Customer Reviews
Awesome little player for little ones 
2008-06-04
We have had this player for a week now and my 6-year-old daughter loves it and so do I! It comes straight out of the box with everything you need - USB cable, earbuds, SD card, strap and carabiner for easy carrying, and even a AAA battery. I skip the USB cable, as I would rather pull the SD card out and use my card reader to transfer music. Using the USB cable would eat battery power from the player anyway.
The 1 GB card gives more space than any kid would need for their favorite songs. You can drag and drop mp3 files onto the card or synch using Windows Media Player, the latter of which is what I ended up doing because I could create a playlist for my daughter with her favorite songs on it. It was easy for her to learn how to operate the twist volume and forward and reverse controls at the top and bottom of the player. It took a little more time for her to master shaking the player to skip to a random next song, as you have to press and hold the play/pause button while shaking it. Since the targeted age is really 8 years old and not 6, this wasn't surprising, but after some practice, she has it down and now loves to shake to the next random song.
The kid friendly qualities of this player are what make it shine. I'm not keen on letting my daughter get into the headphone thing yet, so I love that this device comes with a built-in speaker. It actually doesn't sound bad, either - certainly good enough for kids. The cute sound effects it makes when turning on and off and shaking to the next song also make it appealing to the kids.
I would highly recommend this player to anyone looking for an affordable starter MP3 player for their elementary schooler. I have been very impressed and my daughter has great fun with it.
My 4 year old is going to be the next American Idol 2008-06-01
My 4 year old daughter LOVES her "ipod". This is one toy that I know was worth my money. She plays with it daily and is constantly putting on shows. Definitely reccomend, if you have a little singer/dancer/actress in your family : )
Awesome! 2008-05-29
I'm really glad that I bought it! The only problem I have with it is that it can't get songs from cd onto it, but overall it's a great little MP3 player. It's very easy to work. And the built in speaker is very handy and can get rather loud.The two head phone jacks is handy also, although I've never had to use them. It is also very easy to get songs onto it.
Hope I was helpful!
The 512 Mb Shaker Rocks, the 1Gb version is a waste of money. 
2008-05-24
Pros:
We bought the shaker for our 1 year old. She loves it. Almost everything about the unit is awesome. The aesthetics are cool, the volume is good, the controls are simple.
Cons:
The battery/SD cover seems to be a loose fit and could potentially come off too easily. While it has not been a problem for us, our little girl has not taken it off yet, I predict that when she figures that out, it'll be a problem.
IMPORTANT:
If you want to use the random feature, don't bother getting the 1GB version but save your money and buy the 512 Mb version. You won't be able to fill it up AND preserve the random feature. The SD card MUST be formatted as FAT (not FAT32) and it is then limited to around 120 files/songs in the root directory. If you take steps to getting more than 120 songs on there, such as format as FAT32, or creating folders to put additional songs in, then the unit will still operate, but the random feature will stop working and it will instead just go to the next song. I spent a long time discussing this with SanDisk technical support until they admitted this limitation in the product. Don't get me wrong, SanDisk and the Shaker ROCK, but until they solve this bug/limitation, save yor cash and get the cheaper one.
Great Deal 2008-05-11
Bought this for my 6yo and she loves it. We loved it so much that I also bought one for my niece. It's very easy to use and easy to download songs to. My 8 yo son is now jealous that his MP3 player is not as cool as his sisters! Great product for a low price.
Beware! Not a USB 2.0 device 
2008-06-29
Even though the technical details on this page specify the term "USB 2.0", this is a USB 1.1 device (which is a lot slower for transfers). This might be a good gift for kids, but given the price it is better to look for other cheaper options...
We like these! 2008-06-28
I researched the kid-friendly mp3 players and chose this one over the Fisher Price fp3 for my two older daughters. I liked that this player uses mp3 files so we don't have to worry about converting our music files to any other format, and I liked the dual headphone jacks as well as the internal speaker.
My girls (7 and 5) love these! They are easily able to turn them on and play their music. The technique to shake the player while holding down the button took a minute or two to get down, but they're now experts at it. And we've had no trouble at all with the bottom battery cover staying on - if you make sure that it clicks when you put it on, it should stay just fine. My daughters love that it's pink, and that they can listen without headphones by using the speaker. I do wish that it came with a pair of 'kid friendly' headphones rather than the earbuds - the earbuds don't fit in their ears and I prefer them to use headphones. So we'll be buying those separately, but I've been very happy with the Sansa Shaker mp3 players.
I should mention that one of ours stopped working a few days after we got them - but Amazon customer service has been wonderful and we had a new one on the way the same day that I requested to return the old one. Thank you, Amazon!
Excellent gift for kids 2008-06-27
This item has been reviewed a lot. My daught loves it so much. I bought two more. One for my dad and one for my nephew. The manual says for eight years or older. That is nonsense. I do not see any problem to give it to my three years old. The end cap is not easy to take off by kids. I have no problem with it so far. But have to see how long it can last. If it lasts for three years, then it is fine. I have to replace battery every couple of days. I wish that could be improved. But no big deal. Will use rechargeable battery.
Waste of money 
2008-06-24
I purchased a Shaker for a Christmas gift and the thing was nothing but problems from the moment my son opened it. I spent hours troubleshooting the player trying to make it work. I changed the batteries, put in a memory cards, and reformatted the music. It worked for a few weeks and it finally just quit working. Absolute waste of money!!!
May be broken easily and problem with other language 2008-06-16
To bottom lid is hard to open and it can broken the next song button since they stay very close.
If the song has other language in any tag, the player cannot play those songs. So I can't play all the song which I like.
