Unboxing and Hands-On Review of the New iPod Shuffle

As I take out my brand new iPod Shuffle, I'm immediately struck by its sleek and compact design. The device looks a bit different from previous versions, with the scroll wheel having been moved down to my eye level. Upon closer inspection, I notice that the scroll wheel appears to be slightly smaller than before, although it seems to be the same size overall. Another notable difference is the reversal of the camera's position, which has been shifted to the left side due to the accommodation of a new feature: an FM tuner.

The back of the iPod Shuffle still reads "8 gig" or "16 gig" depending on the version, but the top appears to be different, and the dimensions seem to be similar. I'm not entirely sure what's changed, but it's likely related to the positioning of the camera. The camera itself is relatively small and doesn't appear to have autofocus, which limits its functionality compared to other cameras.

I take a moment to familiarize myself with the device's new features. A podometer has been added, which I'm not entirely sure what that does – it might be related to tracking exercise or fitness? An internal speaker has also been included, which is necessary for playing back recorded audio through the camera function. The positioning of the camera isn't ideal, and you'll need to hold it at an angle to avoid putting your fingers in front of the lens.

I decide to test out the camera's features by holding down the center button while recording a quick video. To my surprise, the device can record video, but only with the sound from the internal speaker – there's no separate audio option. The playback is a bit clunky, and it takes some experimentation to get used to the controls. Once I've mastered the basics, I decide to try out the camera again, this time recording a longer video.

The resulting videos are a bit shaky and don't seem to have much quality to them, but they're certainly interesting as a novelty. The speaker is surprisingly good, considering its small size, and it's clear that Apple has put some thought into optimizing the sound for playback through the camera. I also notice that the device can play back recorded audio – I'm not sure if this is related to the podcasting feature or something else entirely.

As I continue to explore the iPod Shuffle, I start to appreciate its compact size and ease of use. The interface is simple and intuitive, making it easy to navigate through menus and adjust settings. One thing that might be a bit confusing for some users is the lack of autofocus in the camera – this limits the device's functionality compared to other cameras.

I take out my iPhone as a comparison point, and I'm struck by how much thicker and heavier it is compared to the iPod Shuffle. The camera on my iPhone has autofocus, which makes a significant difference in image quality. However, the iPhone's design limitations have meant that Apple couldn't fit a high-quality camera into the iPod Touch or Nano.

I decide to plug in my new 8-gig iPod Shuffle and test out its FM radio feature. I'm familiar with the U radio adapter for older iPods, which allowed me to connect headphones and listen to radio stations – but I'm not sure if this will work with all versions of the iPod Shuffle. To my relief, it seems to be compatible, although the process is a bit clumsy.

The FM radio feature on my iPod Shuffle works surprisingly well, considering its age. The sound quality is decent, and I appreciate that Apple has included this feature as an option for users who want to listen to music while exercising or commuting. However, I'm not entirely convinced about the use case – will people really be listening to the radio on their earbuds?

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enall right Apple introduced some new iPods on September 9th naturally went out and picked up a few few copies of my own uh right now it's uh September 13th so it's a few days later I decided because they were the most interesting new products from Apple from the iPod release I went ahead and got the iPod Shuffle with the uh stainless steel finish and and I also got the iPod Nano uh this is the 8 gig model with the silver finish uh just for comparison sake this video is just going to do a is just going to do a unboxing of the Nano I brought out my fourth generation nano let's go ahead and put these aside and take a look at the Nano again I didn't know which color to get so I decided to go with silver since it matches everything else Apple makes let's go and peel it off set that aside for now take a look at what's inside designed by Apple in California start here of course got some Apple stickers product information just slowly and there's the camera and radio functions listed okay as everybody knows by now the new Nano new Hallmark feature is the camera and uh what's not talked about a lot is the radio which is also a very important feature so it's definitely got a different finish if you see in the case pop this out all right you can see the screen is longer this is two and 2.2 in this is exactly 2 in of course they've moved the scroll wheel down a bit to my eye the scroll wheel looks a little smaller some other differences you'll notice it seems to be the same size but you'll notice that everything is is reversed on the bottom so the microphone or the headphone jack is is now on the left side and uh and that's probably a lot to do with the position of the camera so in order to accommodate the camera they probably had to move around the internals a bit and you notice the back is a little different no longer says 8 gig on the back or 16 gig depending on the version you get top appears to be the same otherwise the dimensions seem to be the same yep they are oh you know what I think they're yeah NOP they're the same Yep they're the same I got this one started already that's the old one so the other differences besides being besides having the camera as the FM tuner which works only with headphones it has a podometer it uh also has an internal speaker so naturally you need that for the uh camera function so that you can play back and hear it let's see if we can do a quick video all right let's go to video camera of course the positioning of the camera isn't the best you really have to hold it at the edges otherwise you'll put your fingers fers right over it technically I guess you could hold it this way right where you'll be viewing the screen uh I'm sure you'll get used to it but uh you hold down the center button it's actually recording right now okay there it goes it's recording I believe you hit that button it'll stop no that button will stop okay sto there uh if you hold down the button while it's not playing will give you these uh features or these effects that you can play with I'm recording again okay hold down the button I'm trying to get to the next set of features okay well I got some plain to do but anyway let's see if we can go back and play it and we can hear my voice in here through the speaker it says July 13th 2009 so let's click that there are the three quick clumsy videos I probably made I already wanted to touch it but it's not touch so the speaker is actually somewhere in the bottm IT projects through the bottm sort of like the iPod touch it sounds already sound sounds very similar but um it's only video camera not a still camera has no autofocus it's already much smaller looking let's grab my iPhone you kind of see it yeah you can see how much bigger the iPhone and certainly iPhone's a lot thicker you can see how much bigger the iPhone's camera is which has autofocus and the only way they could do that is to because the iPhone is so much thicker they couldn't get that on the iPod Touch or the iPod Nano and the rumor is the iPod Touch couldn't accommodate the camera because it is too thin let me grab my 8 gig touch so you can see just how thin yep see that's very thin of course they put the camera on all the thinnest side of the iPod where it's you know the Nano taper at the edges and they put it right at the edge so they put in as thinest spot they could so not sure anyway that's that's about all I'll have to plug in you know let's see if we can get the let's see if we can get the FM radio and I don't think I might speak my headphones near mind let's let's take out these headphones menu menu radio Okay and then we have some radio now I'm used to this because I have the U radio adapter for the iPod but it doesn't work with most iPods most of the new iPods in fact I'll go grab it just as a quick demo this was it it would clamp into your iPod from the bottom and uh you would connect your headphone to there and that would be it looks like the old Shuffle but uh that's how you would connect to the radio uh a little clumsy and I never used it because obviously who wants to carry another wire and dongle with you so but at least there was an option and that only worked on the classic so I can already hear the I can hear the sound all right and of course you can see some of the uh information and this is what's going to be the big deal and probably why they introduced radio to begin with because they could tag and purchase songs uh using the radio as sort of your shopping tool so if you find a song you like on the radio in theory you could go ahead and tag it and and maybe uh uh when you connect it again you can purchase that song through iTunes so so all right that's all I'm going to do an unboxing of my new Shuffle as well so stay tuned for that thank you very muchall right Apple introduced some new iPods on September 9th naturally went out and picked up a few few copies of my own uh right now it's uh September 13th so it's a few days later I decided because they were the most interesting new products from Apple from the iPod release I went ahead and got the iPod Shuffle with the uh stainless steel finish and and I also got the iPod Nano uh this is the 8 gig model with the silver finish uh just for comparison sake this video is just going to do a is just going to do a unboxing of the Nano I brought out my fourth generation nano let's go ahead and put these aside and take a look at the Nano again I didn't know which color to get so I decided to go with silver since it matches everything else Apple makes let's go and peel it off set that aside for now take a look at what's inside designed by Apple in California start here of course got some Apple stickers product information just slowly and there's the camera and radio functions listed okay as everybody knows by now the new Nano new Hallmark feature is the camera and uh what's not talked about a lot is the radio which is also a very important feature so it's definitely got a different finish if you see in the case pop this out all right you can see the screen is longer this is two and 2.2 in this is exactly 2 in of course they've moved the scroll wheel down a bit to my eye the scroll wheel looks a little smaller some other differences you'll notice it seems to be the same size but you'll notice that everything is is reversed on the bottom so the microphone or the headphone jack is is now on the left side and uh and that's probably a lot to do with the position of the camera so in order to accommodate the camera they probably had to move around the internals a bit and you notice the back is a little different no longer says 8 gig on the back or 16 gig depending on the version you get top appears to be the same otherwise the dimensions seem to be the same yep they are oh you know what I think they're yeah NOP they're the same Yep they're the same I got this one started already that's the old one so the other differences besides being besides having the camera as the FM tuner which works only with headphones it has a podometer it uh also has an internal speaker so naturally you need that for the uh camera function so that you can play back and hear it let's see if we can do a quick video all right let's go to video camera of course the positioning of the camera isn't the best you really have to hold it at the edges otherwise you'll put your fingers fers right over it technically I guess you could hold it this way right where you'll be viewing the screen uh I'm sure you'll get used to it but uh you hold down the center button it's actually recording right now okay there it goes it's recording I believe you hit that button it'll stop no that button will stop okay sto there uh if you hold down the button while it's not playing will give you these uh features or these effects that you can play with I'm recording again okay hold down the button I'm trying to get to the next set of features okay well I got some plain to do but anyway let's see if we can go back and play it and we can hear my voice in here through the speaker it says July 13th 2009 so let's click that there are the three quick clumsy videos I probably made I already wanted to touch it but it's not touch so the speaker is actually somewhere in the bottm IT projects through the bottm sort of like the iPod touch it sounds already sound sounds very similar but um it's only video camera not a still camera has no autofocus it's already much smaller looking let's grab my iPhone you kind of see it yeah you can see how much bigger the iPhone and certainly iPhone's a lot thicker you can see how much bigger the iPhone's camera is which has autofocus and the only way they could do that is to because the iPhone is so much thicker they couldn't get that on the iPod Touch or the iPod Nano and the rumor is the iPod Touch couldn't accommodate the camera because it is too thin let me grab my 8 gig touch so you can see just how thin yep see that's very thin of course they put the camera on all the thinnest side of the iPod where it's you know the Nano taper at the edges and they put it right at the edge so they put in as thinest spot they could so not sure anyway that's that's about all I'll have to plug in you know let's see if we can get the let's see if we can get the FM radio and I don't think I might speak my headphones near mind let's let's take out these headphones menu menu radio Okay and then we have some radio now I'm used to this because I have the U radio adapter for the iPod but it doesn't work with most iPods most of the new iPods in fact I'll go grab it just as a quick demo this was it it would clamp into your iPod from the bottom and uh you would connect your headphone to there and that would be it looks like the old Shuffle but uh that's how you would connect to the radio uh a little clumsy and I never used it because obviously who wants to carry another wire and dongle with you so but at least there was an option and that only worked on the classic so I can already hear the I can hear the sound all right and of course you can see some of the uh information and this is what's going to be the big deal and probably why they introduced radio to begin with because they could tag and purchase songs uh using the radio as sort of your shopping tool so if you find a song you like on the radio in theory you could go ahead and tag it and and maybe uh uh when you connect it again you can purchase that song through iTunes so so all right that's all I'm going to do an unboxing of my new Shuffle as well so stay tuned for that thank you very much\n"