Small, long battery life -- great for deployment

I bought my iPod Shuffle during my deployment in support of Operation Enduring Freedom, and this review is written from the standpoint of how well this music player holds up downrange. Bottom line, it holds up very well.

Pros:

Durability. The Shuffle is hard plastic and small size, which makes it very hard to break. The plastic gets scuffed a bit, but since there's no LCD display, scratches really don't make a difference (and if you're that fastidious, there are silicone cases available). Sand and dust are killers downrange for electronic toys, and the Shuffle's basic construction ensures that neither can do much to the innards of the device.

Portability. The Shuffle weighs next to nothing. It is ridiculously easy to carry around. It is the perfect width to slip right into the many cargo loops on the front of your body armor, or of course in a sleeve pocket of your ACUs or modified ACUs. Since the system is chip-based rather than hard drive-based, you can subject it to bounces and jounces without any skipping or damage occurring. This could be the ideal player to have around because of the lack of moving parts and security from the outside environment.

Battery life: Ridiculously long for something this size. I used this for hours on end, and I can only think of one time the batteries actually went out. Charge time is very quick, and since you don't have to have iTunes installed on a computer to charge it up through the USB port, power is readily available most places. (Even in the hinterlands of Afghanistan and Iraq, there are computers to be found!)



Cons:

Randomness. OK, it's called "Shuffle," so the randomness should be anticipated. And you can turn the random selection off and create your own playlist. But if you don't remember the order you picked in iTunes, you have to hunt around a lot for specific songs, and while a display would get scratched, a small one would be nice to see where you are in your playlist.

Headphones: The factory headphones that come with all iPods aren't bad, but they are an earBUD design and not an earPLUG design. The designers assume that you will not be subject to a lot of ambient noise. That's fine in the rear, but on a C-17 or C-130 or near the big diesel generators downrange, it's pretty hard to hear unless you're jamming them suckers into your ears. Recommend picking up some earplug-type headphones that are just as portable as the OEM phones but help get rid of outside noise.

iTunes and network security: One of the properties of iTunes is that it reaches out through the network so people can share music. Unfortunately, this kills bandwidth downrange, where it's bad enough as it is, and can be a security risk. So, most DOD computer policies forbid it being on government computers. So if you don't take a computer with you, you'll need to find a buddy with iTunes if you want to change what's on your Shuffle.

Little memory. Yeah, that should be anticipated, too -- it only holds half a gig, after all. I just wish Apple made a larger one than 512MB and 1024MB. I'm sure a bigger one is coming, but I would have liked it sooner. (Yes, I always want my instant gratification NOW.)