Just got an iPod shuffle...how does this thing work?

[Felon]

OK, I am borrowing a Shuffle to see what's great about'em, and have installed the iTunes software, but it's kind of unintuitive (for me anyway). Maybe I'm just too used to Windows Media Player's interface.

The biggest problem is that I see no actual button or menu command for getting the tunes off the hard drive and onto the shuffle. Does the itunes software have anything directly to do with the ipod, or do I just manually move stuff into the ipod like it was a flash drive?

I see I can create my own playlists, but I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do with'em. I can export them as a text list or burn them to a disk. Is that it?

The left hand menu has a "library" with everything in it--music, videos, etc. And it has a "videos" section. But there's no icon that specifically shows all my downloaded music, which is supposedly what the whole thing is about. There's a "party shuffle" that has a music list that I can't clear or re-order. Not sure what that's for.

TIA.

 

[buzzard]

I haven't played with a shuffle, but I am fairly familliar with iTunes. I guess first off, did you import your music into iTunes? It won't simply search your HD or make assumptions based on where Windows stores stuff. You will need to actually import songs into it. This will not modify the songs, but merely enter them into its database and put them into its folder. Once that is done you should end up with all your stuff in the library. From there you can make either smart playlists or normal ones. Smart playlists allow for query types to choose the music on the list. Normal playlists you drag and drop manually onto the list.

When you plug the shuffle into a USB port, it should appear in the iTunes list on the left. Given that I have an iPod bigger than my music collection, I am unfammiliar with the details of making playlists that fit into shuffles, so sorry, but I can't help you there. I believe there is an automated process by which it can take a random selection of music to fit the shuffle size. I also believe you can designate playlists that you want to dump on there yourself.

buzzard

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

Plug the iPod Shuffle into your USB port. It should appear as an icon in that left hand menu. From there just drag and drop what you want onto the shuffle. You can create playlists and drag those as well as whole albums or indvidual songs.

With an iPod (non-Shuffle), you can select exactly what to play at any time; song, album, artist or playlist from the iPod screen. Since it is a Shuffle, once the song are on there, pretty much all you can do is hit play and let it go (I think you can select random mode or play start to finish).

Playlists are so you can set up a specific list of songs. More useful on a regular iPod since you can have several playlists which you can select (I have several based upon my mood). With the Shuffle, since you cannot select the playlist, I believe some people use them to quickly create sets of music they might want to frequently swap out. Want only high energy music - grab that playlist. Now in the mood for something mellow, remove the high energy playlist and add your mellow one.

 

[Felon]

Thanks. Seems the main thing that was throwing me was that iPod appeared on the menu selection initially, but it had this drop-down arrow next to it that, when clicked, makes the iPod disappear...and it would seem that iTunes has to be restarted to get it back. Not sure why they would put that drop-down arrow there that does that, but maybe mac-oriented interfaces just take some getting used to.

But again, thanks. Maybe I should just return the thing and cough up another $50 for a nano.

 

[Jarrod]

That's the eject button; when you're done putting music on there, click the button and remove the iPod when it disappears from the menu.

Same idea as any removable storage - let the program or OS finish what it's doing before you pull the device.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Given the capabilities, the nano is worth the extra price (full choice, slideshow, games, etc, etc).

 

[werk]

Drag and drop

no big deal

 

[Michael Dean]

I had the same initial problem. The autoload function is what loads the playlist onto the shuffle. It does it as soon as you plug the shuffle into the computer. So basically, you want to create your playlist and then plug the ipod in. After it loads, you can click onto the autoload and tell it which playlist you want to automatically load. My problem was that I couldn't find the autoload button when the ipod is not plugged in. I think it only shows up when it is plugged in, but I could be wrong.

 

[Felon]

Thanks, got it sorted out. May give it to a friend and upgrade to a nano eventually.

EDIT--One more thing I wanted to ask about: load time. The Shuffle seems to take several hours to fully load a gig of music. Seems to hit a snag at about the 250MB mark. Is this normal? Anything I can do to speed it up?

 

[trancejeremy]

Does your computer have a USB 2.0 port? 1.1 ports are slow as dirt. (And actually, doesn't iStuff use Firewire?).

IMHO, you'd be better off getting a non-iPod. Other companies offer MP3 players with the same features, but for less and with less of a hassle, software wise, since they were designed with Windows users in mind, not Mac ones.