Warripping

pudge on 2002-08-29T17:51:58

I just had a thought today, in the bathroom, where I have most of my good thoughts.

When the iPod was released, I bemoaned that it had no wireless connectivity. But now that iTunes will have Rendezvous capability -- share your playlists with any other Mac on the LAN, automatically -- I wonder if a wireless iPod isn't around the corner.

Imagine, having an iPod that just automatically picked up the playlists in the general vicinity. It's a new form of wardriving: walk around the city and steal^Wlisten to other people's music!

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Wireless iPods

ziggy on 2002-08-29T18:44:39

You want to have a little portable device, that has some sort of built in 802.11b radio transceiver, so that you can listen to music transmitted over the airwaves?

Why would you ever want to use something like that? ;-)

magic radio

lachoy on 2002-08-29T20:37:22

When I was a kid I always thought it would be cool if I had a magic radio that I could tune into the station the person in the next car was grooving to so I could groove to it too.

Re:magic radio

da on 2002-08-29T21:33:43

Hey, me too. More recently, I've been musing about virtual bumper-stickers that appeared on your car's heads up display. The idea is basically a protocol for negotiating "shared or interesting" facts between people... it could certainly include "what I'm listening to right now". (see here if you're interested in more about that idea.)

Re:magic radio

jdavidb on 2002-08-30T12:43:01

I live in Texas, where negotiating interesting facts between people on the freeway usually involves road rage. :)

Texas: Drive Friendly!

Re:magic radio

pudge on 2002-08-30T13:11:05

I've thought about similar things, but in my world, I would send people facts like "I brake for tailgaters" and "Nice lane change, jackass."

The future's too bright...

da on 2002-08-29T20:59:10

*grin*

This reminds me of the technology that lets you stream your music to anybody in the general vicinity.

The hardware is called 'BoomBox', the transmission protocol is 'OpenWindows'

Sorry, couldn't resist.

(Is this one of those technologies that will never mature?)

names...

da on 2002-08-29T21:05:47

In other news, Phylis Schlafly and Tipper Gore have teamed with the MPAA to lobby Congress to ban these devices due to their bad influences on youths. Not only do they unfairly share music, they also promote violence by the name "war-ripping".

Wireless iPods, and other music solutions

blech on 2002-09-02T08:55:02

The main problem I can see with a wireless (be it Bluetooth or 802.11) iPod is that it's slow. Pulling stuff from my server to my laptop is definitely the limiting step; FireWire to the iPod is just blazingly fast.

On the other hand, a couple of my flatmates have Sharp Zaurus handhelds and CompactFlash wireless cards. When they're in the house they can SMB mount the house mp3 collection; when they're away they can use CF Microdrives to store some mp3s (not 10G, admittedly, but still an album or three) and listen to them on the move.

So perhaps there's something to the idea after all.