[newportnews]

I have been a Mac user for the past 10 years and owned an original iPod, a 3G 15GB iPod, a 30GB iPod Photo and now a 30GB iPod Video (yes I am a junkie).

One feature that after all these years I can't believe the iPod doesn't have is -- PLAYLIST SPECIFIC Shuffle.

On the iPod Shuffle is always On or Off. However in iTunes you can set individual playlists to do different things.

Want albums to play all the way through without shuffle -- create a playlist and set it not to shuffle and iTunes does it no problem -- even if ALL your other playlists shuffle.

Now, especially with "Shuffle Songs" being at the 1st level of the iPod's menu system -- why can't the iPod sync the shuffle setting from iTunes for each plalist and just remember it.

The shuffle settings could be "On", "off" or "From iTunes".

While this might seem minor the more I think about it the more it is not very intuitive. With all the shouts for crossfade playback on iPods -- I think this feature should come LONG before that.

[analogika]

Agreed.

[CharlesS]

While I disagree about this being more important than crossfade playback (not having that makes it pretty much impossible to listen to something like a Mahler symphony on an iPod), I do agree that this would be a good feature to have.

[wilsonng]

yeah, I miss that on my iPod.

I have to go to settings and set Shuffle to songs. Then I go back to "Playlist", highlight a playlist by scrolling to it (but don't hit the middle button yet) and then press the Play button. That will shuffle all the songs in the playlist.

I can also go to "Artist" menu, highlight an artist's name and then press Play to shuffle songs from that particular artist.

The same works with albums. Go to "Albums", highlight it, and press Play.

I do wish there was an individual shuffle setting for each playlist......

[analogika]

wilsonng, that's cool. Thanks!

I don't care about crossfade, Charles - at all. What is a massively missing feature is in fact gapless playback (different thing).

[brokenjago]

Agreed!

[mduell]

Hopefully that will make it in the next software upgrade along with gapless playback.

[CharlesS]

Originally Posted by analogika

wilsonng, that's cool. Thanks!

I don't care about crossfade, Charles - at all. What is a massively missing feature is in fact gapless playback (different thing).

Whoops, you're right. Gapless is indeed what I was thinking of. My apologies.

[analogika]

Originally Posted by newportnews

One feature that after all these years I can't believe the iPod doesn't have is -- PLAYLIST SPECIFIC Shuffle.

Just to clarify:

THIS IS ALREADY A FEATURE (as wilsonng was kind enough to clue us in) - it's just relatively obscure.

When you've set the iPod to shuffle mode, navigate to a playlist/album/artist and hit "play" instead of "enter" to shuffle-play that playlist/album/artist.

w00+.

-ch.

[wilsonng]

This also works in the photo albums. Highlight a photo album and then press Play.

I'm betting there are many more obscure features that aren't so obvious. The iPod electronic help guide and the skimpy print manual included in the iPods just don't do it.

Probably look at the Missing iPod manual or one of those types of books for more hints.

My friend uses her iPod as a slide show presenter at her class presentations. She just saves each slide transition as a jpeg file and puts them in order.