Hacking Devices Wreak Havoc On Mp3 Players Around Australia

A new portable device that allows the user to 'hack' portable digital music players such as mp3 players and smart phones is sweeping the nation, with ambush marketers, religious groups and annoying fucks using it to their advantage.

Developed by accident in a Yackandandah laboratory, the device can access the playlists of music devices within a 20 metre radius and then make them all play the same song. The first noted usage was when a high school student made a whole train carriage in Western Sydney listen to death metal during peak hour. The incident caused much confusion as people's earphones changed to the metal track midway through their own selections – which ranged from Calvin Harris to One Direction and Vivaldi.

Ambush marketing agencies have cottoned on to the device and one advertising executive – who did not wish to be named – told us that they were regularly using it to play 10-second ads and jingles in public places, like shopping malls.

“We've found that if you only play a ten second track to the 50 or so people in the area, by the time they've figured out that's something's wrong they're back to their usual tracks. We think it's the ethical way to advertise things, with minimal obstruction to the consumer.”

The executive said they'd been advertising everything from easy-pour measuring cups to Freaks & Geeks box sets using the technique.

A little-known religious denomination appear to be the most recent adopters, with entire buses subjected to audio book readings of their holy manuscript. They see it as a great way to reach new people, but not everyone agrees.

One bus traveller, who was audio-ambushed during a long bus-trip on a motorway told SPA Confidential, “Just as we fucking turned onto the motorway – where there's nowhere to get off – some muppet hacked my iPod just as The Mars Volta were about to peak into prog-rock-euphoria. Instead, for the next 20 minutes if I wanted to listen to my headphones I had to hear some prat gibbering on about the advantages of herbal medicine. I mean fuck, that shit doesn't even work.”