Based just on images on the web, I immediately decided to pre-order the ultra-cool new Apple Ipod Shuffle.
I got free shipping when pre-ordering, and the good news is that applestore actually held their pormised shipping date - it arrived by courier today !
After just 10 minutes with the unit I'm almost certain it's a 'keeper'. It's tiny, very light, has a built-in belt-clip, and stores up to 1 Gb. One feature I missed on my previous mp3 player was a FF/REV within one song, but that doesn't seem implemented... a keypad-lock similar to cell-phones is a nice touch though.
The manual suggests first installing iTunes, and then plugging in the unit. Without iTunes, I tried just downloading songs onto the shuffle but that won't work, why Apple ? why ? 🙁 . I don't need or want iTunes, so I'm thankful to people like Martin Fiedler who take the time to create workarounds. Martin's shuffle-db worked like a charm !