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Rhapsody Challenges Cricket’s Music Phone, Can it Deliver?

January 25, 2012 By

Change is vital. Technology demands it, utilizing every idea for the sake of innovation. And the Cricket Muve—the first music phone of its kind, with a system dedicated purely to downloading files and offering users high quality sound—impressed the gizmo savvy when it debuted in 2011.

This item boasts an exclusive service which caters to music fans. Its streamlined focus, along with integrative technology, still proves unique among the many mobile phone options. It hasn’t, however, remained the only choice.

There is now an alternative to the Cricket Muve: Rhapsody Unlimited. This service, as provided by MetroPCS, seeks to redefine both music and cellphones. It offers a variety of songs, sharing formats, and even hosting options that are undeniable.

Is Cricket’s Muve Music Phone challenged by Rhapsody? Compare the following points:

Image via Flickr

Cost

There are few dollars to spare each month. Choosing an efficient cellphone plan is essential therefore. Both the Cricket Muve and Rhapsody Unlimited provide affordable options for users.

As of 2012, the Cricket Muve is $55.00 per month, which offers unlimited files, texting, web browsing and more. Initial phone purchases and activation fees will vary, however.

In contrast, $10.00 per month bundles Rhapsody Unlimited with any MetroPCS plan and ensures access to over 13 million songs and downloadable content. The savings are comparable.

Hosting

Tech-savvy users crave music in every form. Hosting songs must then be an easy task. The Cricket Muve and Rhapsody Unlimited differ greatly in their options, however.

The Cricket Muve is a music phone meant to centralize all downloads to one location. Rhapsody Unlimited, though, allows users to sync their songs with any MetroPCS network, MP3 compatible device, computer, or even web page. This ensures portability, which is essential.

Variety 

Finding the perfect song is often challenging. Listening to it should therefore be as simple as possible, but the Cricket Muve and Rhapsody Unlimited, once again, differ on their methods for this.

Cricket users will discover downloadable content… and nothing else. Rhapsody Unlimited, however, ensures that streaming is also utilized, offering greater variety. Storing songs or simply sampling to them (taking advantage of MetroPCS speed) is now possible.

Sharing

A favorite tune deserves to be shared, and users often exchange files. Those who choose Rhapsody, however, will discover greater convenience with this.

Rhapsody Unlimited offers access to the Internet, particularly social media sites. Creating playlists, emailing songs, and even posting files online is now easy through this service. The Cricket Muve’s lack of portability, however, keeps its potential too confined. It is purely a phone.

Progress is constant, and the Cricket Muve provided a new way to listen to music in 2011, and it continues even today to fulfill a niche within technology. The Rhapsody option, though, creates a better experience for users overall, with greater hosting capabilities, content variety, and even link exchanges.

Are you ready to listen?

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3 Reasons Online Casinos Should Use Open Source Software

December 22, 2011 By

Although now, in the beginning of 2012, the open source community is stronger than ever and online casinos continue to gain in popularity, there are still surprisingly few open source gambling software options available. When people ask why this is the case in forums, normally, the answers are along the lines: gambling sites don’t want to give up their competitive advantage, or they’re worried about software security. However, I would contend, that the reasons given above are easily overcome by the enormous benefits that open source software provides.

Image via Wikipedia

  1. Security: There is a common misconception that open source software is less safe than closed source software because hackers have access to the code and, therefore, can find the code’s weak points — when, in fact, the opposite is true. In his article, “Is Open Source Safe?” Lincoln Spector points out that, because anyone can look at the source code, far more security experts are able to check to make sure the code is safe than would be possible if the company designing the software actually had to pay them all. Plus, he says, if you want an example of closed source software that hackers exploit all the time, just look at Windows.
  2. Transparency: When it comes to online gambling games, casinos live or die by their reputations for honesty. Despite the many forums devoted to rooting out casinos that cheat players — called “rogue casinos” — the very idea of cheating is one of the biggest reasons that more people don’t use online casinos. They’re worried about a scam. Therefore, if an online casino used open source software, it would go a long way towards easing player’s minds. This is why I don’t buy the “they don’t want to give away their competitive advantage argument” — because, as the market stands now, the good press that open source transparency would give to a casino would far outweigh any secret formula hidden in the code.
  3. Cost: This one is a no brainer: open source software is free! If you are looking to set up an online casino, therefore, and you either have to pay hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars for your software or get it for free, what are you going to do? I would say, if you know enough to reject the myths about open source safety problems, you would certainly choose free!

 

Image via Wikipedia

To me at least, it seems inevitable that more open source gambling software will soon be available. However, there is one somewhat interesting philosophical problem attached to this claim. Will people design open source software that allows others to make a profit? Isn’t that sort of against the spirit of “open source?” I would contend that it is not, mostly because such software already exists. This article is merely predicting more and pointing out its virtues.

 

Filed Under: Software