I personally like Flash based storage over Hard Drive-based players when it comes to MP3 players just because they are small, sexy, and light. I guess they could really strain your wallet if you had a like, roomfull of CDs needing to be stored on it though... Now, to the "shuffle" - that piece of junk is barely worth paying for, Apple should be ashamed for thinking that people would give up the luxury of a screen (oooh , so advanced ~~~) just to "enjoy" the mystery of "which song comes next???". Wow - a leap of stupidity if you ask me... Not only that, but you could easily get a Samsung Yepp flash 512 mb for MUCH less, and it is considerably better (it even has a SCREEN! - ooo, and manual controls! ).

LOL. I have the Creative Muvo FM Flash MP3 Player. That's a mouthful I have to admit though, without a screen display, the player is not that good.

I never bought any of the iPod models before but did hear one good thing about it. Compared to the hard drive iPods and maybe even other mp3 players, the shuffle supposedly has better audio quality.

Who needs a shuffle when you have other better alternatives My Muvo plays FM radio, can record FM and voice, transfer data and play music. The shuffle, well...can play music, but which ones, who know LOL. Maybe in some order?

i agree. the whole point of artists spending hours in the studio to record their masterpieces is not just in porduce individual tracks. the playlist of an album is nearly as important as the tracks that make it up. i surpose the ipod shuffle is targeted and people who normally listen to the radio and dont really care but just want noise in their ears.

We shouldn't see the iPod shuffle like that, it was made purely to satisfy a market, not to create a decent product and I think it has done that very successfully.

People I know that own iPod shuffles say that they own them because they are smaller and more portable and you get the added excitemeny of not having the faintest clue what you're listening to (which can...somehow be a positive) and so Apple have marketed it for them exactly.

If they could add a screen (obviously a good thing) then it would be able to compete at about the same price but as it stand the iPod shuffle is not a quality product but it is good enough for Apple to make an amazing profit from them.

I can really see the appeal of the iPod shuffle - what with it being cheaper and all - but reading this has made me think...

Can't the shuffle function be turned off? I thought it was optional. Making a MP3 player that doesn't play yours songs when you want and only picks them at random seems abit stupid!

The iPod is still kind of expensive if you ask me since it doesn't have all the other features that other MP3 players have. I think for around $99 you can get the 512MB iPod shuffle. But I can get a small MP3 player for around that price that has a bunch of other features (see previous post) that the shuffle doesn't have. The display screen is definitely important.

I never owned an iPod before so I'm not sure how to turn off the shuffle mode. I did a search and found this site. According to what's said there, you should be able to turn off the shuffle mode.

Of course you can turn off the shuffle mode, it also saves battery and you can sort of choose an order for your songs (although you will still be clueless as to what the hell you are listening to as there is still no display) and by turning off shuffle it is basically turning off the one unique feauter that was in it in the first place.

I really didn't know how small the Shuffle was until I saw it at a friends house, and didnt even know it was a shuffle (Thought it was a whistle at first)

I imagine itd be easy to lose those things...

ok then sorry. i take is back if thought that the shuffle feature was non-optional. i mean who would spend millions of dollars of advertising promoting a feature that every music player since the cd walkman can do!!!

if you can turn it off i guess then it is perfectly ok. the design is beautiful and its small and light. no screen a bad thing but i can see myself using it. why did i ever douht apple

iPod Shuffle is really a sweet little device.

A whistle? Funny, but I can see how it might look like a whistle. It is as small as a pack of gum.

As for being able to organize the playlist, this is from the website:

"DJ Your Day


If you favour cycling to a hip-hop soundtrack and snowboarding to a little electronica, Autofill iPod shuffle from a specific iTunes Playlist and roll. Or just drag and drop individual songs from iTunes onto iPod shuffle. With Play in Order mode, you manage the music. If things take a turn for the predictable, never fear. Turn iPod shuffle over, flip the slider to Shuffle and mix on the go."