Toy Review: iPod Shuffle

Last Friday I got a new toy. I still have my 40GB 4G iPod but I picked up a new 2G iPod Shuffle. I wanted something tiny for the gym. I really do like having ALL my music on the 4G iPod, but often I just listen to podcasts and for this the iPod Shuffle is perfect. It holds 1GB which is plenty and gets over 12 hours on a charge.

The wearable aspect is wonderful. I just clip it to my shirt. I basically just use the one center button for play/pause. In the car I use the tape adaptor and it's tiny sitting in the center console, and there's no distracting screen.

It's not perfect. There is an on/off button which I've been using, but I now appreciate Steve Job's insistence that the iPod not have an on/off switch. I'm not sure why the shuffle does. The one tiny LED is overloaded and I sometimes miss not knowing how much is remaining on a track.

They made it a little difficult to use with podcasts. When you connect it, iTunes does an autofill from music. If you change the popup to be a playlist of podcasts you'll find nothing is populated. It took some searching of the forums before I found that the shuffle won't autofill with podcasts. I was ready to return it but then found that I can just drag podcasts onto the shuffle and they transfer fine. Now if only this process didn't create duplicates.

I really do like my ER-6 headphones, but now I wish they had a shorter cord. Leave it to Apple to find new ways to make you want new accessories.

If you like really small, I think the shuffle is a great 2nd iPod. The Nano is certainly easier to use and still small and a better choice for your only iPod. The shuffle's size puts it in the category of jewelry and it makes a great 2nd iPod. Now I'll have to start going to the gym regularly again.