iPod Shuffle

Continuing my trend of supporting all things Apple, I went ahead and bought a new iPod Shuffle for my wife. How can you resist? These things are so damn cute! And at $79 each it's a steal...oh, wait...that's about 40x what a 1 GB hard drive should cost, but c'mon! Look at that design!

Once again, right out of the box I was impressed. It's clear that Apple takes a lot of pride in their packages and making it all appealing for someone even after they've bought something. The set-up was a breeze and the quick iTunes integration is intuitive.

They say it holds about 250 songs, but I've currently got it filled up with 144 songs, although that includes the 49 minute JamBase Sampler, two 25 minute Kimock songs and a 17 minute Bisco MEMPHIS from Boulder (sick)

You can either drag the songs you want right onto it, have it AutoFill from your Music Library or a Playlist, or both.

The player itself is small, compact and functional. The clip is cool and the buttons are small yet well placed. You can play the songs in order, or shuffled - which if you AutoFilled randomly would be a shuffle of a shuffle.

So far so good. I'm constantly impressed with Apple's ability to put themselves ahead of the curve and make things that people want (or feel the need) to buy.

One ironic thing I just noticed, and only because Apple and 37 Signals has trained me to think about things like this, is that when the Shuffle is in it's little cradle (also cute), the iPod logo is upside down. I wonder if they thought of this, or if they designed the buttons for maximum logofication when it's in use, and figured that while it's charging then, well, who really cares...