I’m not going to be shy about this: I love my iPod. Some people will tell you that it isn’t possible to love an inanimate object, that you can only love an entity that is capable of feeling and choosing to have warm feelings in return for your affection. While that is a larger question that merits debate, there is no question that my iPod brings me joy.
And while the iPod is a nearly perfect consumer product – the problem of short battery life needs to be rectified – everything has a little room for improvement.
Apple’s iTunes software allows you to make a couple of different kinds of playlists. Since iTunes is, basically, a big database with a pretty interface you have the ability to search in myriad ways to build “smart” playlists. You also have the ability to drag and drop things to build the kind of random playlist us dinosaurs used to refer to as a “mix tape.”
Another nice feature of both iTunes and the iPod is shuffle: it allows you to randomly play anything you’ve digitized, and, on the iPod at least, choose whether that is by song or by album. What is missing though is something I think could handly make the iPod even more useful: being able to shuffle a playlist.
Why not? You can drop a CD into a player with a random button and have it choose tracks off that CD. Why not treat a playlist the same as a CD player would treat a CD?
Random techno thoughts for today.