Michael P. O'Connor

It is nice that the weather is starting to get warmer now. I have had about a week of great weather here in Pittsburgh. I been getting out on the bike more, for the last 4 days, I have gotten at lest 3 hours of biking in a day. When I was younger I did not understand or like day light savings but now I really like it, now that it is light out till about 8pm, and the light of the sun will last us longer as we get closer to summer.
Also since I have been doing a lot of biking and the roads have not been the best (pot holes). I have been afraid that I might damage my iPod. So I went out and got myself an iPod shuffle, I only got the 512Mb one. I did want the 1Gb one, but the reason I got the shuffle was because I wanted to use it on the bike and did not want to risk my 40Gb iPod, and $100 now is cheaper then $250 later (the estimated cost of replacing the hard drive in the 40Gb iPod)
Since I got the Shuffle, I have combined all my biking play lists (all 7 of them, I had to remove a lot of duplicate entries) into one play list, and let iTunes fill the shuffle up randomly with what is in that new list.
I have a few thoughts on the shuffle and I will list them here. It is a nice device for a few songs; I see it mainly as a device for mp3s while working out. If you are looking for a good mp3 play, and not going to use it for a work out, I would say get an iPod, just an ordinary iPod (or the iPod photo) It will hold most (or in many cases [like for me] all) of your mp3s. But if you are looking for a mp3 play to use when you are working out, be it biking, running, etc. Then the iPod shuffle is a great device. The 512Mb one will hold 8 hours of music and the battery is billed to last 12 hours that should be more then enough music to get most people though any amount of exercise, well maybe not professional athletes. The shuffle has a few quarks, to turn on hold you have to press and hold the play button for 3 seconds. And the only indication of what is going on inside the device is 1 LED, which will blink green or orange, to indicate what is going on inside the device. Apple is usually so good at UI’s that I am suppressed at this system, I don’t think the feed back that the device gives is adequate. But to control the device is easy. There is a small area you have to deal with, and I can use it with out looking at the device, very easy to control. But I think it is a good device for a small subset of ones mp3 collection to take with one while working out. I know I will probably use it more on the bike trails around Pittsburgh.