Apple’s marketing ability never ceases to amaze me. They announce the coolest product in the world, they sell millions of them, and just as demand starts to wane, they announce an upgrade that makes the old one seem dull by comparison. Today we saw this happen with the colorization of the iPod shuffle. Colors were obviously in the cards from the beginning, but Apple played it smart by letting the design of the 2G shuffle take center stage when it was first introduced, and then using the color reveal to boost sales after the holiday season. Today’s reaction around the Net reminds me of the stampede at the toy store for Malibu Stacy’s new hat. Who else but Apple and “PetroChem Petrochemical Corporation” could get away with this?

But don’t think for a minute that I’m not caught up in the new shuffle color frenzy. It took a lot of willpower for me not to jump in the truck and drive to my local Apple store this morning. Orange is calling to me. But my 1G shuffle is my most used iPod and still has a special place in my heart. I’m not quite ready to cast it aside… today.

For those of you considering the new shuffle, iLounge has posted a helpful list of five key facts about the upgrade. Included is one piece of especially welcomed news:

Last year’s silver shuffles shipped with Apple’s old, somewhat uncomfortable, and bass-weak earbuds, even though the shuffle came out after two new iPod/iPod nano models that had lighter, better earbuds. Today, all of the shuffles come with Apple’s latest earphones, which are also sold separately for $29 as Apple iPod Earphones.

As soon as AppleInsider received their new iPod shuffle, they set their camera to macro mode and posted a gallery of hard-core, close-up photos that would make Larry Flint blush.

Lastly, just in time for Shufflemania, Daring Fireball points us to a shufflized version of Merlin Mann’s Hipster PDA: the Hipster Shuffle. Of course, this isn’t the first time an iPod has been integrated with the Hipster PDA. And as a practical matter, the iPod shuffle’s clip isn’t really strong enough to hold a stack of index cards securely. Still, it’s a fun idea.

You may also be interested in:

• iPod Shuffle Reset Utility Updated (1st Gen.)
• New iPod Shuffle Available Today
• iPod Shuffle Armband: Action Jacket
• iPod Shuffle Washed, Lives
• iFreak