Shufflin’ Along

I bought an iPod Shuffle a week or so ago to see if I would like it, and I love the little thing. I used it during a workout on a recumbent bike and really liked the additional portability it gave me as well as the reduced stress. It’s damn near indestructible. No more worries about my $300 iPod falling off its only moderately secure perch when I’m exercising.

More importantly, I came to realize I had fallen into a rut with my regular iPod. I always played only via my playlists, never utilizing my iPod’s “Shuffle Songs” function. The iPod Shuffle showed me the beauty of letting it pick my songs. I’m enjoying that so much I’m also shuffling songs on my regular iPod most of the time, the only downside being occasional volume adjustments I have to make whenever it pulls up a song from the “Dances With Wolves” soundtrack. It recorded softly compared to almost anything else in my song library. I haven’t yet decided to re-record it with the volume levels turned up.

I bought the small iPod Shuffle with only 512MB of memory. So far, that’s worked just fine. I haven’t been shuffling playlists enough for it to become an annoyance, the only theoretical drawback I forsaw using it.

I’ve used it with the earbuds that came with it, a Bose headset, and even with the stereo in my truck (which has an AUX input); and it always sounds great. I haven’t found the lack of a screen to be any handicap. I’m really sold on this thing, and I’m thinking seriously about buying some more of these for use as birthday presents for members of our families.