Tory 08 Sep 05

That guy is really, really, REALLY annoying.

Andy 08 Sep 05

Just so you know, it appears that the 100 songs is actually a hardwired limit to the phone. It does not matter how much space you have on your card or the size of the MP3s, Apple requested that the phone not hold more than 100 songs to keep it from being a direct competitor to the Shuffle.

Jon Rocker 08 Sep 05

Cingular would have been wise include Apple in the industrial design of the actual phone. To me it’s not RAZR cool (and I am not that fond of the RAZR) and for a phone to carry the ROKR moniker… it doesn’t look rockin’ to me, more like adult contemporary or easy listening.

Is that Geneva?

DaleV 08 Sep 05

I can’t even believe Jobs introduced that garbage. He should have told Motorola to have a hammy little PR event with his blessings and stayed away. Oh, and the specs bite, too.

Jarkko 08 Sep 05

The fact that a phone can play mp3’s is nothing new, and the 100-song limit makes it actually come short to many others, which are only limited by their SD card size (like Nokia 6630). But being not able to use the songs as ringtones, now that’s pathetic. It would have been so much cooler if Apple had really designed the phone and Motorola would just have manufactured it. That would have really made it stand apart. Now it just seems to be a mediocre phone with a crippled iTunes feature.

Darrel 08 Sep 05

What does Apple get out of this? Just less defectors from iTunes who REALLY want MP3s on their cell phones?

Also, it’s a bit funny they they’re teaming with the same company they just dumped (no more motorola processors). Perhaps this is some contractual obligation?

Yuk - Windows Media 08 Sep 05

That link gives the choice between Windows Media Player and Real Player.

Both yuk!

Ryan 08 Sep 05

I think the iphone is a great start. It’s probably a taste of things to come - maybe Apple will make their own phone before too long. Whatever you think about Apple, you have to admit is that Apple is *great* at building cult followings. I think this is probably intended to be that kind of move.

Darrel, Apple dumped Motorola processors a long time ago. They’ve been using IBM chips for several years.

Jeff 08 Sep 05

Also, it�s a bit funny they they�re teaming with the same company they just dumped (no more motorola processors). Perhaps this is some contractual obligation?

Apple hasn’t used Moto processors for some time, they’re made by IBM now.

Ward 08 Sep 05

He forgot… feed your kids and wipe your ass.

Brad 08 Sep 05

That guy is really, really, REALLY annoying.

Maybe so, but he’s a lot funnier than Ricky Gervais.

yeah 08 Sep 05

i win! i got a strip of velcro and stuck my phone to my i-pod. you know what? it worked great. and when i get tired of my i-pod phone i can pull them apart and use them seperately. nothing quite like that satisfying velcro release… the downside is that i can’t use my songs as a ringtone. but for me, a phone should sound like a phone. i can state with some certainty that if my toaster started blasting “baby got back” when the toast popped up, it’d get whacked with a broom until it stopped. not that i have any particular problem with sir mix-a-lot. this i-pod phone and i are going to heaven, baby!

Chris Mear 08 Sep 05

Apple hasn�t used Moto processors for some time, they�re made by IBM now.

As far as I know, Apple still source their G4 chips from Freescale, which is the semiconductor arm of Motorola. And they’re still churning out those G4 Mac Minis, PowerBooks and iBooks.

Brad 08 Sep 05

i got a strip of velcro and stuck my phone to my i-pod. you know what? it worked great.

In fact this is exactly why Apple developed the iPod Nano. Velcro a Nano to the back of your phone and you’ll hardly know it’s there.

ek 08 Sep 05

One thing that very few reviewers have emphasized is that the Rokr uses a USB 1.1 interface.

As Pogue notes, that means the average song takes about 30-seconds to get loaded onto the phone. It also means that filling the phone with 100 songs will take an excruciating 50-minutes.

I wonder if the decision to go with USB 1.1 was driven by cost or a desire to further cripple the device so as not to compete with iPods? Given that even the $99 iPod Shuffle supports USB 2.0, I tend to think it’s the latter.

On a somewhat related note, I thought it was interesting how much effort Apple put into making iTunes 5 Windows-friendly. I wonder if it’s an indication of things to come…

Aaron Blohowiak 08 Sep 05

What a disgusting example of greed over providing real value.

david patrick 09 Sep 05

ek On a somewhat related note, I thought it was interesting how much effort Apple put into making iTunes 5 Windows-friendly. I wonder if it�s an indication of things to come�

So much so, that iTunes5 was released with some really bad teething troubles!

Lots of people could not get it to work at all on the windows platform. Apparently it was all to do with the integration to the mapi files that iTunes now uses.

On the design side, this phone is nothing new. Look at O2’s X4 phone -> miniSD cards are the only limit to the number of songs on your player, and it comes with a pretty nifty camera. It just won;t play the iTunes protected music, but I can’t imagine it being long before that little bit of copy protection is worked around…. after all isn;t that what the internet does for us?

Darrel 09 Sep 05

but I can�t imagine it being long before that little bit of copy protection is worked around

Jhymn is about as close as one can get to making the iTunes store DRM free:

http://www.hymn-project.org/

Chief Executive of Apple 04 Nov 05

I am exceedingly pleased and appreciate your concern and suggestions for the Apple company. I have chosen to answer the main problems you are trying to get across in this forum:

>>It does not matter how much space you have on your card or the size of the MP3s, Apple requested that the phone not hold more than 100 songs to keep it from being a direct competitor to the Shuffle.

Yes it is true that the Motorola ROKR E1 can only hold 100 itunes. This is because, however, the songs are saved into a program which uses Read Only Memory. Therefore it cannot be altered depending on the size of Transflash card inserted. The card is useful to store pictures and other forms of data.

>>The average song takes about 30-seconds to get loaded onto the phone. It also means that filling the phone with 100 songs will take an excruciating 50-minutes.

Also it is true that the Motorola ROKR E1 does use a USB 1.1 interface. Conversely, the download times are slightly exaggerated. An average song actually takes the best part of 15 seconds to sinc onto the phone.

I hope this information helps you and encourages you to buy the Motorola ROKR E1.

Chief Executive of Apple 04 Nov 05

I am exceedingly pleased and appreciate your concern and suggestions for the Apple company. I have chosen to answer the main problems you are trying to get across in this forum:

>>It does not matter how much space you have on your card or the size of the MP3s, Apple requested that the phone not hold more than 100 songs to keep it from being a direct competitor to the Shuffle.

Yes it is true that the Motorola ROKR E1 can only hold 100 itunes. This is because, however, the songs are saved into a program which uses Read Only Memory. Therefore it cannot be altered depending on the size of Transflash card inserted. The card is useful to store pictures and other forms of data.

>>The average song takes about 30-seconds to get loaded onto the phone. It also means that filling the phone with 100 songs will take an excruciating 50-minutes.

Also it is true that the Motorola ROKR E1 does use a USB 1.1 interface. Conversely, the download times are slightly exaggerated. An average song actually takes the best part of 15 seconds to sinc onto the phone.

I hope this information helps you and encourages you to buy the Motorola ROKR E1.

John Smith 10 Dec 05

Some genius helped me out with this process to make your mp3’s ringtones. ENJOY!

step 1 connect phone to computer,(itunes will probably open if so ingnore)
step 2 goto “my computer” under “removable storage devices” find your phonestep 3 double click it open, goto “mobile” folder then goto “ringtone folder”
step 4 drop desired mp3 file into that folder, must be a file size less than the free space on your “phone” this is not the same as your chip that your itunes songs are on
step 5 after file has been copied into “ringtone folder” unplug phone.
step 6 open “MyMedia” icon in Rokr
step 7 goto “sounds” icon
step 8 click the screw looking button next to the melody key
step 9 select “switch storage device” option
step 10 select “TRANS-name of your phone”
step 11 if all goes well you should see your mp3 file which you need to move to “Phone” so it “move” and then select “phone”
step 12 remember to switch your “switch storage device” back to “phone”
step 12 you should now find your mp3 in MyMedia under sounds which you can then simply hit apply as ringtone

Anonymous Coward 15 Apr 06

asshole

Candace 30 Jun 06

THANKS JOHN SMITH! I’ve looked at several different sites trying to figure out how to create my own ringtones from my rokr and your directions are the only ones that worked.

Why couldn’t Motorola just put that in the manual?