iPod shuffle: more thoughts, wishlist
As you may come to notice, I enjoy spreading out my product reviews over time. It takes more time to get to know a
product than I can possibly do in the span of a few days and cough up one monolithic review. You’ll see monolithic
reviews, too, but certain products lend themselves to new and changing thoughts over time.
The iPod shuffle is one such product. I carry it with me every day and have been using it almost constantly since
it arrived. Some more thoughts:
- I ended up losing the lanyard before I lost the end cap. Go figure.
- Battery life is quite nice. It’s one of the few devices I own that I end up remembering to charge at some point before the battery dies. I can’t tell you the maximum play time I’ve seen because I haven’t yet run the battery completely down, despite leaving it play for hours and hours, all the time.
- The on/off switch in the back is pretty clever, but one drawback: it’s very difficult to manipulate with a gloved hand. All very well when designed in California, not so well when used in upstate NY in the middle of winter! :)
- I wish that, whenever I plugged it in to the machine it’s paired with (my Titanium, e.g.), I would first get an option about whether I want to sync it, or just charge it. I like the sync function and don’t want to turn it off, but if I need to charge it when I’m out and about, it will resync the same playlist that’s already on it - which is bad because the drive my MP3s live on is not connected to my laptop. I end up with a paltry subset of the music that was already on the shuffle and should never have been removed.
- I really really want a function available from my browsers that is “Send to shuffle” - right-click a URL to an audio file and automagically send it to the shadow shuffle to be synced next time I plug it in.
Anybody else have any wishes for iPod shuffle or shuffle integration features?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
JMS in TX said 4:14PM on 6-16-2005
You can charge the Shuffle withoutt syncing if you turn off "open itunes when this iPod is attached"
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barb dybwad said 4:41PM on 10-07-2005
Ahhhh, so awesome!! Thanks so much for the tip!
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brian said 4:18PM on 6-24-2005
"I cant tell you the maximum play time Ive seen because I havent yet run the battery completely down, despite leaving it play for hours and hours, all the time."
Ack! Don't!
http://www.apple.com/batteries/
For any rechargable battery--new, old, iPod, cell phone, laptop, RC car, whatever--it's very important to run it all the way way down before recharging, at least every once in a while, preferrably as often as possible. "Memory-free" or not, all rechargable batteries benefit from this. One possible solution is to leave it on overnight. I've had my iBook for two years and I almost always run it down to the warning before recharging, and the battery is still great. Same with my iPod.
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Brian said 4:14PM on 6-16-2005
I go running with mine and I thought of what would be an increible third party attachment. ( I know this was asking for shuffle ideas, but hear this out.) I would like a small form fitting usb powered stop watch. You can put it right on the bottom of the shuffle in place of the cap. it would only need one button that starts and stops (and hold for reset.) and it would fit to the exact size of the shuffle so it's as if the normal cap was on. If any developers reads this and makes it...you don't have to give me kickbacks, just give me a free one.
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epc said 4:14PM on 6-16-2005
I think the only thing that has really bothered me about the iPod shuffle is that the on/off switch is a piece of crap. Very hard to use and it feels cheap. If Apple added some raised/depressed bumps or lines so it would be easier to move, the device would be close to perfect for that I use it for. This was something that I noticed immediately upon opening, surprised it got through QA.
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Sharon said 4:14PM on 6-16-2005
Barb, you hit two of my three big complains (the switch and the charging without synching). With respect to telling it not to open itunes, how does that help if you, like me, always have iTunes running?
The third point is that, it would be nice if you could set it to delete music as needed when using as a data drive. It would be annoying if I had a sudden business emergency, had the 1 GB Shuffle, full of music, sitting in my purse, and couldn't use it because I couldn't download iTunes onto a client's computer in order to delete the music. I have set aside about 300 MB for that purpose, but given that I expect to use it for data infrequently, I'd rather have that space available for music.
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Bruce McFadden said 4:14PM on 6-16-2005
How about a pedometer attachment for the shuffle? It could track steps, and automatically sync this info back to the computer. This data could then be views on daily, weekly, monthly and yearly graphics and other info derived such as caloric output per n unit/time ... this would be a "killer" app for the shuffle as the majority of exercisers / gym bunnies seem to be buying iPods.
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Chris said 4:14PM on 6-16-2005
I would love to be able to put albums i have just added up the top instead it goes into alphabetical order and if the album starts with a middle letter there is no way you can find it easy.
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mark friedlander said 4:14PM on 6-16-2005
Sharon you could easily remove all the music till your next synch. i think this line below if entered into Terminal would do it.
rm -r /volumes/insert ipod name here/iPod_Control/Music/F*
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Sharon said 4:14PM on 6-16-2005
Mark,
You're presuming I'd have access to a Mac. I presume that if I did have access to a Mac, I'd also have access to iTunes, and there would be no problem. While I live on my iBook at home, I have yet to come across a Mac at a client's office (I'm an attorney).
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Dennis said 4:14PM on 6-16-2005
I love my shuffle, but one thing that really bugs me is that it can only be tied to one computer (e.g. iTunes). My main machine is at work, and it has attached to it all my music, when I get home it would be nice to plug my shuffle into my powerbook, and be able to play music from it over airtunes, like I do with my ipod. However I can not since after plugging in my shuffle to my powerbook it needs to blow away the contents of my shuffle before it will let me use it with my other machine. What the %$&@? I paid for this music, I should be able to *use* it as I see fit.
Please someone comment if I am missing something here b/c I have tried everything.
Dennis
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