I-pod shuffle & e-mac don't fit w/o spending more $$$

Question

hello out there-
i gotta tell ya that i just bought my e-mac in aug 05, so i'm still paying for it....
i live in a college town and every kid here has an ipod! i've been wanting just to get a shuffle since they first came out, cause it's just mainly for using at the gym...so, i finally decided to buy one in jan 06---big decision for me! $99 is still a chunk-o-change in my book! and the **** things NEVER GO ON SALE!! i hate that, cause i always buy on sale or clearance.(i'm not that cheap, just poor)
then my e-mac says that there is nothing on the i-pod installer disc! and i just kept trying to get the little shuffle to plug into the usb port on the side of the computer--it just stuck out at an angle, which looked wrong to me but where else would the **** thing go....
i am not a computer junkie and don't spend hours online or anything like that, so i didn't know what to do, so i just tried it again a few times over the weeks ahead....finally, i got in touch with an apple guy thru support and he types to me that the shuffle won't charge on the e-mac and that i would have to BUY a seperate port-thing to plug into the e-mac and it would charge the shuffle......how in the **** is a normal person supposed to know this! i get so frustrated trying to understand how all this crap works!
like i said, i'm still paying for the **** computer and now i have to spend more money to get something for the i-pod shuffle to work with it!! I'M SO ANGRY, FURIOUS, AND RAGING MAD THAT APPLE COULDN'T JUST MAKE ALL OF THEIR PRODUCTS TO WORK TOGETHER! and then to top that all off, Target just put the i-pod shuffle on sale for $69......story of my freaking life!

Answer 1

Gee ... maybe the eMac preceded the Shuffle?
The User's Manual and multiple other places all point out that the Shuffle won't fit into all ports on all computers. It also points out that you need a high-power USB port in order to charge the Shuffle, which the ones on the keyboard (the only one you can fully plug into) are not.
The Shuffle will charge on an eMac, in the high-power USB ports on the side, but it will not fit into those ports. Neither would it fit into those ports on my G3 iMac, which I was using when I first got the Shuffle. Nor will it fit into a lot of other platforms.
You need to get a Dock, for about $30, or get a short USB extension cable, for about $3. That's all you need.
You can in fact plug your Shuffle into the keyboard ports on the eMac, assuming you're at least updated into later versions of Panther, and it will work there. You can mount it, use it as a Disk there, move music in and out of it ... everything except charge it. To do that, again, you need to plug it into the side ports.