running to music & cell phones
So I have been really enjoying my Sony Ericsson w810i, which doubles as an MP3 player. I bought a 4 GB memory stick duo for it and have loaded no less than 600 songs onto my phone. The interface for downloading songs isn’t as simple or flexible as my old Samsung player, but it works.
However I usually manage to misplace the cord used for headphones when I want to go running. So what I’ve been doing is just slipping the phone in my pocket and using the phone’s internal speakers.
Let me tell you running while using speakers is really much better than using headphones, which cut you out from the world. I know what you are thinking: noise pollution. But this is just a little mobile phone; even at its loudest volume you’d need to be within a few feet of me to hear anything. Since I’ve been boldly running on the clockwise direction against the normal flow in Central Park this really isn’t a problem.
Also via the NYT I’ve discovered two great places to get cellphones: Celltrade and Cellswapper. Both allow you to pick up for free the contracts and phones of people who want out of their two-year deals. You won’t save a heapa money up-front — cell phones are cheap — but you should be able to get one while only incurring an 18-month contract or so instead of a two-year deal. I mean with cell phone technology changing so rapidly who wants to be stuck with the same phone for two years?
