Understanding the lights on the 2nd gen Shuffle

Got a new 2G shuffle? Do you know what those status lights indicate? Do you know the difference between the green-orange-orange pattern^[1] and the green-orange-green-orange^[2] one? What about a continuous blinking orange light^[3] or red light^[4]? Apple now has a nice little support article available that explains all the subtleties of the 2nd generation iPod shuffle light patterns and what they mean, complete with easy-to-follow dot patterns. I'm not sure how useful this will be to readers with color-blindness, but for the rest of us it's a pretty fascinating read.

^[1] iPod shuffle error. You're going to have to restore the little bugger.
^[2] Your music was not loaded properly.
^[3] iPod is busy. Do not disconnect.
^[4] Your battery is about to die. Right. Now.
^[5] There is no footnote 5. Does anyone have some chips or pretzels?

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Source: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304510

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Got a new 2G shuffle? Do you know what those status lights indicate? Do you know the difference between the green-orange-orange pattern[1]...

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John Allen

Great to know this. Now if only I could figure out what orange and green are. Ah, the sad life of the colourblind.

November 14 2006 at 11:52 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Scott

I know they've had this crazy which-color-how-many-times scheme since the first shuffle, but does it strike anyone else that an Apple product shouldn't be so cryptic that you need to carry around a card to figure out what it's telling you? Seems like the opposite of user-friendly design to me. I know they wanted it to look cool, but would adding second indicator have killed them?

November 14 2006 at 9:22 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Andre Nacul

Geez, this is all in the manual that comes with the shuffle. A very nice double-sided card.

November 13 2006 at 7:22 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

frequncydip

It is in the manual, it comes with a double sided card that says what all the light mean. I gues this is just to say and now it is also avaiable online....

November 13 2006 at 7:00 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

K. Kwan

... And none of this information is in the owner's manual?

November 13 2006 at 6:14 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Mark Studdock

no chips or pretzels, in fact I am pretty much out of food - I meant to get some while at walmart but I really wanted to fix my car's taillights. (yes, I know - walmart is an even corporation bent on world domination &c)

November 13 2006 at 5:26 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply