Confirming long-standing rumours, Apple has today announced the iTunes-enabled phone together with Motorola in a special press event. The phone will automatically pause when you get a call, explained Jobs. The ROKR can only hold about 100 songs, according to Jobs. “The way we think of this phone is, it’s really an iPod shuffle on your phone,” he explained. “Both devices can shuffle, both can autofill, neither has a click wheel – but the phone has a display.” Meanwhile, Microsoft joins hands with Orange to challenge Apple Motorola iTunes Phone.
A month ago I reviewed the Motorola e398 phone, which was then called the “MTV phone”. The iTunes phone uses the _exact same hardware_ under the hood (just with more storage capacity) and I noted on my review ( http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=11442 ) that the iTunes phone ROM can be used with some small fixes to the e398. There is a hacker who already managed that. The two phones look almost identical, except the new iTunes button and the different shell color. The iTunes phone has two things more than the e398 phone on the software side: 1. iTunes support. 2. Airplane support (the phone can be ON without interfering with the airplane’s systems as it doesn’t try to get a signal).
I’m dissapointed with this phone. As Eugenia said, it’s just an old phone with iTunes support. I came to expect more to come out of Cupertino than just this.
What I had hoped for was a phone designed by Apple, built using Motorola technology. I really wanted to see Apple’s take on mobile phones– a gadget that would fit perfectly into Apple’s current line of products.
Too bad– this feels too much like a rush job.
“I came to expect more to come out of Cupertino than just this. ”
Motorola is based in Schaumburg, IL… not Cupertino. Also it should not be surprising that this is an old phone since the launch was delayed substantially. The real announcement here is that Apple now has partners (Moto and Cingular) to compete in the phone dl music service… IF that service even becomes popular which I doubt, but then again, I never thought selling ringtones would take off either so what do I know.
Basically, the iTunes phone is a REBRAND of the 2 years old e398 with two major software additions, a very small shell change (a new button for itunes) and more storage than e398’s 64 MB transflash included card. It costs $250 but with a 2 year Cingular contract, while buying the e398 costs about $180, unlocked. Personally, I would expect more from Apple than just a rehash of a so-so successful old phone. I would want to see a brand new design, newer hardware, brand new interface, something that Apple has made us expect from its products. Instead, this is just an old Motorola product through-and-through, with Apple playing the combarse role by adding iTunes support.
Listen you buy a cell phone to make/recieve phone calls, all this other stuff is just extras and wastes your battery.
For me 100 songs is just about worthless, I have over 7000 songs and I like to listen to anyone I please whenever I please and for 8 hours or more.
I quickly got tired of charging up my iPod shuffle, now I only use it to go fishing or other hard drive risky behavior.
The best option is a iPod that you can take it all anywhere. Especially on a noisy plane flight with a pair of good noise cancellation headphones with cushy over the ear comfort.
It totally reduces the stress of air flight down and I highly recommend it.
This Moto phone deal just helps ITMS music owners to buy a Moto phone, that’s all.
I want an iPod nano!!!!
I’m still waiting for my ipod enabled shoe. This way I can listen to all the greatest hits of the day, from my shoe! Or better yet, ipod enabled toaster. Toast those bagels while rocking out to those smoking 70s country rock songs.
Well, they had that NetBSD toaster a while back…
And as for a shoe, maybe with Mplayer and a wire running up the leg from the shoe to your ear, you could use headphones with it. Or frighten people who see the wires sticking out of your shoe.
Damn – just got my wife a mini ipod.
http://www.apple.com/ipodnano/
check it out! nanotubes
There is one obvious feature that seems to be missing, iTunes music store. What I was kind of hoping for was a phone where, in addition to standard iPod features, I could browse ITMS on my phone, download songs over a 3G network connections and have the cost of the song added to my phone bill. No matter where you are, if you really want to hear that one song, it’s just a few clicks away. If they could make that happen, then I can see some real potential.
Otherwise it’s just a phone that plays MP3s, and I already have an MP3 player.
expect more apple + Moto deals, yes even the ability to download over the air. Pretty sure that will be coming maybe not in this model but who knows what future models will have… 3g downloading! The only prop operators prob dont wont a iTMS phone is that they want a cut in the pie of cash…. Who willing to break first?
For me personally though, the iPod Nano stole the show! Why pay all that money for a phone when you can get a much cooler, funky device that holds even more songs and is tiny. Also it comes in black.. get in apple!!! This may be the iceburg that will push me to get an ipod… we’ll see….
A P910i from last year is so much better than that iTune phone.
I would trade the photo capability in exchange for being able to hook it up to a Windows/Linux PC and have recognized as a portable hard drive like my iAudio players do. That way, they could double as a USB jump drive.
And as I always say, bookmarks would be nice too
uhhh… you can.
Are you saying you can link up an iPod to a Windows/Linux PC without drivers and without iTunes?
I say any mp3 player that can’t double as a portable, mass storage device (hint: without needed an iTunes CD in your back pocket) is a little behind the times.
I used to use my iPod as a backup of OS9 in case I had any prolems with my Mac
(gen 1 iPods had a full firewire port and you could boot off of it just like any other firewire hard disk, dunno if this still applies with the ‘dock connector’ ipods)
Are you saying you can link up an iPod to a Windows/Linux PC without drivers and without iTunes?
I say any mp3 player that can’t double as a portable, mass storage device (hint: without needed an iTunes CD in your back pocket) is a little behind the times.
———————————–
On a Mac, the iPod has always being able to be used as a mass storage device, even without iTunes, just connect the ipod up and it appears as a removable drive on the desktop
It’s always been possible to use an iPod as a mass storage device, yes. However, they obfuscate storage of music on the device — music files are split among many directories, with arbitrary (unique) filenames. This means you need special software to copy music *from* an iPod to a host machine. It’s a reasonable approach in my opinion — discourages casual piracy (“here, plug in my iPod and copy all my tunes!”) but still makes it usable as a backup medium. That said, I still haven’t forked over the $$$ for a program to retrieve music from my iPod, and after a recent hard drive crash that’s the only place a lot of my (legally paid for) tunes are stored.
It’s always been possible to use an iPod as a mass storage device, yes. However, they obfuscate storage of music on the device — music files are split among many directories, with arbitrary (unique) filenames. This means you need special software to copy music *from* an iPod to a host machine. It’s a reasonable approach in my opinion — discourages casual piracy (“here, plug in my iPod and copy all my tunes!”) but still makes it usable as a backup medium. That said, I still haven’t forked over the $$$ for a program to retrieve music from my iPod, and after a recent hard drive crash that’s the only place a lot of my (legally paid for) tunes are stored.
——————————————————-
Theres a few ways
1. Tinker Tool (show hidden files)
2. Use a Terminal command (ipod lounge)
3. There is a few free programs that you can download
On a Mac, the iPod has always being able to be used as a mass storage device, even without iTunes, just connect the ipod up and it appears as a removable drive on the desktop
Even if I had a Mac personally (which I don’t), nobody else I know has a Mac and we don’t use them at work eiter, so that does me little good. But hey, at least you can view photos with it, right? I think iPods have a pretty good interface, but other than that, they’re pretty much useless. Short on battery life and short on features too. Yet people still snap them up like hotcakes. And then they find the iTunes music store, where it’s DRM-bliss for everyone. iPods are proof-positive that you don’t have to build devices with a lot of functionality – just make them look pretty and the lemmings will come flocking in droves. Somebody said that the iPod Nano would be better to use at the gym than the Mini. Why the hell would you want to do that when other players (sporting the same or more features and better battery life) come in much smaller sizes, some the size of zipo lighters or even a pack of chewing gum. 14 hours of battery life? Fuck that. Try 40+, then you will impress me.
Even if I had a Mac personally (which I don’t), nobody else I know has a Mac and we don’t use them at work eiter, so that does me little good. But hey, at least you can view photos with it, right? I think iPods have a pretty good interface, but other than that, they’re pretty much useless. Short on battery life and short on features too. Yet people still snap them up like hotcakes. And then they find the iTunes music store, where it’s DRM-bliss for everyone. iPods are proof-positive that you don’t have to build devices with a lot of functionality – just make them look pretty and the lemmings will come flocking in droves. Somebody said that the iPod Nano would be better to use at the gym than the Mini. Why the hell would you want to do that when other players (sporting the same or more features and better battery life) come in much smaller sizes, some the size of zipo lighters or even a pack of chewing gum. 14 hours of battery life? Fuck that. Try 40+, then you will impress me.
What are you saying, you don’t like the iPod?
Then fine, it doesn’t mean you can tell everyone what is good or bad…
PS. and when do you go to the gym for 14 hours?
“Why the hell would you want to do that when other players (sporting the same or more features and better battery life) come in much smaller sizes, some the size of zipo lighters or even a pack of chewing gum”
Yeah I know what you mean! The Shuffle is everything you just described!
Reality check people.
Apple only wrote the software.
The phone is completley Moto’s choice.
This is not an apple designed product. Just the iTunes software. and it’s still early.
Please bear this in mind when commenting, thanks.
eveybody wants one but you
Let’s see. Which company is -known- for innovative design. Apple.
Which company isn’t known for innovative design. Motorola.
Let’s just try to guess who didn’t cause the design to be innovative? My guess. Motorola. I’m sure Steve Jobs would have preferred a more innovative phone. Sometimes even he doesn’t have a choice.
I guess many people will look at this and say ‘well I could get 16gb more for just 50 bucks more’. Well I, for one, am amazed that they can offer this much storage (4gb) for this cheap price ($250). It’s hard to find that much flash storage by itself for that much, let alone with a quality mp3 plater wrapped around it. Guess it has something to do with that deal with Samsung for cheap flash.
Going to be hard for other flash mp3 makers to compete. Largest storage in a flash player until today was 2gb.
Does anyone here think that the world’s largest flash maker (Samsung) offering a steep discount to the world’s largest mp3 maker (Apple), thus allowing Apple to severely undercut the price of other mp3 players, amounts to some kind of anti-competitive behaviour? Not that I do. I don’t know enough about the law to have an informed opinion. Just wondering what others think.
Nano just rocks, Apple distortion field at work again
=o)
1. iTunes Phone, I really couldn’t care less about. I want my phone to be a phone, nothing more. I want it small, with a long battery life.
2. iPod Nano, I want one of these. I like small, and it looks like it would be much nicer than my mini for working out at the gym.
– Kelson
How is it a “Operating System News”?
And why can’t we vote for (BAD) staff comments?
Regarding the first question, you should read OSNews’ goal, inside “Contact Us”:
The OSNews Goal
Our goal is to inform our readers with the latest news on a vast range of operating systems and computing environments, from the well-known mainstream OSes, down to small (but also very interesting technically) hobby or embedded ones. True to our tagline, “Exploring the Future of Computing,” we’re always on the lookout for the next major advance in computing technology, and eager to speculate on how it might change the way people use computing power in their daily lives. With this in mind, it’s important to stress that though our focus is operating systems, there will always be other computing-related news that catches our attention.
Regarding your second question, I agree. I would also like to be able to give scores to every story posted, not only the exclusive ones, so people could voice their disapproval when the editors start posting old stuff and poor quality stuff.
Regarding your second question, I agree. I would also like to be able to give scores to every story posted, not only the exclusive ones, so people could voice their disapproval when the editors start posting old stuff and poor quality stuff.
Won’t happen. People will vote stories about their fav. OS up, and stories about what they don’t like, down. It will give no indication at all about the actual quality of newsitems.
Anyway, this got posted because one of the most influential computing companies is venturing into new markets. Note for instance that we aren’t posting news on the new iPod Nano; it’s all about the iTunes phone.
Yeah I was thinking more on those trollish, flame-baiting posts such as “Microsoft owns Apple” (IIRC the title) and the like. I am not criticizing this post specifically, of course it should be in OSNews. The good news is that this kind of news seem to be less common lately, compared to 1 month ago.
But still, you could use your argument against the whole comment-rating system, people could vote up and down not because of the quality of the post but because they agree or disagree with the opinion. But that’s why you have this thing called “average”
PS: OSNews is painfully slow today.
Well, the nano is nice, its what I always though the mini should have been. Since the mini wasn’t much smaller then the regular ipod, and was still harddrive based.
Looks really nice in the shinny black too.
Just wish they could get the space bigger, but in time.
But for now my shuffle works just fine, and connects to my computer with no cable, which is a huge plus. The ipod line is starting to make more sense now. Just 3 models now, no more “photo” “color” and so forth. Just 3 logical sizes.
Memory stick that plays music
Full featured player thats small
and Haul around everything
For the phone, well, it’s just what everyone with a brain expected. Its a moto phone with itunes on it. I’m still shocked apple bothered with PR for it. Its not their product.
Someone please wake me up when Apple finally builds a FM receiver into a iPod-branded device. Until then, Apple will not see my hard earned pesos…
Google “Tunestir iPod FM receiver”
Is this a new feature in iTunes 5:
Edit->Show Search Bar
??
Yes
Many years ago B&O made expensive and excellent HiFi equipment. Now B&O repackages mid range generic hardware in a stlish package and charges a huge premium for it. This is backed up with marketing hype and expensively outfitted stores. Sounds exactly like Apple.
Very true and very sad.
Its about becoming a designer brand and marketing yourself on the basis of ‘lifestyles’ and ‘being an apple person’. The company gets to price identical hardware higher. The customer gets to wear the designer label and feel good. There always used to a bit of this with the ‘think different’ slogan but in recent years its got totally out of hand. Interesting interview posted on OsX86 project with an Intel guy illustrates this. The interviewer can’t seem to get it through his head that this is Apple buying the same chips as everyone else, in rather small quantities. He seems to thing of it as Apple bestowing some great exciting favour on Intel by entering into an alliance with them. At the end of this road lies one of two things. The best case is Fruit of the Loom. The worst case is the Amiga.
It could have been so different.
Huh? Did you even READ The article? Where did “Intel” ever get discussed?! How about, go read the article (which is not about the Intel Switch, although that seems to be what your commenting on!) and THEN make an informed comment if you would like.
FM on a iPod is so STUPID!!
Why give up the control of listening what you want to listen to, when you want to listen to it and how often you want to listen to it, in exchange for low grade sounding FM noise, advertising, same lousy songs played over and over with a dull sounding DJ?
Apple is not another B&O
1: Apple provides real solutions and the slightly higher price pays for the innovation costs. Or you can live with your cheap virus infected creative zen.
B&O makes expensive stuff that really solves no problems or opens new markets that isn’t already served by a zillion other makers at more down to earth prices.
$600 for each wireless phone that auto synchs with each other?
$16,000 for stereo speakers that combined produce 5,000 watts which if listened to for more than a few seconds would cause pernament hearing loss and shatter all the windows in your house? Not to mention a trip to jail.
Didn’t Microsoft screw them over once before and end up in a lawsuit?
That was Sendo I thought.
..if I were Apple I’d focus a bit more on improving the iPod’s ridiculously bad battery life and quality
I have a 3gen iPod, purchased about 18 months ago, and the batery life was never that good..but now it won’t last more than a couple of hours. If I start browsing a lot (using a lot of the disk by consequence) it will just die even though the battery meter indicates more than 50%.
Then I tried to have the battery changed and Apple said they would charge me the equivalent of 150 USD for that (I’m in Norway). Oh well. I suppose I’ll buy one of those “replacement kits” and go for it myself, since I don’t have much to lose anymore.
..if I were Apple I’d focus a bit more on improving the iPod’s ridiculously bad battery life and quality
Is 14+ hours not enough?
Not for a heavy user, especially if after 18 months it degrades to one third of it, as it happened with mine. They should at least make it easier to be replaced.
there hasn’t been a mobile without display.. so thanks for adding one to this phone as well..
I’ve just watched the presentation (it’s on the front page of apple.com) and I have to say, Steve Jobs himself seemed pretty underwhelmed by the phone, even managing to bungle the demonstration.
I wonder if Apple’s still as interested in this phone idea given
a) The delays caused by cellphone industry politics (which seem even worse than those of the music industry)
b) The obvious lack of input Apple had in the design of the phone
Mr Jobs is, by all accounts, a fairly mercurial character; it’s possible his interest in the whole project has been substantially diminished by the problems Apple encountered trying to get it up off the ground. Being forced to delay the launch for six months must have been aggravating.
They’ve gotten rid of the titlebar, instead the minimise, maximise and close buttons are in the menus.
Another way of putting it is the menus are embedded in the titlebar.
Either way, given the fact that the menu fonts are already smaller than the system default, I can see myself missing the window entirely every so often when I try to open a menu.
It seems to be changed for the sake of change more than anything else. It makes no sense. But then again, I never liked the whole brushed metal thing anyway.
I like the ones from Sony better….
http://www.clubic.com/actualite-22312-baladeurs-sony-repond-a-apple…
Does anyone here think that the world’s largest flash maker (Samsung) offering a steep discount to the world’s largest mp3 maker (Apple), thus allowing Apple to severely undercut the price of other mp3 players, amounts to some kind of anti-competitive behaviour? Not that I do. I don’t know enough about the law to have an informed opinion. Just wondering what others think.
It’s called capitalism.
Is it possible to get a Quicktime 7 standalone installer for Windows? I don’t want to download all of iTunes just to get Quicktime 7 and updated codecs. Mind you, if there’s just a link I’m missing or something, that’s fine.
I mean, do multimedia players all have to be gigantic and take over your entire media collection?
Give me the days of fast, slim OFFICIAL players: Quicktime up to 3, RealPlayer up to 5, Windows Media Player up to 6.4. Then WinAMP for everything else (which, with version 5, is back to being slim and fast). Seems like you have to hunt across the wild internet if you just want programs that will play, manage, and organize your files and leave you alone.
I’ll take recommendations as well.
–JM
standalone QuickTime player:
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/standalone.html