Psychic iPod

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After reading the FNM vs. Jane's thread I got home thinking to myself "Hmmm, I really feel like listening to "Last Cup of Sorrow", switch the iPod on and it's the next track starting! This is not the first such incident either - I swear to god this thing has been reading my mind since day 1. My roommate can attest to some of it's freaky 6th sense behaviour - times where we've been sitting around and I've remarked we should listening to band x and sure enough it comes on soon enough.

Has anyone else had this strange mind-meld relationship with theirs?

― Thermo Thinwall (Thermo Thinwall), Thursday, 11 November 2004 01:03 (twenty-one years ago)

Many, many times....I'm glad I'm not the only one.

If I had one of the old 5 gb iPods that was only half full, this wouldn't be such a shock. But to have it happen numerous times on a completely full 20 gb is just creepy.

― jay blanchard (jay blanchard), Thursday, 11 November 2004 01:17 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm at about 12gb and I am in awe. If it starts levitating tho, I'm outta here!

― Thermo Thinwall (Thermo Thinwall), Thursday, 11 November 2004 01:25 (twenty-one years ago)

see, your just ignoring all the times this hasn't happened!

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Thursday, 11 November 2004 01:43 (twenty-one years ago)

the ipod random algorithm might be secretly weighted to favor tracks with high ratings or lots of plays, too many times i've put on an album random-play and gotten all my favorite songs in the first few cuts

― artiste (artiste), Thursday, 11 November 2004 02:14 (twenty-one years ago)

Maybe you have Vertigo, ha ha...

― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Thursday, 11 November 2004 05:31 (twenty-one years ago)

My iPod is often an eerily good dj -- it frequently juxtaposes tracks in the same key and or tempo.

― Hurting (Hurting), Thursday, 11 November 2004 06:19 (twenty-one years ago)

Didja know that if you hold the center button down for ten seconds, an Onstar™ opearator will come on?

― Pleasant Plains (Pleasant Plains), Thursday, 11 November 2004 07:04 (twenty-one years ago)

did you know that ipods are controlled by rat neurons?

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Thursday, 11 November 2004 07:06 (twenty-one years ago)

Mind reading has been a hidden feature of iPods for a while. macrumors.com reckon that Jobs is going to push it big at the next Expo.

― Alba (Alba), Thursday, 11 November 2004 09:11 (twenty-one years ago)

tis true, it totally does all this. I have a chock full 30gb, and it quite often turns up stuff as requested, or strings together like-minded shit.

apple denies it, but it clearly has a mandate to return to bands or albums as it goes at random. but how does it know to link, say, frank black and the pixies?

― troyc, Thursday, 11 November 2004 22:19 (twenty-one years ago)

I thought this would be about a new incarnation of Psychic TV

― Sasha (sgh), Friday, 12 November 2004 04:22 (twenty-one years ago)

seven months pass...

My iPod on shuffle just played Lil Kim's "The Jump Off," followed by Magnetic Fields' "It's a Crime." Both songs mention Bentleys.

― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 11 July 2005 20:31 (twenty years ago)

My iTunes shuffle will only play one Radio Berlin song...

― Jay Watts III (jaywatts), Monday, 11 July 2005 20:53 (twenty years ago)

Ipods are inhabited by the dead souls of naive indie-kids sacrificed at Arcade Fire and MIA concerts.

― Cunga (Cunga), Monday, 11 July 2005 20:55 (twenty years ago)

My iPod does this too. I know it's just that I don't notice the times it doesn't happen, but it's still freaky.

― Lyra Jane (Lyra Jane), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 12:54 (twenty years ago)

Indeed, my iPod has done this sort of thing, too. It's also followed the Smiths with Morrissey followed by another Smiths song. And it's sometimes followed a song written by one songwriter with one performed by that songwriter. Or played a song by a band on my way back from a show by the same band. Among many other magical feats!

Intriguingly, in a New York Times piece assessing this phenomenon, Apple was very coy about the algorithim used by the iPod.

― Josh in Chicago (Josh in Chicago), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 12:59 (twenty years ago)

Intriguingly, in a New York Times piece assessing this phenomenon, Apple was very coy about the algorithim used by the iPod.

It doesn't hurt them at all to have a mystique.

― no tech! (ex machina), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 13:06 (twenty years ago)

one month passes...

Mine just played Josef K and Orange Juice back to back.

― Captain Sleep (Captain Sleep), Monday, 29 August 2005 07:13 (twenty years ago)

I can't believe my I-pod just played a song i like by a band i like!! How did it know?!

― LRJP! (LRJP!), Monday, 29 August 2005 10:07 (twenty years ago)

Tee hee!!!

― Captain Sleep (Captain Sleep), Monday, 29 August 2005 10:55 (twenty years ago)

my gf was complaining that KTU was getting a bit diva-sih for her and would I please put my ipod on shuffle. The ipod proceeded to only play black female vocalists across different genres for five songs... then returned to its usual The Fall/Lee Perry/Krautrock rotation.

― Old School (sexyDancer), Monday, 29 August 2005 18:53 (twenty years ago)

My iPod transforms hit pop songs into their Kidz Bop covers, and makes me like it!

― Confounded (Confounded), Monday, 29 August 2005 20:07 (twenty years ago)

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