Original Release Date: January 11, 2005
Capacity: 0.5 - 1 GB
Connection: USB
Compatibility: Mac / Windows
Battery Life: 12 hours
The first generation iPod shuffle was designed to be easily loaded with a selection of songs and to play them in random order. According to Apple, owners of existing iPods had often left the music selection to “shuffle”, and the new iPod shuffle was a way of implementing that in a much more cost-effective fashion. It relies on the use of an “autofill” feature in iTunes, which can select songs at random from a user’s music library (or from a specific playlist) and copy as many as will fit into iPod shuffle’s memory.
Ben Powell on April 21st, 2008 at 12:29 am says:
I bought one of these little iPods simply due to the low price tag (£49 compared to £££ for other iPods) when they were first released.
After a few weeks of usage the lack of a screen and the seemingly not random shuffle function started to get to me. It always had a tendency to pick the same songs which, to be honest, I could have sworn I didn’t put on there (Hanson and mmmm bop is a perfect example!)
Eventually swapped it out for an 8 GB 1st Gen iPod Nano which to my mind is exactly what the iPod was intended to be
The shuffle did have and still does have its uses, for example, when going to the gym as it could easily be hung around the neck with the lanyard.
Pete on April 21st, 2008 at 12:33 am says:
My first iPod was a shuffle, I remember at the time it got a fair amount of criticism for the lack of a screen but this never really bothered me.
The shuffle was great for the gym and going into uni however for longer journeys it lacked the full library which is why I brought a larger iPod.
Alex on April 25th, 2008 at 2:01 pm says:
I got mine in the first week of release back in the day. I initially bought it as a mp3 player for listening to when I was riding my bike. I was pretty impressed with it and it took a good beating.
It did however look scratched fast as it was shiney and my usb side pen bit kept clipping out when i plugged it into the pc which was annoying so I sold it and got a video!
drea on August 12th, 2008 at 4:16 pm says:
this was my first ipod, i was kinda dissapointed because i had wanted one with a screen for christmas lol. but now my mom uses it to go running when i got an ipod video.
Morgan on October 17th, 2008 at 2:17 pm says:
I got this ipod when I was 12 (15 now). I loved it but after a year and a half it started holding less songs. And even people joked me about not having a screen it was great.
It even helped that it was so small that it couldnt be detected by the guards in school