New iPod shuffle slips to November?

Despite promises that its second-generation iPod shuffle would ship by the end of October, the diminutive flash-based player is now likely to arrive only in mid-November, CNET reports. A discussion with an employee at San Francisco's flagship Apple retail store revealed that the store doesn't expect to receive stock for at least "a couple more weeks," as quoted by CNET's James Kim. Apple hasn't provided an official explanation for the unusual two-month delay between announcement and release, though CNET and other industry experts have suggested factory delays and possible shortages of the device's 1GB flash memory chips as holiday demand increases.