Apple MP3 Player Reviews

"Apple?s decision to make its svelte player look like a traditional iPod was misguided in my opinion, and made it aesthetically less appealing, while also making it far less usable...Whereas the first and second generation nanos were long, so you could keep a good grip on them while navigating, the third generation device always felt precariously balanced in my hand while I scanned through my music library...In essence the case is a very slim cylinder, into which the workings of the iPod have been inserted..." read more »

"Sophisticated, minimalist design...Earbud controls can be difficult to use Too expensive for the features you get...The latest Shuffle looks like no other MP3 player--or even iPod--out there...At the top of the device, next to the headphone jack, resides a switch for Shuffle, Play in Order, or Power Off...The controls for the Shuffle are located on the included earbuds, housed in a tiny remote on a cable below the right ear...The new..." read more »

"The circular FM radio tuning dial is a nice design feature and a good example of how well the touchscreen functions...The radio isn't RDS but it has a good auto-scan facility and you can allocate up to 24 station pre-sets...As per the iPod Touch, there's no sense of pause or hesitancy in the execution of any commands...The graphics are a tad 'iPod knock-off' - and not as good - but no less attractive for that...Above it sits a Touch-style status bar in which you'll find volume- and battery-level readouts, and the current time..." read more »

"Streaming media from your PC to your TV can be a pig, so here's a cool device from Apple that ought to sort the matter in one fell swoop...This is especially impressive as the Apple TV contains plenty of hardware, including the power transformer...switch to an Ethernet cable to overcome the bandwidth limitations of 802.11b or g Wi-Fi and all will be well..." read more »

"Yet in the iPod era, Sony's headstart counts for nothing...If you're after the highest quality tunes and regularly import songs at bit rates higher than 128 Kbps, iTunes offers you the best of both worlds, letting you keep your high-quality songs in iTunes while exporting leaner versions of the songs, sized just right for iPod shuffle...Connect iPod shuffle, open the iPod Preferences dialog, and click the iPod tab...Advice presented in good faith, but what works for one may not work for all..." read more »

"Lacks LCD screen Expensive...The 1GB iPod Shuffle sells for $79, quite a drop from the the original 1GB Shuffle's price of $149...The Shuffle comes bundled with a USB 2.0 dock for charging and syncing the player...I like the small size and versatility of Apple's new iPod Shuffle......" read more »

"Thursday, March 12, 2009. Inside Apple's new third-gen iPod shuffle (teardown photos) ... Apple unveils redesigned iPod shuffle with... Battery, RAM, and HD ..." read more »

"Decent value if you already own the peripherals...Dated components...Some of the components are rather dated...The optical drive on the 1.83GHz model can't handle DVD-RW...It carries forward exactly the same format as before; the same shell, ports, graphics card, and drives......" read more »