The iPod shuffle

The iPod shuffle is downright pint-sized. If the regular iPod models aren’t small enough to fit into your lifestyle, try the iPod shuffle — either the 1GB or 2GB model. The 0.55-ounce iPod shuffle is shaped like a money clip and is about the same size — 1.07 x 1.62 inches with a depth of 0.41 inch. In several different flashy colors and convenient for clipping to just about anything, the iPod shuffle is fast becoming a fashion statement.

View the iPod shuffle, which weighs less than an ounce.

However, the current iPod shuffle that clips to your clothing is not the first iPod that you could wear. That honor belongs to the original iPod shuffle, which is 3.3 inches long, less than 1 inch wide, and about one-third of an inch thick. It weighs only 0.78 ounce, which is little more than a car key or a pack of gum. You can hang it from your ears with the supplied earbuds and wear it around your neck like a necklace. You can still find them for sale in retail outlets and used ones on eBay, but Apple replaced the original with the much smaller clip-on model.

iPod shuffle models have no display, but that’s actually a good thing because this design keeps the size and weight down to a minimum, and you don’t need a display to play a couple hundred songs in random or sequential order. You can also use your iPod shuffle to hold data files, just like an external flash memory drive.

The 1GB iPod shuffle holds about 240 songs, and the 2GB shuffle holds about 500 songs, assuming an average of 4 minutes per song, using the AAC format at the High Quality setting. Remember, iPod shuffle is not meant to store music permanently. Instead, you use it just to play selections from your iTunes library on your computer.