I see Apple has finally released a flash-based MP3 player, the "iPod shuffle."

BFD. This MP3 player looks like a loser to me. Unlike my beloved Yepp player (and practically every other flash MP3 player out there) this iPod does not have a display to see the artist/song title you're listening to, or for navigating to specific tracks and setting up features. It does not have an FM receiver built in. It does not have a voice recorder built in. It does not have line-in and FM recording to MP3. It will not play WMA files. These are all standard features of nearly every decent flash-based MP3 player on the market today. The iPod Shuffle costs $99 for a 512-meg model and $149 for a 1-gig model, which would be OK price points if it had all the missing fearures. Apple's advertising seems to make a big deal of their shuffle feature, so "you don’t know what song will play next," as if that's not been a standard feature on every other player.

For comparison, I bought a very nice 256-megabyte player this Christmas for one of my kids, with all the missing features (and an open SD memory slot for unlimited expandability) for only $80. But it won't play the copyright-protected tunes on Apple's iTunes service. Boo-hoo.

The iPod name is so trendy, they'll probably sell a gazillion of them.