Apple iPod shuffle 2GB Blue 4th Gen

Works great

It is the greatest invention since running. I started running in 1963, 50 years this Sept. The first mile race I ever saw, I was in, and came in 2nd. I have been hooked ever since. Back then there were no special running clothes or shoes. It was just cut off blue jeans, a one fits all sports tennis shoe, and T-shirt. No one ran back then unless you had just robbed a bank and people would always look at you and then look behind you to see how the cops were doing.I got into long distance in the army in 1970, and when I got out, I still got strange looks from people but equipment had improved little. In the mid 70's came the running craze all of which are in wheel chairs, now. In '79 I ran with these big yellow headphones that had a radio inside. Then came small radios that you could strap on with a belt but stations would always fade and you were forced to listen to music you didn't like, to get anything on it. Finally, here I am in 2013 still running long distance with good wicking running clothes, state of the art running shoes and a 2GB iPod. (You've come a long way, baby!) I don't have a pain in the world and never have, which I attribute to running all these years. I don't feel any different that when I did on that first day I started to officially run in 1963, at 12 years old. I don't look as good, but you can't have it all. My only regret with the 2GB iPod is I wish I had gotten at least an 8GB. They listed the 2GB at hundreds of song you could download. I found out it was true, at 200. I find that I would be much more comfortable with a lot more than that. I know I can take some off and put others on, but that is more of a hassle than just adding as I go. Now if Apple would let me trade it back to them, for 2/3 of what I payed for it, since I have had it for only about a month and have 70 songs on it, I would jump at trading it in on a better one. But the iPod is a great invention for running. People always ask me why don't I take up golf. I tell them that is for old guys who can barely walk. No when and if I ever get in that condition, say when I am 100 or so, I will take it up. Maybe?

Price point off the top. Apple sells it with free two day shipping and free engraving for $49 as of this writing. I got mine for a bit less than that on Amazon but the price has gone up since my purchase. I love this thing. I want music and that is all. I can get just over 24 hours on it and it's easy to change around in ITunes. What I really like is the ability to operate it without seeing it. Once I got used to it I can do what I want without looking at it just by "feel". Spouse watches TV in bed at all hours. I put on the sleep mask and clip the shuffle to my pillowcase and off I go most often to sleep with nature sounds. Last night "Rain with Distant Thunder" worked for me. During the day I can listen to what I want no matter what anyone else has going in the house. I had a male/male audio cable laying around and I plug it into the boom box to fill the house with my music when it's my turn and plug it into my car's "aux" so I can listen to what I want while driving. There are certainly much cheaper MP3 players out there but the convenience of using ITunes into which I have loaded a pile of CDs makes it worth it for me. At night I clip it to my pillow case and an inexpensive pair of noise isolating earbuds shuts out the world. A note on the clip and complaints that operating the clip caused skipping forward or back. Step one: turn off device; step two: clip where you want: step three: turn device back on and it will pick up where it left off.

I was looking for a way for my 78 year old mother to easily hear her music when trying to rest and tune the world out!!! She wanted something EASY to operate and the Apple iPod shuffle 2GB Blue (5th Generation) NEWEST MODEL fit the bill for her! PROS: It's VERY lightweight. Clip attaches easily to light shirt. Sound is AMAZING with headphones that came with the unit and also with generic, more comfortable ones! The ">>" and "<<" buttons make it simple to navigate through her music and are conveniently placed on the device. All buttons on the front are easy to depress and find my touch. She is finding battery life to be terrific! The 14 hour estimated play time is very accurate. Charging is quick at around 2-3 hours for complete charge. AGAIN...SOUND is absolutely AMAZING!!!! This little device has a HUGE sound! CONS: I opened an iTunes account and loaded all the music for her. She would have never been able to navigate through the set up and music search and download process herself. (she does email on occasion and "googles" things once a month, so her computer knowledge is limited) The set up and download process was not as simple as Google Music which I have used for several years. One plus, you can load your own CD's into iTUNES fairly easily. Big con for us....NO wall charger came with device. Only a USB charger!!!! I ordered "3-in-1 USB Sync & Charge Cable + USB Car Charger + USB Home Travel..." Sold by Bargaincell to address this issue instead of the more expensive "official" iPOD charger. It has been working great for over a month with no issues. The car charger has not been tried at this time. All in all....great gadget...fits our needs perfectly!

This is my second gen 5 shuffle. They are small, easy to forget about having clipped it to your clothing, and don't wash well... OK, naturally you're not supposed to run your electronics through the wash, so I cannot fault Apple! To its credit, the thing still plays. I just don't have full control of what is playing. I bought another. $39.00 shipped right here on Amazon. I love these things. I use it only for running and the gym, however. I can think of no better device, ever, for this purpose. I've been running for years and have used everything from cassette type Walkmans to various Sony Memory disk devices as well as full-sized Ipod classics and touches. Nothing comes close to sound quality vs. size and portability when compared to this latest Shuffle. It's not a device I would use for my "main" music player. It is not that easy to pick what you want to hear with the voice-over feature. It works, but trying to use it like you might a conventional Ipod with a display would sour your opinion of this device pretty fast. I only load a few playlists to the Shuffle that I have made to match my workouts. It's easy to pick a playlist for a quick 30 minuet run, for example, and be done with it. I have other devices for my music dock, car and to travel with. Great gadget and I would highly recommend it for its intended purpose. One gripe, and this is with all Ipods. What is with the ear buds they package??? Seriously, do any humans have ears these thing will actually fit? They don't even sound good. Why bother packaging them with an otherwise excellent product? I honestly would rather pay a few dollars more for the device and get usable ear buds included. It would be less expensive, in total, if that were the case. As it is, you already know to not even bother unwrapping the junk they package and shell out for a decent set of head phones.

I love this beautiful little tune-holder. Since I'm a Mac user, I can easily purchase my tunes or albums from the web and load them onto this light gadget. This newest model charges much faster than the older version (about 1 hour, compared to 3 - 4 hours). I confess that I have occasionally lost or misplaced an older model because it so lightweight. I then don't realize, as I'm untangling their cord, to put it away that I've dropped it. Or I don't remember where I've put it, then find it months later in a jacket pocket. They are about $50. So now I have 2 plus the iPod Nano. What also cool is that even on the small model, you can press the device at a specific place, and a voice will announce the name of the song and its singer. For those who don't know what else is neat, the iPod's green light turns to yellow to indicate its battery is getting low. You should charge it the next chance you have. I have learned the hard way that by the time its voice announces "battery is low", the the iPod stops playing in less than one minute. But I still LOVE it.

I can't go into the long technical explanations or scientific jargon that some do to describe why I really love this little dynamo of an Ipod. I can only say that the sound is amazing and powerful for being so small. I use it at the gym to counteract the obnoxiously loud heavy metal music they love to play there. I chose to download my R & B and Motown hits from Cd's and was able to easily fit at least 18 entire Cd's full of music on the little shuffle...not bad for only being 2GB! It holds a charge for a very long time and so far has been super dependable. I bought one for my husband to play at the gym also, and I was able to copy the same songs onto his within a minute or so from the ITunes website's "cloud" file that was created for me when I first downloaded my music. We just bought a new car, and the Shuffle wires into the dash sound system through the AUX plug in, though the Shuffle is not a Bluetooth model. I purchased an IPod Nano to use directly with the car's Bluetooth system. Buy the Shuffle...you'll love it!

This is my very first shuffle. I'm not a big fan of apple products but won't get into that here. I was looking for a mp3 player for work. So it needed to be small, durable, and most of all functional. Only had it for 2 days but here's what I think so far. This thing is TINY! I saw the pics but was still shocked at how little this guy is. I'm a large dude and it's just a little bigger than my thumbnail. The player seems durable. It's made out of aluminum. I got the slate color and wow is it beautiful. It's sort of like a holograghic image, different viewing angles produce different colors. It looks a little green and blue from an angle but straight ahead it looks black...very nice Functionality is what I was most worried about. I have bought several pairs of earbuds and headphones with control buttons and mics. I had grown very accustomed to clicking twice to go forward and adjusting volume from my headset with my itouch. I read all the reviews and no one mentioned whether these would work with my s4i's or skullcandy fix and I'm happy as heck they do. I was skeptical of the voice over feature but I have used it more than I thought. I just hold down the button on my earbuds and it tells me all the playlists I have on the shuffle. I click again after it says the one I want to listen to and I'm rockin and rollin'! Only cons I can find so far is that it's so small I might loose it :) Just have to keep it clipped to me lol. Only other thing is I wish there was a better way of telling how much battery life is left. These are very minor gripes tho. Overall I'm happy with my purchase. Look forward to many years of enjoyment from this. Update 12-3-12 Apples customer support is less than impressive. My shuffle(or my classic 120 or 80 or my itouch 3rd gen will NOT connect with itunes. They just connect then disconnect in an infinite cyle. Needless to say my shuffle got erased so it is basically an undersized paperweight. I'm not changing the stars because I believe this is a software issue. Apple said I must have done something to cause this...duh, ya, maybe? that's why I contacted them. I uninstalled and reinstalled itunes. I've tried multiple cables. And people wonder why I shy away from apple products smh. Update 12-9-12 Had to drop it a star. Nothin to do with software, I use mediamonkey now with no problems but the clip has gotten extremely loose. Falls off my belt loop all the time. I miss my EQ also. Just an average product. For the price you can do much better.

**Warning... straight up first world problems ahead. I don't even really want to write this, but what the hell here we go!** Apple has been focusing on phones and tablets while neglecting innovation in their line of mp3 dedicated devices and the quality of their products have plummeted off a cliff as a result. This is leaving Apple wide open to have their market share stolen out from under their feet by a company dedicated to creating quality products at reasonable prices that are actually durable. I bought the iPod shuffle after my 160 GB iPod was bricked by the iTunes update to version 11.1. After that update my iPod classic would not sync with iTunes, and it would continuously turn itself on and off over and over burning out the battery over night every night while I slept. I needed a cheap mp3 solution with a stable power supply that would allow me to lift weights and run with music. I exercise in the morning and again after work so I need a Pod that works when I need it. I decided, because I am a moron apparently, to pick up the iPod Shuffle. First off, I understand concepts of product design and business operations at work that determine how different component parts of a product determine the price of that product. I built my own computer this year that is a straight beast for cheaper than any high end box one could buy pre assembled (even if I paid myself $10/hr for labor). But seriously Apple give your consumers a break. You offer them a 160GB iPod for about $260, but the shuffle gives you only 2GB of storage for $60. Come on! Innovate more memory storage for $60, decrease the 2GB model down to like $20, or hell start making bluetooth headphones that sync wirelessly to iTunes on my computer so you don't even need to spend money on memory storage and pass that savings onto the consumer. I don't want to run or exercise with my phone. It integrates too many function/applications in my daily life to run around town with. Beyond the cost of memory, the overall performance of the iPod shuffle as a mp3 player is abysmal. It constantly had difficulties syncing with iTunes, and even brand new it would freeze up or shut off randomly. I ordered mine in January, and it was dead by mid July. Apparently if you get even one molecule of sweat anywhere near the shuffle it whips out a gun and blows its delicate electronic brains out. On a separate note if I want a shuffle that can hold up to sweat then... what I should get a waterproof 2GB shuffle for around $160? Are kidding me?! I ask you Apple, what do consumers of iPods want to do with a mp3 player? Anyone... Bueller... Bueller... In an age where everyone has a smart phone, tablet, or laptop that can do anything a mp3 dedicated device can do and more, consumers who want to spend their dollar dollar bills on an mp3 player demand a durable product. These are active consumers who run (either on streets, trails, or on stadium steps), lift weights, hike out in nature, or participate in any number of other athletic activities. They demand a product that can keep up with the speed and intensity of their lifestyle. Which frankly Apple products do not do. Seriously people do your best to hold off on buying any future Apple mp3 device until they get this figured out. Just go out and sing to yourself while you exercise, repeat affirmations to yourself, talk to that cute girl stopped at the intersection while you are running. Just do whatever it takes to hold off on buying a new iPod until Apple gets the message to fix their screwed up business model and give iPod consumers the products they deserve at decent prices. If anyone from Apple or any competing mp3 developer reads this, hook me up with a job and I'll show you how to do this my damn self. I would seriously work my first 3 months for free to solve this problem. -Peace Out!

I really had no idea how small this is - you could almost wear it as jewelry! I have broaches bigger than this, which is hardly larger than an inch square. I got it because it's by Apple and previous mp3 players I have tried are either not compatible with or too hard for me to use on a Mac OS. This worked like a charm; it was easy to load the music I wanted onto it, and a really neat feature is that you can go into the preferences when it is plugged into your computer and lock in a maximum volume so that you don't accidentally blast your eardrums. With my tinnitus, I am using this as masking therapy and, as such, sound level needs to be kept quite low. My only reason for 4 instead of 5 stars is the clip. I have seen other tiny mp3's with clips that are ergonomically easier to manipulate but, when I try to squeeze the top of it to open this clip, there is no way to not include the control ring in your grip. If you have not locked the controls to prevent accidental changes in your settings, this can be an issue. It would be lovely if I could put this on and remove it without having to make an issue out of it, so I could just clip it to the collar or neckline of whatever I am wearing, but I can't. Because I do not want to struggle with it when I want to put it on, I made a fabric tie-like accessory that snaps around my neck and am leaving it attached to that. With the earplug cord twined around the back of the tie, the whole ensemble is very nice.