Ipod shuffle? How many podcasts...

Thinking about picking up one of these to listen to talk radio programs and podcasts...



Anyone know how many 1 hour long shows I can fit on it? 250 songs at a conservative 2 min. per song would leave me with 500 minutes of talk. That would be 8.3333333 hrs of radio program. Any real world experience using the shuffle with such media. Thanks!

not sure about the shuffle, but I have one of the 40gig ipods that says it'll hold 10,000 songs. It will actually hold about 8400. The built in software takes up a little memory and they rate the capacity based on the lowest sound quality and bit rate. Easiest way to tell would be to just load the thing up until it can't hold anymore...

The number of songs really depends on the length of the songs...duh!

So, you're saying about 14 copies of the long version of Inna-Godda-Da-Vida?

I wouldn't do a shuffle for listening to podcasts; if you want to hear the show on Maibock, you want to hear THAT show, not something random. IIRC, it's all random, all-the-time, right?

I can't stand Apple, the smarmy little bitches. I have a little Creative MuVo that I've used for probably two and a half years, pretty much every day. It's been beat to hell, it's been dropped in water, and it works great still. And, cheap as hell.

I've got an old ipod shuffle (512 MB), and I use it for listening to podcasts constantly. It works quite well, but the only thing that bugs me is that there is no screen so if you dump too many podcasts on it, it's tough to figure out which episode you're listening to - you've actually got to wait until you get into the show and figure out if that's the show you want to listen to. I tend to dump shows onto it daily, and cycle through them, so it's not a big deal - I put the show on it because I want to listen to it...
As for the capacity, it'll depend on the quality the show was recorded in. Some of my podcasts are regarding music, and were recorded at a really decent quality and 1 hour can take up 50 MB, however a typical podcast is 25 MB per hour, and a strickly talking podcast can be as little as 12 MB per hour.
So depending on what you want to listen to, you can be looking at 10 hours of podcasts, all the way to 43 hours of podcasts, or anywhere in between.
Basically, your battery will determine how long you can listen to your ipod for, before you have to plug it in again.

All very good contributions People! Thank you all very much, but there can only be one that makes the cut. The winner goes to iBeer! You were most helpful. Don't believe I'll be looking at creative muvo...is it still made, any ways.

The size of the shuffle is very important. I want small, and a screen is not needed plus w/o it I bet battery will last longer. 12hrs of shows would be perfect and low cost.

the_bird, good to see a friendly face under your name again. Something about the brew crew says "Hey, I'm friendly!"

The Jamil casts run about 22 mb per hour.

I have an IAudio 5, which is similar in size to a shuffle, clunkier to use, and way more functional. Has a bunch of stupid colored light schemes, which I turned off and never touched again.

Were I looking for something to listen to podcasts today, I'd go for one of those (or maybe one of the newer IAudios) before a shuffle. Not sure what they go for now, but when I got it a couple years ago it was cheaper than a same-capacity Shuffle. And again, WAY more functional.

Be sure to check the SanDisk players. You will get more for your money. The random play feature on the Shuffle would be a deal breaker for me.

Blender said:

Be sure to check the SanDisk players. You will get more for your money. The random play feature on the Shuffle would be a deal breaker for me.

Click to expand...

I understand the things called SHUFFLE, but so far from what's been said it sounds like the shuffle feature can't be turned off. I'd think in this day and age at $80 for a product like this it would have more functionality.(empty rant) Anyways, it doesn't matter for my uses.

Bike N Brew said:

The Jamil casts run about 22 mb per hour.

I have an IAudio 5, which is similar in size to a shuffle, clunkier to use, and way more functional. Has a bunch of stupid colored light schemes, which I turned off and never touched again.

Were I looking for something to listen to podcasts today, I'd go for one of those (or maybe one of the newer IAudios) before a shuffle. Not sure what they go for now, but when I got it a couple years ago it was cheaper than a same-capacity Shuffle. And again, WAY more functional.

Click to expand...

So, for Jamil's cast for instance I could get 40 some podcasts on 1 gig with the shuffle.(1000/22=45-whatever overhead loss for data=~40ish) Wow! I'd be happy all week. I was thinking I'd need to update the playlist once a day(10-12 hrs of listen time)

Bike N Brew said:

The Jamil casts run about 22 mb per hour.

I have an IAudio 5, which is similar in size to a shuffle, clunkier to use, and way more functional. Has a bunch of stupid colored light schemes, which I turned off and never touched again.

Click to expand...

Very helpful, thank you. Giving me a idea of what is available out there.

upon quick search the IAudio is more expensive, $149 for the 1gig, than I want to pay.

uuurang said:

Very helpful, thank you. Giving me a idea of what is available out there.

upon quick search the IAudio is more expensive, $149 for the 1gig, than I want to pay.

Click to expand...

No problem. $149 is about what I paid for it a couple years ago, I think Surprised it hasn't come down more than that.

I have the iAudio 5 as well (30 gig mechanical hard drive). It worked great for a while. Lately it's been crashing for no apparent reason. When it crashes, it's a real pisser. It stops playing the current selection, none of the buttons function (including the power switch), and the hourglass icon spins until the batteries die (HOURS AND HOURS!!!). Once it's dead, it'll recover back to normal when charged again...only to crash again after an hour or so.

I'm with iBeer. I too have a shuffle, and I use it every day. I also have an older 20gig mp3 player that I almost never use anymore.

And it has a non-shuffle function as well. Finding the track that you want to listen to can be a pain if you don't queue it up on your computer before hand, though. It is really nice because of its size, I just keep it in my coat pocket and I always have it.

went hook line and sinker for the shuffle. I can get a **** load of podcasts on there, more than I thought I could...brewing network, basic brewing, on point with tom ashbrook, tom martino, clark howard, randi rhodes and more to come.

One problem with the shuffle though, either the shuffle function does not work or I am doing something wrong. Won't work for me, just flashes alternating green, orange lights. Am thinking of returning.
Also...It is a pain to figure out what I have and haven't listened to already. Gotta fast forward through stuff to see if it sounds familiar. Oh, wo-is-me! life is soooo dificult!