Thats it - I am quitting 3

I have always been an advocate of the mobile phone network '3' but the time has come for me to hang my old phone up and embrace something different, what caused this? Being told its "not my problem" by their support team after they sent out the wrong phone to a customer (my mother) and that because she had started using it, she was stuck with it. Honestly, I didn't expect to win the discussion, but I was unprepared for the rudeness, email to the boss man in the morning I think!

Question is what next? I have to say I am not seriously tempted by the iPhone - which is almost unthinkable as I blasted it only a year ago as overhyped and technically dated! A few flaws (no A2DP, so can't play it on my bluetooth car stereo, or with bluetooth headphones, neither of which I have, no video taking ablility)... I would love to stay away from the Cult of the Mac syndrome so many techy geeks fall into, but it has to be said I am drawn to the device! Will I succumb? Watch this space ... I am a techno geek and it seems to fit certain requirements ....!

All I know is that after the treatment of my mother by Three, the lack of decent 'incentives' to be a loyal customer' (currently due an upgrade and they keep telling me what I should buy as opposed to listening to what I want...

I am not holding out much hope for staying with them!

ICE - in car ent... Come a long way (baby)

OK - I will admit it, I am a bit of a geek ... when it comes to technology, gadgets and general stuff I am the guy that knows why it needs to have 'A2DP' ...



Which brings me neatly on to ICE - in car entertainment, what's it all about, well the basics of it is the car stereo, you can connect that through to an additional amp, to subs and more speakers ... but thats not the side that really interests me - its the less tricked out, more smoother angle... Don't get me wrong, decent speakers, output and bass are a must, but I don't take it to the level of extreme ...

My next stereo is going to be gadget laden, seriously loaded with the right features -

• A2DP - which is just stereo bluetooth, this means it will talk to my Mobile (N95) or my Laptop (with an A2DP compatible bluetooth dongle)
  Beyond the being able to take calls handsdfree in the car, which is useful if your trying to find something or picking someone up, you can use the music stored on your mobile - which if your like me is a pretty sizable collection!
• DAB - digital radio, that step up in clarity and choice ... a seriously increased range!
• MP3 - Of course - but how is it stored ...
• SD Card
• USB slot

These last two are significant - half of my old music collection is now on a computer (or two), these have SD card slots and SD cards (cheap memory cards) can have 2gb on them easily, thats 4 x the size of an mp3 CD! We are talking about 500 songs you can easily change as easily as moving them to and from a drive on your computer. A USB slot - that can mean portable hard disks of 80gb+ you do the maths!

Heres the real question - why is it in ICE (In car Entertainment) you can get all the above for a pretty good price? Take a look at IceBuyer.co.uk or Maplin there is some serious deals out there! I haven't quite found the package I want, so for now I am sticking with the ol' mp3 playing CD player in my car at the moment ...

shame my music collections so bad