When it was originally announced I panned the iPod shuffle's ugly design, which I still stand by today, but I have to admit to having a sweet spot in my heart for the shuffle despite its flaws.

While far from perfect, the iPod shuffle is a great MP3 player for the gym and exercising - times when you don't want to lug around a portable hard drive on your belt. There's no question that its light weight is the shuffle's best attribute, you can bring it almost anywhere and you won't even know it's there. The sound kicks butt and is just as lound as my full-size iPod. It's sometimes hard to believe that such volume comes from such a tiny device.

There are a couple of things that annoy me about the shuffle in addition to the design. The lack of display is justified as a cost-saving move but I sorely miss it. While working out at the gym I usually rate my music and flip around between new songs - both aren't possible with the shuffle due to the lack of screen.

The shuffle's power button is a joke, it is completely flush with the player making it unnecessarily difficult to operate. This could be fixed with with a simple raised ridge that would give me something to grip. There's also a slight delay when using the shuffle's controls, making me sometimes wonder if I actually pressed a button or not.

Although they're not insurmountable, the shuffle has too many little things about it that I don't like to recommend it. I love its small size and light weight, but Apple needs to go back to the drawing board on their flash-based MP3 player and give us a shuffle pro with a 2-line LCD and some of these annoying bugs worked out. I expect more from an iPod.