The firmware is shuffled too

Everyone raves about the quality of Apple products. Yes, I'm a consumer curmudgeon, but even as a regular consumer I find it bizarre that Apple has that reputation when they can't even get the simple things right.

For example, I own an iPod Shuffle, second generation no less. And this second generation unit is also on revision 1.0.4 of the firmware. That means they've had .0, .1, .2, .3, and .4 attempts to get it right — after all the practice they had with the first generation.

Well, my Shuffle has had problems since day one. It won't sync because it "can't find the disk." I have to quit iTunes, eject the Shuffle, remove it from the cradle and redock it. Does that help? Sometimes. Other times I have to restart the computer to get the Shuffle recognized.

Then if I drag a podcast over when it's nearly full it tells me it will not be able to place all the tracks on but will do its best. Uh, I'm only copying one track. It does the copy anyway but when I eject it and push the Play button, it flashes the "no content" code at me. I redock it and sometimes it shows me an empty device, other times it shows me the list of tracks that are surely on the device.

However, if I add or delete tracks, eject and press Play, it still tells me there's nothing there.

When I skip to the next podcast and return, it doesn't remember where I left off and jumps way, way back in the track. Similarly, if I turn it off and back on,  it resumes from way back in the podcast.

Finally, I restored the firmware to this turkey. It didn't help a bit and Apple doesn't give you any way to roll back the firmware to a less buggy version. Idiots!

Please understand that this is the simplest device that Apple makes. And it's badly screwed up. I wish they'd stop letting the janitorial staff do programming.