iPod Shuffle

[Sylvus]

Are iPod Shuffles any good?

I'm getting married this summer, and I was trying to think of a good gift to get my groomsmen. One of the things that popped in my head over the weekend was that there is a lot of different music that reminds me of time I've spent with each of my groomsmen, from my brother to my friends in high school to my college buddies. I thought that an mp3 player personalized to each of them with music we listened to together might be kind of cool.

I'm just not sure if the Shuffle is worthwhile. I'd thought about a nano, but with having to buy 7 of them between ushers and groomsmen at $150 each, that's getting a bit out of hand. There's a pretty cool looking polished stainless steel 4 GB Shuffle that is $99, which is a bit more manageable, but I'm not sure if anyone even likes those.

If the shuffle sucks, is there an off-brand model that is better? I've looked at some cheapo ones (like this) that would probably get the job done, and I could just include one of those along with another "main" gift.

If anyone has any suggestions, I'd appreciate it.

[miir]

Shuffles suck.
The 8 gig nano is like $134

[Aabidano]

The Sansa clip is ~$40 and way better than a shuffle. Plays all your common file formats, works with the services and has an FM reciever as well as a voice recorder. Drag and drop file access too, no software needed.

And of course it doesn't say Apple on it.

They show up on woot for ~$14 periodically too. When I drop one in the bay I'm not too upset.

[Xatrei]

I haven't really had any exposure to the 3G shuffles, but I've got a 2G that I like quite a bit. I got it specifically for using while running or doing yard work, and for that sort of thing, it's been great. The capacity is a bit of an issue, especially when accustomed to having 30GB of stuff on my main player. Even so, I can put enough tunes or audio books on it to make it through several sessions of use before I get bored and change the playlist. Capacity is not as big of an issue with the higher capacity shuffles now. The thing I really like is that having no display to eat chew up the batteries, a full charge seems to last forever. As a primary media player, they would pretty much suck, though.

I'd be pretty happy to receive one as a gift.

[Xatrei]

Today's woot (Sunday, 7 Feb 2010) is a refurbished Sandisk Sansa Clip 8GB MP3 Player for $32.99

http://woot.com

[Winnow]

Are iPod Shuffles any good?

I'm getting married this summer, and I was trying to think of a good gift to get my groomsmen. One of the things that popped in my head over the weekend was that there is a lot of different music that reminds me of time I've spent with each of my groomsmen, from my brother to my friends in high school to my college buddies. I thought that an mp3 player personalized to each of them with music we listened to together might be kind of cool.

Dude, buy USB thumb drives and stick the personalized music on them. Unless your groomsmen all live in the ghetto, they have iPods (or other brand MP3 players) already, and their moms have them too, and probably bought the version they like. You'll be wasting your money buying them a cheapo MP3 player, but the idea about the personalized music is cool.

You can get 16GB thumb drives for under $40.00 and 8GB drives for under $20.00 and after they're done placing the music on their PCs or MP3 players, the grooms people will still be able to use the thumb drives for storage while the shuffle would be shuffled right to the junk drawer. Alternatively, record those songs on a $0.01 DVD for exact same personalized effect and slip a BB Gift Card in there so they actually get something they want.

[miir]

I agree with Winnow.

[Sylvus]

I had actually considered one of those flash usb sticks that is also an mp3 player, but maybe i'll just go with the standard usb stick, and then try to find something else to go along with it.

Thanks for the advice, all.