Apple iPod Shuffle / 1st Generation

The 1st Generation Apple iPod Shuffle is the entry level portable digital audio player in Apple’s line of iPods. It was released in January 11, 2005 during Apple’s Macworld Conference & Expo. The 1st Generation Apple iPod Shuffle is screenless and was built on the insight that many iPod users simply kept their players on shuffle and the device was a means to do that in a much more cost effective manner.

The 1st Generation Apple iPod Shuffle measures 3.3 x 0.98 x 0.33 inches and weighs 0.78 ounces. It comes with a Li-ion battery that takes about 4 hours to charge and can last up to 12 hours of music playback. At the reverse side of the player, a three-position switch can be used either to check the battery level through an indicator light or to set songs to play randomly or in order. Playback controls can be found at the front of the gadget.

The player was the first one in Apple’s line of MP3 players to use flash memory rather than a hard disk. It was released in two versions that differ only in capacity. Both the 512 megabyte version and the 1 gigabyte version are only available in white.

Apple approximates that the 1 gigabyte version can store up to 240 audio files. It supports skip-free playback of a number of audio formats including MP3, MP3 VBR, AAC, protected AAC (from iTunes Music Store, M4A, M4B, M4P), and WAV.

The 1st Generation Apple iPod Shuffle is compatible with Mac OS X v10.2.8 or later. For Windows, it is compatible with Windows 2000 with SP 4 or Windows XP Home or Professional with SP 2.

The gadget can also be used as a USB flash drive for storing files. Using iTunes, the user can set how much of the memory can be used to store files.

The Apple iPod Shuffle comes in 1GB as well as 512MB. This audio player is basically straightforward in its operation. This device is white in colour and it carries a few buttons in a circular manner on the face of it. The dimensions are .98 inches wide, .33 inches in depth and 3.3 inches in height. It weights about .78 ounces. Therefore you can take it anywhere with you. You can simply place it inside of your pocket. On the other hand if for some reason you do not want to place it inside of your pocket, then you can wear it around your neck as a chain. It comes with a rechargeable battery and it has a life span of about 10 hours. After that it will need some recharging. Accessories are also sold separately for this item.

An accessory that may be good to have on hand is a charger. This charger will come in handy, especially at those times when a computer is not readily available. The sound quality is a good one. The earphone that comes in the package is relatively good, but you can always replace it with another one if you are not satisfied with that one. The Apple iPod Shuffle is also equipped with a FM tuner. Therefore at those times when you want to shake things up a little you can always switch over to one of it many pre-set channels. It all it is that you want to do it to download some music and simply listen the what you have downloaded; and if at time you want to listen to the Fm radio, then the Apple iPod Shuffle is just the device that you are looking for. The filing formats that it is compatible with are MP3, ACC and AV.