It might be too late to give as a Valentine’s gift, but the Apple iPod shuffle makes for a sweet little portable music player with a price drop today that leaves it at just $49.

Along with that announcement by Apple, the company says it will have a 2-GB version of the shuffle to hit the shelves later this month for $69.

So if you don’t need all 10,000 of your songs in the palm of your hand at once, but a couple of hundred instead, this could be the way to go. Especially if you want to wear the unobtrusive, half-cubic-inch volume device in one of its five colors.

The aluminum-cased shuffle comes in silver, blue, green, purple and special-edition red.

There were no product pricing announcements on other Apple iPod models.

Read the entire press release here.

Arlen Schweiger - Managing editor of Electronic House Magazine

Arlen contributes product news items to electronichouse.com along with his role on the print publication. Got a tip? Send it along!