The new Apple (AAPL) iPod Shuffle is out and just in time for the gift-giving season. It even comes in a small enough size to make a great stocking stuffer and the price, $80 isn't too bad either.
At 1.1 by 1.6 by .4 inches and weighing only half an ounce, it's the world's smallest MP3 player, at least according to Apple. It holds about 240 songs, 1 gigabyte's worth. The price is a 47 percent decrease from last year's one-gig Shuffle.
Of course, there are pluses and minuses to the design,depending on your preference. The whole thing is designed, with the entire back panel doubling as a clip, to make it easy to clip onto your clothes and go. It comes with old-style iPod earbuds instead of the new, rubber-lined ones that come with the Nano and full-size iPod.
It doesn't plug directly into your computer but instead comes with a tiny docking station. There is no screen so you don't see what is playing but that is what makes it smaller and less fragile.
Other portable music competitors do offer 1-gig models with screens like Creative Technology Ltd.'s (CREAF) Zen Nano Plus for $65 and SanDisk Corp.'s (SNDK) Sansa e140 for $77. Of course, they aren't as tiny.
Read Poque's Posts, a NYTimes blog, for more opinions and a full review.
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