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Macskeeball wrote:

knobtwirler wrote:

Cheap bastard, buying your wife a shuffle for her anniversary. A mini would have shown that you really love her.

First of all, it's his marriage and you don't always have to spend a bunch of money to show someone that you love them. Secondly, he never said that the Shuffle was the only thing he was giving her. Also, the Shuffle has the convenience of a thumbdrive when it comes to data; no cables required.

So why not get a thumbdrive with the convenience of a mp3 player(smaller/lighter/just as ugly? there is plenty of those around that is dirt cheap too!

Shuffle plays song from iTMS while other can not is not a plus, but rather a great example why not to get song from iTMS.

All thunb/no screen player is just as easy to control, play/random/next, you seen one, you seen them all.

Smartlist is not a shuffle item, but rather a favorite list from iTune program, I think smartlist from Itune is a good thing, but it is not a shuffle but rather ITune program that is magic!

pcguy wrote:

Shuffle plays song from iTMS while other can not is not a plus, but rather a great example why not to get song from iTMS.

When compared to the stuff you buy off those store with DRMed WMA it's a huge plus. Compared to stuff you've ripped yourself, not so much. However considering the shuffle also supports the stuff you've ripped yourself that's not really even an issue.

Macskeeball wrote:

knobtwirler wrote:

Cheap bastard, buying your wife a shuffle for her anniversary. A mini would have shown that you really love her.

First of all, it's his marriage and you don't always have to spend a bunch of money to show someone that you love them. Secondly, he never said that the Shuffle was the only thing he was giving her. Also, the Shuffle has the convenience of a thumbdrive when it comes to data; no cables required.

Oh, well that changes everything.

ScifiterX wrote:

pcguy wrote:

Shuffle plays song from iTMS while other can not is not a plus, but rather a great example why not to get song from iTMS.

When compared to the stuff you buy off those store with DRMed WMA it's a huge plus. Compared to stuff you've ripped yourself, not so much. However considering the shuffle also supports the stuff you've ripped yourself that's not really even an issue.

There is no great answer right now to PCGuys comment.  If you want to get something besides an Apple player, you can't play iTMS music on it, and if you want an Apple player, your can ONLY buy music from Apple.  This is a great reason to boycott on-line music purchases all together, and stick with buying CDs and ripping them yourself.  This current state of affairs with DRM and multiple standards is ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS!

That being said, if you can tolerate the current state of crappy affairs with the DRM, why not get the best mp3 player in the iPod or iPod mini and use the best music store in iTMS?  It is not a bad place to land right now.  I can see the point of the shuffle not having a screen, and right now, the market DOES NOT ALLOW any user anywhere under any legal terms to use a flash player with a screen with the iTMS.  That is kinda scewed up.  We can arugue all day long that the shuffle is a great player, and many people will not want or need the screen, BUT the fact still stands that if you want a flash player with a screen, because you like the screen, then you CAN NOT use iTMS.  That just sucks, and I hate it when "technology advances" like DRM get in the way of using music that you paid for the license to use in the way that you want to use it.

The perfect example of HOW STUPID THIS IS, is that if you don't like the terms of the license for the iTMS, just go buy the CD, which comes with the same music, but an entirely different set of laws that govern it, THAT DO ALLOW YOU TO PUT THE MUSIC ON YOUR NON-APPLE FLASH PLAYER.  This is what is so stupid right now.  There are 2 laws depending on which source you "purchased" or "licensed" your music from.  Just stupid.    When the law & technology so stupidly and obviously contradict themselves like that, I think it becomes perfectly moral (although illegal) to bypass the law and strip the DRM.  I think stupid laws & technology deserve stupidity right back at them!

, BUT the fact still stands that if you want a flash player with a screen, because you like the screen, then you CAN NOT use iTMS.

The Sonicblue RIOS work with iTunes and iTunes music.  You just have to rip the songs you bought on a CD first, then import them back in.  It's a hassle and inconvenience, but it works if you really needed to use iTMS.

I can see the point of the shuffle not having a screen

Besides cutting costs, there really is no reason. 

It's just brilliant marketing by Apple. 

Take a huge setback and market it as an advantage by simply adding a randomize button, and naming it "Shuffle."  They hype not having a screen as a good thing, they start the "make life random" slogan, and people buy. 

Probably one of the best marketing teams in American business.

I gave the Shuffle to my wife on Saturday, so now that she has had it for almost a week, I thought I would offer an update...

So far, she absolutely loves it.  The lack of screen turns out to be totally irrelevant to her, and she actually likes the fact that she doesn't know what song is coming up next.  There has only been one time so far that she has wanted to find a specific song on the iPod and had to do any searching.  This is definitely the Shuffle's primary weakness, and one of the reasons I was nervous about buying one.  That said, it isn't so difficult to find the song as to make it a major annoyance.  If you are very on-demand with your music, though, I can see this being a deal breaker.  I think the secret to Shuffle happiness is good iTunes library management.  If you know and manage your library well, the Autofill feature does an outstanding blend of music for you.  This keeps you from spending a lot of time searching for a specific song, because you know another favorite is coming up next anyway.  Size and battery life are excellent and sound quality continues to impress.  In some ways, the Shuffle's reliance on iTunes over built in software (like a Mini or iPod Photo) for wrangling your library is actually a real plus.  So far, I think I could safely recommend it to anyone looking for a shock proof, excellent sounding small MP3 player, as long as you don't need micro-management control of your music at the playback level.

Macskeeball wrote:

pcguy wrote:

Smart playlists are not a Shuffle feature, but rather a feature of iTunes. I think Smart Playlists from iTunes is a good thing, but it is not a Shuffle but rather iTunes program that is magic!

I wasn't saying Smart Playlists was a Shuffle feature, I was saying Autofill is. Autofill selects songs at random that in combination fit the exact size allocated for music on the Shuffle. That is not a Smart Playlist, but Autofill lets you choose the playlist for it to choose songs from. This means you can make Autofill even better by setting that to a smart playlist that filters out songs by format, length, size, last played, etc.

So you end up having a playlist that is random from a random playlist! (although filter from your requirement)
R2?

and that is suppose to be a good thing?

interesting!

Macskeeball wrote:

pcguy wrote:

Macskeeball wrote:

I wasn't saying Smart Playlists was a Shuffle feature, I was saying Autofill is. Autofill selects songs at random that in combination fit the exact size allocated for music on the Shuffle. That is not a Smart Playlist, but Autofill lets you choose the playlist for it to choose songs from. This means you can make Autofill even better by setting that to a smart playlist that filters out songs by format, length, size, last played, etc.

So you end up having a playlist that is random from a random playlist! (although filter from your requirement)
R2?

and that is suppose to be a good thing?

interesting!

Two levels of randomness: randomly loaded and randomly played. That's a very good thing, because you get even more of a mixed listening experience.

Only in Mac World will you hear a argument that what you don't have control over is a good thing!

Actually, I like a little uncertainty and randomness in my life...it keeps things interesting.  I can understand the concept being a little foreign to the PC world though

Macskeeball wrote:

It is called the iPod "Shuffle" for a reason. Some people, myself included, like to hear a truly random mix of their whole library.

Actually I think it is call shuffle becasue the Sales/PR department was giving a product to promote that have limited user control and no visual indication of what music is/will be available in the player.

pcguy wrote:

Only in Mac World will you hear a argument that what you don't have control over is a good thing!

you're not a true geek until you've customized every single setting in your car's firmware.
you're not a true geek until you've installed linux on your rio karma and turned it into a 2mb fire server with a 3.5mm to ethernet adapter.
you're not a true geek unless you already know your personal preference for every single choice presented to you throughout your life and laugh at the idea of using better technology to help you make your decisions through behavioral modeling.

you're not a true geek until you've spent so much time customizing so many settings the hard way that you've forgotten what really matters in life.

Last edited by fizzwinkus (2005-08-17 6:36 am)

Macskeeball wrote:

knobtwirler wrote:

Damn I wish my iPod and iPod Mini could randomly shuffle my entire library...oh wait, they can.

Yes, they can but not as random as the Shuffle which has two levels of randomness.