Sure, those white earbuds look cool on Bono, but I think they're downright uncomfortable. And that dangling cord? Might as well put a sign on your back that says, "I've got $300 in my pocket!"
I have an eclectic taste in music, running the gamut from John Coltrane to Frank Sinatra to Talking Heads to Korn. One of my first investments in high school after getting a job at the local grocery store was to purchase a kick-butt audio system that my parents would never let me dial up past 3. It was awesome! And a colossal waste of money.
But here I am, 30 years later, looking at an iPod? Tempting, but the Reward Zone card stayed in my pocket.
When MP3 players first hit the shelves, I went out and spent $25 on a portable CD player that could play MP3 files on CD-RWs. I spent another $15 for a tape adapter for the car and made it convenient with a strip of Velcro tape. For $40, I had the equivalent of an iPod and an iTrip. Not quite as stylish nor as sleek as Apple, but for me it was just peachy.
Then, when I signed up for a new cell phone plan, I noticed my free-with-contract phone (Alltel's Hue, also known as the Samsung SCH-r500) had a music player.
Hmm.
The phone also had a slot for a microSD card.
Hmm again.
And, it had Bluetooth.
Eureka!
With a little Googling, I found a highly regarded stereo Bluetooth headset (the NS-BTHDP from Insignia, Best Buy's store brand) for $50 and picked up a 2GB microSD card for another $20 (they're even cheaper now).
Now I have music in my pocket and wireless headphones, and it cost much less than a comparable MP3 player. An added bonus is that the headset has a microphone and pauses the music when I answer a call. All without opening the phone.
Where you want Bach or rock from your cell phone, there are some caveats to consider:
- While I got lucky with my phone, some Bluetooth phones don't support the A2DP profile that enables stereo sound (my son's LG Scoop, for example, wouldn't pair with my headphones)
- Don't expect to get the Apple user experience from your cell phone (unless you have an iPhone -- in which case shouldn't be reading this blog). The interface can be clunky.
- The media player on my phone doesn't support the latest version of ID3 metadata. That's geek-speak for the description attached to your audio file that tells your media player what it's playing. There's a way to work around this with the right FREE software, but that's for another post.
- There can be limitations on the size of the microSD card your phone can use. The manual for my phone says it has a 1GB limit, but my 2GB card works fine (the initial file listing just takes a while).
So, back to the question at hand: Who needs an iPod?
Not me. I'm cheap.
. Mp3
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