I’ve written posts in the past regarding my issues with music in the new millennium. I suppose it isn’t so much the music – probably more with the music players and the format the music is now presented in. It’s difficult for a laggard, such as myself, to adapt to a whirlwind of technology that’s being introduced into society on a daily basis.
By the way, here are my previous posts on the topic:
Klipsch ProMedia 2.1 Computer Speakers
Creative Sound Blaster Update
How To Make Music From Your Computer Sound Better
Basically, I’ve finally transitioned from tapes to CDs and from CDs to MP3s. Or digital music. Whatever you want to call it. Since my transition to digital music, I’ve been traveling a bumpy road. Initially, I attempted to play my music collection from my laptop, to no avail. As I wrote in my past posts, that sounded terrible. After that, I tried out my badass stereo receiver that I apparently purchased right before receivers began playing digital files correctly. No matter what I did to assist in making the audio sound better, things stayed the same – lousy sounding music. I was almost at the point of going back to tapes and trying to dig up an old walkman on Ebay.
I though about things for a while and came up with a great idea – why not simply store a few of my albums on my Droid Razr Maxx phone and use that as a music player? I tried it and it worked. I finally had a digital playback device that was crystal clear. This lasted for almost a year.
A few months ago, I decided to take Amazon up on its offer to allow me to upload all my music to their “Cloud” and store it there. I would be able to use my phone to connect to my local wi-fi and stream my music back. This was a much better situation than simply storing a few albums on the phone. I would have access to everything I owned.
I really liked this setup – for a while. It was working out well. Now, I’m not sure you know this about me, but I have sort of a cheap side. The data plan I’ve got through Verizon Wireless is capped at 250mb a month. I’m not one of those people who use their phone for much more than texting Steve a few pictures of the new windows I installed. He would text back a selfie and we’d be done with it. At most, I’d use about 10mb per month. If I could lower the Verizon plan I have to one tenth of what I currently have, I would.
Well, as it turns out, my phone didn’t correctly connect to my wireless router during two nights last week. As I was listening to my full music collection on shuffle, dancing around and having a gay ol’ time, my phone was pulling its data through Verizon’s network, using up my allotted 250mb and then some. Actually, I think I made it up to 18 times that. The final total was somewhere just under 4gb. You can imagine my dismay when I woke up to receive dozens of friendly text messages from Verizon Wireless, informing me of my overage. Pissed off and disappointment is an understatement. Not so much that I went over, more of the fact that I was taken by “the man.” I’m the guy who beats the system by only purchasing the 250mb data plan. The same plan that’s hidden and that you have to scroll left to see. The plan that only I, and probably only a few other Americans, know exists. I was taken and I didn’t like it one bit.
Because of this situation, I had to pay a higher phone bill than I usually do. I paid it already, but I’ve also set a limit on my phone to stop accepting data when it hits 250mb. I also turned my data setting to the “off” position and just yesterday, I turned the phone off. I think I’m scared to touch it. Can you imagine if I had played more music last week? Can you imagine how high the bill could have been? These things don’t stop, you know. Verizon happens to like it when people use data. It’s how they get paid. The more the better. I’m just glad I caught it when I did.
And the thing that really peeves me is that this is an issue 12 year olds have. This is something some unsuspecting parent has to deal with after they get a ridiculous phone bill after agreeing to go on some “Family Plan.” Nonsense.
Life has been pretty boring lately. I’ve been working at my computer in silence. Since my phone is off, only to be turned on to check if someone has attempted to contact me, I can listen to no music. The old days of suffering have returned.
Since I have the Amazon service, called “Amazon Music” or something like that, I figured that all I needed was a device to stream my tunes – something like my phone, but something that wouldn’t be connected to a data plan. All I wanted to do was to connect to my wireless router and pull data from that. I needed a tablet. So that’s what I got.
Check out this little beauty. Now, mind you, my phone is still turned off. It’s actually quite liberating, not being connected so much. But honestly, the reason I keep it off is because of the recurring nightmare of some how, some way, the new tablet finds a crack in the system and decides to use my phone as a hotspot and pulls data from it. I can’t take that kind of stress.
Anyway, I’m really very happy with this tablet. It’s the Samsung Galaxy Tab 4. I think it’s the latest 7 inch tablet from Samsung and it’s a sweet dream. I stream my music all day and let things shuffle between each and every song I’ve uploaded to Amazon. The quality is great and as long as I stay 10 feet away from my phone, I think things will be all right.
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