Gadgetory

this is a really simple really light way to get music into your ears hey I'm Donald Bell and I'm here to show you the Apple iPod shuffle now this is the same iPod shuffle that's been around for years more or less the same design and that same $49 price it gives you two gigabytes of storage the controls here are really pretty basic there's a play/pause button on the front the big button right on the front then you get your volume controls on the top and bottom and your track skip controls you also get a headphone jack up here on the top along with that power button and that voiceover button which you can push to have the iPod shuffle announce in a synthetic voice what song you're listening to you can even press and hold that button and actually navigate between different playlists or audiobooks black mud the Black Keys so you get a little more flexibility than you had with the original iPod shuffle which just took all of your music all of your stuff and shuffled it up and you really had no idea necessarily what you were listening to now I've got that ability on the back here you've got the metal clip that is kind of the hallmark of the iPod shuffle design and that's all there is to it for better or for worse so what's the downside well for $49 you're getting a very small mp3 player but you're also getting some annoyances you're getting the super small little USB adapter for charging that plugs into the headphone jack expect that you're going to lose this you're getting the standard old iPod headphones that have been around for years you're gonna want to upgrade these the other thing is I don't know an iPod shuffle owner who hasn't misplaced one of these from time to time or accidentally run one through the washer now for the same amount of money you could buy if you if you didn't really care about the stylishness of the mp3 player or being super super small you could get something like the sans that clip zip from SanDisk this things around that same $50 price maybe it was cheaper if you shop around you get twice the storage you get that same clip-on design but you also get features like radio you get a built in screen here so you can actually see what you're listening to and do navigation that doesn't involve a synthetic voice in your head it sounded weird but that's what I meant still I can't blame me for going for the smaller lighter more fashionable option here with the iPod shuffle at $49.00 you're still getting a lot of mp3 player for your money so there you go that is the Apple iPod shuffle a small light ultra portable way to take your music with you for cnet.com I'm Donna Bell