So work decided to give everyone an iPod shuffle today. Having never had an iPod, it's been my new toy to play with tonight. I got a bunch of music transferred onto it, however it doesn't seem to be easy to arrange the playlist. You can sort by different groupings, but you don't seem to be able to click and drag one song and put it somewhere else in the list, like I would expect you'd be able to do. I'm trying to keep the CD's I put on grouped together and in a certain order, so they aren't too hard to find if I want to listen to a CD instead of shuffle. The shuffle has no display screen, so I can't just browse through to the disc I want. I'm hoping sorting is better then it seems and I'm just missing something because I am a newb when it comes to these things. Any suggestions?

Also, what bitrate does everyone tend to use? I want it to sound as good as possible without making the file so large that I am just wasting space, since the thing only holds 1GB. Does 160k sound about right? Will 128k cut it? Anyone need more then 160k?

This took me awhile to figure out. If you go into the shuffle section of iTunes itself, and then click on the left hand column header (the one with numbers in) it will put it in play order (in other words, how it will play when not set to shuffle. Then you can drag around individual tracks. I used this to put my podcasts first.

I run my bitrates between 160 and 256. I think 192 is probably the sweet spot for the shuffle. 160 would probably work fine as well.

Thanks, I'll have to try this tonight. I'll probably retransfer songs at a higher bit rate as well. They are either 128 or 160 now. I just wanted to get some stuff on there last night so I could see how it works and have something to listen to at work today.

Oh, 160 should be fine. If you're using those earbuds, you probably won't be able to tell the difference anyway...

I'll have to see how much I use this thing, but if I decide I like it, any recommendations for good headphones to go with it? High quality for a low cost, like Axiom?

Depends what you want (and how your head is shaped). Currently, I use AKG 81DJs (obtainable on http://www.headphone.com), but they tend to clamp fairly tightly. Not too comfortable with glasses. However, the bass is very, very good (probably too much, strictly speaking) and they generally sound good. They're also a closed design, so they cut down on outside noise quite a bit.

Plus, they're about 3000 times as big as the shuffle.

Got everything sorted, thanks. That was easy once I knew what I was doing. It looks like I have some 128k and some 160k for now. I've filled about 500MB. I'll probably leave it as is for now, and next time I do transfers if I decide I don't like the 128k songs I'll redo them at a higher rate. It is a little different listening in headphone/earbud stereo. I've noticed a couple things, whether it be a real quiet whisper of lyrics, or in one song the lyrics switching between the left and right earbud, that I don't normally notice listening in a regular stereo setup with speakers.