jwalkabout

I played with one of these Ishuffles today(buddy of mine acquired on) . Sorry but I am extremely dissapointed. Nothing special or innovative labout it.
Nothing but a featureless USB flash drive with an Apple logo on it. Also a rechargeable battery with a 9-12 hour life really suckz IMO. That won't make the trip from LAX- BKK. So you would have to make sure it is fully charged to get from JFK-LAX direct with one connect.

I can see current Ipod owners snapping these up, Apple geeks, low tech types that want a flash player but only buy brand names and the fashion set.
Serious or half hearted techies would not even touch this thing unless they want it as a souvenir.

I know a little bit about mp3 players I bought one of the firt Rio's made as well as the RCA Lyra years ago and the first hard drive plyer which was a piece of crap Archos Jukebox(that player alone made me swear that i would never buy another har drive player where I could not remove and replace the battery myself). I am currently waiting for Sony to get their head out of their butts and improve the Network Walkman form a users standpoint-simplify the interface software, make it compatible with all encoded audio files and drop the freaking price u would have a definite ipod killer.

I guess I am disappointed because Apple used to pride itself on technological innovations or at least the adaptation and implementation of those innovations in their products. They seriously dropped the ball with this one. I bet DELL could make the same device and sell it for 1/2 price. Even the Ipod mini is not impressive when you compare it to the Zen micro and the Rio carbon( I pwn the Zen and bought the Carbon for my sister).

The ishuffle is merely designed to capture the cheap end of the mp3 player market and help sell more itunes. Apple has basically turned into a music distubution company; that happens to make some computer stuff, along with a kick-... operating system

Before anyone thinks I am an Apple hater my first real computer was a mac and I kicked and screamed my way to PC's but still a mac guy at heart.