Bye Bye iPod You’ve Been Replaced By A Nokia

Back in February I started trying to use my N95 8GB as my main media device instead of my iPod Touch, well it’s nearly two months later and in all that time I’ve hardly listened to my iPod, it’s probably only been used for about 10 hours. I’ve been an iPod owner for about 4 years and I’ve really enjoyed using them until this last year. This started with the release of the 3^rd gen iPod Nano and iPod classic, nice devices but old 3^rd party hardware to output video to a TV stopped working, then the iPod Touch was released and they removed mass storage mode, then they released the iPhone apps for the Touch and we had to pay for them, unless you bought a new one and then they came preinstalled. I had my Touch jailbroken so this didn’t affect me as I could and did install them for free but the vast majority of owners don’t even know what jailbreaking is, never mind how to do it.

It has been said in the past many times that Apple are locking people into using iPods because music purchased from iTunes won’t work on any other player, this was before they started selling the + tracks. This is partly true but they don’t force you to buy music from their store, you can quite easily convert your own CD’s or purchase MP3’s from stores like Emusic or Amazon. I’ve never agreed with what has been said but now I think maybe there is a bit of truth to it and it was part of their plan. Recently they seem (in my opinion) to be thinking “we have the best selling media player on the planet so we can do what we like, people will put up with it and still buy our products”. Well not any more, not for me anyway, I’ve had enough of them and I’m quite happy using my phone as my main music player.

Some of the reasons I prefer my Nokia over my iPod are

• It supports more audio/video formats
• It’s easier to put content on it where ever I am, either OTA or from another computer
• It’s one less device to carry
• I don’t miss calls when I’m listening to music
• The built in speaker is good for listening to podcasts without headphones
• It will play iTunes+ tracks so all my previous purchases still work
• I don’t have to be near a WiFi hotspot to download content, it works fine with a HSDPA connection
• I can purchase Audible books from the phones web browser then download them directly to the device without going near a computer
• Music purchased from the Nokia music store is easier to remove the DRM without loss of quality than regular iTunes tracks are

The iPod is still a good device and for some people it is the best media player there is, but for me personally I have found something better for my usage and needs, and that is the Nokia N95 8GB