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[Afro Thunder]

I now that here there are people who has the Ipod Shuffle. According to some sources the random function may be not so random. Discuss...

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6854309/site/newsweek/

http://apple.slashdot.org/apple/05/02/26/0253240.shtml?tid=141&tid=3

About Apple profit on Shuffle
http://news.com.com/A+voyage+inside+the+iPod+Shuffle/2100-1041_3-5590430.html?tag=nl

http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,119799,00.asp

 

[SteveMeister]

I believe that the shuffling is based on how the music is organized, rather than across the tracks themselves. So if you let iTunes organize your music, it'll randomly choose an artist first, then an album, and then a track. The non-shuffle iPods store music in the same way (otherwise it would have to re-sort everything when you browsed through the music), and so the shuffling of songs works the same way. I would imagine that in order to keep things as compatible and consistent as possible, the iPod shuffle also organizes music in this fashion.

So you're not necessarily going to get an even random distribution of tracks the way you would if the track files were simply a flat list on the device.

At least, this explanation seems to fit with the randomness I've seen. I don't for a minute believe there's any sort of conspiracy. I almost ALWAYS listen to my music on random, and on the occasions where I do hear music by the same artist in clumps, which artist that is is so random as to defy any sort of conspiracy, especially considering the eclectic nature of my music library.

 

[lexi]

There is no roll eyes emoticon big enough. The whole 'moon-landing was fake' thing is more believable then this.

 

[Jill Sandwich]

Maybe this guy should flick the shuffle into sequential play to get to his 'Wild Thing'

 

[Odnetnin]

I have a shuffle and I've notied that on shuffle mode... it shuffled the songs right across the same way twice. I haven't had it long but this is from about 2-3 days of continous use.

That said. I do think the shuffle kind of rocks. Unlike an Ipod (which I have) you only put the better tracks on it instead of an entire album so most of the music that it plays... I enjoy. Sometimes with my ipod ... i get a little sick of searching for tracks.

 

[Manabanana]

Of course it's not technically random! That's impossible! The closest they can get to random is using the current time in the equation to create seemingly random results.

 

[aoi tsuki]

Or it could randomize each time when at the end of the last file of the randomized list. iTunes's shuffle is pretty weak too, last time i used it. It. i don't know how Winamp does it, but there is a slider to adjust the level of randomization. i turned it all the way up and it works very well.