I noticed a Gizmodo headline announcing more advanced Ipod Shuffles - Apple's going to make Shuffles with 4 gigs of memory. For those of you that don't know, the Shuffle is like a normal Ipod, only smaller. How do they make a smaller Ipod? They remove your ability to choose which song to play. The Shuffle chooses tracks randomly.
When the Shuffle was first announced, I thought it was a stupid idea. Now that they're expanding production, the Shuffle has peaked my rage.
I'm incredulous because I can't identify with Shuffle consumers. I understand that the device is smaller and cheaper than a conventional mp3 player, but why would you want to pay for something you can't control? How can you satisfied with whatever song the machine chooses?
Thursday morning, I had a dream that I was listening to The Decemberists' "Engine Driver". (In said dream, I explained to someone that I used to think The Decemberists suck, but the song had grown on me. It has, in fact, grown on me, despite the fact that by Wednesday night I had committed only 2 of the song's lines to memory - those lines just looped in my dream, but I somehow still enjoyed the tune. You can download the .mp3 at Amazon for free.) Later that morning, I had to hear "Engine Driver". Listening to a song that supernaturally arrived in your subconscious is not only good karma, it's the only way to get closure, to free your mind from its "everybody was Kung Fu fighting" grip. Could I appease my brain or the music gods with a Shuffle? I think not.
And Thursday night, when I was folding laundry and needed to hear Led Zeppelin's "The Ocean" - a need as real and demanding as a slice of pie after dinner - I walked up to the stereo and made it happen. Again, the Shuffle would have been powerless to help me.
Yet, the Shuffle sells, and it's out there - it's in a window seat passenger's shirt pocket. He's trying to finish this Grisham chapter before landing in Chicago and changing planes. The direct flight was $50 more expensive.
5 comments:
My classic MP3 list has 650 songs on it, including my favorites from all types of music. Most of the time when I'm doing something I just run it on shuffle knowing that i'll like what it spits out. This is perfect when I don't want to concentrate on the individual song but rather just want good music on while I'm doing something else.
I think we all enjoy the shuffle function every now and then, but this device is always on shuffle. That's madness.
I'd never actually understood why it was called the Shuffle. This idea is so stupid I feel like murder. How much could it cost to install two buttons and a search function, and then charge $10 more for the piece of shit? Unbelievable.
Despite its name, the iPod Shuffle is not committed solely to random order; there is a "Play in Order" mode. However, the ability to choose a specific song is severely hindered, due to the lack of display. Much like the cassette tapes of old.
Right. You can play songs "in order", but if you've got a 4 GB memory...pretty worthless
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