Small and cute with a big sound.

In my quest for health, I've gotten a gym membership. My gym is full of lots of sweaty people with headphones on, lost in their own little health and well being worlds. Not that I joined to socialize, but I realized that it was pretty boring with no one to talk to or any other outside stimulus while I was working out and I quickly became jealous of these people encased in their harmony filled workouts.

I began looking for "just an mp3 player." After all, it would just be for the gym and walks with my toddler (my stroller has a sound system) so I didn't need anything fancy or even with an overly large storage space which are usually accompanied by an overly large price tag. I wasn't looking for video capability and since I would be putting all my favorite songs, I didn't even really need a screen telling me what song was playing. Simple.

In the meantime, I had been using a really old AM/FM radio/headphone set that I am sure was a free gift with some purchase of old and it was okay, if you don't mind static. It was in one of these static-filled walks that my ever-so thoughtful hubby called to interrupt with news that he'd gotten me a surprise and to come home. I did and waiting for me was a shiny new purple iPod Shuffle loaded with a playlist I had made for a traveling-in-the-car CD. I was ecstatic!

He had bought it at Best Buy for $49.99 plus tax and admitted that he struggled to pick out a color for me because in addition to pretty purple model, it also came in green, blue and silver (it also shows red on the Apple website but he said it wasn't available in the store). I liked the purple one proving he knows me well.

The actual player features 1 GB of storage space which equals about 250 songs - which is just right for me - and the entire back side is a clip, making it convenient to clip this little dynamo to your shirt, waistband or anything else that makes it accessible to you during it's use. It has a simple design of two buttons on the side - a power button and a button letting you choose whether to play your song selections in order or shuffled; and a button on the front that lets you skip to the song ahead or behind, start your song (or playlist) over, play and pause and turn the volume up and down. Very easy to learn and memorize which is a plus when your heart rate is up and you would rather be watching where you are going rather than trying to figure out umpteen buttons.

While this machine may be small, it's not small in sound. It has a clear, big sound. In fact, it gets too loud for me at it's top volume while remaining clear. And unlike the headphones of the old days that let everyone hear what you were listening to at roughly the same volume, you have to have the headphones that come with the Shuffle at near maximum volume for the people around you to hear anything.

The Apple website says that my player should play for 12 hours between chargings. I've found that it's slightly less than that at around 10 1/2 hours but maybe my turning it on and off affected the time.

My shuffle came in a hard, clear case with instructions and a docking station to charge and load or arrange my music. The battery is rechargeable and like all rechargeable batteries, it will eventually wear out. Apple offers a battery recharge service, but at a price more expensive than this whole machine, I'd recommend just saving your playlist, getting a new Shuffle and starting over - maybe even in a different color!

As I've already said, the iPod Shuffle is made by Apple, known for it's excellence in electronic devices. While it's my first iPod, my son has an iPod Classic and it's been a great product. I look forward to my Shuffle being just as satisfactory. So far, I am not disappointed.