Thinking about a Smartphone - hardware and 'contract' advice please!

[phil_hg_uk]

[QUOTE 2458042, member: 259"]There is no DRM now, end of story. To convert them (if you should ever need to do so) takes about three seconds per file and it's very easy to do. I can't get upset about a problem which doesn't exist in the first place. [/quote]

Fair enough I dont use it anymore so if thats the case then its about time, they should never have been DRMed in the first place.

 

[phil_hg_uk]

[QUOTE 2458053, member: 259"]No, I never bought anything when it was DRMed and I've only every got a couple of things since because they were completely unavailable elsewhere![/quote]

I like amazon because they have an album for under £5 every week and the standard prices are very reasonable and obviously they are DRM free and play on any device, but I tried out amazon cloud music service and decided on google music instead as it is free and at the moment is less buggy.

 

[StuAff]

[QUOTE 2458042, member: 259"]There is no DRM now, end of story. To convert them (if you should ever need to do so) takes about three seconds per file and it's very easy to do. I can't get upset about a problem which doesn't exist in the first place. [/quote]
Indeed. My iTunes + files play perfectly on my Android phone. No conversion, just dragged and dropped.

 

[Tanis8472]

There is still DRM.

DRM is still used on standard iTunes mp3's BUT if you use iTunes Plus it is DRM free.

HTH

1. iTunes DRM-protected music includes audio with a bit rate of 128 kbps and allows users to transfer songs and videos to up to five computers, burn seven copies of the same playlist to CD, and sync to an unlimited number of iPods.
2. iTunes Plus music refers to songs and music videos available in our highest-quality 256 kbps AAC encoding (twice the current bit rate of 128 kbps), and without digital rights management (DRM). There are no burn limits and iTunes Plus music will play on all iPods, Mac or Windows computers, Apple TVs, and many other digital music players.
3. Purchases made from the App Store and iBookstore can be re-downloaded for free as long as the app/book is still available for purchase.

 

[coffeejo]

Urgles. I've done some proper research re: 3G in my area and it seems that pretty much all the networks over-exaggerate their coverage, especially O2 who provide the network for Giff Gaff. I need to find someone round here who actually uses O2, rather than simply relying on what Somerset's residents say websites and forums (esp the O2 and Giff Gaff ones!) but it's looking as though the move to an all-singing, all-dancing smartphone would be futile as I wouldn't be able to use the bloomin thing when I'd most want to i.e out and about in the hills with the dog or on the bike.

So, for now I'm going to save my pennies, get whatever free upgrade Orange will give me (possibly the S3 mini) and try to talk them into giving me a better deal since I can only get 2G but could save £60 a year and have an unlimited data allowance if I move. hopefully the situation will change over the next few years but since I don't have a lifestyle which involves spending a lot of time in pubs etc that provide free wifi (like almost all my urban-dwelling friends), I'll stick to phones than fit in my pockets

Thanks for all the input though.

 

[Nebulous]

There is still DRM.

DRM is still used on standard iTunes mp3's BUT if you use iTunes Plus it is DRM free.

HTH

1. iTunes DRM-protected music includes audio with a bit rate of 128 kbps and allows users to transfer songs and videos to up to five computers, burn seven copies of the same playlist to CD, and sync to an unlimited number of iPods.
2. iTunes Plus music refers to songs and music videos available in our highest-quality 256 kbps AAC encoding (twice the current bit rate of 128 kbps), and without digital rights management (DRM). There are no burn limits and iTunes Plus music will play on all iPods, Mac or Windows computers, Apple TVs, and many other digital music players.
3. Purchases made from the App Store and iBookstore can be re-downloaded for free as long as the app/book is still available for purchase.

Standard itunes is only really legacy stuff. See here
There might be some still available where Apple don't have agreement from the music publisher to sell music without DRM but it certainly isn't common.

Some key bits:-

iTunes Plus is the new standard on iTunes........

Can I still buy music encoded at 128 Kbps with Digital Rights Management (DRM)?

Music on the Store available in iTunes Plus will no longer be available as 128 kbps and with DRM.

 

[marknotgeorge]

Before I upgraded in April, my main phone was a Nokia N8, running Symbian Belle. This was (is) a pretty good phone. The camera is still as good as just about anything available on contract (the stunning Nokia 808's only available SIM-free), it was fast enough, and Nokia Maps is brilliant. Symbian's been derided as clunky and old-fashioned, and in some ways the UI is (the on-screen keyboard's horrible), but the underlying OS is surprisingly powerful and power-efficient. I've written an Internet Relay Chat client for Symbian which is in the Nokia store, which will happily continue to run all day in the background, battery life permitting, which is something that's just not possible on other smartphone OSes. As I was planning a move to Windows Phone come upgrade time, I got a Nokia Lumia 800 for development purposes, which I've been using as a main phone whilst the Galaxy below is in to repair a dodgy headphone socket. I find the keyboard very good, and I like the user interface.

But come April, I fancied a change. Already having the Lumia 800, I wasn't particularly enthused by the Windows Phone 8 devices, and I figured getting something Android would give me another platform to think about. I narrowed it down to a Galaxy S3, briefly considering a HTC One. As a smartphone, it's pretty good. Having in the past discounted it as a paving slab of a phone, I rapidly got used to the size, and rapidly found ways of making it do much of the stuff I got my N8 to do - on that, I had an app called Situations, which adjusts settings depending on various factors. For example, during work times, it switched to silent and killed the WiFi. But there are things from the N8 I miss. Sleeping Screen is one. This used the AMOLED screen's properties (only the lit pixels consume power) to display a pretty screensaver with a clock and message notification which is very battery-friendly. And Google Navigation is not a patch on Nokia Maps - I like to use my phone as music in the car, and much of the time, the music would not unpause properly after navigation instructions. I find the Galaxy not as photo-friendly either - the dedicated camera button on the Nokia devices make them better for that. Finally, I miss the wired full media remote I used with the N8, which combined with my Sennheiser headphones, sounded pretty good. I have a Bluetooth headphone dongle, but it's another thing to charge...