WSJ reviews iPod shuffle

"I've been for a couple of days, and, in my tests, it fulfilled -- and even exceeded -- Apple's claims for convenience, battery life and song capacity, writes renowned Wall Street Journal columnist, Walt Mossberg. "Sound quality is so good you can barely believe the music is coming from something so small." Mossberg praises the iPod shuffle's battery life, which in his tests faired much better than Apple's 12 hour estimate, lasting nearly 16 hours. He also found that the new iPod actually holds more songs than Apple claims because Apple's calculation is based on four-minute songs, while many pop and rock tunes are actually much shorter than that. Mossberg does, however, lists a few downsides to the iPod shuffle, including a lack of display to view playlists, contact info and calendars. He also found the three-way mode button on the back difficult to move. Still, he believes iPod shuffle is "a good product that will enlarge the iPod's appeal, especially with kids, people on low budgets, or people who work out."

by MacNN Staff