Confirmed: Your iPod Shuffle Earbuds Need Proprietary Chip to Function Share Jason Chen Published 12 years ago: March 17, 2009 at 4:30 am -Filed to:appleheadphonesipod shuffleipodsPeripheralsshuffletopv-moda iLounge and BBGadgets‘ finds this weekend about rumours that the iPod Shuffle has an authentication chip in its headphone controller in order to work with the new control scheme. It does. Updated