k r i s a n d r o

Nokia has officially launched their ‘Comes with Music‘ service in Singapore on the 27th February.

The service brings you unlimited downloads of music for 12 months from their ‘Comes with Music’ store, which boasts an extensive library of 4 million (and counting) tracks from huge music labels and even some asian labels such as Ocean Butterflies and Rock Records.

The catch for such a good deal is that you must own one of their ‘Comes with Music’ handsets. There are 6 of them as of now and they are the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, Nokia 5320 XpressMusic, Nokia 5220 XpressMusic, N96, N85 and N79. Users can download from the ‘Comes with Music’ store right off most of the mentioned handsets or on their PCs through an application.

There is no subscription fee or download limit to speak of if you are wondering about that. Users can also keep their music after their 12 months of free, unlimited downloads.

I got to attend their media event held at Zouk prior to ‘Earn Your Stripes’ party thanks to the awesome folks at Text 100 who remembered that I am was an avid user of the Nokia N95 8GB. It’s kinda ironic attending a Nokia event based on that fact, seeing that I have move to the Apple iPhone after a decade of using Nokia products like the indestructable Nokia 3210.

Pictures of the event.

Funny Hosts – Vernon and Justin

The All-American Rejects who sat 3 feet from me!

The issue of DRM is pretty important for users like me and unfortunately, Nokia ‘Comes with Music’ isn’t DRM free. The good news is that Nokia is working to change that. If this is materialized, users will definitely benefit seeing that there isn’t even a hint of the Apple iTunes music store being made available to Singapore.

I still love Nokia and seeing Nokia bring a legal music download service to Singapore ahead of Apple, brings much joy to a Nokia fanboy.

One of the things that I absolutely hate about the 4 and 1/2 years I spent in the army/air force was the inability to carry any kind of gadgets. Security was even more of an issue in the air force and items like camera phones, thumb drives, PSP weren’t allowed into my camp.

So for the last 19 months since I was free of the uniform, I have unknowingly collected quite a sizable amount of gadgets that I carry daily. A couple of months back, it has came to the point where I cannot stuff all my things into my briefcase anymore and I am now carrying a huge bagpack to work everyday.

So, what’s in the bag?

I have…:

• HP 2133 Mini-note
• Apple iPhone 3G 16GB with Mophie Juice Pack
• Canon IXUS 870 IS
• Microsoft Arc Mouse
• Sandisk Cruzer Titanium 4 GB
• Sandisk Cruzer Micro 16 GB
• X-Mini Max Capsule Speakers

Let’s not forget the cables and all things for connectivity!

• Charger for HP Mini-Note
• Usb mini cable for charging iPhone and data transfer for other devices
• Shure SE210 Sound Isolating Earphones
• Apple Earphones (For backup as I often forget to bring my Shure earphones out)

And I have not even mention my personal stuffs I carry like my foldable umbrella! Scary ain’t it? Some might even ask me if it is even necessary to carry some of the stuffs but I assure you that almost every item is used at least every other day.

I think it’s a habit of mine to carry everything I possibly need with me as much as I can afford to. I remember carrying a huge ass bag during my school days, shoving every textbook possible in it, even though it’s the first week of school; where other kids will waltz into class with nothing but a pencil box and some paper. Classmates would chide me for being kiasu but I’ll have the last laugh when the 2 sheets of paper they carried barely lasts a lesson.

But for the sake of my back, I should really consider cutting down on the items I carry. I am very tempted to leave the laptop at home as the iPhone does almost everything I need on the go but I can’t do presentations with it’s 3.5″ screen.

Either that or I start to push a trolley around from now on.