Yep, that’s right, this is a post about bootleg iPod Shuffles. Not the new 2GB iPod Shuffle, not the iPhone, not some new, super-secret iPod, yet to be released–this is a piece about cheap iPod Shuffle knock-offs you can find on eBay for anywhere from $10 to $30 (and up, if the seller is greedy).
For starters, some are almost identical to the real thing. Just looking at the pictures of them on eBay will tell you that the bootleggers did a great job of copying the original. The only give-away on a few of them is the coloring of the main controls. On a legit Shuffle the center circle is the same color as the Shuffle casing. Many bootlegs color both the inner circle and the outer ring white.
But that’s not the only tip-off–not by a long shot.
Another way to tell that you’ve got a fakey Shuffle is the number of switches. A quick glance at the iPod Shuffle gallery on the Apple website and you’ll see that a real Shuffle has two metallic switches while many bootlegs have none or one or the switches are made of plastic. The final major sign you’ve got a bootleg iPod Shuffle is a USB port. It’s hard not to laugh when you see a bootleg this bad since the lack of one is so obvious (and scary!) on the real thing.
Nonetheless, many of these bootlegs will sport a mini-USB port for connecting with a computer instead of the headphone jack of an official Shuffle. Of course, some bootlegs do feature metallic switches and headphone jacks for connecting to your PC. So, in the end, what’s the difference?
The difference is that some of these bootlegs don’t have reasonable battery life. Apple’s iPod Shuffle can go days without the user intentionally making an effort to charge it. However, some of the bootlegs will run out of juice after just an hour or two. That’s pretty pitiful. The controls can also be flakey and while turning up the volume you might be skipping tracks at the same time or even starting a thermonuclear war with Al Qaeda–with these bootlegs you never know!
So, if you don’t mind crappy battery life and iffy controls, perhaps that 1GB mp3-playing iPod-Shuffle-lookalike on eBay is worth $20 plus shipping. Then again, some of these unscrupulous eBay sellers charge in excess of $20 for shipping alone. With an end-cost like that, you might as well just drop $50 on the real thing at your local Apple store.
