EricBall's Tech Projects

I got a dead cheap Archos 1 Vision recently. 4GB, 1.5"TFT, even plays FLAC for ~€26. I got a coupon and only payed ~€13. A bargain!

 

Its far from being perfect, but suits my daily needs. And if it gets broken or lost, well, who cares.

I have a first gen Shuffle. The good: large enough so it's harder to lose, works as a USB flash drive, controls are large enough to easily work. The not-so-good: end cap can come off so potentially you could lose the shuffle anyway, have to have a lanyard or case to wear it, looks dorky as a necklace.

 

I'd suggest the second gen. It's got a built-in clip so hanging it off a pocket or belt is really easy, it still has a full set of controls, it's aluminum so it's a bit sturdier, and it comes in different colors so you could get his favorite.

A no-brainer as far as I'm concerned. 2nd generation, all the way.

 

Control-on-headphones is retarded. 3rd Gen

Built-in clip is essential. 1st Gen

 

This reminds me that I need to pick up a few backup 2nd gen shuffles in case mine ever goes kaput.

 

I'll never understand why Apple replaced the 2nd gen form factor. It was as perfect a design for it's intended purpose as you could ever hope to achieve. Apple has always been extremely adept at balancing form and function, but in the case of the 3rd gen iPod shuffle, they simply took the design a bridge too far.

Yeah, I'm coming to the conclusion the 2nd Generation is the way to go. The 1st generation, while a nice form factor, is simply too old, while the 2nd gens were made from late 2007 to late 2009. I also just realized that it will be a heck of a lot easier to get an external speaker for the 2nd gen than a 3rd gen.

 

I think with the 3rd generation the Apple designers wanted to make it as small as physically possible, which made built-in controls difficult or impossible. Thus the controls got moved to the headphones, adding additional licensing revenue opportunities.

 

Anyway, I`ll see what I can get on eBay, or try to find somewhere else which might sell em.

It's not the Shuffle, but today's Woot! is a refurbished Apple iPod Nano 8GB, 5th Generation for $89.99

 

http://www.woot.com/

This weekend we found the 128MB MP3 player I bought a long while ago. I've loaded itunemywalkman on my wife's MacBook, so now we can sync to it. I'm still watching eBay for 2nd Gen shuffles, but this is a good stopgap.

Evidently recognizing the error of their ways, Apple has returned to the 2nd generation form factor for the 4th generation Shuffle. They're even using the 2nd gen. shuffle's form factor as inspiration for the new Nanos.

Note: I did get my son a used 2nd gen Shuffle from eBay.

 

Yep, I noticed that. I guess they had enough people complain about the 3rd gen Shuffle being too small and needing Apple headphones.

 

I'm a little confused about the 6th gen Nano. It's almost an upscale Shuffle - no video (not that watching video on a 2.2" QVGA screen was super-duper). But I guess it puts the focus back on being a music player. I wonder if it still has games or if they also got lost. And why multitouch on a 1.5" display?

 

I do think that FaceTime on the Touch is a great idea. Now we just need to get FaceTime clients for PCs.