Truth is, no one knows -- except for Apple and its manufacturing partners. But bloggers at and are convinced it's an "authentication chip" whose job is to verify to the iPod that the headphone cable is either from Apple, or from a licensed third-party maker such as Etymotic, whose earbuds are a popular iPod upgrade.

If the new Shuffle really does check for the presence of an authentication chip, it will raise the prices of replacement earbuds, both by adding the authentication hardware and, presumably, by requiring earbud makers to pay a license fee to Apple that allows them to do so. In return, third-party hardware makers get to protect their profit margins by locking out cheapo competitors.

The result for Shuffle buyers -- presumably -- is that any earbuds they already own won't work with the new Shuffle, even with an adapter that contains the control buttons.

But it's hard for me to take bloggers' overreactions seriously. iLounge editor-in-chief Jeremy Horwitz says this isn't just an annoyance, it's a nightmare!

This is, in short, a nightmare scenario for long-time iPod fans: are we entering a world in which Apple controls and taxes literally every piece of the iPod purchase from headphones to chargers, jacking up their prices, forcing customers to re-purchase things they already own, while making only marginal improvements in their functionality? It's a shame, and one that consumers should feel empowered to fight.