Jack Sharing - Cult Craze or Urban Myth?

Hmmm, better learn to hide the look of shock at how bad their taste in music could be...

...or could this be a new line in T-Shirts?
"Fancy sticking your plug into my jack?"

hey madpict, how're you liking panther so far?

Uh oh, I see it all now. Public Service Announcements will be out warning us to Practice Safe Jack Sharing. :D

I still find that amazing though that folks just offer up their tunes. What a way to meet people.

Adam

what an awesome idea....you could have an ipod "community" going before you know it.....becareful of thiefs though...they may pull you over just to steal your pod...

Sweet, I'm in Montclair, I'll be on the lookout.

Remember kids...practice safe jacking, use an iSkin!

You can record yourself reading some of the Charles Manson's material and offer someone to listen that , then count and see how long before they run.
You can even make a game out of it :)

or even just playlist transfer. I don't know how clumsy text input would be [via scrollwheel] but it might not be too bad compared with cell phones. and that would be pretty cool. but just like recognizing different iPods nearby and sending them playlists or songs lol. this doesn't have to be made by apple i dunno how they could do the software probably not. so i guess it would. but still it woudl be cool. then again how strenuous would this be on the battery, i seriously think that apple has to reduce prices or increase storage or at least give us better batterylife

The possiblities of digital music are endless. If only the RIAA could get on board and embrace this future. If we are were walking around with bluetooth enbeld ipods sharing tunes... you could broadcast a message like "you have got to check out this new song" and a except, or even a whole track that had a limited life cycle that would let you listen to it a couple of times then vanish, but next time you synced to itunes it would auto prompt you "do you want to purchase any of the following tracks that you sampled?

The possibilites go on and on...

maybe someday.

Girl on street with iPod: "Are you always listening to Marvin Gaye? That's all I see on here."

Me (Quagmire voice): "Alll riiiight."

lol

I wonder if this will catch on on the tube in london. I see people on the tube with ipods most days.

PS. Nice mark and lard reference madpict.

I love this thread. I have been tempted to hand my earbuds to someone to let them hear something...but folks don't seem to want someone else's earbuds in their ears. Now that I'm seeing more iPods around town, I'll have to try offering the jack to another iPodder.

Like MadPict, I do live in a grey, rainy place so folks will be bundled (and their iPods also, I assume) for the next 7 or 8 months...

hmm, i need to start an ipod community at our school!

I can honestly say that I've never seen anyone here that has an iPod. I have mine on almost 24/7.
So, I guess if you live in Lexington, KY USA please look out for me :)

Wow! Thread resurrection...:D
I may be wrong, but I think this story has become an urban myth. The original story first posted on the 21 Nov 2003, has been repeated in several articles and the part about someone making t-shirts,
It is so common in Cambridge, someone has printed a T-shirt that says, "Feel free to jack into my plug," Crandall said

followed my suggestion in the third post in the thread...or could this be a new line in T-Shirts?
"Fancy sticking your plug into my jack?"

Now its just too much of a coincidence that I am from Cambridge and the wording of the t-shirt is almost exactly what I suggested. I'm not claiming to be the source of this part of this "urban myth", if it is one, but it is just a little bit similar.
I did discuss this "phenomenon" with the Wired writer Leander Kahney and expressed my doubts about the UK aspect of it.
But I still wander around Cambridge waiting to be offered a jack share!!!:D

iPod jacking is a very common pratice in my city. Generally when two people with iPods meet both disconnect their headphones and put them in the other persons iPod. This pratice is very common and is really fun to do. Now i carry a pencil and paper to write down songs i like. generally nothing is said we just jack and then go on our merry way.

imagine having a phone with bluetooth and an iPod with blue tooth so you could send songs to other people with an iPod/phone combo but the transfrers would only be temporary. But the song name could be stored to your iPod and the next time you go on to iTunes the song could be stored just in case you want to download it. Imagine new music tuesdays directley to your iPod and possibly downloading songs from iTunes directley to your iPod without a computer that would be cool.

thats so sweet, just walking and someone just hands you there ipod and you do the same and write down new songs you like, i wish people did that here but in high school people are to scared of getting theres stolen ^_^

Im gonna go and try doing this from now on. Who knows? I might meet Ms Right over a Nsync or Britney song... ;-)

I've seen mention of the possiblity of WIFI and blue tooth to broadcast their ipod audio. I'm really surprised no one has mentioned anything about using FM transmitters to do this. Although this isn't exactly the same thing, but it would be a way to share what you are hearing with the world near by you.

I also got a great idea for a product that will likely never happen. A wifi or blue tooth add on (oh please don't build it into the pod.) that obviously would broadcast a signal to another iPod with this adapter working as a receiver as well. This would only at best stream the music, possibly allow you to copy it in real time but not let you keep it. The copy could stay on your ipod for maybe like 12 hours then expire. However in this whole process your iPod would retain only the song information and allow you to put the music your iPod temporarily captured into your iTunes shopping cart. Anything your iPod did capture but isn't in the iTunes store could be put into a wish list than can be printed of course. I think such a product could catch on, wouldn't you think?

Just an idea, but how about combining this jack sharing concept with the "Mobile clubbing" concept. I think both are interresting ideas and could work well together. The problem might be remembering who you switched iPod with...

There hasn't been any mobile clubbing in my country yet, neither do I think that there is any widespread jack sharing community. But I do have my hopes that it will find it's way here and flourish. :)

that is so damn crazy.

i can imagine it now... what madness.

I read an article in the latest MacFormat about Leander Kahney's latest book and he once again refers to Jack Sharing as if it is going on everywhere.

Therefore I am digging this thread up again to see if it is as widespread as he implies it is. I have yet to be approached, or indeed approach anyone, and I am tempted to actually start asking iPod users in the street if they have actually shared a jack.

So, if you have actually gone up to a complete stranger and offered your iPod for them to plug into please post here. Sharing with a friend doesn't count I'm afraid...

I agree with enjoi. Sure, it's probably happened, but I can't imagine it's a phenomenon. Maybe at a campus or two, where the iPod users have a bit of a connection to one another.

It's a nice story, and I can see a cool TV spot made of this where all sorts of different types of people on the street are sharing tunes - culminating in the grandmotherly old lady and the pierced punk rocker really liking each others' tunes.

But, in the harried, gritty "real" world in which we live, unless the other person is hot, most people would probably be uncomfortable and try to get away quickly.

Too bad, the fantasy world is cooler.

I've never seen or experienced jack sharing, and neither have any of my friends. at least not public jack sharing. my friends and I always swap iPods when we play poker, but thats the only time.

hmm... sounds interesting. but if i see someone wanting to trade his/her shuffle for my 5G 60gb, i would be a little hesitant to do so.

This is my first post. But I can't think of a better way of getting started than by contributing my thoughts to the Jack Sharing story.

Last week I saw a short animation at an arts festival that told a story of how technology was isolating people. The animation featured an express train carrying morning commuters who were using hand held consoles, laptops, mobiles phones, and a multitude of other socially limiting devices. None of the animated characters made any attempt to talk to fellow passengers.

Only yesterday, I found an article about Jack Sharing on the Wired web archive. While reading it, I suddenly realised that the express train in the animation could have been a very different place. The introduction of the iPod would have given commuters a chance to share weird and wonderful music, providing them with the perfect opportunity to talk and get to know each other.

Maybe through Jack Sharing, the iPod will break the mold on the continued march of isolating technology and allow it to become a social tool for the 21st century. If it does, perhaps we as a society will be become socially and culturally richer. Only time will tell.

I don't even see other people with iPods acutally out in the open...was driving through Pittsburgh two nights ago, and my daughter remarked on the number of iPods very visible on the streets, even at night.
Do you guys jack share up there? Are thefts not a real problem?

Originally posted by palexc
Sweet, I'm in Montclair, I'll be on the lookout.

Remember kids...practice safe jacking, use an iSkin!

More appropriately, an iCondom!

you should just ask them their tastes if youre afraid, they might have good music and youre losing it

i've only done this once, with the only other person i know with an iPod.

how common is borrowing iPods for a day? i wanted to get the 3000+ songs he had, so i went up to him and just asked. in hindsight, i gess it was pretty amazing he gave it to me bcoz not only is he 4 yrs older, but i had met him only once before.

this is funni, but if i tried that at my school, theyed be like "get away from me, you weirdo". lol

This actually happens to me on the bus sometimes with whoever sits next to me.

only happened once. quite strange. two ipod users sitting next to each other on the train. tried the at seat radio, but not much good on. after conversation about music & ipods felt the need to swap players. strange!