I won an iPod shuffle recently that I really didn’t expect to use much. It’s a 1 GB model and just arrived today. Suprisingly, I think it’s pretty much replaced the 20 GB iPod. This thing costs something like $50. Crazy, no?
So, plusses:
– It’s amazingly light and portable, I can see myself using my ipod more as I don’t have to keep up with the brick.
– It apparently has a 20 hour battery life, so I don’t have to plug the iPod into the power brick, which is very annoying.
– I actually like the shuffle aspect as it forces me to listen to more of my music library instead of playing the same albums 10 times over because I can’t remember what albums I actually have. Though I am sort of pondering if anyone out there has an “indie” shuffle and another seperately colored “metal” shuffle and another “classic rock” shuffle. As stupid as that sounds, it’s almost cost effective. No, I’m not going to do that 
– The audio quality is absolutely phenomenal in comparison out of the headphone jack
I wish Apple made their other audio players with the same sound quality capabilities. It’s amazing that this little stick drives a pair of Shure e4c’s better and is also infinitely clearer — dare I say, more “monitor” like. There is actual bass again. Well done.
Now fix those other models, eh?
I bought a shuffle a while back in the time period after washing my previous iPod Nano (wouldn’t recommend that) and waiting for the iPhone to come out and I loved using it. I really should start using it again. Like you say, it forces you to listen to music you might not normally listen to, or at least in an order you don’t normally do.
I believe the Shuffle is doomed to get washed eventually