The new iPod, christened ‘Shuffle’, is extremely chic, and makes for a great neck ornament. It features a circular button for Play and Pause, which also doubles up as Hold when pressed for three seconds. Press the same button thrice in succession and you are taken to the start of the playlist. The button is circled by a dial that sports the volume controls and the Next/Previous or FF/RW keys. Three hidden LEDs lie just under the surface, and are only visible when lit. The two above the dial, green and amber, light up during various functions. Flipping the device over reveals a sliding switch that lets you switch it ON/OFF, and toggle the shuffle mode. There is a small, pinhole-sized LED on the bottom that tells you the battery status when the battery button is pressed. Battery life is amazing—14 hours on a single charge! The Shuffle supports the MP3, MP3 VBR, WAV, AAC, and AA 2, 3 and 4. The sound quality is as impeccable as that of any of the larger iPods. It can be used as an external storage device as well. However, transferring music using iTunes was slow—it took us about 10 minutes to transfer 1 GB of music. Also, transferring music to the device directly without iTunes doesn’t work—the songs just don’t play. The Shuffle lacks a screen. It doesn’t play FM, doesn’t record voice, and does not support ID3 Tags. Priced at just Rs 12,400, the Shuffle is a great buy. Lower capacity players, such as the Creative MuVo TX 256MB and Samsung Yepp YP60 256 MB cost Rs 8,000 and Rs 16,000 respectively, and only offer the additional feature of FM and voice recording. If music is all you want, nothing beats the Shuffle.
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