iPod-Jacked

Rick and Roll writes "In a story on Wired, entitled Feel Free to Jack Into My iPod, an iPod owner shares experiences he has had with other iPod owners, namely the plugging of his headphones into a stranger's jack. It began when a woman in her 30's walked up to him while he was on a walk, unplugged her headphone jack from her iPod, and motioned for him to plug his in. They then listened to each other's music for about 30 seconds. He has then shared with about a dozen iPod listeners, with most of the strangers reciprocating. According to the article, the practice has also cropped up in other communities. Listeners acquire tastes for different kinds of music, just like on internet/LAN file sharing networks. An interesting read."

Comments

bluetooth

[ryanw]

What would be nice is if it was bluetooth enabled, you could just have your iPod on constant broadcast mode, let people walking by snoop in on your listening... That way it wouldn't interrupt your listening.

Re:bluetooth

[Dixie_Flatline]

The point is that they DO interrupt. It's a human contact and connection thing. We're all very seperated now, and bluetooth broadcasting would just KEEP us seperated. This is a way to connect (excuse the minor pun) with other people. You may never get to know them, other than the music that they listen to, but even that's a big deal. I'd never date a woman who listened to country music exclusively, for instance.

This is technology bringing people together, which is pretty uncommon. Most of it just serves to keep us as far apart as possible.

Very 1st Walkman Ever Had Dual Headphone Ability

[meehawl]

As an aside, the very first Walkman *ever* introduced by Sony had a dual headphone setup. It cam equipped with a "Hotline" switch that either listener could push that would mute both headphones, so they could say something. For couples jogging close together or something like that.

The dual headphone feature remained for a couple of product iterations but was then dropped to save a few pennies on production when they realised virtually nobody ever used this music sharing feature.

The thinking is that Sony were wary of introducing an exclusively personal electronic device and wanted to be able to market as having *some* social aspect.