Thursday, January 13, 2005

Apple iPod Shuffle

I am totally - totally - jazzed and fired up over Apple's new iPod Shuffle MP3 player. It's Apple's first flash drive offering and it's going head to head with Rio, Creative and RCA. The iPod Shuffle retails for $99 for 512K meg (120 songs) or $149 for one gig (240 songs).

I am excited, because this means price wars folks and this is a very good thing for us consumers. You know I've been straddling the fence for some time about which MP3 Player to buy. I've made no bones about wanting a small, compact flash drive model, as well as a large capacity hard drive model. I believe the iPod Shuffle's gonna do it for me.

The only criticism I have about it is: there's no external memory expansion (a la SD card) and the battery is again, a rechargeable type. At least with Rio and the others, most use standard AA batteries (readily available anywhere) and they offer easy expansion. I can carry multiple playlists on a postage sized one gig SD card for easy and convenient switching. Hopefully, future incarnations will offer expansion.

In the meantime, I'm going to bide my time and let the early adopters work out any kinks and bugs. I'll also be watching the MP3 Flash drive players and scoping prices and offers. I'll ultimately make my purchase in late March or early April, just in time for my birthday! Regardless of which brand I buy, Apple's introduction is a win-win situation for the consumer and I love it! LOL

No comments: