This should be good. For years we’ve heard about how the iPod Shuffle is a disaster. A bad marketing idea. Apple slipping a silly wasteful product on the masses. Apple’s reality distortion field coming out to play.

Blah blah blah.

So it is with much anticipation that I await the same criticisms for Creative’s Zen Stone, a device that from appearances is much bigger than the revolutionary $79 shuffle.

It’s $40. A clip isn’t included (an additional $10) and supports WMA files but not WMA subscriptions (meaning all your bitchin’ cool rented music isn’t going to play on it).

So for $30 more, you could get the new Shuffle from Apple which holds the same amount of music, is much smaller, has a built in clip, and has access to the largest online music store in the world.

But don’t expect any of those details to deter the “anything but iPod” fanboys. They’ll love the Stone despite their hate for the Shuffle.