My mp3 Player and Stereo Should Chat to Each Other
Today I was listening to (one of my utmost, blab on about favorites) Shostakovich 15, as I walked back in the depressingly early twilight. The first Sunday in November is way too soon away. That particular symphony has a huge mother of a build-up and climax in the last movement. It’s a kind of dreary passacaglia based on the invasion theme from the seventh symphony lasting something like five minutes, before screeches in the woodwinds push it over into an even more morose conclusion.
It started on the far side of the bridge, and so by the time I pranced up the road to my front door (well, prancing really isn’t so appropriate here, what’s a bit more apt… dragged, limped, something droopy and miserable) the music was almost peaking… and then I’m home. Bad timing. Closing the door should coincide with a natural stopping point in the music, not the middle of a crescendo. I don’t like keeping my headphones on indoors as I can’t hear any flatmates or assassins.
However, this time it wasn’t a problem. As I reached my room my mp3 player vibrated to let me know that it’s successfully made contact with the stereo over wifi, and now they both know which piece I am listening to and where in the piece I am currently at. I just have to press a button, and bam - the stereo starts playing at exactly the same point as the mp3 player is up to. It’s a seamless handover of music.
Well, actually of course that isn’t what happened at all, because neither of my music systems are that sophisticated. However, it would be pretty trivial to set up something like that with the newer stereos and mps. In a few years when you have your friends over, you’ll all be able to take turns ordering the stereo around with your iPods, picking and mixing across all the playlists floating in waves through the room.