amazing little thing!

from the previews that I read earlier I was prepared to knock of a star for the headphones since they are selling them as a unit and most reviewers needed to put another set, however, if you are using your music for average listening the headphones supplied are not too bad (I bought mine directly from apple thu). And I also haven't tested them on running (main reason to buy this magical thing for many people at least), and they do feel not very fitting like my other headphones. Other than that the unit is just another apple product, reliable (so far), strong, and very very easy to use (drag and drop philosophy), and using it with my macbook, the sync is done in a flash (that surprises me when I compared it to the obselete sony mp3 player software I was using before for my sony mp3 player). however, it already giving me weired messages when I tried to rearranged the songs (as you can rearrange it to the order you want it to play in), it sometimes will disconnect the device by itself, and when i try to eject the device it doesn't really recognize it, so when I disconnect the device, it says I disconnected it improperly, and you can imagine that a repeat of this action may shorten the device life span, but I hope I don't need to reach to that. if you would you use the autofill and be happy with whatever you get, it is not bad either as it has certain smart feature.. and sometimes it is a bit challenging to choose a 200+ songs single handedly! yet, it should give you the option without any trouble (which it does), but I need to understand the ordering more maybe... (or be a bit careful), all in all, the device worth the extra attention..... it is just really nice.. and makes life very easy, specially for practical and on go people..

one thing to add, attaching the devices to the computer is need some looking at. for each device a usb connection, it starting to be too much!.. I wish they either find a way to sync without (wireless), or a universal attachment that actually works!

Thought it was fabulous... at first

I bought my ipod last year before travelling to Oz and New Zealand and it was great for those long flights ( battery lasting - just - the 12 hour flights).I loved the way it was easy to download linking up with itunes. Great..... until I came back and used it at home to accompany me jogging. Then it started to play up - stopping mid flow ( regularly) even though the button lock was on. Having difficulty getting the wheel click to register my selections - or whizzing past. Then it decided to stop completely - even though the button lock was off. Of course it is well past its one year guarantee so I now have a pretty heap of junk.

I understand that if you want to actually carry it around with you you are better off with the nano or shuffle as the hard drive can become disconnected. Er.... isn't the whole idea that it is portable? Frankly, if you want the brand and the image buy the ipod - but if you want to use an mp3 player - get something else!

excellent machine provided all you want is music

At the time of writing this review there are 68 others already on here, but I thought I would tell you of my own experience with the ipod shuffle.

I go the gym and used to have a MP3 player - just a basic"memory stick" type that I plugged into my computer to recharge and I could drag & drop songs onto. Unfortunately it died so it was time to look for a new one. Now I was undecided whether to buy a basic model by a less well known company, or go for a leading name. It seems to me that if you're prepared to go for a relatively unknown manufacturer you can get a basic mp3 player for half the price with twice the memory, but eventually after much deliberation I plumped for the apple ipod shuffle, swayed by a combination of the reputation of apple & (hopefully) a better build quality.

I have had it just over a week now and I think I have made the right decision.

Yes, there is no screen, but I knew that when I bought it. I know from my prior experience at the gym that I just tend to switch it on and let it play so I didn't really need one. Also, I have a mobile phone that takes pictures, plays videos, games etc and I hardly use any of those features so I figured I wouldn't need a screen to watch tiny videos on. The earphones are great - several reviwers say they fall out but I've used mine on the treadmill, rower, cross trainer, exercise bike and wave machine and they've stayed in throughout! I've got about 14 hours out of it before I had to recharge which is impressive, and although initially I missed the simplicity of the"drag & drop" method of my old mp3 player, its just a question of getting used to itunes and once you have it seems simple enough.

All in all, an excellent purchase and having never had any previous experience of apple or ipods I am very pleased with my purchase.

Superb

Very easy to set up and use. The video quality is second to none. Looks great, feels great, an alround brilliant ipod.

I can't say enough about it

This product is superb and I can't say enough about it.Good value of money

NOT WORTH IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

When i saw the apple ipod mini in PINK i thought i had to have one, so i got some money together infact a lot of money together and bought one at first i thourght it was soooooo cool it was pink and could store loads of tunes, but after a while i reilized that it was a totaly rip off. I mean its quite big and im nerver gona need all that memory so basically i spend aroulnd 200 quid on a mp3 player with loads of memory im never gonna use when i could have spent 50 quid on a farly decent mp3 player with the rite amount of memory. IF UR RICH THEN BUY THIS ITEM, BUT IF ITS AN EFFORT TO GET THE MONEY TOGETHER THEN GO FOR THE OTHER OPTION. i hope this review has helped.

Friend or Foe?

I expect if you are looking at this ipod to buy, then you are on a budget but you need more than say 1 or 2 Gb, which i expect is why you chose the ipod mini over the old nano (s). I bought mine back in 05, just after christmas (back when they were £179.99) and I was slightly annoyed when i was told i had the option of silver, silver or silver. I went ahead and bought one and I certainly didnt regret it. I bough the apple dock aswell (not quite sure why, but it cost me around £30!). I was very happy with it, and the 4Gb was not a problem as I didnt have many songs. However, after about 9/10 months, the battery began to stop holding its charge. I realised it was still under warranty. Unfortunately I forgot all about it and left it too late. I ended up, after about 16-18 months (after buying) replacing the battery myself with a replacement kit from maplin which cost around £20. It worked fantastically for maybe another 6 months or so but near the end of that, the play button on the clickwheel stopped working. Now the ipod refuses to turn on, even if plugged in.

I would reccommend this only to people that want an ipod rather than, say, a walkman 'pebble' (I dont blame you!), that dont have alot of money to spend on it, and to someone who doesnt mind sacrificing size in comparison to a nano, or even the new 'classic'.

I have now decided to upgrade to an 80Gb iPod Classic, due to my increase in the size of my music collection.

ipods cost the earth

How much is an ipod really worth?
ipods are one of the least environmentally friendly gadgets available. According to Apple they are only meant to last 12 months and they are designed to prevent customers replacing the toxic batteries when they wear out. So the 10 million ipods sold are all destined to sit in a landfills for the next million years leaking toxic chemicals.
Environmentalists have been criticising Apple since the ipod's original release.
How have Apple responded?
By using less packaging and boasting that they are green. What are they on?
The following is taken from Thegreenguide.com:

"But while Apple declares that they are `committed to reducing the environmental impact of the work [they] do and the products [they] create' the iPod is not designed to have its toxin-laden battery replaced or removed. Apple can live up to their environmental commitment by making all iPod's green.
How to Make a Green Apple
* Produce toxin-free iPods
* Design iPods so batteries can be easily and affordably replaced
* Provide take back and recycling options for iPods and other electronics"

Visit thegreenguide.com to sign a petition asking Apple to make greener ipods.
Just don't buy one.

I had an ipod. It lasted 2 years. It wasn't worth costing the earth

3 years on and I still love it

Not the smallest ipod and it doesn't have the most GBs, but I still think it's great. Both my brother and sister had 20GB ipods and their cases felt thin and cheap and both ipods broke within 2 years, but this has a very solid feeling case and I've had no problems with it. If you have thousands of CDs, then this probably isn't the ipod for you. But if you're happy with only 1000 tracks on it then this ipod is great. You may have to buy your own charger, as mine only came with a USB lead, but it can be charged by your PC.

A comparison to the Creative Zen Vision M opposition

Based upon several weeks/months of use of both the 60GB Ipod and Creative's Zen Vision M, I offer the following summary of my personal opinion..

What Apple does better:
Click wheel ease of use - less (over) sensitive than creative Vision M pad. More intuitive controls.
Bigger choice of accessories.
Styling.
Bigger disk capacity (creative only offer a 30GB version)

What Apple does worse:

Software is not as good. Nothing to convert videos to a suitable format. Software for auto naming of tracks and conversion of a lot of CD's to MP3 is not nearly as intuitive.
Screen not nearly as good.

Where I can't split hairs:

I found the sound quality and battery life to be comparable.
Both (once you've got used to them) feel good to use.
Both suffer appallingly from scratches. The ipod came straight out of the box into an iSkin protective case and it marked on the 'shiny side' immediately. God alone knows how!

Try them both before you buy to see which you prefer to operate, but note that the computer software that comes with the creative product is superior. You pays yer money......