Wanted: Wireless that works
Wireless music transfer between devices: surely this is the stuff of dreams?
commentary One of the standout features of Microsoft's Zune MP3 player -- still not available in Australia -- is its inclusion of Wi-Fi. Wireless music transfer between devices: surely this is the stuff of dreams?
Well, potentially, but the restrictions involved rather sour the experience. You can only transfer music files from one Zune to another, and these files can be played a maximum of three times for three days. Oh, and "play" equals at least one minute or half the song, whichever comes first. To cap it off, there's no Zune-to-PC transfer/sync function.
So Wi-Fi within MP3 players has a long way to go. What about that more exotically-monikered wireless transfer method, Bluetooth? While we're yet to see it sported on many portable devices, most music-focused phones boast Bluetooth, and it's the protocol of choice for transferring songs between handsets.
It's not just phone-to-phone transfer though. A Pump water advertising campaign launched yesterday allows people to obtain an Evermore song from selected posters in CBD locations around the country.
The posters, found on bus shelters and phone booths, are equipped with Bluetooth "Hypertags" that transmit a remixed version of Evermore's Running to your phone.
Keen to get those charming lads from the land of the long white cloud on our mobile, we ambled over to Little Hay Street in Sydney's Chinatown -- one of the listed locations. All bus shelters and phone booths in the area were sorely lacking in Bluetooth-enabled posters.
Undeterred, we shot across to George Street (another listed location) and began walking toward the harbour, scanning the sunlit streets for Pump posters. One kilometre later, having spotted exactly zero, frustration got the better of us and we turned back. The surly-faced trek back to the office was undertaken on the other side of the road to ensure we hadn't missed any posters. We hadn't.
Back at CNET HQ we collapsed on the carpet in a pile of tired limbs and broken dreams and wept at the frustrations of wireless music transfer -- so good in theory, but so painful in practice.
Have you found an elusive Bluetooth Evermore poster? Tried out the song transfer? What do you think about wireless music transfer in general? Give us your thoughts below.