Using your phone as a personal music player

The first personal stereo, the cassette-based Sony Walkman, was introduced in 1980 and became one of the technological icons of the 80s. Personal CD players and Minidisc players came along a decade later, but neither could match the Walkman for portability or reliability, and never really took off in the same way. The introduction of the portable mp3 player in the early 2000s, however, trumped all of these technologies and became the dominant music format of the decade.

In recent years, however, rapid improvements to removable memory cards and mobile phone technology have made the not-so-humble cell phone a viable option as a music player, which could spell the end for the standalone portable media player.

So if you have a 3G phone, which the majority of handsets now are, with a micro-SD memory slot, then you could be (literally, if it is in your back pocket) sitting on a fully-functioning personal media player already. All you need is a cable to connect your phone to a PC, a nice pair of earphones, and a decent-sized micro-SD card, and you are away!

You can download songs from your PC onto your phone using the cable that came with your handset. You need to make sure that the format that you have your music files stored as, which could be MP3, AAC, or WMA, is compatible with your phone. If they are not, however, there is no need to panic, as there are several great freeware converters available online that will allow you to change whole batches of files from one format to another.

Your mobile phone will have some internal memory, in order to enable you to store a few songs, pictures, and video clips, but if you want to use your phone as a media player proper, then you will have to install a memory card. The cheapest place to get these is on the web, although they can also be bought quite cheaply from back street electronics shops.

Unless you are really strapped for cash, it is a good idea to buy the largest capacity memory card you can find, as you will most likely just leave it in once you have installed it, and you will have to wipe files constantly to make room for new ones on a smaller card.

Although you can use the earphones that came with your phone when you bought it, these are generally not very good and will produce a somewhat tinny sound. A small investment in a good quality pair of headphones, from a recognised brand such as Sony, AKG, or Beyer Dynamic, will reap a huge reward in terms of your listening experience.

Although in-ear variety may be more fashionable and make you feel less self conscious, they can get pretty uncomfortable over long periods, and produce a pretty tinny sound compared to external headphones with larger speakers. You may need to get an adaptor to plug them into your phone, unless you are lucky enough to have a phone with a standard stereo jack socket.

About the Author:
Vodafone offer a huge range of phones and price plans. If you like smart phones, you will love the Samsung Jet with its fast internet for express browsing and downloads.