iLounge

Company: ShuffleClip

Website: www.Shuffleclip.com

Model: ShuffleClip

Price: $14.95

Compatible: iPod shuffle

ShuffleClip by ShuffleClip

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By Jeremy Horwitz

Editor-in-Chief, iLounge
Published: Friday, April 22, 2005
Category: Clips and Guards - iPod shuffle

Pros: A simple iPod shuffle belt clip.

Cons: By comparison with other available options, has rough edges, is flimsy, and doesn’t hold shuffle firmly.

It should come as no surprise to iLounge readers that we feel strongly that iPod accessories need to be polished before they’re sold - literally and figuratively. While there’s no doubt a great temptation on the part of accessory manufacturers to quickly churn out new products, the established ones tend to wait and get something right - or close to it - before they release anything.

ShuffleClip ($14.95) by ShuffleClip strikes us as a product released quickly to capitalize on perceived demand for a cheap belt clip option for the iPod shuffle. It’s a single piece of clear plastic that holds your shuffle vertically inside with its standard USB cap, adding a flexible belt clip to its back. Unlike the polished plastic in XtremeMac’s similar one-piece SuperClip belt clip, or Bruddy’s ShuffleMate, the ShuffleClip’s edges are all rough and unpolished - a point that really put us off, not just because it makes any products feel cheap, but also because it adds the prospect of scratch damage to an iPod. Its belt clip is larger than the SuperClip’s, but feels flimsy, and once bent back substantiallly remains bent back unless you squeeze the top of the clip.

It’s also the only shuffle clip we’ve tested so far that lets your iPod rattle loosely back and forth inside. While the ShuffleClip is designed to hold your iPod inside of five edge clps, it’s not a tight grip. Though we don’t think the shuffle will fall out unless the ShuffleClip is damaged, it’s just not comparable to the firmer alternatives already out there.

We weren’t surprised to receive reports from readers disapppointed with the ShuffleClip - we were, too. In our view, it’s not executed professionally enough to compete with the other iPod shuffle clips we’ve seen, and we’d sooner pick any of them for the same or similar prices.