San Francisco - Apple launched what it said was the world's first talking music player on Wednesday and said that the new device was the smallest iPod ever.

Apple said that the new iPod shuffle was smaller than an AA battery and that its voice feature would allow it to announce song and device information to the user.

The new 4 gigabyte gizmo holds up to 1,000 songs and is easier to use than previous versions with all of the controls located on the earphone cord, Apple said.

The iPod shuffle can speak 14 languages including English, Czech, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish.

Coming in silver or black the iPod shuffle features up to 10 hours of battery life and costs 79 dollars in the US.