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Topic: My experience the 2nd generation Shuffle from Apple (Read 3606 times) previous topic - next topic
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My experience the 2nd generation Shuffle from Apple

So as I outlined in the description, I just want to give people looking to get the new Shuffle a little info on my experience with it. I have done no scientific tests, so dont complain about it.

I got my 2nd generation Shuffle about 3 days ago, and I have spent some time playing around with it. It was an 'upgrade' from my 6GB iPod Mini that eventually got too large for me. Go figure.  I wanted something tiny, portable and that had a decent battery life. I ended up going with the Shuffle, after doing a lot of soul searching on whether I was going to support Apple as I disagree on their stance and use of DRM.

However, I found the form factor (tiny and solid), the size (very small) and the audio quality (for my ears) to make it worth the $79 I had to hand over to the people at the Apple Store here in downtown San Francisco.

Initial install:

I honestly can not stand using iTunes, however as Anapod (the software I use instead of iTunes for my iPod Mini) doesnt seem to support the 2nd generation shuffle yet, I installed it.  After installing iTunes, it found my Shuffle, and also an update for the firmware on it. I installed the firmware update, and disconnected the player after.  When trying to reconnect it in iTunes, it finds the player fine. However, the entire program freezed when I tried to add songs to it. I was puzzled. After a lot of back and forth trying to find the solution I Googled options to iTunes and ended up using the plugin for Winamp, which works superbly with the player. I uninstalled iTunes (yay) and I am now using Winamp to transfer the files across to the player. This works really great, and support transcoding if necessary. Still awaiting an iPod plugin for foobar 0.9, as that would be the best solution.

Out and about

Now I filled it up with songs, put in my Shure e3c headphones and was ready to go.  The size of the player is so tiny and lightweight that it almost feels like something is missing at the end of my headphones.  I clipped it to my jacket and started playing. Volume wise I was a bit worried that it would not be as loud as my Mini, but it plays very nicely, enough to make me put the volume down. The controls are working very well, and the layout is intuitive and quick to get a hold of. The fact that the clip is not easily detachable is good (you wont lose it) and bad (you cant take it off  ).

My opinion

I really enjoy this gadget. To my ears the audio quality is good, its tiny (dont lose it!) and it has a pretty good battery life. I have used it for 10 hours now, and still its not yellow light on even if I have been changing songs a lot and fast forward/rewinding.  Also I havent had issues with Lame VBR files and skipping (such as was the problem on my iPod Mini).  I will never buy songs from the Apple Store, so for my use (dragging various songs I want to listen to that I already have) through the iPod plugin in Winamp, disconnect the player, take it out and about and listening to it, works really well.

My experience the 2nd generation Shuffle from Apple

Reply #1 –
I like my 2G iPod Shuffle as well. For $79 it is hard to beat. Miniature in size, yet powerful sounding (is loud enough for me). Some may miss a screen with song titles/art/stats, but for around town its small portability is what I need. I use iTunes 7.0.2 for Windows. The Mac version of iTunes 7.0.2 gave me some problems when booting up with the 2G Shuffle attached in the dock, but on Windows no major problems yet. A nice gadget for music portability (and for the low price).

My experience the 2nd generation Shuffle from Apple

Reply #2 –
I heard there was foo_dop for iPod compatibility in foo0.9. Maybe you should try it.
 

My experience the 2nd generation Shuffle from Apple

Reply #3 –
Quote from: nilsHaus on
I heard there was foo_dop for iPod compatibility in foo0.9. Maybe you should try it.


Great. Found it and will give it a shot...  Now I have tried it, and yes, it does work with the 2nd gen Shuffle. Its ok, but doesnt have the features that can be found in the Winamp plugin, such as seeing the songs already present on the player etc. However it is a project thats in development and Im sure itll improve.

My experience the 2nd generation Shuffle from Apple

Reply #4 –
Annapod works with the second-gen shuffle, although I don't believe you can update the firmware. (But if you can, please, let me know.) By the way, I tried to use the Nero command line (through Foobar) to encode from my lossless music collection to AAC, but they wouldn't play on the 'pod so now I"m using MP3. DOes anyone else have this problem? ALso, on a possibly related topic, what exactly does the formware update (s) do?