New York--You and your iPod may not be so lonely any more.

A two-person startup out of Brooklyn, N.Y. wants to take the “I” out of using Apple's (AAPL) iPod by letting users share music without the need for a computer.

The device, called miShare, is a mini computer that sits between two iPods, allowing one ipod to share music or video directly to another iPod without having to go through Apple’s iTunes music store. The device just started selling for $99.95 on www.mishare.com.

“When living in New York City you see iPods everywhere," said Nathaniel Wice, the 39-year-old co-founder of miShare. “The iPod is a cultural phenomenon but at the same time it’s sad because it’s so lonely.”

Wice and his 33-year-old partner Josh Hochman created the company in part because of their fondness for Apple’s products and because they wanted to create a community around the iPod.  “People have different iPods but you can’t share files between them,” said Wice.

The miShare device works with songs that don’t have digital-rights management, or DRM, technology. Songs that do have DRM, including many available at the iTunes store, are copied to miShare but are not playable until the iPod has been connected to a computer and the song or video has been authorized. All music that doesn’t have DRM protection -- ripped CDs, downloads from Web sites like Amazon.com (AMZN) and even home-grown music -- is available for playback right away, said Wice.

MiShare is just one of the many products to come to the market thanks to the huge popularity of the iPod. The add-on market for iPod accessories is estimated to be around $1 billion. While many manufacturers sell products for the iPod without Apple’s approval, in order to be featured in Apple’s stores, the product maker has to get Apple to sign off on it. Wice has had limited discussions with Apple but hopes to forge a relationship with the company in the future. The entrepreneur noted that he’s in talks with Amazon about selling miShare at the Internet retailer.  Officials at Apple weren’t immediately available to comment.

There are ways to share music from Apple’s iTunes, but many of those avenues can be cumbersome and do require a computer. Wireless technology like Bluetooth isn’t that prevalent in portable music players, but if it does catch on it could push things like miShare to the sidelines.  Microsoft (MSFT) has dabbled with Bluetooth with its Zune digital music player. That device lets users share music wirelessly with other Zune users, but the songs only stay on the device for a limited time.

Wice said wireless technology would be a “great feature in the future” but right now the physical connection is the simplest way to go about sharing.

“We really wanted to go for ease of use and intuitive operation," said Wice. "The easiest way to bring two iPods together is to literally bring them together, rather than have to configure wireless settings.”

While the miShare product just started selling this week, buzz about it has been swirling for sometime. A little mention in magazine Vanity Fair did little to draw attention, but once it was mentioned on technology blogs, including Engadget and Gizmodo, Wice said the inquiries started pouring in.  Wice has seen interest from far flung places like South Africa, South Korea and France.

“We weren’t even ready to sell,” when it started getting attention, said Wice. “We had people in France arguing about the device,” he said. Wice declined to say how many preorders came in other than to say he’s seeing “good traffic” and “good demand.”

In the future the company is aiming to launch a new product every couple of months under the miShare brand at different price points.

“We love Apple,’’ said Wice. “This was born out of our total fascination with the iPod.”