-position switch on the top lets you play in order or shuffle. Voice over button is easy to use and works well.
Easy to sync (choose playlists, genius playlists, albums, artists, podcasts, etc…)
Looks good (see my notes about online photos at the bottom)
Long (15h) battery life.

EDIT: A “hold” function has been added, just hold the center button to activate and deactivate, good feature. It would be useful if I had just gotten mine, but I learned how to use it without the feature so I don’t end up using hold much.

Cons
None. (As far am I concerned, there are cons like “no screen” and such, but if you order this to get an ipod shuffle, not a nano or other mp3 player, you will not be disappointed. I was not let down at all).

EDIT: After some thought and use, I thought of some cons.
$50 for 2gb is not a great price compared to other mp3 players.
2gb might be limiting to you. This just means you have to choose or let itunes choose what music goes on there carefully.
Because the buttons take up most of the front of the ipod, it can be hard to use the clip while it is turned on without pressing the next button.

Conclusion:
If you know what an ipod shuffle does, need a reasonable music player that syncs with your itunes, and don’t need more. GET ONE!!! I can’t imagine you will be let down.

One last note: From all the photos online, you can’t really tell, bu this is not a matte finish ipod. The finish is shiny, but not mirror-y. And actually, no one will care about this, but the top and bottom are matte silver. It looks good.

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Just ran down to the Apple store yesterday and got one, a few thoughts

Pros:
+Thank god the buttons are back
+The clip has good tension
+Voiceover is actually useful
+Price

Cons:
-no hold function out of the box
-requires iTunes 10
-no equalizer
-build quality is lacking
-usb cord is short
-Applecare costs $30

The iPod shuffle is story with lots of twists, a tragedy, and now they are trying to restore this to it’s original glory. The 2nd generation has a hold function, a long, and quality USB dock and was built like a rock. It was my favorite iPod out of the 10+ I’ve had over the years.

This one is far too small, there’s no room no grip it without hitting the buttons, which would be okay if there was a hold switch, but there isn’t. If you want to grip this thing hard enough to open the clip then you are going to hit the control dial and change songs. The build quality is also lacking, I got it for snowboarding, and I would be very scared in a fall with the new iPod shuffle. It’s too light and feels as if you can depress the body with a hard enough press.

One thing I do like about the new shuffle is the voiceover, it’s not a native ability and needs to be downloaded and synced using iTunes. Fairly straightforward; hit the dedicated button to hear what you are listening to (song name, then artist), hold it to scroll through your playlists and have them read aloud to you as you hit FF or RR, and then press it twice in quick succession to hear the battery level. What I love about it though, is that if you pause and then hit FF or RR it will call out the songs you’re passing though, so you can just find one you want and then hit play. Is it that much better than listening to the first few seconds of the song?…a little, like if you want to hear a certain artist but don’t know every song from them that made it onto your iPod.

All and all it’s a good little player, I’m so glad the design is back, it’s priced well and exceedingly charming, but a few problems, especially the hold switch keep it from being truly great like the second generation was.
——-
A few updates after a week or so of usage and to elaborate on points in original review:

Hold switch: it’s definitely going to be a problem, not enough to return it but enough to negatively affect day to day usage

Durability: the iPod took a hard fall directly on concrete, still works fine but the part where it hit the ground looks like it went through a car wreck

iTunes 10: the hype and hatred against iTunes 10 seems to be misplaced, it’s just another update, however I still don’t like having to update to use the new iPods

USB cord: would have been nice to stick with the old dock, the new cord is 3 inches long, usb on one side and 3.5mm stereo on the other, easily transported but easily lost, doesn’t compliment a desk well

Applecare: I would have gotten Applecare would it have been $20, but at $30 it’s approaching doubling the overall purchase price, it would most likely be best to hold off, and if you ever break it chances are the next iPod shuffle will be out by the time you do

Equalizer: still wish it was there, it could be easily set within iTunes. I will try and see if setting the equalizer of each individual song will help but when listening to the iPod in my car, and CD’s burned using iTunes, the iPod songs have no mid range, the equalizer in the car was the same with each
——-
It seems the hold function has been added with a software update so everything I said about that can only apply to the out of the box firmware
——-

—-Last round of updates—-

The hold function works flawlessly and has alleviated much day to day headache and I’m glad they implemented it in the same way that it was before

Build quality no longer worries me, it’s solid enough for just about anything…I was mistaken because of the low weight

There is no way to adjust the equalizer, you’re stuck listening to your songs flat

There’s a few quirks with syncing and autofill. The easiest way is to sync select playlists and then they will update automatically every time you attach it to the computer, as far as I’ve seen there is no way to dump songs and autofill randomly, at least not easily

Still a good price if you appreciate having an iTunes capable device like I do, really can’t be beat

I haven’t managed to lose the sync cord

Headphones and hardware with iPod remotes work with the shuffle (like Skullcandy’s remotes on their 2010 headphones)

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 Comments (9)

Just to correct some of the previous reviews…the big problem with the 3rd gen shuffle was not that it was “too small” or even that the controls were not on the unit itself, but instead were on the headphone line…the problem was if those controls got even the SLIGHTEST (and I do mean slightest) bit of moisture on them it would totally jack up the shuffle. Now, what kind of activities would most people buy the tiny shuffle mp3 player for versus a nano or standard iPod? Oh, maybe jogging or working out? And what do you do with physical activities like this? That’s right, you sweat! So it doesn’t take a rocket scientiest to see the problem with the 3rd gen shuffle…a problem that should have been seen before they ever even produced it. Just read all the reviews for the 3rd gen and you’ll see that this was not just a minor issue, but a huge one that the majority of the users had to deal with. It is good to see they came to their sense and we can once again use the shuffle during exercise.

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