I still have my last walkman from those days. Not sure when I bought my last one, to be honest, as I used it into the early 2000s. It’s not a Sony, but it got the job done.

Another thing I have from those days is my collection of mix tapes. For those who are either too young or too old, a mix tape is a collection of music from different sources put onto a personal cassette tape that you listened to in your car or your walkman. The desire to make mix tapes was one reason people opted for dual-cassette stereos, not to mention outright copying of other people’s tapes

Mix tapes were typically on ninety minute cassettes, which meant two forty-five minute sides. Cassettes are not random access, either, they are linear. And decent cassettes weren’t cheap, either.

Because of these limitations, not to mention the fact you actually had to play a song all the way through to record it on a cassette tape, it took some work–and time–to come up with a decent mix tape. The end result was, dare I say it, a work of art in and of itself.

The limits of a cassette tape seem silly today. Carrying literally thousands of songs on something smaller than a cassette tape is not entirely uncommon. I can’t imagine carrying around a walkman and cassettes anymore like I used to back in the day.

How does this relate to Twitter? I’m glad you asked.

Twitter has some seemingly arbitrary limits. The two most often complained about are the 140 character limit per status update and the lack of threaded conversations. There are others, of course.

Within those arbitrary limits, some interesting things have emerged:

• Conversations. @ replies were not part of the original specification for Twitter (e.g. using @phoneboy in your tweet to indicate a response to me), but as users used Twitter, this was adopted as the standard.
• URL Shorteners: Tinyurl.com had been around pre-Twitter, but the development of these services took off once people started sharing URLs on Twitter. Anything to get more content in 140 characters.
• Picture sharing services: These have been around forever, but a number of new ones were created since Twitter and other similar services started taking off.
• RSS Reader, anyone?: Because people share URLs on Twitter, for many people, Twitter has become their RSS reader. Instead of following 100+ blogs, just read the URLs that come off of your followers on Twitter. I personally do a mix: follow a smaller subset of blogs and use my Twitter stream for the rest.
• Other apps that use Twitter for signaling: Phweet is one example, but there are plenty of others that I can’t think of right now.
• The re-tweet: If you like something someone else said, you re-Tweet it. However, you want to give the person credit who originally said it. If you want to make tweets that can be re-tweeted easily, you have to make the tweets shorter than 140 characters (say, 120).

Me? While I make use of these services just like everyone else, I do find the 140 character limits liberating in a sense. Whereas on a blog post, I have an infinite slate to work with, in Twitter, I have 140 characters. I have to get right to the point. Sometimes crafting those 140 characters takes time, just like the mix tapes used to.

The point is: limits aren’t entirely bad. Sometimes it’s those limits that are necessary to unleash creativity. Meanwhile, I’m working to bring my mix tapes into the 21 century.

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• Cassette Tape 4-Port USB 2.0 Hub (ubergizmo.com)
• HOWTO make an 8-track cassette walkman (boingboing.net)

Comments

• 6 September 2009, AC writes: I'm 100% with you on Twitter vs. longform blogging... 140 characters can be liberating to *read* as well -- I'm reminded of that every time I come across one of those epic paged blog posts! As for mixed tapes, you might appreciate this: http://lovehatethings.com/thinglets-remembering-my-cassette-covers :-)
• 6 September 2009, PhoneBoy writes: It's kind of ironic I used a long blog post to discuss this idea, come to think of it. :) However, there are times when 140 characters just doesn't cut it. This was one of those times. Love those mix tape covers. I just listed the tracks. Well, most of them anyway.
• 6 September 2009, Samorai writes: At the entrance to my old neighbourhood, there are 10 big concrete cubes. They've been there for the past 25 years or so; were probably meant to be used for housing in some way, back in the day when that whole area was being built. The neighbourhood scouts and other teens have been using those cubes for good purpose: Sometimes writing 2 or 3 letters on one slab of concrete, they color those slabs white over and over again, each time writing on the white surfice (in graffiti) a new phrase, a welcoming sentance or personal message. Every time I drive by my old neighbourhood, I think to myself: Wow, a real life physical Tweet!
• 7 September 2009, Mutiny32 writes: Excellent comparison, man. Now I have more of an incentive to implement twitter plugins on my sites. Very good point about RSS. Twitter is like Push RSS....kinda...in a way.

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The phone came in a FedEx box and was clearly used in other reviews. It came with a USB cable, a power charger, an inactive T-Mobile SIM card, and a CD with their version of PC Suite and other documentation.

The phone did not come charged, so it would not power up out of the box. I figured the USB cable would work for charging the phone, but not so. Instead, if you want the phone to be charging AND hooked up to the computer at the same time, you have to daisy-chain the USB cable into the power cable, which has a convenient port on the back of the plug for this purpose. This is worse than having a separate plug for charging the phone!

The phone also did not come with any memory installed. Worse, it uses a proprietary Sony-only memory format. Not having any Sony Ericsson phones around, this means either suffering without a memory card or spending money on a 8GB Memory Stick Micro so I can review a phone I will be sending back in less than two weeks.

One other thing about the phone I received–it was a prototype unit. Why am I getting prototype units when the phone is supposedly shipping? Am I looking at production software? How much does the build quality differ from this prototype with the real production?

So we haven’t gotten into actually using the device yet, and there are already three strikes against the device–strikes Sony PR could have easily corrected by ensuring I got a production model, the phone was charged when I got it AND included some sort of memory card with the device. It really makes me appreciate the work that Andy Abramson’s team at Comunicano does with the Nokia blogger relations program, who truly sets the standard for how these kinds of programs should be run.

Meanwhile, I only tested a few specific areas of the phone: the camera, the media player, and the web browser. I go into some detail after the jump.

The Overall UI

The phone UI is reasonably responsive. It has some prompts that suggest it is a Symbian-based phone (perhaps using UIQ as a frontend versus Nokia’s S60), but I can’t find any documentation that suggests what OS it uses. It doesn’t really matter, I suppose.

One thing I absolutely hated about the default UI was that EVERYTHING was in motion most of the time–including the idle screen. I don’t particularly like that. Seems like an unnecessary waste of battery.

The Camera

The Sony part of Sony Ericsson actually makes proper standalone digital cameras. You figure they might know a few things about making a decent camera. And at 8.1 megapixels, you’d hope the pictures would be good.

The problem with an 8.1 megapixel camera on a mobile phone is that the reduced size of the mobile phone makes the focal length of the camera fairly small. This means that pictures are only going to come out good under ideal conditions.

I did take a few pictures with the phone that came out ok, but I don’t think the extra megapixels did a whole lot of good. The pictures came out fuzzy unless I was able to hold the phone absolutely still–which I had a problem doing most of the time.

The camera does have some shooting modes that are interesting: panorama mode (which I didn’t test) and the “BestPic” mode. What it does is takes several snapshots of the subject in rapid succession and allows you to select which photo you wish to keep. Great for subjects who blink whenever the camera flashes.

The Walkman

Again, Sony should theoretically know some things about making a music player since they invented the concept of the portable music player with the Walkman, at least in my youth. Rarely do you see a Sony music player these days–Apple‘s iPod is pretty much the winner there.

I found the music player a bit nicer than I typically find on a Nokia handset. Having external media keys helped, of course. The built-in speakers were surprisingly loud. I could not see how well it handled large play lists as I did not have an external memory card, so I could only give it a cursory play.

I was able to treat the phone like a USB device and copy stuff onto the phone. Since there was no Mac software included, I didn’t bother to go much deeper into some of the other music player features.

The Web Browser, Text Entry

I tried the built-in web browser to browse a few sites and get a sense for how well things like text entry worked. I did this over WiFi, which worked pretty good. The browser appeared to render pages at least as well as the Nokia devices I’ve used. It does the job adequately.

Consequently, I also saw how data input worked on this phone. When you push one of the number keys, the different choices for that key pop up. Subsequent keypresses will move the cursor along those choices. If you hold down a number key, the number will automatically be selected. It was helpful in showing exactly what key I pressed, as the phone keypad made it too easy for me to press adjacent keys.

One infuriating thing with text entry was that the pound key was used to generate a space, whereas the 0 key normally does that on a Nokia. This meant a lot of mistyping on my part. I wish all phone manufacturers would just agree on a standard text entry method and stick to it.

The Verdict

At least based on the few days I had the device, I have a difficult time recommending this device. While I’m sure some of this comes from the fact that Sony PR clearly dropped the ball in how they send these devices around to bloggers and whatnot, the device just doesn’t feel right to me. The keypad makes it far too easy to push adjacent buttons with my fat fingers. The proprietary memory cards are a non-starter. The lack of Mac support is also a non-starter for me, at least.

Comments

• 2 August 2009, Mobile Industry Review writes: folks at Sony sent me a Sony Ericsson W995A to review. This is the first time I have actually used a Sony Ericsson product, so this is as much a review of the specific handset as it is the experience of using Sony Ericsson products in general. viaReview of Sony Ericsson W995A on PhoneBoy.com. Do you think he was a fan?  I’m betting….no. Random Posts Lastminute.com Labs launches FoneFood August 14, 2008 AdMob hunting for Sales Manager/Director & Account Manager November 27, 2006 T-Mobile UK’s

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The most obvious change? I no longer work for Nokia, for one. Not that working for Nokia gave me exceptional access to the latest Nokia gear, but I did get a few handsets from them. I sport my Nokia E71 every day and occasionally use the others for various functions.

I can’t say it was one thing that pushed me over the edge. It was a lot of little things that added up to my ultimate decision to buy an iPhone 3GS. This isn’t a complete list, but here goes:

It’s Faster: One issue I have with my E71 is how slow it is when it comes to rendering web pages, not to mention other “random’ slowdowns that crop up with the phone. The iPhone 3GS has both a faster processor and twice the memory of the iPhone 3G. Those things will make a difference.

More Storage: I have a hard time conceiving how I will fill 32gb, but I’m sure I will find a way.

It’s an iPod: Actually, this part isn’t as key to me, as I don’t spend a lot of time listening to music and the like. However, I am big on podcasts. While Nokia has an app on the phone for handling podcasts, it has a number of issues. Also, for the rare times I actually do want to sync music to my Nokia phones, it is excruciatingly slow. Even Nokia’s current flagship handset takes forever to sync. Apple has this down with their iPods, iPhones, and iTunes. It all works together nicely.

It Takes Decent Video: Unlike my Nokia E71, this takes video that is on-par with my Nokia N95 8GB. This demo video that Kevin Tofel took from JKOnTheRun took was enough to convince me that it was decent.

It’s A Better Camera: It’s only a 3 megapixel camera, but it has autofocus and the ability to direct the focus with a tap on, say, someone’s face. The MacBreak Weekly gang was raving about it. I won’t have flash but, then again, the flash on the Nokia E71 is pretty worthless.

Cut and Paste: Ok, some of my earliest Nokia devices had this feature, but it’s nice to see Apple provide this feature in the iPhone 3.0 software. Hopefully it is better than the Cut and Paste on the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, which suffers from S60 5th Edition and a lack of buttons.

Tethering; Ok, even my old Nokia featurephones from 2003 could do this, but it’s nice to see Apple getting with the program and adding support for this useful feature.

Stereo Bluetooth: Ever since I bought a stereo bluetooth headset, my workouts at the Y have been much better. Up until the iPhone 3GS, stereo bluetooth was simply not an option on iPhone. Now it is.

Device Encryption: This feature I didn’t even know about until I started looking on Apple’s site for things I had previously thought were worthwhile. There’s a blurb about hardware encryption on the More Features page, but there’s precious little details about what it does. If it does what Check Point’s Full Disk Encryption does for my Nokia handsets, that would be good. More information is needed.

Free WiFi from AT&T: I have been finding myself in Starbucks more and more as of late. Now that they’re all AT&T hotspots, the ability to hop-on their WiFi for free and with less hassle is a bonus.

It’s The Apps, Stupid: And, of course, the best reason of all to get a smartphone these days is the applications. While I will for sure miss Gravity, my favorite Twitter client for Nokia devices, there are plenty of fine replacements on iPhone. Not to mention replacements for some of the other apps I use, not to mention new apps I haven’t been able to try to date because I lacked an iPhone.

Of course, this is before I get the iPhone. Apple hasn’t shipped the order yet. I suspect with the Independence Day holiday, I might not get it before Monday. Assuming they’re not out of stock or anything, I should get it sometime next week. I’ll keep refreshing the order status page like an impatient geek, looking for word on when my new toy will arrive.

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• Nokia 5800 XpressMusic the No. 1 contract phone in Europe? (allaboutsymbian.com)
• Battle of the smartphones (bbc.co.uk)

Comments

• 2 July 2009, luca writes: Let me add another reason: you don't work for Nokia anymore so you don't feel guilty :-)
• 2 July 2009, tate writes: Ha Ha my sentiments exactly... I still love Nokia, not so much S60. But picked one up myself. No regrets so far.
• 2 July 2009, Bob writes: I read the article comparing the iPhone to the Nokia 5800. One thing that really struck me was: >>This might be the most important point: Even when the Nokia has a lot of features, my girlfriend still >>reaches out for my iPhone if she wants to look something up on the web. I think this is the general factor that leads to the iPhone as generating a lot more Internet traffic than anything else. It's actually possible to use the Internet on it.
• 2 July 2009, PhoneBoy writes: Even my wife has said she wants to play with my iPhone when I get it. She'd have one if it didn't cost $80/mo for the required service plan.
• 2 July 2009, PhoneBoy writes: No guilt of not eating the dogfood, that's true.
• 2 July 2009, Dave Michels writes: I am shocked, sad, and disappointed. I think we were the last 2 holdouts. I am waiting for nexgen Android.
• 2 July 2009, PhoneBoy writes: I doubt we are the last holdouts in this area. :)
• 2 July 2009, Inbox Liquidation Part 50 writes: [...] I Ordered an iPhone, or Why Hell Froze Over Today (phoneboy.com) [...]
• 2 July 2009, Sheryl writes: Hell has frozen over! But, I understand why it took until now and the attention you spent inspectigating. Good for you. I hope you enjoy it. I still live on my Bold, but have a touch so iphone centrics can tell me I'm lame. See Dave and Dameon, you're not the last hold outs. :)
• 2 July 2009, Marc writes: Despite being quite the techie, my iPhone 3GS 32gb is my first iPod/iPhone/smartphone (my first MP3 player was a Sansa FUZE 4gb, that I bought less than a year ago.) Call me nit-picky, but each time Apple would release a newer version of either, I would find a significant reason to wait. Last time around tethering was not officially supported. Before that, it was no 3G. With both the Nano iPods and previous iPhones it was the lack of removable storage, too - I think 32gb should hold me over just fine. Until now, the last Apple product I had owned was a Quadra 630 back in 1994.
• 3 July 2009, PhoneBoy writes: Nothing wrong with only owning a touch, Sheryl. Marc, the lack of removable storage was kind of an issue for me at first, but it's 32gb. It's more than I use today.
• 3 July 2009, David Beckemeyer writes: I got an iPhone originally got development not expecting to actually use it (or like it) for myself - for many of the same reasons you listed in the past. I was very surprised. I still don't like the many ways it is closed, but I accept it now because of all it is and does, how it raises the bar. And it does raise the bar, not because it looks cool, has a touch screen etc. Not for any of the reasons most people (and apples competitors) think. I'll be curious to hear if on a few months your opinion of your experience and whether your stated reasons Here for wanting in stand the yet of time and whether in fact some unexpected likes and dislikes emerge.
• 3 July 2009, PhoneBoy writes: The Nokia E71 is my current workhorse phone, and I've used it as my primary handset for most of the last 7 months. It will be interesting to see if I can say that about the iPhone 3GS in 6 months.
• 4 July 2009, Jerald writes: Hey Dameon, I've been loving my iPhone 3G since I acquired it last November. This is the first handset that I truly enjoy, even more than any of the Nokia handsets that I had when I was working there. The first thing I did was jailbreak it so I could use it for "tethering". It will be interesting how AT&T will enable this. With my Samsung Blackjack, it cost extra to enable tethering. Now, I join the iPhone to my laptop's ad-hoc wireless network and set the laptop's network connections to use the iPhone as the HTTP(s) and SOCKS proxy. It's good enough to get email while driving cross-country. See http://www.iphonemodem.com/ for the way that I have been doing it. See http://tinyurl.com/mgyxhe for a simple way to do this either through Bluetooth or through the USB cable connection Talk to you soon! Jerald
• 6 July 2009, Jeremey writes: I've been "bi-phonal" for about a year and a half, carrying an E71 in one pocket and an original iPhone in the other. The voice on the iPhone sucked, and the E71's shone. In most other respects, the iPhone was the winner, but there were days when it would annoy. Well, no more. I upgraded to the 3GS and the E71 sits on my desk. The extra speed, storage, and big improvement in camera have sold me, and the voice quality is dramatically better (maybe I had a crappy original? I dunno). And of course the apps blow Symbian's offerings away. (I work for Nokia)

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Mobivox Unveils Voice-Activated Mobile Services Platform: This is primarily geared at service providers. While I think their platform is good, as it contains thinks like voice-activated dialing and call control, group calling, and voice-to-SMS, and voice-to-email messaging, I think the challenge is going to be getting carriers to adopt. You can read more from them on the Mobivox|PL blog.

Alltel Bringing Customers NuTsie: If you want to spend $4.99 a month or $19.99 a year to listen to items from your iTunes library from your Alltel handset, and you happen to have one of the 10 handsets Alltel supports this on, get thee to the Alltel Shop on the handset and buy it.

Into High School Sports? Check Out Locofan.net: Ted Wallingford helped to put together a social networking site for high school sports called LocoFan.net! This is about empowering the social discourse surrounding sports that makes prep athletics so much fun. Things like boosting, smack talking, Saturday-morning quarterbacking, and of course, media sharing. Not personally a high school ports fan, but maybe when my kids are old enough.

DeFi Mobile Offers Unlimited Calling over WiFi for $40/mo: This service provides unlimited calling as well as unlimited data on a number of commercial WiFi hotspots worldwid–yes, data you can use for other things. Seems a bit like a cross between Boingo and Truphone, but personally, I think Truphone and Boingo are a better deal.

Skype on Asterisk: Tom Keating did a long piece on the recent announcement about Skype being made available as a channel driver for Asterisk. In short, it allows you to both make and receive calls with Skype using an Asterisk server. Anything you can do with, say, an oubound SIP channel or an IP telephone extension can bow be done with Skype. It’s not going to be open-source, nor is it going to be free. It does open up some interesting opportunities.

Comments

• 3 October 2008, spg writes: they seem to indicate that there are no international long distance charges; and that landlines and cell phones anywhere in the world can be called. there is no price list. if this is true this is pretty amazing having nothing to do with the mobile aspect. anyone who simply makes a lot of calls to cell phones in for example any European country would be getting a very good deal being able to call unlimited for $40.00 per month. i looked and could not find any FUP. i will be following this one' something just does not seem to add up.
• 3 October 2008, spg writes: i was referring to DeFi Mobile in the above comment.
• 3 October 2008, PhoneBoy writes: I forget that terminating calls to mobile phones outside North America is insanely expensive and for no good reason. If DeFi Mobile does allow calls to mobile phones to be included in the $40/mo, then they are probably going to go out of business really fast. However, I suspect they don't allow this.
• 18 October 2008, spg writes: very interesting. i posted on questions on the defimobile forum. there was no reply to the forum post but i did receive an email from Nikki @ Defimobile, posted below: Satphoneguy, DeFi Global Access members enjoy unlimited global calling. This includes outbound calling to all countries and phone types. On Oct 16, 8:27 pm, Satphoneguy wrote: > > do i understand correctly that included are calls worldwide? does this > > include outbound calls to all countries and phone types or only that i > > can use the servicer anyplace in the world to call my home country? > > for example can i make unlimited calls from the USA to cell phone in > > europe? > > > > thanks in advance for clarification. i may give them a try; although i wish they offered the same price plan as an outbound SIP trunk. i can not possible see how they can offer calls to countries such as cuba that run several dollars per minute.

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Turns out, it is a real thing. Specifically, it’s a microphone originally sold and distributed by the German radio and television company Telefunken in the late 1940s thru 1958.

Apparently, Frank Zappa collected and used vintage German microphones like the Telefunken U47. In fact, his collection was restored between 2005 and 2007 by Telefunken USA, a company that is dedicated to repairing various vintage Telefunken microphones as well as creating faithful reproductions.

Telefunken USA has a couple of different recreations of the Telefunken U47, this one being the Telefunken U47V Long Body. Using a combination of new old stock parts along with custom-made parts, these microphones are hand-assembled to be as close to the originals as possible.

According to Telefunken USA, the U 47V is big and warm, with a velvety upper mid-range and top end, making it an excellent choice on many sources including vocals, upright bass, brass instruments, and acoustic guitar.

The mics are only available through Telefunken USA and due to the nature of the parts they use, quantities are limited. I have no idea what this might cost, but if you’re looking for a high quality mic, this might be the one for you.

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I haven’t started using the social aspects of last.fm yet, but it been useful simply as a way of capturing what I listen to and suggesting other stuff I might like. Last.fm, through scrobbler applications on various platforms, including the Mac and Nokia S60 applications, are able to send to last.fm the music you listen to so it can suggest other things you might like later on.

The last.fm application on the Mac as well as the mobbler application on S60 both provide a sort of “streaming radio station” of sorts. I can set it on auto-pilot on an artist, song, or based on past listens, and get a half-way decent radio station out of the deal. Unlike, say, Pandora, I have a bit more control over what ends up in the station.

Apparently, I’m not the only one discovering last.fm as they are reporting higher usage numbers. Quoting the press release they sent:

According to the latest comScore Media Metrix report (July 2008, U.S. Data), Last.fm has experienced a 20% increase in unique visitors and a 36% increase in total minutes in the United States. Additionally, Last.fm saw a dramatic 208% year-over-year increase in total minutes spent on the site and a 62% increase in unique visitors, corresponding to a 90% increase in visitor engagement.

Whatever the reason for the increased usage, I’m sure CBS (owner of last.fm) is quite happy to see one of their media properties get more popular. Heck, I even see Nokia sponsoring some sort of Summer Festival Filter that lets you filter your music tastes against a number of upcoming music festivals to tell you who you should go see. Interesting, to say the least.

I hope that they add more “full” tracks to their library. That’s about the only thing that’s kind of a bummer on their service. They have a lot of tracks that you can play on-demand, some that don’t exist in their service, and others you get a 30 second sample of.

I suppose that’s what I like about last.fm though–more control over what I can listen to and lots of information about the song–or artist–that I am listening to. What about you?

Comments

• 18 August 2008, Brian writes: I checked out Last.fm a couple of months ago to see what all of the talk was about. It is an OK service for me. I am really into music, with about 1500 albums in my collection, but last.fm has not helped me find any new music yet. Maybe I am just using the service wrong... I don't know. I will probably play with it some more and then just throw it away as it doesn't significantly alter my music experience. Brian http://www.konnects.com
• 20 August 2008, PhoneBoy writes: I think the trick here is that you have to let last.fm "watch" your listening habits. For example, I just listen to music as normal in iTunes while the last.fm app runs in the background. On each song it plays, I get lots of information on the artist, including similar artists. It may be you don't discover anything new, but what it's doing for me is "reconnecting" me with stuff I had long since forgotten about.

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The Radius Products headphones go in the ear a bit deeper than the typical headphones. They come with 3 different sized soft, silicone earpiece covers, which allow the headphones to fit snugly in just about any ear. They do a fairly good job of blocking outside noise.

The Atomic Bass headphones are designed to enhance hip-hop beats and dance rhythms. They are angled, which supposedly allows the bass sound waves to get longer so they have a much more natural sound. The headphones are also supposedly more power efficient, making the battery charge last longer.

The headphones are reasonably priced at $39.99 and are available now from Amazon.com and other retailers.

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However, that all changed when Ricky Cadden pointed me at Mobbler. Mobbler watches what you listen to and “scrobbles” it all to last.fm. While I don’t particularly care for that so much, what it does do is offer a Pandora-like solution for your S60 device. I can tell it an artist, tag, or user to build a playlist around and it just starts playing!

Obviously, you’d want a 3G or WiFi-enabled S60 device for this, and you most definitely want an unlimited data plan. That being said, it works reasonably well. The application is rough around the edges, but it is quite functional.

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While this interface as obviously designed for the iPhone, it works perfectly on my Nokia Nseries handsets as well as my Nokia Internet Tablets. I was able to peruse my RSS feeds 15 items at a time, or I could drill down to specific feeds if I chose to.

The interface, while a little Javascript heavy, works pretty good even when limited to EDGE speeds. If I was not careful, I could easily exceed the capacity of the device if I tried to “see the original” article while in this interface. Was less of an issue on the Nokia Internet Tablets, but much easier to do on my N95-1.

All in all, it’s a satisfying experience for a mobile handheld.

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• Nokia Responds to iPhone
• Apple iPhone versus Nokia N80ie
• Malware Hits (Older) Nokia Handsets Again
• Not Reading Google Reader–And Loving It!

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Anyway, when I got my hands on a Mac a few years ago for work purposes, I started playing around with iTunes. I ended up feeding it a bunch of my CDs and was fairly happy with the results. When I bought a MacBook two years ago, I decided that I wanted to re-rip my CDs in higher quality. So I went through the process–again.

Between that and a few tracks I’ve digitally acquired, I have about 2500 of them in iTunes. Generally, I can find what I need, I’ve found a reasonably sensible Smart Playlist that gives me a decent mix of music. It’s not perfect and I have to skip tracks, but it works for me.

While I do have an iPod Nano, I don’t use it. Instead, when I do prefer to listen to music on a portable device, I download music to a Nokia N95 thanks to Nokia Multimedia Transfer.

Now when it comes to video, other than for the occasional freebie from the iTunes store, I pretty much use Miro to manage video. I do this for a couple of reasons:

• Support for Flash video and more types of video. I can stuff an RSS feed from YouTube into Miro and it will play the video it downloads from there.
• Bittorrent Support. Need I say more?
• Better at keeping your disk from filling up. Miro gives you the ability to only download episodes when less than X episodes are unwatched on a per-channel basis, a global “don’t download when less than X space,” and a per-channel auto-expiration for watched content.

Now I know some people don’t like iTunes for music. I guess I don’t see the issues, but I will admit I don’t listen to music daily. iTunes is sufficient for my meager needs. What am I missing here?

Comments

• 20 May 2008, Rita El Khoury writes: Yeah why not?! I've used iTunes as my main music manager on my PC ever since I got my iPod some 2 yrs ago. I find it well suited for my average usage. I also use iTunes agent, an application, to sync my smart playlist with my memory card (it can also be used for devices with internal storage). I have 2 memory cards, each is 2GB, so I have created 2 smart playlists that I sync with each card. One is my best and newest full albums, and the second is my 5star-rated music limited to 1.5GB priority to the newest. I find this an AWESOME mix, and most of all, I have to do nothing, just insert the card in my laptop's card reader, launch iTunes agent and click "Sync". Works like a charm.
• 20 May 2008, Marc writes: @ home - doesn't run on Linux @ work - does it support FLAC & OGG now? does it still want to download quicktime and safari? Other than that, they're all about the same I guess, particularly if one doesn't have an iPod and doesn't shop at iTunes.
• 22 May 2008, PhoneBoy writes: @Marc I think you can get FLAC/OGG flugins for the Mac, which means iTunes SHOULD support it. Quicktime is required for iTunes content.
• 27 November 2008, iTunes Music Blog writes: I think you nailed it on the head!! That\'s the point that everyone here has failed to make, nice work!! I am going to place a link to you on my blogroll, ok?

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This past week has been a busy week for posts, it seems like. I even managed a post on my internal Nokia blog this week.

The post list this week:

• How Operators Dialed Long Distance Calls (From voip.com/blog)
• Nine Inch Nails Ghosts I-IV (From Digital Music–The Future)
• Click To Call (From voip.com/blog)
• Belkin Desktop Internet Phone For Skype (From The VoIP Weblog)
• Tommy Telephone: The Making Of A Telephone (From The VoIP Weblog)
• The World of Communications, Then And Now (From voip.com/blog)
• Qt 4.4 Brings The Best Of Web And Native Applications Together (From The Mobile Technology Weblog)
• Sprint Ceding WiMAX to Clearwire (From The Wireless Weblog)
• TopMobile20 Announces Mobile Software Contest (From The Mobile Technology Weblog)
• Twitter With Your Voice With Twitterfone (From Web 2.0 Weblog, The Mobile Technology Weblog, The VoIP Weblog, The Social Networking Weblog, and The Republic of Geektronica)
• How Sound Synchronizes Up With Pictures (From voip.com/blog)
• Go Back To Your Roots, Carriers! (From The VoIP Weblog)
• Qwest to Resell Verizon Wireless Service (From The Wireless Weblog and The Mobile Technology Weblog)
• What About The Analog Devices? (From The Digital TV Weblog, The Gadgets Weblog, and The Wired Home Weblog)
• Jangl Team Joining Jajah (From The VoIP Weblog)
• How Does A Phone Work? (From voip.com/blog)
• G.729 versus G.711 (From voip.com/blog)
• Your Antenna On Your Roof May Need Replacing (From The Digital TV Weblog)
• More Bars In More Places–Except Where You Go (From The Mobile Technology Weblog)
• Touch Tones and VoIP (From voip.com/blog)

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• PhoneBoy’s Week That Was 25 May 2008

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I got an email from Comcast recently that had a lot of crap I could care less about. However, there was a small little blurb that did catch my attention:

As a Comcast High-Speed Internet customer, you’re entitled to receive a wide range of benefits and services at no additional charge. One of these is called Rhapsody Radio(TM) Plus!

With Rhapsody Radio(TM) Plus, you can listen to over 100 commercial-free radio stations; create your own radio station based on your favorite artists; and download 25 free, full-length songs each month.

Simply download the latest Rhapsody Music Software and manage all your music in one place. This is the only music software you’ll ever need!

Click here for more information.

Given that I’ve been looking for a “free” account to try Rhapsody on the Nokia N800, I figured I’d go through whatever crap I had to in order to come up with something I might be able to use on my Nokia N810. Hit the jump for the gory details.

First problem I ran into: only supports Windows. Ok, so I try my work PC, which is firewalled and VPNed out the wazoo. The app will install, but it requires Windows Media 11 plus a Windows hotfix. Won’t automatically install, so I do it manually. No dice, Rhapsody still pukes.

Time to break out VMware and the Boot Camp partition. After it loads Windows Media 11 and the hotfix it needs, Windows reboots. I pick my plan–the one that Comcast gives me for free–give my Comcast account info, and I have a Rhapsody account.

The client on Windows is basically a skin for Windows Media 11, which is ok. Now to try the Rhapsody client on the N800 (on OS2008). I can sign in and find a few tracks (and channels) to add. Playing them on the N800: no dice. Oh yeah, and the app crashes several times while browsing the catalog as well. So much for that.

It’s not bad for what you get for free, but since I can’t use it on the Nokia N800, I’m not sure how much I’ll actually use it. I certainly wouldn’t pay the service. Maybe if it was $10 a year and didn’t require Windows to work, maybe.

Anyone play with Rhapsody, like it, and think it’s actually worth it? Post a comment and let me know.

Comments

• 10 January 2008, MP3 Download Music writes: [...] Doug Isenberg wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptSimply download the latest Rhapsody Music Software and manage all your music in one place. This is the only music software you’ll ever need! Click here for more information. Given that I’ve been looking for a “free” account to try … [...]
• 10 January 2008, Free Rhapsody For Comcast Subscribers-how to download free mp3 music writes: [...] unknown wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptSimply download the latest Rhapsody Music Software and manage all your music in one place. This is the only music software you’ll ever need! Click here for more information. Given that I’ve been looking for a “free” account to try … [...]
• 10 January 2008, Free Rhapsody For Comcast Subscribers-legal mp3 music downloads writes: [...] Robert Davis wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptSimply download the latest Rhapsody Music Software and manage all your music in one place. This is the only music software you’ll ever need! Click here for more information. Given that I’ve been looking for a “free” account to try … [...]
• 10 January 2008, Free Rhapsody For Comcast Subscribers-free online music downloads writes: [...] unknown wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptSimply download the latest Rhapsody Music Software and manage all your music in one place. This is the only music software you’ll ever need! Click here for more information. Given that I’ve been looking for a “free” account to try … [...]
• 10 January 2008, Richard writes: If you are having problems with your Nokia, it may be that the Rhapsody Radio account does not allow you to transfer files to ANY device. You have to pay for that feature.
• 6 March 2008, N800 Comcast Email - Dogpile Web Search writes: [...] are back in business. ... slashdotreview.com/?cat=52 [Found on Google, Yahoo! Search] 3. Free Rhapsody For Comcast Subscribers I got an email from Comcast recently that had a lot of crap I could care less ... I’ve been [...]
• 30 August 2008, David Boozer writes: love rhapsody

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I also am fond of this piece by Weird Al:

Maybe I need to subscribe to Dr. Demento?

Comments

• 25 December 2007, All bookmarks tagged music writes: [...] bookmarks tagged music Alternative Christmas Music Fare&nbspsaved by 1 others     Mystic3Angel bookmarked on Tue Dec 25,2007 | [...]
• 11 January 2008, MP3 Download Music writes: [...] christianmusic.guide@about.com wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptWhile I got to hear a lot of “classic” Christmas music today, which I like in small quantities, I much prefer songs like Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer:. WPvideo 1.10. Direct link to video … [...]

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• Some random thoughts after Christmas
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Flickr, on the other hand, is a kind of locker, but it’s for photos. It’s been around a bit longer and has a bit more of a user base. Furthermore, it’s more connected to other services and devices. For example, Flickr is a default upload destination on the Nokia Nseries devices for photos.

Now I don’t particularly need online storage of my images on Flickr. I’ve got places to put photos all over. However, the convenience of being able to upload them straight from my phone and use those photos any number of ways is very tempting.

Oh sure, I can upload to Six Apart’s Vox, where I have a page, but I’ve become less enamored of the whole Vox thing. Vox is kind of a closed system of sorts. It’s open to bringing stuff in, but not so open to bringing stuff out of their environment.

I think what is pushing me over the edge on paying for a Flickr Pro account is the integration I now have with WordPress. Now I can take things from my Flickr stream and import them into my blog posts. That’s not strictly a Pro feature, but I figure if I’m going to rely on Yahoo to store and serve up my photos on my website, then maybe I should pay them for the privilege?

Anyway, I’m still thinking. I know $24.95 a year isn’t a whole lot in the grand scheme of things. What do you all think?

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