The iPod Shuffle was purchased in January after it was released at Macworld. The nice thing about the unit is I can carry it everywhere I go. I have had other iPods in the past and they aren’t too big to carry around but it would never be an everyday item. With the shuffle I can always keep a small collection of music with me at all times. Like the other iPods, this unit grabs scratches as well. I don’t care too much about the scratches so I do not have a case for it. My Nano on the other hand, could have used a case.