It may be old news for most of you but I just saw this for the first time:

http://www.apple.com/ipodshuffle/

I think it's a good deal - 512mb for 100$ / 1gig for 150$ is not too much. You don't get a display but I prefer more memory to a display. Currently I'm using a PDA and it sucks - battery is flat after 3h, have to turn the display on to change the track, only 128mb, etc... And another advantage is that if you lose it, break it or somebody steals you don't lose $400 quid. I'll probably get one in a few weeks (if it will be available in Germany then).

Meh, for £40 less than an iPod, I got a creative zen touch, same capacity, over double the battery life. They look equally as bad.

hmm without the screen its just ugly and without their scroll wheel I don't see them having a competitive edge over the rest of the market.

I just don't get it. I can carry around 1 gig for $150, or save some more nickels and dimes, and for twice as much get an ipod that holds twenty times the amount of music? How is the shuffle a deal, any way you slice it?

well 1 gb. for 150 $ isn't a bad deal.. here it isn't atleast.

I like the design of it.. not all that silver, alu crap.. why does those things have to look like a spaceship anyway?

I think the whole idea of the shuffle is simplicity.
The controls are simple, the concept is simple - plug and play, the design is simple so why shouldn't you just let the player pick the songs for you? it's simple and yet might surprise you what plays next.

When my current one breaks down I might go for one of these, sure the ipod (the normal one) is the greatest gadget I've ever seen, but I doubt I will use it to the fullest... it will probably be on shuffle mode, and in my pocket anyway.

If you make a playlist in iTunes you can upload that and it will play that instead of shuffling it.

It's a deal for people who just want a quick mix to workout or play sports to and don't care to much about control. My wife will probably end up getting one, since all she wants an iPod for is to have some music on the way to school or work. She only listens to a few albums at a time, and she doesn't really care about browsing through it, just as long as she's got something to listen to. Kind of like your own personal radio station that only plays songs you like. For this type of market, I think Apple has created the ideal player at an unbelievable price.

Can you play songs in the order you want, or is it always on auto-shuffle??

yes, with itunes u can create playlists...

so you have to use Itunes too?

I think so. Not sure. It'd be the same as a regular iPod.

Im incredibly happy with my Cowon iAudio M3. The only thing that was better than an iPod. I have recommended it to all my friends. iPod shuffle may be better for you if you're on the go, but the iAudio will beat the iPod in all areas.

Except that you'd have to navigate through thousands of songs without a scroll wheel (which I personally haven't tried, so it may not be as bad as I think), and I'd have to re-rip the thousands of songs already encoded as AAC in my computer. Also, it wouldn't work with any of the whopping three songs I've downloaded from the iTunes Music Store, which wouldln't really be a problem, although for someone who has downloaded more, that could be a problem. I'm also not sure about having that big screen attached to the headphone cable, it looks like it would be rather awkward. I agree that it's pretty valid competition, however, especially for Windows users that aren't using iTunes.

the iAudio has 2 scroll wheels. One is to sort through the songs in a folder and the other to sort through the folders. Even if you have 1000 songs in one folder I found that you can get to any song in just a few seconds.

The menu is not hanging off the headphones, but can be attached to the shirt or for me the belt which is very comfortable because you dont need to reach into your pocket for the player to change a song or change the volume. You can even put the entire thing in your bag and just have the menu come out.

As for ACC and formats... I've never heard of ACC. The iAudio plays mp3 wma and ogg which the iPod doesn't support. Also, iTunes is terrible.

n/o globex but in what areas beats the iAudio the iPod and what would be better than iTunes?

edit: iTunes converts the wma...

what kind of service do they have? Do they pick your iAudio up if its broken?
can you run linux or an other os on your iAudio?
why would it be better if the display hangs on a cable?
Did you try an iPod?

how much are apple paying you terra?

where did I lose that commie image?
dunno, I'd just like to see some prove that I didnt buy the best product...

I looked at some reviews of the iAudio and it looks nice
batterytime around 12 hours
the remote seems like a nice feature so you can have the main player in your backpack
it is smaller then a 20gb ipod
It comes with a cradle

I dunno if it is a better product as I havn't tried it myself but the specs on it are very nice.

My resident Mac evangelist handed his Shuffle to me and walked off so I got to play with it for 30 minutes or so. Can't believe how tiny the thing is. Anyway, now I want one. The reason I got rid of my disc-based MP3 player was partly due to its bulk; got in the way when doing yard work or walking the dogs, etc. The Shuffle is perfect for stuff like that.
-z

It's still not available in Germany - can't wait to get one! If I had the money I would get an iPod Shuffle + Mac Mini...

the question is - why do you need someone to prove to you that you haven't wasted $x?? If you're happy with what you've got be happy.

I find it amazing that some people with ipods (not directed at you) seem absolutely shocked at the possibility that there maybe better alternatives than the ipod around... there are loads!

Better alternatives than something made by Apple's super-genius designers? Who are these people? Super-super-geniuses? I don't think such a people exist.

I'll agree they are very clever, and here are my reasons:

They integrate it with iTunes so that people spend even more money on apple.

They invent a very nice scrollwheel to take peoples eyes away from the fact that the battery is rubbish and it plays only the formats apple want it to play.

They manage to hype it so much that people fail to realise there are much better functioning portable music players around.

But hey, at least it looks nice.

i think we had the discussion about the ipod before.

anyway I'd would like to know the mp3 players that can do the stuff I mentioned above...