After reading about problems being reported with the new iPod shuffle, I remembered the one and only time I had considered buying an iPod Shuffle. It was a little over three years ago, and I was looking at buying my first MP3 Player. The first generation iPod Shuffle was in my price range, and I had heard too many bad things about the first generation iPod Nano to even consider it.

The main problem with the Shuffle was that it had no display. All the competing MP3 Players had displays,  but the Shuffle didn’t. The larger iPods and MP3 Players were not only out of my price range at the time, but I was looking for a small device I could easily carry in my pocket.

Then I saw a 1GB SanDisk Sansa m240 on sale. It ran on 1 AAA battery, and needed no additional software to drag music files to it. In MSC mode Windows saw it as an external hard drive. Although not as cool or flashy as the iPod Nano, it had more features, including an FM radio and voice recording.

Ironically, the SanDisk Sansa m200 series are still around, they were just that easy to use.