Why the iPod Shuffle is broken

Having pondered the new (3rd gen) iPod Shuffle for a little longer, I think it's broken. I want it to fail. I want everyone who fancies one to reject it. There are two reasons. One I'd mentioned before, as a nitpicking detail: no control on the device itself. the second reason is that there's bloody DRM in the headphones. What it means is that only authorised manufacturers can make replacement headphones or extension cables that include the utterly necessary controls. The little inline remote has an authentication chip in it.

I don't object to the inline remote. I don't object to Apple selling a chip to other vendors that allows them to send the requisite signals to the device to control it. Plenty of devices have proprietary controls like this. Think TV remotes, for example. What I object to is doing this while having no controls on the device itself. Why ? It just feels broken. Headphones go missing, get trodden on, go missing down the back of the sofa. Having the player break at the same time is an appalling design decision. It's either stupid or greedy.

In programming terms, the shuffle ad its controls are highly coupled. They're so highly coupled that they should be one unit.

I've experienced the problem that Apple have introduced to an extent with a couple of televisions. Al functions are accessible from the TV remote, but not all functions are accessible from the buttons on the TV. This is a broken interface. A device, whether it is a tiny MP3 player or a big TV should still work fullywithout the remote, even if the interface by which its functions can be accessed without the remote are less convenient / more fiddly.

Edit: some doubt has been cast on whether the EFF and ilounge reports on the chip in the headphones has anything to do with DRM / DMCA. Maybe they're just trying to grab headlines.