Jacking Into Others' iPods?

from the how-often-does-this-really-happen? dept

Fri, Nov 21st 2003 11:30am — Mike Masnick

This reads like something of an urban myth (or at least a situation where a very small group of people are involved in it), but Wired News is running a story about iPod jack sharing, where random people, as they walk around will "share" their iPods with other iPod users. They'll notice another iPod user, walk over to them, and (often without speaking) offer to let the other listener jack into their iPod. People in the article describe it like being a personal DJ for another person (and being able to see how much they like your music) while others say it's just like an extension of file sharing. I wonder how prevalent it really is. The guy who seems to be promoting the idea claimed that it happens all the time on the Pixar campus, but someone from Pixar claims they've never seen it. This feels just like the whole "war chalking" craze. Something that sounds kind of cool, but which almost no one actually takes part in. Of course, once music players with Bluetooth become popular, I can imagine stories of people sneaking a listen on others iPods, or of people somehow sneakily forcing their music onto other users' headphones via Bluejacking.

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Anonymous Coward, 21 Nov 2003 @ 11:37am

No Subject Given
I can already see the RIAA drooling over this one. Because you know, 'if you didn't pay for it, you stole it!'
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John Dowdell, 21 Nov 2003 @ 4:40pm

old hat
We've been doing this for years, before iPods came around... on the San Francisco MUNI system when people are talking on mobile phones they'll usually catch each others' eye, and without a word switch phones, taking advantage of a whole new conversation. Sometimes tourists give these people odd looks, but... oh, okay, I'll give it up, I'm being entirely facetious here.... ;-)
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