The iPod shuffle is a tiny digital audio player that is designed an marketed by Apple Computer.

It was first brought to market at the Macworld Conference & Expo on January 11, 2005. The main tagline that Apple used to promote the iPod shuffle was 'life is random.'

What makes the iPod shuffle different, is that instead of storing the data on a hard disk, it stores the data on flash memory. The iPod shuffle only weighs 22 grams or .78 ounces. This is less than the weight of your car keys.

The user can easily load a specific selection of songs into the iPod shuffle and play them in random order. This is why it is called shuffle. Research told Apple that the users of iPods often used the 'shuffle' feature to listen to their library of songs.

The iPod shuffle uses the 'autofill' feature in iTunes to load up the songs at random from the user's music library or from a specif playlist. Then iTunes will copy as many tunes as it can into the iPod shuffles memory.

There are two different versions that you can purchase. The first is 512MB and plays 120 songs. The second is a 1GB version and it can play 240 songs. Apple estimates that a song is roughly four minutes long and is encoded at 128 kbit/s AAC.

The shuffle does lack the trademark display, scroll wheel, playlist management features, games, address book, calendar, and notes capability of earlier iPods. It also can't be used with iSync. It also cannot play Apple Lossless and AIFF audio files, unlike other iPod models.

The iPod shuffle does have a better bass sound quality thank the larger iPod.

A new future for the iPod shuffle is the ability to reduce the bit rate of songs to 128 kbits/s ACC. This conversion is actually done automatically with the original file untouched on the computer and the smaller file is sent to the iPod shuffle.

iTunes will also allow the playlist to be viewed and changed while the unit is not connected. This means that when the unit is connected it can then be updates with the changed playlist.

The front of the device has buttons for Play/Pause, Next Song/Fast Forward, Previous Song/Fast Reverse, and up and down volume adjustment. On the other side it has a an indicator of how much batter life is left. This is activated by a button. There is also a three-position switch to turn the unit off or set it to play music in order or shuffled.

The device also plugs right into the computer's USB port. While plugged in the batter is also recharged. The batter life is about 12 hours between charges. The USB plug is under the cap on the device. There is also a lanyard that attaches to the unit. This allows the user to wear the unit around their neck. Another great feature is that it can be used as a USB flash drive.

This unit is like no other portable music device that has ever been created. Check it out. God bless you.

This article is licensed under the http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPod_shuffle Wikipedia article "iPod Shuffle"