Well, I’ve finally started use of Itunes, in advance of migrating to an iPhone next month (I have decided it will be a Iphone 3g that I get on contract renewal, which coinincides within 5 days of the iPhone launch.

Itunes is actually to my surprise an amazing piece of software - I had never loaded it before simple due to fact I thought that Windows media player was quite good..    I have a library of > 5000 songs.    Windows media player will not work well at all if I try to add them all to one playlist for random play - it actually takes 5 minutes to just add to the playlist, or load it at start, and only gets to a few thousand songs typcially.   Itunes handles this great and it appears to be its default behaviour.    It also has an awesome ripper - that supports mp3 VBR (which Windows Media 11 doesn’t - being limited to 192K mp3 rips).    I prefer mp3 as a rip format to wma/aac - as its the most compatible - and I know aac/wma give better audio for same bitrate!

I also signed up with Itunes,  which gives away a free song every week for those not in the know (a reason enough to have it installed) - however I buy my CD’s physically as a general rule from the high street or an online retailer - as I prefer to have physical medium backing up the purchase.       This is important because as the Gadget show reported on TV recently - many home insurance policy’s don’t cover digital downloads if your PC is stolen - but would cover the same PC and individual CD’s.

Itunes also sells non-drm encumbered tracks for slighly more than the DRM versions in a lot of cases.   This is important as recently many online retailers (mainly using protected WMA) have stopped trading, including Microsofts own.   This leaves their activation server’s decomissioned - and as per link above, means you can never actuivate a track on another PC again.    In addition to this Windows Media Player 11 has actually removed the ability for users to backup their DRM keys - link with details - basically meaning users buying from the services that have ceased trading will have to buy all their tracks from another supplier to regain the music they have paid for if they rebuild their PC.   WMP10 and below at least allowed a backup of DRM (though not of licenses that were marked to be not backupable) to occur so tracks could be moved.

So to summarise What I like:

• MP3 VBR compression, and full control of ripping
• It can handle my entire library on shuffle
• The speed/usability of the search
• The integration of Itunes.
• The automatic podcast integration
• You can buy non DRM encumbered tracks

What I don’t like:

•  No visualisation from what I can tell after day one - I like WMP/Winamps visualisation
• Some albums album art is not available on apple’s servers - WMP for my library does get more album art.

What is your favourite mp3 player on your PC and why?

Well, its pretty much a given that the new Iphone will be 3g.     This because Three (being a 3g only network) in HK have got the rights to it.

Overall, right now I’m overall happy with my network (Three in the UK) - however my N73 is tired and scratched (but has been an excellent phone), and I need a new phone.

Ideal Requirements:

• Phone must have Satnav (or be able to access a satnav dongle to provide full directions like TomTom does on my S60v3 device on N73) - no specs on Iphone yet to know about this.   N95/N82 both have this.
• Phone must have HSDPA - and an unlimited (or 1Gb) access plan from handset.
• Network supplier must have reasonable coverage on 3g
• Skype must be available on handset - and be usable on move, ie without being tethered to wifi.   I’ve found being on Skype 24/7 and allowing people globally to call me is a good thing.

My question to myself really is could I live without Skype on the handset, and maybe without Satnav if the iPhone doesn’t include it?   I think the iPhone could be a better bet long term with its new open-access to 3rd party applications - but could I also live with O2?    Could I live with a touch access only?   The good news is that the iPhone does look to have 16Gb as standard now, which will be excellent, as it will store 100% of my albums.

Luckily I have 1 month now to make up my mind…  then I get a PAC code and pick which phone I want - or wait if the new iPhone isn’t yet out.

I know, I’m slow in responding to RyanAirs plans to allow people to use Mobiles on planes. However as I had not been on a flight recently on Ryanair I did not want to comment on the airline without having “experienced” their service as it is today. I flew from Stansted to Milan for a business trip, and flew Ryanair ONLY because their flight times allowed me to do a trip in 3 days that would have took 4 on other carriers. I think next time I’ll take the longer option.

On the subject of their use of mobiles - It will make an already annoying experience almost unbearable. I mean their flights already have the most uncomfortable, unreclineable seats possible, and with no seat back storage - resulting in people getting up/down to get things out of overhead baggage rather a lot. Then there is the inane music greeting you as you board (until push back) and upon landing. I feel so sorry for the flight attendants having their ears assaulted by this music every day. The adverts for scratch cards on the PA system also were another in-flight annoyance(which somehow even could be overheard over my Shure noise isolating earphones!). On my outbound flight they also put on the hot blowers until the cabin doors shut, seemingly to dehydrate their passengers in order that water and drink sales could be increased! The arrival of mobile phones would no doubt mean some Ryanair customers (not being able to afford to make a call) would sit on the plane and play ring tones to each other all flight no doubt (this WAS the experience in the departure lounge prior to flight).

Post this trip I’ve already said to work I will only fly Ryanair in the event no other carrier has a direct flight to the airport in question, and where an alternative will add 6+ hours in travel time. If mobiles are introduced on planes, I think I’ll just put up with the extra travel time.

So my message to the leader of Ryanair, is you risk my business (and probably many business travellers) if you continue with this crazy plan to keep annoying your passengers.

On a side note, I do see that JetBlue are intruducing free wifi Broadband on their planes. Now if only a UK low cost carrier (or even scheduled, this WOULD be a differentiator) would introduce similar on their planes. This article has a great writeup on the service. I’d be happy if one of the European providers even had live TV, or AVOD on within-european services (with a decent route network).

Do you want wifi on planes? And TV?

For once I had a pleasant sales call last night from Three (I currently have my mobile contract with them so it wasn’t unsolicited) offering me one of their USB dongles for free, and with £5 line rental for 18 months.    Ie £90 for 1Gb of mobile data each month for 18 months, and a free dongle/postage.   Bargain ?   I think so.

I have blogged about these mobile dongles before but the value here can’t be beaten I believe.

I’ll be buying this real soon off them due to wanting to renegotiate my entire contract shortly (ie get a new handset)- the only annoying thing is I am already paying for 1Gb of data (for use on handset only) - of which I only use 2-300Mb a month whilst commuting - if it was allowed under the t/c’s I’d simply connect my personal laptop to the mobile whilst on train (though at a slower rate than the dongle due to me not having a hsdpa mobile).     As its not possible under the t/c’s -  the above represents decent value currently.   (and I get another 1Gb).

I friend I met up with last week does not have Broadband at home via DSL or Cable. Nor do they use Wifi. They actually use a Vodafone 3G Datacard, providing 3Gig of data a month for a monthly fee.

All the UK carriers now I believe are doing some form of 3G datacard - but finally with decent usage limits (1 Gig being a minimal usable level per month) - and all for varying fees. The above example, in my friend, pays £45-50 a month for her 3G of data. But as she says, “I can use it anywhere” - but she says she will move to a cheaper provider when contract is up. Three now are I see doing same amount of data for £15 a month if tied to a 18 month contract and T-mobile do the same deal also I believe(but with free wifi access in their hotspots bundled). Which brings me to the point of this article:

If you can get 3Gig of data for £15 a month, providing 3Gig of data at up to 2.8Mbit a sec of bandwidth (assuming HSDPA) - why would you use a public hotspot in say Starbucks (which is probably uplinked to the net at a very similar speed)?

More to the point - you can use that data on the train, in places other than the hotspot - using it literally everywhere. The friend in question chatted to me using MSN - in a cab on the way to Heathrow - in a video call for example - impossible with Wifi.. and very impressive.

I also see that Three are even doing pay as you go data (at 10 pounds for the use of 1Gigabyte for 30 daysif the advert in todays paper is to be believed). The use of even 2-3 hours of wifi in many coffee shops would easily pay for 1 gig of data to be used in many coffee shops over the entire country. And with pay and go, theres no need to even be contracted, so this service could even be used by a foreign visitor…

Thus I believe that the days of coffee shops charging expensive rates for broadband access via wifi will soon be over (well assuming the coffee shop isn’t in underground with no signal).

This of course also applies to overcharging hotel chains - in Europe last year I got charged > £15 for 24 hours Internet access (and only for one device!) - now if I could get a pay-and-go sim and a hsdpa modem/3g card for the country being visited (or just take an unlocked one), why would I pay those prices?

Of course all this could lead to coffee shops and Hotels lead lining / filtering to stop 3g signal entering their premises…

In the anticipation of getting my N73 I’ve been shopping for accessories - and have speculatively purchased a few which are now pending delivery.

I personally find the normal phone keyboard of number keys + t9m, handwriting to be both too awkward and slow to accurately use - you certainally can’t type a long doc on them.      Blackberry proper qwerty keyboards I personally prefer - and I have used blackberryies in the past to jot notes down while doing prep work for acquistions (normally equating to several pages of a4).

So.. what have I brought?   A bluetooth mini credit card sized keyboard.

Should arrive today, key advantage in it fixes my problem on almost every mobile/smartphone out there - allowing the use of decent phones in decent form factors… and thus not needing a brick of a mobile.

Other item I brought was a GPS receiver to allow use of TomTom on the mobile, and with a dual-use to be used when surveying wifi-hotspots on my laptop.

Very happy as I brought both on ebay for under 50 pounds combined, when they retail at > 100!

What mobile gadgets do you use with your mobile?

In the like of the iPhone, I thought I may hold off on a new phone… then the inevitable, my old workhorse SE T630 died..

My dilema was get another cheap phone or buy new….

Now background:
I already have a very old Blackberry for mobile email in addition to the T630 for voice, so this isn’t that important, calling, and other features are far more important to me.

Last week I was pariculararly impreseed with the 3 network, as several friends have several N series (N80’s) Nokias on 3.     I was impressed mostly with the speed… and level of content it terms of music etc available on the handset.   Also impressed tom-tom can be loaded so phone becomes sat-nav with suitable bluetooth gps reciever fitted to car (30 quid off ebay).

In the end, I decided new phone has to be 3 as they have abolished roaming charges, and luckily for me, there are 3 networks in most of the places work sends me typically - in Italy, Sweden, Denmark and HK (only exception really being the USA).   3 have abolished all data and roaming fees if on a “3 network” abroad.   Amazingly useful.

So once this was decided, investigated what I needed.    Now when travelling work pay for wi-fi for the laptop, and nowadays that means can work pretty much everywhere.   I don’t need data on the handset to link to the phone - as Blackberry covers email use abroad cheaply (work pays) as well as other basics.    What I need is a personal handset that does Internet etc from the inevitable bus/train journeys to/from airports and to/from London every week.

X-series from 3 on a Nokia N73 at this point became the only option, so I’ve ordered one with the gold pack for TV on the move from my Skybox at home.   Its luxurious yes, and probably won’t be used that often, but I realised the other day when stuck on the train for the upteenth time missing the start of a football match that actually you can do something abuot this today.   X-series includes 80 hrs of tv, lots of skype minutes (yes skype on a mobile!), msn messanger, in addition to 1Gb of bandwidth for use on stuff that isn’t the above!   I’ve never been bothered with podcasts as actually connecting mp3 player to computer every day to download seems annoying - now I can get them on the move direct to the handset, and look up new ones.
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I will update with what my actual impressions are of using the handset month in/out next week.