If you have a hankering for a black iPod shuffle, you'll have to pop for your own can of Krylon spray paint.

Apple today announced that the iPod shuffle line - like the iPod nano - now comes in colors. Unlike the iPod nano, however, there's no black shuffle; all the other colors are nano-like, but orange replaces black.

All other aspects of the iPod shuffle remain the same - it still costs $79, weighs just over half an ounce, holds 1GB of tunes in flash memory, and still plays all iPod-capable music formats except for songs encoded in the Apple Lossless format.

Take a good look at the pic—the iPod shuffle now comes with the new, better-sounding iPod earbuds. When the 2G iPod shuffle was released in October 2006, it came with the old iPod earbuds. Since there are still older silver iPod shuffles for sale, chances are that the old silver shuffle stock will get, um, shuffled with the new silver shuffle. If you really want the silver shuffle with the new earbuds, look for grey printing on the packaging. The old silver shuffle has green printing.

Our favorite quote regarding this hu(g)e development comes from Greg Joswiak, Apple’s VP of Worldwide iPod Product Marketing, who said, "Music fans can now choose iPod shuffle in one of five brilliant colors, or they can buy one of each." Ah yes, the transition is now official - the iPod shuffle is now only secondarily a music player; its Prime Directive is to be a fashion accessory.