“Imagine your music player talking to you, telling you your song titles, artists and playlist names,” Greg Joswiak, Apple’s vice president of iPod and iPhone Product Marketing said in a statement. “The amazingly small new iPod shuffle takes a revolutionary approach to how you listen to your music by talking to you.”

An interesting feature for those of us that can’t always recall a song name or its author simply by listening to it. Reminds me of HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey.

“Dave Bowman: Tell me the name of the song, HAL.
HAL: I’m sorry Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that.
Dave Bowman: What’s the problem?
HAL: I think you know what the problem is just as well as I do….”

As with most Apple (AAPL) products, the design of the device is impressive–sleek and impossibly small. That said, one of its elements may prove off-putting: The new shuffle lacks a click wheel. Its controls have been moved to the earphone cord. Which means it’s incompatible with third-party earphones until someone comes out with an adapter cable that will make it a bit costlier than its $79 price.