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March 22, 2005
these are the days of miracle and wonder
Currently in a phase of taking melatonin at night to combat jetlag, and then burning it off with a SAD light in the morning. Which means lucid thought is at a slight twist.
So instead you get another penny in the evergrowing pile about the iPod shuffle.
First the bad points. Two crazy design decisions.
#1 - It's 2mm too wide. Which means if you plug it into an iBook, it stops you using the other USB port (and FW port if plugged in between the two). Nuts. Bad industrial design thinking.
#2 - iTunes can't read from iPod shuffles. I plugged it into my PC laptop this morning, after filling it at home on my iBook. You get this horrid little dialog box:
From the faq:
Can I transfer data to iPod shuffle from multiple computers when in disk mode?
Yes. If you put iPod shuffle in disk mode, you can transfer data from multiple computers from the Finder (Mac) or Explorer (Windows). You can only load music from one computer, using iTunes.
...
Can I use iTunes to view the songs on my iPod shuffle like I can with other iPods?
No. The iPod shuffle icon that displays in the iTunes Source list is actually a special playlist (like Party Shuffle).It lists which songs in the library are currently configured to be sent to iPod shuffle, but not what's currently on the unit.
As a minor third, an album skip function would be great - I've been trying to listen to new albums on it, and it's really very bad for that. Load it up with, say, Wire, The Fall and Talking Heads greatest hits, and it will be spectacular.
Now the good.
Quite simply, it's magic.
The feel of using one for the first time is quite crazy. It's hard to imagine how you can get music out of the thing. It feels impossible - it's just a stick of plastic. It still feels like something new, something unexpected. It's the kind of rare technology experience when you realise something has changed - price, power, smallness and new technology combined. I think the last time I experienced that was wifi or 3g.
Not the iPod, though. It's a heavy brick, that looks like a computer. The lack of screen, the lightness, the plasticity of it - this is what makes the shuffle seem like magic. They can fit all this music in this... this tiny precious thing! It's crazy!
I've heard others report a similar feeling. It's what can't be quantified about Apple design, and why competitors get it so very very wrong. Its use, more than buying, looking, or holding, makes your heart flutter. Intangible goodness.
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