Anybody have an opinion on what company has the best competition for the Shuffle? Dell is pushing one with a screen for the same price and claims it compresses music more efficiently for more tunes.

iRiver
 

Griff,

Before my fiancee was given a 1GB Shuffle by someone, we were seriously looking at the iRiver because of its external microphone jack and expandability. It also can use Windows Media Player, which isn't bad given the competition :).

I would stay far away from any device requiring either MusicMatch Jukebox, Creative Labs, or Sony software to load the mp3s onto the device. I've found those three to be the most horrible out there. I remember when Apple had to bundle MusicMatch with iTunes. I bought XPlay, and so did 3 people I know, due to how bad MusicMatch is. Dell uses MusicMatch, from what I remember. Sony, for all the good walkmans I owned, has put out garbage for software.

Pretty much anything else seems like a pale imitation, especially anything Creative Labs sells.

Mitch

thanks, Mitch :)

my nanooooooo
:shocking:

more

Dude - you need to clean your mouse!

All of these new iPods are messing my iPod up... all of the software updates and such... I like to think I made the iPod cool since I got mine a long time ago!

The extra cost is justifiable mostly because the iPod nano doesn't HAVE a side (ok, slight exaggeration). And, of course, being a flash player, it's skip-proof.

Point is you could get a 3GB Archos flash player for $150.

Maybe it is possible to be too thin. Apple to replace cracked screens.