Breaking free from their bleak battleship-grey origins, the $79 iPod Shuffle now hits in your choice of pink, green, blue, and even a new tasty orange flavor.

The one gigabyte capacity (give or take 240 songs), body style, and interface have remained the same, but there are a few changes. The first and most noticeable, but likely to have the least impact, is the removal of the neon green lettering from the packaging in favor of the standard silver similar to that of the Second Generation iPod nano packaging (only the (PRODUCT)RED Special Edition features package lettering that isn't silver).

But the more substantial change, and one that's likely to leave recent 2G shuffle purchasers howling, is the fact that Apple is now bundling the new-style earbuds with the new shuffle. They're still white, of course, and their custom cable length is still as short as the original 2G shuffle, but the buds now feature the new-style shape and more importantly, the improved audio quality. The bundled cable/dock combination remains unchanged.

Apple is claiming the same twelve hour battery life as before, and although we'll be testing to see if an increase has been slipped in on the sly, we doubt it. Aside from the color changes, these shuffles appear to be physically identical to the original silver one. While we don't expect too many users of current silver shuffles to immediately go running out to replace it with a colored one, the color choice should help entice users of the original First Generation shuffle to consider upgrading, as well as tempting users of larger iPods to add a colored shuffle as their second iPod.

These iPods are available with free laser engraving just in time for Valentines Day.

written by Florin C.