Entrepreneur, soccer player, dreamer. Poet and visionary. Proud Muslim, brother, son. Living to inspire.Seattle-Portland train ride was absolutely stunning
The three hour train ride from Seattle to Portland provided to be one of the most beautiful, relaxing events in the past year (a much needed bit of r+r). For a $90 round trip journey, I experienced beautiful sunsets, enjoyable company in the form of interesting train travelers, and some pretty decent train food in the cafe. Not too bad.
Reasons why I love Spotify
I’m an avid Lifehacker reader. I read it every morning when I wake up, and every night after dinner (and I urge you to do so too!)
So naturally, when they posted an update talking about how Spotify, a new cross-platform music tool, is open to all users, I was intrigued and decided to go check out this Spotify thing. What I found became my absolute favorite app/program/whatever, period.
I’m not gonna explain what Spotify is or how it works because it does so much, but basically this is what you need to know: it is the best music discovery/library/anything-to-do-with-music program that you’ll ever use. Why? Quality my friend, quality.
Spotify, upon becoming open to all users, partnered with Facebook and now uses your facebook login. I deleted my facebook a couple months ago, but I love Spotify so much that I made a new facebook JUST to be able to use Spotify.
So why do I love Spotify so much? Two simple reasons:
1. I can stream any song I want, free.
Sure, if I want more hours of streaming I have to pay a monthly subscription fee of like what, 10 bucks? Okay so either $10 a month for unlimited, ad-free streaming to any device including iPhone/Android OR hundreds of dollars a month to buy the songs on iTunes or Amazon (or Google Music now, I guess…). In the end, so worth it.
2. Quality of songs/information
Any song I want, right there and no filtering of random crap. I don’t have to worry about stupid songs that are sped up like songs on Youtube to make sure they don’t get removed for legal violations. High quality streaming, ID3 tags with all the information, done. I don’t have to do a thing but click play. Not to mention I can make playlists, star songs that I love, share them for free streaming on my facebook, and more. What’s not to love?
Spotify combines a solid, quality streaming platform and a huge music library done right and honestly proves to be the best music app ever. I am a user for life.
Why aren’t there more Win7phones with 4G?
I just got my hands on a Dell Venue Pro Win7phone by buying a laptop at my Microsoft Store in Bellevue Square, and the phone just came free. They were already making me happy before I even opened the phone box.
When I got home, I played with the phone and decided to switch from my HTC Sensation running 2.3.4 Android and give Win7phone Mango a shot (I updated as soon as I got home). I have to say, I was (and am), truly impressed and satisfied with what Microsoft has done. For once I am completely sold on this product.
My one issue though is the lack of 4G in any Win7phone. I love the hardware keyboard, I love the battery life on this thing, but what I really miss is that blazing fast data connection I had on my Sensation. With a little more research, I quickly found that there are literally none out there with 4G capability available in the US.
What gives? I get that Apple is waiting out on incorporating 4G to see how the technology pans out and develops, but I think that Microsoft (well, the phone manufacturers really) has a clear opportunity to make up some ground in the market and really reach consumers with a valid selling point. Win7phone is great, but I think the reason people aren’t buying the phones is because most lack hardware capabilities that should be unquestionably included, such as a high-quality camera or 4G. If HTC came out with a mango phone that was fully loaded like the Sensation or the iPhone, then you would see sales in Win7phones spike overnight.
The upcoming HTC Titan is in the right direction, but we’ll have to see what’s included there. I have seen rumors for either 5 or 8 megapixels in the camera (okay, normal stuff), and only 8GB internal memory…nothing stunning there at all. They need to get this next round of phones right, or they risk losing more market share to newer Android phones with absolutely breathtaking specs.
We’ll see what happens, but for now I am very happy with my Venue Pro. Easy to use and as fast as a hawk…unless you’re talking about that data connection.