It’s the moment many an Apple fan have been waiting for. Or maybe not. Nonetheless, Steve Jobs formally introduced the iPod flash to the masses at MacWorld 2005. It isn’t much. It’s about the size of a pack of gum, and as expected it has no screen. It is obviously based on the random function, and has volume control, play/pause, and previous/next song buttons. Is this thing even worthy of being called an iPod? I kid, I kid. It will probably fly off the shelves like every other new Apple audio player.

The player uses a USB 2.0 connector, and can also be used as a simple flash drive. It will come with lanyard that connects to the device for the chic around-the-neck look. You can expect to get 12 hours per charge from the rechargeable battery, and as with any other iPod, it synchs with iTunes. Since the drives are so much smaller, it uses “AutoFill” technology to automatically create a playlist to synch to the iPod shuffle. As for pricing, it actually looks pretty good. The 512 MB version will run you a cool benji at $99, while the 1 GB model will go for a cool $149. Oh, and it ships today. The iPod shuffle is PC/Mac compatible.