Apple iPod Shuffle (2nd Generation)

Back in junior high, I owned what I thought was the coolest gadget ever: a radio built into a pair of slim, Walkman-style headphones. The radio itself was the size of a postage stamp, and I postulated at the time that it wouldn't be too long before there were dime-sized "cassettes" that one could load into a playback device of a similar size. Lame visions of the future notwithstanding, I can finally declare my "dream" from 1986 to be a reality in the form of Apple's newest iPod Shuffle.

The hardware

Up to this point, I hadn't really ever considered buying an iPod Shuffle; after all, full-sized iPods had more than adequately filled my portable music and video needs so far. And really, how is one supposed to survive with a "mere" 1 GB/240 song capacity when one is used to having any song or video in one's collection instantly available? However, after having recently eschewed my increasingly-boring gym-based workout routine in favor of good, old-fashioned running, I quickly found my iPod video to be somewhat unwieldy while jogging around the neighborhood. The first generation Shuffles almost seemed like they would be worse than even a full-sized iPod, what with the lanyards and the spaghetti-like tangle of headphones, but the recently-introduced second generation models are a whole 'nother animal entirely. Tiny. Integrated clip. Seemingly more ruggedized. Cheap ($79 U.S.). And, to repeat, tiny. When Steve Jobs proclaimed it "impossibly small," he really wasn't kidding. Words don't adequately express to just how small the new iPod Shuffle is, so to employ the arithmetic of a commonly-used saying, here is the equivalent of 4000 words:

Figure 1: Even adding in all the packaging, it's hardly bigger than a full-size iPod.

Figure 2: Yes, that is my hand. And sorry, ladies—I'm already spoken for. Please try and contain your disappointment.

Figure 3: The new Shuffle seems to have borrowed something from the Apple Remote that ships with Apple's latest Intel-based Macs.

Figure 4: With only 319 more of the things on the right, I'd have enough for a second Shuffle.

I'm reminded a little of a line from Arthur, when the late Dudley Moore was explaining the size of the country his, shall we say, companion, was the "princess" of. To paraphrase, the iPod nano could kick the (bleep) out of the new Shuffle in a war. I'm talking small. Now, tiny is good, but tiny can also be bad. If you're prone to losing your car keys, chances are you'll eventually lose this. And the thought of how many G2 Shuffles will be put through the wash is mind-blowing.

But I digress. In addition to the diminutive size, the G2 Shuffle is noteworthy for ditching the white plastic iBook/MacBook-like finish in favor of the anodized aluminum finish found on G5s, Mac Pros, Titanium PowerBooks, MacBook Pros, and the latest iPod nanos. I've had my Shuffle bounced around a bit already with no visible scratches—yet. Welcome news, no doubt, for glossy finish iPod owners who have found that even breathing on it wrong will cause horrible gouges.

The Shuffle, as you might expect, is light on controls. The control pad on the face of the device has five buttons (play/pause, next, previous, volume up, and volume down), some of which pull double-duty. For instance, holding the play/pause button for three seconds will send the Shuffle into Hold mode, and tapping it three times doesn't return Dorothy to Kansas, but it will return you to the first song in the playlist.

Moving on, one edge of the Shuffle is home to a row of two switches and one tiny light (fig. 5):

Figure 5

The switches are of the on/off and shuffle/repeat variety, and as such are fairly self-explanatory. The light is a status indicator, blinking either red, orange or green in rapid succession like so much morse code. For example, you'll see a solid orange light when the unit is charging, you'll see a single green or orange blink with every touch of a control (depending on whether the Shuffle is in hold mode or not), etc. On the other edge is another identical status light, as well as the single point of interface for the new Shuffle: a headphone jack that doubles as the charging and syncing port. One of the reasons why the new Shuffle is so tiny is because Apple has rid it of the built-in USB port, so this could be a big minus if you're used to having your first-generation Shuffle look and act like any old thumb drive.

The last stop on our brief tour of the Shuffle is the back of the unit, where you'll find an integrated (and very handy) clip, the presence of which completely eliminates the need for lanyards or arm bands or whatever else the previous generation Shuffle had in its physical connection arsenal.

As far as what else is included in the box, the new Shuffle comes with a couple of other necessities. First, and most critically, you'll find a teeny-tiny little Dock for charging and synchronizing the Shuffle (fig. 6). And, of course, there's also a pair of the world-famous white iPod headphones.

Figure 6

I'm not sold on the Dock for a couple of reasons. One, for all of Apple's love of simplicity, wouldn't a plain old cable work well in this case? The Dock seems to be overkill. Second, it's pretty easy to break the connection between the Shuffle and the power connector, which can result in interrupted syncing or worse (more on that a bit later). Lastly, the Dock is so closely molded to the Shuffle's form that any bending of the product's single-hinge clip means that you may not even be able to plug the Shuffle into the Dock to charge or sync it, which is, as the kids say, not so good. I'm looking forward to the inevitable third-party cable that will plug directly into the Shuffle's combo port, at which point the Dock can go into a drawer, never to see the light of day again.

The software

OK, so the hardware is small and sleek, but how does the software measure up? Unfortunately, I had some serious fits and starts that presented some significant obstacles, but fortunately, I was able to eventually (and permanently) overcome all the issues. I'll elaborate on that shortly, but first, let me describe how things should be. On the surface, the Shuffle plays as nicely with iTunes (7.0.2 or later only) as any other iPod I've owned (this is my third over the years). Put the Shuffle into the Dock, plug the USB cable on the other end of the Dock into your Mac or PC (Mac in my case), and iTunes takes over from there, asking the standard questions like what you would like to name your Shuffle and whether or not you want to autofill the Shuffle with random music from your iTunes Library. It then mounts the Shuffle on your Desktop (fig. 7), loads 'er up, and then spits 'er out.

Figure 7

However, you're perfectly free to set your own options if you choose. There are plenty of settings to work through, from limiting the volume to enabling disk use (fig. 8). iTunes can even compress your songs down to a more manageable bit rate on the fly if you're partial to uncompressed or lossless file formats.

Figure 8

Switching over to the Shuffle's content tab, you can also adjust how the Shuffle gets filled with music (fig. 9). Even if you choose to autofill, you can also manually manage what songs go into the playlist at the same time (disk space permitting, of course), which is pretty important considering that the very nature of the Shuffle doesn't allow for visual feedback of which songs are playing while you're on the go.

Figure 9

Of course, that's how it's all supposed to work. I eventually got there, but not without some fairly major out-of-the-box problems. I plugged in the Shuffle, had it autofill just for kicks, got halfway through the sync, and then iTunes froze. The dreaded "you have disconnected a device without ejecting it properly, you ninny" popped up, iTunes then somehow managed to refuse to be force-quit, so I had to hard reboot the entire machine. Fun! Plus, my Mac hung on startup until I removed the Dock from the USB port. I hadn't touched the Dock, much less the Shuffle, so why did it disconnect in the middle of a sync? No clue. The whole experience was eerily reminiscent of 1995-era CD burners, when you had to keep the area around the burner perfectly still and vibration-free lest you risk ruining a $15 blank disc.

So I tried again. This time, it made it through the autofill process, disconnected successfully, and I plugged the headphones in, ready for my glorious first song. I pressed play. Nothing happened. I pressed play again (ignoring what "they" say the definition of insanity is, as I've found that it doesn't apply at all to technology), and again, nothing happened. I did get the distinct series of green and orange blinks that told me no music was on the Shuffle. In near-desperation, I hit the Restore button in iTunes, which downloaded a bug fix firmware update from Apple and wiped the Shuffle. Afterwards, all was fine and dandy—the hairtrigger disconnect problem was no more, songs got filled and recognized, and all was right with the world. The moral of the story is to make sure that your firmware is up-to-date before you do anything else, or you may be headed for similar trouble.

The experience

We've got the hardware covered, we've got the software covered, so how does the G2 Shuffle do when it's actually, you know, used? Well, first and foremost, the Shuffle sounds fantastic (at least the one I got). There have been a smattering of reports already about a batch of new Shuffles with an audible hiss, but I suppose I'm one of the lucky ones. I'm not an audiophile by any stretch of the imagination, but the Shuffle delivers excellent quality audio. Good levels, crisp playback, good to go.

Music is perfectly suited for the Shuffle, but what about Podcast lovers like myself? The Shuffle does surprisingly well in this department, considering its natural tendency to randomize things. If you want to add a Podcast, just drag it to the Shuffle's content tab in iTunes, make sure it's the first item in the list, and sync to the Shuffle. As long as you have the shuffle/repeat switch set to repeat, it will play first. The Shuffle also remembers your place in the Podcast, so you're free to scan through music tracks and return to the Podcast right where you left off.

As for toughness, my little Shuffle has already passed the test. I dropped it no more than five minutes after I first opened it (inadvertently, of course—I won't be doing trial by fire with this baby if I can help it), with no discernible effects (or, more importantly, scratches). Of course, I thought my initial software problems were due to some sort of drop-related issue at first, but that turned out not to be the case. I've also already dinged it with a dumbbell at the gym, and it kept on chuggin'. It also came out unscathed after sharing a pocket with a couple of coins. Long-term, I'll be interested to see if it gets discolored or stained in any way after prolonged exposure to sweat on the back of the clip, but only time will tell on that front. Speaking of the clip, it's been quite rugged so far; in fact, my preferred clip location is actually on the adjustable plastic portion of the baseball cap I wear when I work out. It's high up and gets the headphone cables out of the way, yet it's still easy to reach back and fiddle with. Of course, I look like a complete tool, but that's another conversation.

We've got one more big thing to mention, and that's battery life. Apple touts a fully-charged Shuffle as having a 12-hour play time, and after my certainly unscientific tests I have no reason to doubt that. Once I got it up and running, I've used it for approximately 8 hours so far, with the battery status indicator still green (meaning a good charge). As always, your mileage may vary, but the stated 12 hour life doesn't seem to be a horribly inflated number.

The verdict

I see the Shuffle as something of a niche product, appealing to folks like me who want something tiny and unobtrusive to work out with. It should also appeal to first-timers who want to get into the whole iPod thing without busting the bank. I don't see the Shuffle replacing my full-size iPod anytime soon, but it fills its niche famously. The 1 GB of space is plenty (unless you're into uncompressed music), as the Shuffle's screenless form factor could become very tiresome to operate with a huge number of songs. At $79, it's something of a steal, and while the initial software problems did factor into the final analysis, the second generation iPod Shuffle still rates a Strong Buy.

Filed under: Review on November 8th, 2006

^ Top of Page

Got Feedback? to send an email. I'll do my best to answer. Really.