Apple has announced a new version of the iPod Shuffle that seeks to overcome the biggest drawback to the company’s pint-sized player: The lack of a screen to display information on what’s playing. The fix?  The new Shuffle, available now for $79, will read that information to you.

Squeeze a remote found on the cord for the right earbud, Apple says, and a synthetic VoiceOver feature will read the name of the song that’s playing, and the artist. And where the old Shuffle allowed for only a single playlist, the new one allows multiple lists; you select among them also using the remote. VoiceOver will speak in 14 different languages, including Mandarin, Swedish, and Greek.

At 4 gigabytes (GB), enough to hold about 1,000 songs, the new Shuffle doubles the capacity of the old 2 GB Shuffle. The 1GB, $49 version will remain available but will seemingly be unchanged; that is, it won’t talk to you.

The 4GB Shuffle is also about half the size of the old models, at 1.8 in. x 0.7 in. x 0.3 in., and is also lighter (at 3.8 oz. vs. 5 oz. for the predecessors).

We'll try out the Shuffle’s new features soonest, to report back on the degree to which they compensate for what have always been significant snags to Apple’s pint-sized iPod. In the meantime, check out our Ratings of iPods and other MP3 players (available to subscribers), including the older Shuffle that remains available.

—Mike Gikas