what's next? mindPods! They read your mind and determine exactly what you want to see and hear. And it's all packed into an ordinary white pair of sunglasses. You can even get your own presription if you want!

All for only *dr. evil voice* one million dollars!

My iPod's got everything from turn-of-the-century gospel to Sammy Hagar; George Jones to Secret Machines; Wire to Marlene Dietrich. In other words, it's all over the place. When I shuffle all, I get a ridiculous mish-mash.

I hate the shuffle.

However, I decided to give it a chance yesterday, just for kicks on the way home from work. Unfortunately, it shuffled to an iTrip preset and screwed up my iTrip tuning in the middle of rush hour. So I'm trying to fix it (which isn't easy even in a stationary vehicle), trying to stay in my lane, enduring screeching static... it was not a good experience.

I hate the shuffle. I suppose if your music tastes tend to run the same direction it could be useful, but for me it's just annoying. And it at least needs the ability to exclude certain genres - in this case "Unclassifiable" iTrip stations.

We have a 2Gen iPod and I can attest that older units do have the shuffle feature. It's buried in the settings screen but you can shuffle by song, artist, or album or turn shuffle off. We used it last year on several cross country trips.

Billy K,
I'm with you,

>>>However, I decided to give it a chance yesterday, just for kicks on the way home from work. Unfortunately, it shuffled to an iTrip preset and screwed up my iTrip tuning in the middle of rush hour. So I'm trying to fix it (which isn't easy even in a stationary vehicle), trying to stay in my lane, enduring screeching static... it was not a good experience. <<<

Please don't sour on the shuffle just yet, I do have a solution for the iTrip shuffle problem... create a playlist of everything (that you want to play) on your iPod, EXCEPT the iTrip pre-sets.

It works great! I call my playlist "All iPod" and sometimes I'm amazed at what is chosen to play.

I live/drive in LA, so driving and listening to my iPod is a way of preventing needless 'road rage' and keeps me smiling whilst crawling along in traffic.

When an iTrip station plays, DO NOT skip it. Let it run it;s course (it is, after, only a few seconds long.) If you stop it it resets the iTrip. If you let it play, it does not reset the iTrip.

Apple really should have implemented shuffle by every category, especially genre and composer. I've only used shuffle once ever, and it's a little annoying to listen to one movement of Bach followed by "Baby Got Back". Too bad there's no way to shuffle Classical music without breaking a symphony/sonata/concerto/whatever apart, unless you rip it as one huge file.

On the 4G iPod, I don't think you can even shuffle by artist anymore.

I use shuffle exclusively. I like the juxtaposition of styles that can result; sometimes some interesting synergies between apparently disperate genres or specific pieces of music reveal themselves. And I, too, have everything from baroque to folk to punk to jazz. Don't take my shuffle away!

Oh man dude it blew my mind the first time I did shuffle after I got my iTrip. Randoms beeps in between songs. I thought something was wrong with my iPod! Smart playlist to the rescue!

I thought it would come up sooner, but I knew it would happen. When you're talking about iPod shuffle it's just a matter of time before somebody has to mention "interesting juxtapositions" and 'synergy.'

And our winner is...Engine Joe!!!! (crowd goes wild)

Quote

Guest wrote:
When an iTrip station plays, DO NOT skip it. Let it run its course (it is, after, only a few seconds long.) If you stop it it resets the iTrip. If you let it play, it does not reset the iTrip.

OK, but doesn't that then switch the frequency?
(And yes, I paused it when I saw this happening)

A guest wrote, "create a playlist of everything (that you want to play) on your iPod, EXCEPT the iTrip pre-sets."

This is close to what I do. For instance, I dont' care to listen to Coltrane, Davis, Monk, etc. in the car, so I created a Smart Playlist that I call "All that (not) Jazz". But I do like the Jazz classics while I'm at work, so another smart playlist includes all my jazz tunes.

That said, shuffling DOES make for some interesting juxtapositions of songs! Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's just plain weird.

This won't help your iPod, but option click on Shuffle a half dozen times and you'll re-shuffle mightily.

Quote

Billy K wrote:
I thought it would come up sooner, but I knew it would happen. When you're talking about iPod shuffle it's just a matter of time before somebody has to mention "interesting juxtapositions" and 'synergy.'

And our winner is...Engine Joe!!!! (crowd goes wild)

(takes a bow)

Just trying to help.

And offer a different perspective on shuffle than yours.

I'm with Engine Joe. When I play ThinkTanks, I run iTunes in the background with Shuffle on. It's a lot of fun not knowing exactly what song will come up next to be background to my tank blasting fun. One moment I may be speeding along and firing my cannon to the strains of Filter's "Hey Man, Nice Shot" and the next I'm rolling over green hills as Solas plays an Irish reel. Will it be Wagner or Beethoven to come up next? Genesis or Marillion? Goodman or Dorsey? Or, the ones I actualy hope for, any number of the tunes from James Bond soundtracks (they make great ThinkTanks music ).

Shuffle is fun!

Quote

Billy K wrote:

I hate the shuffle.

However, I decided to give it a chance yesterday, just for kicks on the way home from work. Unfortunately, it shuffled to an iTrip preset and screwed up my iTrip tuning in the middle of rush hour.

I don't have an iPod but in iTunes, when I started experimenting with shuffling the Library, it would sometimes choose radio stations or spoken word stuff (stand up comedy or ebooks). So I created a smart playlist, how to deal with the spoken word stuff was pretty obvious, "Genre is not _____". But I wasn't sure how to omit the 250 radio stations, Genres wouldn't work for obvious reasons.

In the end it was easy - the "Time" field for radio stations is "Continuous", so I simply set a condition of "Time is less than 25:00" (the length of my longest track).

This is solution probably obvious to everyone, but I was very pleased with myself when I figured it out. I now have a playlist called "Everything" which I can randomize with no worries.

Peace

While I have seen my 4G iPod play thee same artist twice, its usually pretty good. Although it does have a small problem with fixating on Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA"

Quote

AFCdtLoeb wrote:
While I have seen my 4G iPod play thee same artist twice, its usually pretty good. Although it does have a small problem with fixating on Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA"

You need to tell your iPod that song has been played plenty enough even before your iPod's daddy, grandaddy, and even great-grandaddy were even born!

Well, I suppose that if the only song one has one their iPod is "How much is that doggy in the Window", one will get the question repeatedly....

Sorry for the humour

My ipod (1G) shuffles just a particular playlist - neweer ipods can still shuffle by playlist & from everything in ipod?

Yes, they shuffle the whole library

My shuffle seems to have an absolute fetish for the Beatles

[insert conspiracy theory]
Maybe this is some kind of out of court agreement between Apple computer and Apple music
[end conspiracy theory]

I quite like the beatles but they are 60 songs out of 3000 and it actually drove me so wild that I deleted them from my library!

[insert supporting 'evidence']
the wierdest thing is that my Dad's ipod had exactly the same penchant for the fab four and it drove him even crazier - he's decided that music has come a long way since his youth!

Anyone else found this?

BTW I really like party shuffle on itunes and wish it worked on the ipod - I like to sprinkle my highest rated songs in with the unknowns - it really works a treat for me!

Of course, a computer is incapable of producing anything that is really random. What we call "random" is merely an order too complex for most to notice it. It merely uses an algorithm to simulate randomness. Perhaps a study of the particular algorith might reveal the ghost in the machine.

Or maybe I was sniffing the Old English too heavily while dusting this afternoon

The very fact that this happens proves that the shuffle is working properly. Probability theory actually demands it.

Though it seems counter-intuitive, you are just as likely to roll with a die, the following sequence:
555555555555555555555555
as you are to roll:
153462156216221354665413

It's only our mental tendency towards order that sees a 'pattern' rolling continous fives.
From the view point of mathematics / probability, there is no pattern in either one

Does anyone know how I can shuffle within a particular playlist? I want to be able to randomize my reggae playlist without including all of the other music on my ipod. The Shuffle option in the main menu just shuffles every song I have.

Yes you can, just set shuffle to songs and then start playing your playlist, subsequent songs will be random.

I love my Ipod Shuffle. It's all that I need and compact. Yes the other ipods offer more, but am i really going to listen to 10,000 songs anytime soon ?And for those that want to see whats playing, just don't put it on your pod if you don't want to listen to it. LOL ....Take care all

Quote

Anonymous wrote:
but am i really going to listen to 10,000 songs anytime soon ?

The only downside here is that if this is your only iPod and you don't have a laptop: that makes listening to music on vacation kinda repetitive, but hey, I guess that's when you go buy another, bigger iPod

Can you turn off the randomness or is it permanent?

You can play a playlist in order too. It is just a switch position on the Shuffle.

I too was upset about the shuffle that included the iTrip presets but all you need to do is make a Smart Playlist where artist does not equal "Griffin Technologies". The playlist will have all your songs BUT the iTrip ones and will update automatically. Then use this playlist instead of the Shuffle default.

PS - i got this tip from the iTrip instructions!

This is an interesting theory! I am staying clear from all iPods!! look at this > http://www.anti-ipod.co.uk/ !!!!!I also believe that extra terrestrial life forms are involved with the enormous success of iPods! The evidence is here --> http://www.anti-ipod.co.uk/ipodconspiracy.html

I understand that with random you can get strange patterns that look odd but I have seen a number of strange things w/ my iPod. I have around 800 songs, on 40 or so albums and it has played 3 sometimes 4 songs from the same artist (usually beastie boys) in a row and there is one album that I don't really like which is plays all the time (Deadicated - grateful dead tribute album). I think there is some programming which is more than random.

Quote

Guest wrote:
Of course, a computer is incapable of producing anything that is really random.

i am studying maths at uni
we have looked at chaotic behaviour
im am not an expert and have no idea how to make it happen but surely a computer could use a chaotic mathematical system (something for which the behaviour cannot be predicted) as its algorithem, associate number with each song and tracks actually would play randomly
NB even with random play you would occasionally get similar songs together and some times even the same song twice in a row, however, you might notice these "suprising" instances as opposed to the equally unlikely times when 100 completely different songs are played in a row

Okay, I don't get it. Like you, have have very eclectic tastes; about the only genres I don't like much (okay, HATE) are hip-hop (worthless) and commercial country (worth about "fitty cent'").

But I like EVERYTHING I have on my iPod (I have one of the new 80GB "Gen 5.5" jobs--and it's FULL). I think of the shuffle mode as "the world's most perfect radio station--that plays only the stuff I love, without regard to "format". People rave about "Sirius" and "XM" radio because of all the formats. H*ll, my iPod has the best format in all of creation!

So, I don't understand how you can dislike the stuff that comes out of the "shuffle" feature, since it's all your own music! If you don't like it, can't you just take it off?

Quote

DeepSouth wrote:
My shuffle seems to have an absolute fetish for the Beatles

Mine seems to like Todd Rundgren and Jeff Beck.

Don't ask me.

I love shuffle. I make enough decisions in one day. Leaving song choice to the iPod is convenient and often pleasantly surprising. Works for me.

No, MindPods actually dictates what you will think and feel!

Quote

slinky259 wrote:
what's next? mindPods! They read your mind and determine exactly what you want to see and hear. And it's all packed into an ordinary white pair of sunglasses. You can even get your own presription if you want!

All for only *dr. evil voice* one million dollars!

No, MondPods dictate what you will think and feel!

I can put 600 new songs on the ipod and the next day when listening to shuffle for 8 hours a day at work, I may only hear 2 out of those 600. I swear it will play the same songs over an over again. I have 3751 songs on my 20 GB 4th Gen. I don't get why it doesn't get more. You think if it was random it would hit more then 2 songs out of 3751 in those 8 hours of shuffling...

i work in a busy colonoscopy center where the doctors, nurses, and techs all have ipods. we recently got klipsch docking stations for all of the procedure rooms. we all use the shuffle setting and love it, even though it does not seem very random at times, no matter whose ipod is in the dock. playlists are the way to go...unless you want to hear eno, mahavishnu orchestra, allison krause, tower of power........