Monday, December 05, 2005

Chavtastic

This is a post for some friends of mine who read this blog and own IPod Shuffles. They argue that the shuffle is cool, fashionable and handy. I argue back that as an MP3 player it sucks, if any other company brought out an MP3 player that size with no screen and no radio they would cut their losses and sell it for €20. It's just a delivery mechanism for the white headphones that have become must have fashion accessories.

Not wanting to gloat of anything, but it turns out I was right ;-) The shuffle has just been voted this years "Must Have Chav Gadget"

The shuffle is perfect for chavs. It's cheap. It’s by a cool brand, and you can let others know you have one as it is designed to be worn round your neck. As it is white it also accessorises well with those classy gold chains Chavs wear. The sad part is that the shuffle is the worst player in the Apple range – more like some dodgy back street knock-off than the excellent other iPods. The fact it has no screen so you can’t program it or choose a track – it chooses the music for you – also saves Chav brain cells for the much more important business of, ahem, ‘pimping their rides.

Lets face it, Shuffles are stocking fillers. For anyone considering buying a Shuffle, there are far better things available, like the Creative Nano the IRiver T30 or if you are willing to pay a little more, a proper IPod like the Nano. Me? I'll stick with my old reliable IRiver H120 running the open source Rockbox firmware giving me all the features I want.

[Via The Register]

2 comments:

-Ann said...

The shuffle does have on key advantage - if you're a runner, it is incredibly easy to run with. You don't have to worry about skipping or anything. If you drop it, it's not a big deal. I've even put it through the washing machine and had it come out alright on the other end.

It's a basic music delivery device and if that's all you want, it's perfect and not particularly expensive.

Declan said...

Yeah it does have a rugged simplicity going for it. Less to go wrong. Maybe I'm just a control freak :-) but I like having an LCD to browse the songs and select albums. The Creative Labs is smaller than the Shuffle and has one. When exercising I use a solid state IRiver that also has an LCD and a radio. Your shuffle will probably last alot longer than my IRiver, but I still like it. :-)