I don’t always stick to the ethics of downloading music legally.
I try my best to avoid downloading new songs through pirated means, but at
times, I do succumb to the temptation of downloading mp3s. During my MBA I mostly
used to stream music through Youtube while I worked on my laptop. At my previous
job (prior to MBA) I used to stream music on Windows Media Player’s internet
radio on my Desktop at the office. Needless to say, I love listening to music.
I confess that most days even when I go to bed, I put my earplugs in and set
the vintage iPod on auto power-off after 30-45min. I strongly believe that if
you aren’t able to sleep, then enjoy that endless tossing and turning on your
iPod/mp3 player. A couple of years back when I didn’t have an iPod (or any mp3
player), I used to listen to music on my cell phone even when going to sleep. During
my sleep once I accidently hit some buttons on the phone and dialed home, waking
up my parents at 3:30AM. My parents who panicked after being woken up ended up
calling a friend of mine to check up on me at around 4:00 AM since I was in too
deep a sleep to notice their 15 missed calls between 3:30AM and 4:00AM. That was
one night that made me think again about listening to music on my cell phone
while going to sleep. I soon moved to using mp3 players after that incident.
Anyway, coming back to the point, because of my addiction, I
always felt the need to download music. Recently when my dad got an iPhone, he
handed me his one year old Nokia Lumia 710, since my 2.5 year old HTC Desire HD Android
phone was nearing its demise(loads of issues). One of the features of this Lumia 710 phone
is - getting streaming internet radio (a feature that I later found through an
app in the HTC Android too). Internet Radio is something that I have been
missing out on since my new office has highly restrictive IT policies. I am
unable to use my laptop on the office net for streaming youtube/internet radio
etc. The Lumia gives me loads of Internet Radio options for the latest
streaming music. It also gives me the option to download music legally using
the Free Downloadable Nokia Music App. And yes, I am talking about downloading
free music legally. This is one of the best features of this phone. I have
resorted to listening to music on my phone even when going to bed (I now make
sure I lock the screen before I sleep). Just because of the free music download
and radio features, I am willing to overlook the numerous other shortcomings of
the Lumia. The Lumia isn’t the best when you need to share files between two
devices over Bluetooth. Its volume control is really messed up. If I change the
volume for the music that I am listening to, then that also changes the phone ringer
volume. The default internet browser isn’t very comfortable to use and
unfortunately I have not been able to install any other browser like chrome or Mozilla
or Opera. Also, it does not allow memory expansion. I find the 8GB claimed
(actually 6.5GB approx) memory quite insufficient. I have never used the iOS,
but I do hope that iOS on iPhone 4 has atleast the option for streaming
internet radio and allows for downloading music free.
Enough bashing of the Lumia, so let me close this by
acknowledging that the Lumia has an amazing interface. Its UI is simply different
from the usual iOS or Android – basically not just numerous icons scattered
across. I happen to like the capacitive touch of the Lumia more than that of the
HTC’s capacitive touch. I guess my initial dislike for Lumia has now turned
into pleasant acceptability of the Windows based Finnish product.
PS: Android Supporters, I never needed Zillion+ apps, and I
never needed to tweak the OS for my HTC, so I guess, I am ok with the factory made
OS of any mobile phone, and the apps I need are available in both Windows Marketplace
and Android Playstore.
