The Shuffle

Goodbye to the good, old, clunky Sony Discman, I am now rocking with the cute, petite iPod Shuffle. Not that I want to be down with today’s trend, but I inherited it by a coincidence. I got the Shuffle for her birthday, and her brother also gave her a SanDisk Sansa MP3 Player. It’s a waste to own them both, which I agreed, and she knows that if she gives it back to her brother, that’s it. With me, she could negotiate for something else. Smart girl, I tell ya!

When I first spotted the Shuffle on Apple’s homepage, I was hooked on the design, and not knowing anything about it. Didn’t even realize that the Shuffle doesn’t come with a screen, which doesn’t let you see what tune is playing. That’s one of the reasons she doesn’t like it, and it is a legitimate one. As a tech (somewhat) savvy, I also find the Shuffle to be too simple at first, but now it’s the simplicity that I like. The little machine was design to do its job: to hold and play music. Because of its limitation, it forces me to be more specific on the music I select. As a habit, I often constrain myself to concentrate on a particular artist to soak in his style, technique, and execution, especially in jazz. So if I want to listen to Keith Jarrett, I have to experience his entire collection or albums and no one else until I could fully appreciate his music or can’t stand him anymore. So the Shuffle is useful for that purpose. My only complaint is that the Shuffle doesn’t allow you to import songs from another computer without wiping out what you have in there. Other than that, the Shuffle is not so bad. Every time I look at her these words come to mind: “Anh thay em nho xiu, nho xiu, anh cung.” The little iPod that is.