Today, Apple unveiled the new iPod Shuffle, which is only half the volume of the previous iPod Shuffle, which itself was about the size of a quarter. The new one looks like a sleek aluminum tie clip, or maybe a slightly elongated stick of Trident gum; a AA battery hides it completely. There’s just enough room on the back for a mirror-finish spring clip for fastening to your clothes. (If you order from apple.com, you can get a custom message laser-etched onto the clip.)

When I told someone that the Shuffle now holds 1,000 songs (in its 4 gigabytes of memory), he laughed. “It’s like a ‘Saturday Night Live’ skit about smaller and smaller iPods,” he said. “Or like the micro-cellphone in the movie ‘Zoolander.’”

And indeed it is. Apple says that it’s the smallest music player on earth. Let’s put it this way: it’s really, really small.

It’s so small, in fact, that there’s no room for a screen, or even buttons or controls; it’s just a tiny, sleek slab with pleasantly rounded corners.

Instead, Apple has put a tiny remote control right on the earbud cord. It has three clickable spots: + and – to control the volume, and a center button that acts as a play/pause button.

Yet incredibly, even though this Shuffle is even smaller than the previous one, it’s actually more useful. No iPod Shuffle has ever had a screen, and therefore you’ve never been able to identify the song or band you’re hearing. You’ve also never been able to work with playlists, since there’s no user interface with which to navigate them.

Now there is. You can tell all this stuff not by looking, but by listening; according to Apple, the new Shuffle is the world’s first talking music player, thanks to a new feature called VoiceOver.

(It’s not the first, actually. Older iPods have had talking menus to help blind people. But anyway.)

If you hold down the center clicker for one second, you hear, in your earbuds, a crystal-clear male voice identifying the song and the performer; it knows 14 languages, so it can handle Italian aria names, for example. If you hold down the clicker longer, until you hear a beep, the voice starts rattling off the names of your playlists (“Jogging Tunes…Purchased…Makeout Music.”) You click the clicker when he gets to the one you want, or use the + and – buttons to go forward or back through them.

You can also flip the power switch off and on again to hear him tell you how full your battery is—for example, “Battery 50 percent.” Apple says that a single charge plays music for 10 hours.

It’s looking like 2009 may be the year that synthesized voices go mainstream; this talking iPod comes hot on the heels of Amazon’s Kindle 2, which can read your e-books aloud to you. In the Shuffle’s case, this is an especially interesting development, because it means that the player itself can be out of sight. It can be clipped deep inside your clothes, for example, away from subway iPod thieves. Yet you can still operate and navigate your music using only the earbud clicker and feedback from Mr. VoiceOver.

You should know, however, that the voice you hear differs depending on whether you’ve loaded up the Shuffle from a Mac (clear, American, accent-free voice) or a Windows PC (much more synthesized-sounding, vaguely Scandinavian accent).

But hey—all’s fair in business, right? Microsoft has given the Mac universe slightly stunted versions of its programs for years; now, evidently, it’s payback time.

Instead of the built-in USB connector of the original Shuffle, or the tiny plastic dock of the second-generation one, this third-generation Shuffle comes with a tiny, three-inch white USB cord. That’s how you charge it, and that’s how you load it up with music and podcasts from a copy of iTunes 8.1 (a required download before you can use the Shuffle on your Mac or PC).

Now, overall, new design is ingenious. The solid-slab-of-aluminum approach surely makes this the most rugged iPod ever. The sound is fantastic. And the price is right: The new Shuffle is available in black or silver aluminum for $80.

But the old, square Shuffle is still available (half the capacity, $70). And why would you want it?

Because the new Shuffle locks you into using Apple’s earbuds. No other headphones have the clicker on the cord, and so can’t make the music play music at all.

Personally, I’m in love with the Arriva.com headphones for the old Shuffle. It’s a headband that goes around the back of your head, placing the earbuds neatly into your ears without any cords or tangling; the Shuffle itself clips into the middle, at the back of your head where you can easily reach it. The whole thing is inconspicuous, doesn’t fall off and doesn’t interfere with glasses—and if you have long hair, you can listen to the iPod completely undetected (hello, PTA meetings!). The new Shuffle, however, wouldn’t work with those headphones.

Apple says that it has been working with headset makers to help them design Shuffle-compatible headphones; announcements should be forthcoming shortly. For now, though, potential Shufflers should be aware that it’s the included earbuds, Apple’s $80 in-ear earbuds, or nothing.

As iPods’ size approaches that of atomic particles, some online are pointing out that they’re becoming ever more likely to get lost. I’m not convinced that that’s an issue; that three-foot white strand of earbud cord makes a pretty good landmark when you’re rooting through a purse or a drawer.

No, the only real cause for pause is that headphone-selection issue—and whether you might prefer an iPod with a screen (which would give you photo and video playback, plus compatibility with the zillions of iPod chargers, car adapters, speaker docks and other accessories). But if you want really big sound in a really small package, the iPod Shuffle may be speaking your name.

P.S.–This Sunday morning, March 15, “CBS News Sunday Morning” plans to air my report on A Better Place. It’s software millionaire Shai Agassi’s audacious plan to solve the climate crisis and eliminate our dependence on oil. The crux: Replace all of the world’s automobiles with electric cars that contain swappable batteries. Sound unattainable? Guess what: 5 countries, 3 American states, at least 2 car companies, and armies of investors (over $500 million so far) have already signed on to make it happen.

As always, the lineup may change, but this is the current broadcast plan. Set your TiVo!