Apple’s mighty mite has a few special requirements of its own, including the need for iTunes 4.7.1 or later (earlier versions of iTunes, even iTunes 4.7, won’t work with the Shuffle), so make sure you install the version that came on the iPod Shuffle CD.
To do the Shuffle, you also need:
A very recent operating system. Apple’s requirements page lists Mac OS X 10.2.8 (the highest you can go in the Jaguar world) or Mac OS X 10.3.4 or later as the minimum Mac you can use. Windows owners need Windows 2000 (with Service Pack 4 installed) or Windows XP with Service Pack 2 installed.
QuickTime 6.4 or later. This usually isn’t a problem for Macs that meet their OS requirements, but Windows folks should install QuickTime 6.4 from the iPod Shuffle CD to get things up and running.
A USB port. The iPod Shuffle plugs right into the computer’s USB port, and you can use either a zippy USB 2.0 connection or even one of the older (but slower) USB 1.1 ports that have been common on computers since the late 1990s.
Get iPod and iTunes: The Missing Manual, Third Edition now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
