Hi all!
This is going to be a rather long post, so if you're really not interested,
feel free to move along to the next message or whatever you'd like to
do. For those who are interested though, I'd like to share a few tips as
to how I got the shuffle to work for me. I gotta give a big thanks to Anna
Dresner, who just wrote a great book on this whole thing. I haven't
purchased iit yet but will do so soon.
Ok, here goes!
The iPod shuffle is probably the most accessible version of the iPod out
there. It's a very small device, about the size of a pack of gum, but maybe
just a little bit wider and a bit thicker as well. It's white in color but
if you have any vision you can buy skins for it which will change it all
kinds of colors. It also comes with earbuds, and a little lanyard for
hanging it around your neck.
It's very light, weighing in at all about 1 7th of an ounce!
So this is a tiny lil thing, lol.
On one end you have a headphone jack. You just plug the included earbuds
into it or if you have another pare of headphones with a similar plug,
those will work as well.
On the opposite end, you have the USB connection. It is covered up by a
little removable piece of plastic that you can take off and put back on.
Don't lose this little baby, because you only get one.
You can plug the shuffle directly into the USB port on the back of your
computer. The internal battery is charged when you do this. So you'll
probably want to keep it plugged in there for about 4 hours or so. I'm
sure you can probably use the shuffle while the battery is charging, but
for the very first time I wanted to give it a full charge. With the unit
you get a software cd containing the iPod updater software and a copy of
iTunes. As you guys read before, I was originally dead set against
installing iTunes. I didn't want it on my computer because I didn't think
I would ever use it. Then I found out about Brian's scripts, which may
change my mind about that. The first time I installed the software, I
chose not to install iTunes directly afterwords. You'll want to do this,
especially if you'll be using alternative software to transfer your
files. Like others have said on the list, for some unknown reason, iTunes
must be present on your system in order for everything to work. Without it
installed, Anapod Explorer wouldn't even find my iPod.
Windows found it, but not Anapod.
One very perplexing thing in all this. In order to continue with the
install of your iPod software, the instalation program is going to ask for
the 11 digit serial number found on the box for your iPod. Write this
number down, because you're going to need it. The other problem I had with
this, at least with JAWS 6, is that when it presents this dialogue, the
edit box to type the number into is not immediately available. The only
way i was able to get it typed in is to have sighted help moving the mouse
to the specific spot on the screen so that JAWS would find the focus in the
edit field. You can then type in the serial number and continue with the
install.
So, after this, you just install the iPod updater software, at which time,
it should tell you if your iPod needs to be formatted. Mine didn't need
to be, but the updater program will let you re-initialize the iPod if you
need to do it.
If all goes well with this, then it's time to install the iTunes software.
You may be asked to reboot when you're finished. If you are, please do
so. When you come back up, you'll probably be asked to register your iPod
with Apple. You'll want to do that, in case you run into any technicle
problems, and they can find your information in their database a little
easier. Just connect your iPod to your computer via the USB Port if you
haven't already done so, and follow the onscreen prompts and
you'll first give your iPod a name and set a few other preferences.
Now, open up iTunes, and go to the edit menu. You'll need to use your
screenreader's review cursor a lot for this, but it can most certainly be
done. Once in the edit menu, choose preferences. You'll want to make sure
that the setting for iTunes to load when this iPod is connected is not!
checked. so uncheck that box, and in the iPod tab, make sure you check the
box for disc use mode. there'll be a dialogue that comes up letting you
know that doing this makes it like a drive in windows, but this is ok so
just press the ok button.
After that, you can install Anapod explorer. All of the default settings
it gives you are fine, so there probably isn't much of a need to change any
of them.
When you install it, you'll want to go to your system tray. you should see
an item there that says, Anapod Manager iPod shuffle. Press enter and
from the menu, choose the item that says, connect iPod shuffle. This
prepares the Shuffle and the computer to send data back and forth.
Now, here's the really important part. Now, you're ready to transfer data
to your shuffle. To do this, locate any music you'd like to copy to your
shuffle.
So go to the directory where your music is and do a simple copy operation
there.
Note that if you have the trial version of Anapod, it'll only let you copy
one song at a time. This lets you at least figure out if it'll work for
you. Ok, now that you've copied your track or tracks to your clipboard,
it's time to paste them. I learned through experience that it's important
to paste the tracks in a specific place, rather than just in the route
directory of the drive itself. You can do this til the end of time and it
won't work. So, instead, open up Anapod Explorer via the context menu in
the system tray icon menu and arrow down to the part of the tree that
says,iPod shuffler. The item we're actually interested in is in this
section and is called shuffle memory.
Arrow down one time to get to this. On some systems you may have to press
enter to get the song list to appear, but on mine curiously, i only had to
press the tab key. and maybe it's just my system in particular, but for
some strange reason, JAWS would not read the list viw to me unless i did a
bit of cursor routing.
But after that, you should be able to paste your tracks there. so go
ahead and do that now. if you read your status line, you'll be able to
tell how fast the files are transfering and if there's space on the shuffle
being taken up by the files. these are good indicators to tell if you're
doing it correctly. Eventually your transfer will complete, hopefully
successfully! So now, you'll have to go back to the system tray, choose
anapod manager again and press enter on disconnect iPod shuffle. This
indicates that the file transfers are over. Now, you'll also need to
remove your shuffle from the computer. Don't just yank it out of the USB
port though. First, go back to the anapod manager menu and choose eject
iPod shuffle and then after a few seconds you'll get a dialogue box saying
that the operation is complete and it's safe to remove the player. so press
the space bar to make it go away. Now it's ok to remove it from the USB
port, so go ahead and do that. Don't forget to replace the piece of
plastic that goes on top of the USB port. Now, find your headphones and
plug them in.
You'll need to turn your shuffle on, next. on the under side you'll find a
switch that has 3 different positions. Move this switch one place forward
for the shuffle to be turned on and in shuffle mode. move it once more to
have it in regular mode. Now that it'son, press the play button, which
you'll find on top of the player, it's the round circular button there.
Hold it down for about 5 seconds. If you hear music, you're good to go! You
can adjust the volume by pressing the buttons just above and below the
play button. to switch tracks, the button to the right moves you forward
and the one to the left moves you back. Holding these buttons down will let
you fast forward or rewind within a track.
The only real complaint I have about the shuffle is its lack of controls to
adjust the sound. On my awesome $35 radio shack headphones, this thing
sounded really tinny. Not a lot of bass or trebble, but the sound was
certainly good enough when you're out and about. I think of it as the
no-frills iPod. In fact it's the cheepest of all of them. and wouldn't you
know it, just as an aside, I bought it last Thursday for around $150 at
Target, and today I found out that Apple just dropped the price of it by
$30. That always seems to happen, oh well. In any case, I hope this helps
a perspective, or new iPod shuffle user get going.
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