iPod Shuffle!

positron

Looking good, if it was not for the fact that they have jacked up $149 to €149 (1GB), I would have bought it already!

http://store.apple.com/Apple/WebObjects/irl?family=iPodshuffle

12-hour rechargeable battery
22 grams
8.4 mm thin
Built-in USB connector
Lanyard
Apple earphones

RicardoSmith

Your quick with that. Not mad about the design myself. The Mac Mini is interesting though.

deRanged

The Apple site is under serious pressure - I'm trying to buy one and having major trouble.
It's got a two week lead time though - and most accessories are up in the 4-6 week range!

hefty_langer

check out the shuffle page on the apple site - the picture shows it beside a packet of chewing gum...
At the bottom of the page the footnote says:
(2) Do not eat iPod Shuffle.

Brilliant

koneko

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?threadid=217114&goto=newpost

I stand by my comments in that thread. ANY other flash player out there at the moment is actually better than this (features-wise).

Of course, that won't stop the suckers from buying it...

positron

Depends on own priorities I suppose!

I agree, there are plenty of flash players out there, most of them with display and some with FM etc, but as far as I know most of them are bigger, bulkier and heavier than the Shuffle. Its only 22gms!

Then there's the brand name, and the accessories, like BMW (and others) are offering(google cache) built-in accessories for iPod.

Then there's the looks, which is again a personal opinion, and I think many would agree, that it is a good looking player! At $99, they could have put a display into it, but they decided to go without it, because they know they can!

koneko

A lot of players out there are around 22gms, even the ones with FM radio and a screen (which also have better battery life, recording in some cases, can play wma drm)

If you want to get it because you think it looks nice and is stylish, grand, but don't kid yourself into thinking it's because it's a good player. You could do a lot better with $99, but Apple know that and they're just counting on the same people to buy their stuff, which will happen. It's a shame really.

lol @ bedlam's link.

positron

koneko wrote:

A lot of players out there are around 22gms, even the ones with FM radio and a screen.

I haven't seen any. I am curious, do you have any links, please?

koneko

The big names:
http://www.iriver.com/html/product/prpa_product.asp?pidx=31

http://www.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=213&subcategory=215&product=10737&nav=1

There's loads of similar players that are slightly heavier (30-40gms), with similar features.

positron

iPod Shuffle
84 x 25 x 8.4 mm
22 g (0.78 oz)
€149

CreativeMuVo 200
74.5 x 36.5 x 15 mm bulkier
22gm without battery!!!
€199 50 euros dearer

iRiver N10 (512mb max)
49.8 x 27.2 x 13.3 mm
W: 22gms
£159 sterling (amazon.co.uk) >€200 almost double!!

Well, you just proved my point!

koneko

:rolleyes:

Double the US price, it's not going to be $99 over here and you know that.
But whatever, nothing I say will change an Apple-zealot's mind anyway.

I personally think features and sound quality are more important than a brand name or style, but maybe that's just me.

Chalk

much as i dislike ipods
cant let you away with blatant misinformation

apple.ie wrote:

Choose from 512MB or 1GB models starting at £69 (UK) / €99 (Ireland) and surprise yourself.

http://www.apple.com/uk/ipodshuffle/

positron

koneko wrote:

:rolleyes:

Double the US price, it's not going to be $99 over here and you know that.
But whatever, nothing I say will change an Apple-zealot's mind anyway.

Apple-zealot? $99? What are you on about? I am no apple-zealot, heck, I never liked iPod's myself!!

Any comments on my comparison there? Both Creative MuVo and iRiver N10 are bigger, bulkier and atleast 50% more expensive (N10 almost double the price), and they are just not as cool looking as the Shuffle!

Why not just agree to disagree, or agree that its all upto each to make up their own mind, instead of calling it other's apple-zealots, or lame or whatever?

koneko

Fair enough, didn't see that

Of course it's up to each individual what they want to buy, but I just think it's a shame when people buy something that obviously is inferior to other products out there. Still stand by what I say, features+soundquality > stylish brandname. Anyway, this'll be my last post on this, don't want to get into a heated discussion over something like this.

DiscoStu

Good going apple, turning a flaw in the machine into a selling point.

DiscoStu

positron wrote:

Any comments on my comparison there? Both Creative MuVo and iRiver N10 are bigger, bulkier and atleast 50% more expensive (N10 almost double the price), and they are just not as cool looking as the Shuffle!:D

come on man it loks like a home pregancy test

although i do want a mac mini

OfflerCrocGod

koneko wrote:

I stand by my comments in that thread. ANY other flash player out there at the moment is actually better than this (features-wise).

Of course, that won't stop the suckers from buying it...

I cannot agree more! It's utter rubbish, who cares about weight; I have used a creative N200 and it's so light you can barely notice it ( including the battery ) I can't see the Snuffles reduced weight being a credible reason for choosing it over a far better featured mp3 player. It's so cheap because it has no features what-so-ever. It will sell like mad thought. It will also force other flash makers to lower their prices , good for smart people who can see the flaws in Apple's player.

Jefferson Darcy

OfflerCrocGod wrote:

good for smart people who can see the flaws in Apple's player.

Nice.

A few points:

1) Apple's market isn't necessarily 'smart' tech-savvy people, for most people, a well designed, solidly built, high-capacity flash player is perfect for their needs.

2) A screen is superfluous if the player is for sports use. FM receivers that have to utilise the earphone cables as antennas don't work very well.

3) Before Shuffle came along, Mac users were restricted to overpriced and somewhat tacky Rio and iRiver products. Creative quit supporting Mac ages ago.

Only last week I purchased a Rio Forge simply for the fact that it supports Mac OSx and is a ruggedised flash player that I can use in the gym. It works well but the Shuffle would do the same job far cheaper and while I haven't seen a Shuffle yet I'm willing to bet its build quality is far superior.

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

OfflerCrocGod

Jefferson Darcy wrote:

1) Apple's market isn't necessarily 'smart' tech-savvy people, for most people, a well designed, solidly built, high-capacity flash player is perfect for their needs.

Fine for them, not for me though, which is the reason why I'm going to be getting an mp3 player with some actual features.

dangerman

It's not a particularly good mp3 player, but then there's nothing wrong with it. They'll ship like the absolute tonne though. I'd consider one in the future if the price dropped a bit.

in the meantime, why not build your own? have a look at this:

http://web.media.mit.edu/~ladyada/adatoys/minty/

way beyond my capabilities, but if anyone is actually concerned with the hey cool factor, imagine pulling that bad boy out with your own choice of container - and then actually being able to say, i built it. apple-shmapple.