mTrends - mobile media lifestyle trends - m-trends.org

Charlie has an interesting post bringing sideloading to our attention. I didn’t knew the term as such but, when reading his post, I realised I was a severe ’sideloader’. From Wikipedia:

“Sideload is a term used in internet culture, similar to “upload” and “download”. It is the process of moving data between two web servers. Sideload is now becoming the popular term for getting music files from the internet to peripheral devices such as cell phones and PDAs. It can also mean getting music from a PC to a cell phone.”

Charlie made a good point that sideloading should be made easier on mobile phones. Not everybody finds his needs in the operators or 3rd parties music collections, or doesn’t want to pay another time for songs he has already on his pc - and cannot transfer them to the phone due to DRM restrictions, or just doesn’t want to go another time through the sometimes painfull process of OTA downloads - due to breaking connections or having paid for a corrupted file (which still happens too often with unreliable 3rd party downloads).

Personally, sideloading podcasts to my phone has been one of my favourite pc to mobile related tasks this year and since I got a N91, it seems I’m going to keep doing this for a while. I’m really amazed with the phone’s capabilities, but more on this in another post.

I am particulary happy with the “set as ringtone” feature I can use for whatever song I have in my music player collection - graciously linked to my iTunes on my laptop. I think Nokia made a very good move here by providing elements for users that never download music Over-The-Air. I’m sure I’m not the only one who could never find a decent ringtone ‘expressing my personality’ on an operators’ portal. Just trying to find a tune was not always a model for a good user experience. Making this function available for people like me creates an extra fun layer… I can set a ringtone from whatever record in my collection, way to go!

Downloading podcasts OTA is not really recommendable yet - especially without flat-rate fees as here in Spain, so I’m just sideloading them to my phone. I will try to download them however over any public wi-fi I encounter while being on the road.

Besides, I don’t really understand the discussion on wi-fi use vs. 3G OTA downloads. I have been testing my own habits for a while now, figuring out when I would use a wi-fi connection instead of a 3G connection to connect to the internet. To stay connected to the operators network is crucial when you’re ‘moving’, but have you ever wondered how much time people actually use their mobile phones when they’re NOT on the move? At work, or spending time at home or at a friends’ place, surfing from a public wi-fi hotspot, waiting at the airport, etc.

Probably more then 80 % of the time we use our mobile phone, we’re not on the move! Think about it! Which means people are just going to use more sideloading and will connect to wi-fi or other networks and hotspots whenever they’re available. Never read this in a report!