IPod Shuffle

iPod Shuffle

iPod Shuffle (4th generation) in Silver
Manufacturer	Apple Inc.
Type	Digital audio player
Retail availability	January 11, 2005–present
Media	Flash memory 512 MB to 4 GB currently 2 GB
Operating system	1.1.5 (1G) 1.0.4 (2G) 1.1 (3G) 1.0.3 (4G)
Display	None
Input	Shuffle, Play In Order, Turn Off, 3.5-mm stereo headphone jack
Connectivity	USB 2.0 (1G Directly)
Power	Lithium-ion battery
Weight	12.5 grams (0.44 oz)
Related articles	iPod Nano iPod Mini iPod Classic iPod Touch iPhone

The iPod Shuffle (stylized and marketed as iPod shuffle) is a digital audio player designed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is the smallest model in Apple's iPod family, and was the first iPod to use flash memory. The first model was announced at the Macworld Conference & Expo on January 11, 2005; the current fourth generation model was introduced on September 1, 2010.

Released on January 11, 2005, the first-generation iPod Shuffle weighed 0.78 ounces (22 g), and was designed to be easily loaded with a selection of songs and to play them in random order. According to Apple, owners of existing iPods had often left the music selection to "shuffle", and the new iPod Shuffle was a way of implementing that in a much more cost-effective fashion. It relied on the use of an "autofill" feature in iTunes, which selected songs at random from a user's music library (or from a specific playlist) and copied as many as would fit into the iPod Shuffle's storage. The first generation could hold up to 240 songs (1 GB model, based on Apple's estimate, of four minutes per song and 128 kbit/s AAC encoding). It used the SigmaTel STMP35xx system on a chip (SOC) and its software development kit (SDK) v2.6, a flash memory IC, and USB rechargeable lithium cell. The STMP35xx SOC and its software was the most fully integrated portable MP3 playback system at release time and SigmaTel was Austin's largest IPO (2003) capturing over 60% of flash based MP3 player world market share in 2004. In 2005, peak iPod first-generation Shuffle production occurred at a hundred thousand units per day, at the Asus factory.

It lacked a display, the trademark scroll wheel, playlist management features, and the games, address book, calendar, alarm, and notes capability of larger iPods; nor could it be used with iSync. Due to the codec not being ported, it was incapable of playing Apple Lossless and AIFF audio files.