One of the things in and around the podcasting world I have never bought into is this belief that “when people start listening on their MP3 enabled phones, that’s when things will really take off.” I never believed that because I’ve never had a cellphone where doing anything other than making and receiving a call wasn’t a complete pain in the ass. I have an alarm clock function on my current Motorola and it takes 4 minutes of navigating through umpteen menus just to turn the goddamn thing on. iPods are popular for a reason – you can use them easily. All the cellphones I’ve ever owned are generally difficult to use for any ancillary functions.
Now comes the news from Techdirt that Verizon is removing MP3 playback from phones in favor of Windows formats (via Makezine). I would not suggest holding breath waiting on that cellphone/podcasting nirvana.
amazing – verizon seems to enjoy doing the exact wrong thing when it comes to the technology w/in their devices – or more like lack there of…
i own 4 of their crappy phones, only because they have the best network in the northeast, but by the time we have to renew i’m sure their competitors will have stepped it up by then so that we can finally get some better devices…
as for mp3s on phones, concur – if the ui can be improved so that it is as easy as a dedicated mp3 player then maybe – but i’ve too personally never seen a cellphone that was intuitive and easy to use for diverse applications other than making calls and sending sms…
I agree, Verizon has great phone service, but everything else sucks. I have one of the early v710 bluetooth phones. Verizon deliberately crippled the bt on these to prevent users from transfering pics from the phone to the their computers except with there picture messaging service. Fortunately I soon found out how to hack the phone to allow this function anyway. I will never pay verizon or any other phone company $2 a song for music. No song is worth that much to me. Every phone I have ever tried makes a lousy mp3 player, because as Dave said, the interfaces suck. I carry my palm tungsten t2, my v710 and my ipod all the time. Hopefully , soon the v710 lawsuit settlement will be finalized and I can consilidate the palm and v710 when I replace it with a treo 650. Even then the treo won’t replace the ipod. It just works too well.
If you don’t use these menus and submenus and buttons frequently then yes they are complicated, but if you use the functions often, you don’t even have think about them. I would rather have a wider range of options on my mp3 player. If you don’t like the choices, you don’t have to use them. Put some tape over the LCD and don’t push in the wheel (nobody forces you) then you will have a shuffle. Apple thinks that not offering choices is an advance. This is the most moronic line of reasoning I have ever heard of. It makes sense for Apple because it increases their profit by not having to include things such a extra buttons, and because it has the Apple name they can charge more for it. It’s truly amazing to me. How long can they keep the wool pulled over their customers eyes?
Just FYI people, Verizon is NOT taking away the ability to play MP3 files – it is only asking you to synch the mp3 files from the WMP into your phone – which will convert the mp3 to a .wma version that is used on the phone.
So you are saying they aren’t taking away the ability to play MP3s, just that you have to make them not MP3s to play. That means they aren’t playing the MP3s, ie they are taking away the ability to play MP3s.
I don’t have WMP or any Microsoft products on my Mac, so how would I do this syncing?