[sivan]

Coming from Android and Palm, I miss being able to download MP3's from Amazon. I was glad to find 7digital as a substitute.

In general, the service works pretty well. The app won an award from RIM for being BlackBerry-like.

However, after using it for some time I want to raise some issues with it.

First off, the app tries to cram the website's functionality into the device, which results in a somewhat confusing UI. The assumption is that you will be using the app to find music, which is rarely the case for me. I usually find something on Pandora or other sources online and then want to buy a track and be done with it.

The app has a tendency to get in your way with extra navigation, questions and confirmations. For example, if I searched for a track and want to preview it from the search results, I can't, I'm first brought to the album view, and then have to back out to search results again if I want to sample other tracks. When trying to exit the app, it gravely warns me that it will not be able to download in the background or synchronize my locker, even though I'm not downloading anything or even care about my locker.

To purchase a track, I click on it, and then have to answer a question: whether I want to download it over wi-fi (why wouldn't I 99% of the time?), and whether I want to be notified when it downloaded. Basically, I'm being prompted to confirm whether or not I want to be prompted later. Totally ridiculous.

And lastly, there's the issue of pricing. 7digital prices tracks reasonably, many are under $0.99, which is nice. But incredibly, full albums are often more expensive than the sum of their tracks. This is the only music download, or any commercial service in memory that works this way. A full album may be bought at a discount at other retailers, whereas 7digital believes you'd rather pay more for the convenience. And considering how clunky it is to download each track through the UI, it's even tempting.

But this is the kind of trickery that just turns me off. I'll continue using the service, but I can't wait for Amazon to allow downloads from their app. I'd love having the same integration between Amazon and Pandora you can find on webOS and Android.