My 1GB iPod Shuffle that I ordered from the Apple Store online on January 17 finally arrived today! When I ordered the estimated shipping was 3-4 weeks, so I’m glad it arrived a little early. In case you haven’t seen Apple’s newest iconic music player here are a few photos

I’ve had my 20GB iPod for almost a year and a half now and the Shuffle certainly will be a great complement to its larger sibling. Why would I need two portable music players? There are a variety of factors that let me to decide to get the Shuffle and they are practical reasons, not just reasons to get Apple’s newest toy!

If you don’t have a portable music player then my reasons might not make much sense. Taking my entire music collection with me in a package the size of a deck of cards is awesome. I can always access anything I want to listen to and iTunes makes managing a huge collection of 3000+ songs a breeze. I even have a dock in my car to integrate with my factor stereo. The point is, now matter where I go I can have my music. So if I can take all of it with me on the 20GB iPod, why would I need a smaller iPod Shuffle? The simple answer is that in some circumstances the Shuffle is a much better fit for my listening.

A perfect example of this is going to the gym. I’ve been taking my 20GB iPod to the gym for a while. I have a workout playlist that provides great tunes. But the iPod is a little big and I run a risk of damaging this pricey player. I don’t need 3000 songs to pick from when I’m at the gym. I don’t usually switch tracks so I just put the playlist on shuffle and go. This is exactly what the Shuffle is perfect for! It’s really small, it has no moving parts so it would be really hard to damage and it can contain just my workout playlist. Sweet!

The Shuffle will also be good for short listening sessions. Going to the park, riding a bike, or maybe even cleaning house. Since these are mostly active times the Shuffle is perfect since it’s not as delicate as the larger iPod.

Now it’s time for me to be honest. If the Shuffle was only a music player I probably would not of been able to justify buying one just to have a second music player. The Shuffle also doubles as a flash memory stick. I’ve debated getting a some kind of removable storage for some time but wasn’t really sure I needed it. There have been a few times that I could use one but not really enough to actually go out and buy one. Since the Shuffle provides both removable storage and a tiny music player, the combo is what sold me.

So far it appears the iPod Shuffle is great. I can’t wait to use it at the gym and other random times I want to take some tunes with me!

The past week was cool because some of my co-workers from Europe and Asia are in town. As you may know, I work with people all over the world, but I usually only correspond with them via instant messages, email or maybe on the phone, so this face-to-face (F2F) as we call it, is very cool. It has been fun getting to know them, telling them about American culture and learning theirs.

I know the guys from Singapore the best so I’ve mostly hung out with them. One thing I’ve learned is that in Singapore it is very hard to buy a car. You have to win the chance to buy a car in a lottery type system and then the cars are very expensive. So they are inthralled with our cars! One of the guys has a car and paid the equivalent of $40,000 for a Mitsubishi Colt, which they don’t sell here but from the picture it looks about like a 4 door Civic hatchback. His Mitsubishi is a 1.4 liter 4 cylinder, so when I showed him my 3.0 liter V6 he was in shock! They said, “I’ve never seen a number this high before!” That was fun. They’ve also bought a lot of DVDs that are banned in Singapore due to censorship. It’s a pretty strict country.

It’s been really neat getting to know them better over the last week and a half. Maybe someday I’ll get to take a business trip there! Last Sunday my boss Mike had a BBQ at his house. We introduced them to Shiner, Texas Hold ‘Em and BBQ. I’m not sure they totally understood Hold ‘Em but it was a great time. Here is a photo we took by the pool and a link to other photos in my gallery.