It seems we've got some people who believe that the Pistons' (of the NBA) mp3 player is a clone of the iPod Shuffle:

The Detroit Pistons have begun offering the simply-titled Pistons MP3 Player as part of a charity drive. Bearing an uncanny resemblance to Apple's first-generation iPod shuffle, the screenless player has similar controls but substantially different internal mechanics, playing only MP3 and WMA songs.

Where did they get this crack information about the WMA and [other sites' reports of] 128 megs of storage? Well, from the Pistons' web site, of course, full of high-tech jargon like "uses a USB Flash Dish Function." You gotta trust that.

Except that Lindsey Hunter seems to be wearing iPod headphones with his and the packaging is, strangely, green in the background. Sound/look familiar? And there is a limited supply. You're telling me that some company in China ramped up copies of Shuffles and only made enough knock-offs for the Pistons to sell for a week or two for charity? Really?

Seems the easiest answer to this one is that Apple changed Shuffles, someone got stuck with a lot of the older version, and if we combine that with the Pistons' charity, they print up some new outer boxes, slap on Pistons stickers, and we're all smelling write-off.

The only reason I haven't plunked down hundreds for Shuffles is that, well, I've got one (they are very nice, though the clip would be a nice touch. But you can't use the new ones as jump drives!), and I can't figure out why the Pistons don't advertise them as Shuffles. They'd be gone already.

Show me the back of one, and then we'd know.

Update: Or I'm wrong. Very very wrong.

Did I get anything right? Only that it looks like it, like the first gen Shuffle, ain't made no mo. Check out the company's dead website.