As good as it gets
The new iPod shuffle will keep you entertained for hours
A TINY DIGITAL music player with a big sound, Apple’s iPod shuffle holds hundreds of songs yet has a footprint of only 29.0x31.6x8.7 mm. Weighing in at a mere 12.5 grams, it has 2 gigabytes of memory and its battery can play music for up to 15 hours on a single charge.
The iPod shuffle is available in blue, pink, silver, gold and space grey as well as red, with part of the proceeds from the red iPod shuffle going to the Global Fund to fight Aids in Africa.
Dressed in a sleek yet solid anodised aluminium casing, the iPod is so small that it has no display. That’s no problem though as once you have learned the controls, they become second nature.
Those controls include volume up and down buttons, play/pause button, previous/rewind button and next/fast forward button and they sit in a circle on one side of the player.
There’s also a VoiceOver button and three-way switch for the power and play-mode.
Flip the three-way switch to the middle and the shuffle will play music in order. Flip it to the left and the music is played randomly or flip it to the right to turn the player off.
Press the VoiceOver button and the iPod will tell you the title and artist of the song that’s being played as well as the playlist name. You can use the VoiceOver button in combination with previous and next buttons and play/pause button to change the playlists.
To upload music files to your iPod shuffle, you use the iTunes application to create playlists then drag these to the iPod icon.
You can also opt to have iTunes create its Genius playlist for transfer to your iPod shuffle. Genius automatically finds songs that sound great together, then creates mixes that you can sync to your shuffle.
The iPod shuffle comes with normal Apple earphones and while these sounded okay. I preferred the quality of sound with both the Razer in-ear phones and Audio-Technica on-ear ATH-ES700 headphones, the latter giving very good details and kicking in with a powerful bass.
Apple’s iPod shuffle retails for Bt2,200.
Key Specs
- Capacity: 2 GB
- Frequency response: 20Hz to 20,000Hz
- Audio formats supported: AAC (8 to 320 Kbps), Protected AAC (from iTunes Store), MP3 (8 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 2, 3, 4, Audible Enhanced Audio, AAX, and AAX+), Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV
- Battery: Rechargeable lithium-ion battery with up to 15 hours of audio playback
- Dimensions: 29.0x31.6x8.7mm
- Weight: 12.5g
- System Requirements: Mac: USB 2 port, OS X v10.7.5 or later, and iTunes 12.2 or later; PC: USB 2 port, Windows 7 or later, and iTunes 12.2 or later
