Announced in September and to appear in stores today the new iPod Shuffle has already been given a lot of buzz. We took ours, which arrived via FedEx last night down to the labs for a review.

Packaging & First Impressions

Once getting past the very ugly box it shipped in we were surprised to see our little iPod Shuffle sitting in a new clear plastic case (photo left). The case is kept closed by a piece of clear sticky plastic on the side that has a little flap and arrow to direct users how to remove. Once removed the case flips open to reveal the new second generation 1GB iPod Shuffle which sits on a clear plastic tray. Underneath are all the iPod goodies which we have grown to expect from Apple. There is the manual, iPod Shuffle hint card, new iPod earphones, two sets of earphone buds and the USB dock.

Dock Included

This is the first iPod in awhile that has a USB dock included. Apple and third parties did release them for the old iPod Shuffle as well as all the other iPods but they were sold separately. The reason it is included in this model become clear very quickly and that is because there is no other way to connect the iPod Shuffle to your computer. The dock has a little prong that fits into the earphone jack of the iPod and ends in a USB 2.0 cable. While we were happy to see a dock, we also realized that this meant that it will not be as easy to turn this into USB drive since you will need to carry an adapter of some sort. This is different from the first generation iPod Shuffle which had the USB dongle built in and a cap the covered it.

After getting the dock hooked up and the iPod connected we were prompted with the iTunes dialog box asking us to name our iPod Shuffle. After that we were given the new iTunes 7 iPod configuration screen (photo left) which displays the name, capacity and other options. We really love this new feature which allows for much easier configuration. Most of the features are pretty self explanatory so we will let you self explain as you read them (again, photo left).

As with the old iPod Shuffle you can tell iTunes to autofill from your entire collection, from a playlist or do it manually. All work just fine and as expected. We threw a few new Skakari songs on ours and headed out for our test.

Tiny. Tiny. Tiny.

This new iPod Shuffle is tiny and while it holds one gigabyte of data, it looks like it is lost at the end of the earphone cords. It has the very traditional navigator on the front while the green light has been moved to the top. On the bottom are two small metal sliders that for controlling continuous play and on/off.

Lost in our pocket the iPod Shuffle performed great. It was smart of the designers to offset the controls to one side so you could figure out which is left and right on the controls without looking at it. As for sound, the new iPod speakers performed well enough for our ears.

We rocked to the sweet sounds of Shakari, shuffled some more and concluded that we love this new iPod Shuffle which will be great as a second iPod and for the gym. Clip it on your shirt and head out.

Pros, Cons & Rating

Pros Very small Includes dock Great price Clip included Cons No USB dongle built in No cheaper, 512MB version

Conclusion

Overall the second generation iPod Shuffle is a great addition to the iPod family and for just $79 will be the hit of the holiday season. The small size, built-in clip and dock make this a winner.

Specs

• $79
• 1.62 x 1.07 x 0.41 inches
• 1GB / 240 songs

Available at Apple.com and Amazon