what is the biggest they have out in this ipod shuffle?
last I checked they only had a 128 mb version
----- Original Message -----
From: "Chris Skarstad" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <pc-audio@pc-audio.org>
Sent: Wednesday, June 29, 2005 4:57 AM
Subject: I conquered the iPod shuffle!!!
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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