I want to start working out. Or, better yet, I need to start working out. It’s something I think about every spring. And then? I get a taste of why I actually hate working out. It’s one reason I’ve had to find ways to get myself excited the past couple years. Two years ago, it was the Perfect Pushup. The system worked for about two months—until I realized there was only so many ways to make a pushup exciting (Go down, go up, repeat!). !). Last year, it was the Bowflex SelectTech Dumbbells. They lasted slightly longer than the Perfect Pushups and delivered more of a gym experience—except that I was at home. And, at home, there are a million and one excuses to not work out. So, this year? No more equipment. Say it with me: My apartment is not a gym.
That doesn’t mean I’m missing out on finding a way to motivate myself this year, though. In fact, I’m pretty sure I already found it. It’s small, affordable, convenient and guaranteed (!) to change my work out routine. No, it’s not something I caught on an infomercial. Rather, it’s the third generation of the Apple iPod Shuffle [pictured above] and it’s easily the best of the bunch. Truth be told, I’ve never been a huge fan of the Shuffle. The first gen model was about the size of today’s Nano and was the first iPod without a screen. It kinda-sorta looked like something you’d wanna work out with (i.e. it came with a lanyard) but it seemed like a cheap alternative for people who didn’t wanna shell out a couple bills for the regular iPod. The second gen was comparably smaller (at the time it was released, it was the smallest on the market) and more convenient for folks using it at the gym. But with Apple’s iPod Nano getting slimmer and trimmer every year, I always wondered why people didn’t just cop one of those instead.
The third generation finally gets it right. First, the new Shuffle is tiny—so tiny that it has no buttons. Clip it to a piece of your clothing and you won’t even notice that it’s there. Everything is controlled through a switch on the headphones, which has been a major complaint for some folks as it means your stuck with the headphones that come in the box, but Apple has already promised that third-party manufacturers like Sony and Monster are developing headphones and adapters to work with the new hardware. The controls are thankfully simple enough to use (press the control pad once to play/pause, twice to skip a track or three times to jump back a song) and Apple has also incorporated a new VoiceOver system so while you can’t actually see what you’re listening to, holding the control button prompts a synthesized voice to tell you what song is playing. But the best part of the deal is that despite the size reduction, the Shuffle has finally grown up. It now packs 4 gigs, enough to jam-pack it with enough playlists to keep a week’s worth of workouts interesting. If I want to amass a gigantic music collection and download anything I hear on VIBE’s daily “Top Five at 5,” I’m still using my 80-gig iPod. But if I want to hit the ground running, this is where it’s at.
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