Yes, the day has finally arrived. iPods have become so cheap that even a homeless person can manage to buy one by cashing in old soda bottles. Parents can give their children an Apple product without worry or anxiety over the repercussions. You can fulfill your dream of placing a music device in every available crevice of your home, including in toilets. Ok, maybe it's not THAT extreme... but it's still note-worthy.

Today, Apple made another slight change to its iPod line when prices for the Shuffle were marked down and a new storage capacity option was added. The 1GB and new 2GB Shuffles are now being sold for $49 and $69, respectively. The 1GB models are available immediately, with the 2GB models making their way to the Apple Store later this month.

YAY!

Ha, nice!

I'm still waiting for the Video Shuffle...

Haha that will be the day!

That's great! If only it had a screen... they should release a touch-enabled shuffle! But yeah, the shuffle's awfully useful, especially with my little applescript that converts a playlist into an audio track list... Although I can't imagine anyone using a shuffle as their main iPod

I have a few iPods that have been damaged that I use to hold software and stuff.

Oh my God ! In my country, they try to sell it for 133 USD ! Central Europe ! I love it

A link would be nice

How do you think I got my MBP?

At least the prices are reasonable now, I've been thinking about getting one for a while now. It would make wonderful running buddy. It's just too bad that I have to buy my friends.

/me iPod pro

then order it from america or an american retailer

in belgium it's 45 euro (still more than 49 dollar)
but the "new" ipod colors are so ugly! only the red and the gray ones are beautiful, the other colors are so "washed-of ugly"

I agree. I liked the ones with some more saturation to it... more vivid colors.

so for $49 I can get a mp3 player that has no screen and has 1 GB of space? If that's what you want then good. However I can get the same thing for less money with 2 GB of space. I'll take spending less money and getting more instead.

After all, in my opinion , it's much better to buy something else like a Creative or a Sony or some new outstanding chinese product, than an Ipod. It is to expensive for the bad sound quality and the battery life it brings. Ok,u could say now , I could buy better headphones for it ,but when I buy something for 149$ (nano) , i dont want to get new headphones for it ! The new ipod shuffle price is much better , but it still lacks in something important ! The screen , EQ....

I always get a kick out of people that bitch about sound quality when talking about mp3 players. It's a mp3 ferchristssake, bottom of the audio barrel, quality does not apply. When you consider that most peoples collections were downloaded from the net it's even more funny. IPods are no worse than any other brand. iTunes may be less that perfect but it's a hell of a lot better than anything from Creative or Sony.

And just how do you fit a usable screen and controls on someting the size of a matchbook? Make it any bigger and it becomes a nano. It's all about the size. Not having to put it in a pocket or strap it to your arm is priceless.

i use the shuffle, not because it is from apple (not fanboy), but because it is very small and practical to use on-the-go.

I'm one of the people who 'rushed out' and bought an iPod Shuffle (Light Blue) after the price drop. I bought the Shuffle for $49USD ($53.80 with Tax). I had $50 Gift Card so I paid grand total of $3.80 (about week's worth of recycled bottles and cans -- lol).

I hooked up the Shuffle to my OSx86 PC at Home with iTunes 7.2. After downloading and installing latest firmware (1.0.3), I copied several songs and podcasts. The Shuffle is a good secondary iPod (in addition to my 2nd Gen Nano).

--danyel

I thought I was the only one that still used 7.2!

Hi Bedlight:

I'm using iTunes 7.2 because it supports music video downloads (that was recently lowered to $1.49 per video). The later versions seem more bloated than usual.

The main reason is that I've not been able to upgrade past OSx86 10.4.6 (Everything works natively). I haven't tried Leopard yet tho'

--danyel

i have a 2GB iRiver S10 with screen ! only 75 euro's
for those who like, options ! extra power, 'n stuff
lots of pro's, one con: screen eats battery.

http://www.iriver.com/product/p_detail.asp?pidx=78



NOT true, when you have a decent audio encoder instead of using the basic itunes settings you DO have extremely good quality.
Also iPods are not bad. but certainly not 'a hell of a lot better' than creative or sony.
The screen quality (if it has one), games maybe, and design are very good i must say.
If that's all you want, go ipod !

"And just how do you fit a usable screen and controls on someting the size of a matchbook?"

Have you ever seen the iRiver S10 ?
funny man thinks the knows everything

About the screen. There are many ways to create small size screens. My Sony divece has oled screen and after removing the plastic cover from the player , I can see it. It's like a small plastic thing. Not so huge and much smaller than something like lcd. It could fit on the shuffle too, easily.

LMAO thats hillarious! BUT...in Chicago i see ALOT of homeless people pushing their shopping carts full of boxes, cans, a kitchen sink with white ipod ear buds sticking in their ears! I always wonder how or where they charge them up and get the music from! LOL

Yeah, the iRiver S10 is sweet... maybe not the same price of a shuffle, but definitely more functional.

Of course people are going to bitch about sound quality, if it's iffy, lmfao. Some people on this board just don't think...