Apple, Motorola Plan An iTunes-Friendly Phone

PabloJones writes "Apple and Motorola have come together to create a new mp3-enabled cell phone, according to this Reuters article. It says that the device will be capable of storing about 12 songs, and will be fully integrated with iTunes. Perhaps this is a beginning of a new relationship between the two companies, after the PowerPC problems between the two in recent years."

Re:Uh, woo?

[Al Dimond]

Hey, I'm not selling 12-song devices and I'm not winning... must be something else...

Wow.

[Eric_Cartman_South_P]

The multi-million dollar cell-phone ringer market just SHIT ITS PANTS.

*squirt* *plop*

If people can pop some songs onto their phone, why pay a dollar or two for a 10 second clip that sounds like it was recorded on an 8-trak?

hehe. Fuck'em.

Re:I'll Wait ...

[Anonymous Coward]

Will we see a return to rotary dialing of phone numbers with an iPod-like scroll wheel interface?

Re:Looks like Apple learned a lesson...

[speleo]

Yeah, too bad that Firewire thing never amounted to anything...

And the color is...

[christ0pher]

So...do you suppose the phone will be available in colors other than white?

Re:Sounds Good...

[mothz]

Sure, it sounds like a good idea now, but you won't be too happy when poor yields force Motorola to "roll back" the phones to hold only seven songs, just like Apple's 500MHz G4 fiasco.

yes yes yes!!

[commodoresloat]

Running NewtonOS no doubt. :)

OK, fine, running PalmOS. But please do it!! Of course, we all know Apple won't, because Jobs doesn't think Apple can rule the phone/pda market. The thing is, we all know that if Apple spent twenty minutes thinking about it, they could come up with a device that blows away what's out there. Treos are cool, but such things try to do too much and do it all in a mediocre manner. Apple could easily combine the simplicity of their interfaces with the tools required.

Here's one message I wish cell phone manufacturers would get .... there is no necessary reason a cell phone must look like a phone. It doesn't have to be cradled in my neck in a way that distracts me from driving AND screws up my spine. Make a headset essential and build a device that has a more practical shape for what it does. Then build different shaped devices for different needs (and then maybe I can finally get my dream emate-2 [slashdot.org])!

if only motorola make a phone that meets my needs

[aardwolf204]

MP3 player with iTunes support

Browser that supports WAP, HTML, Frames, Flash, Shockwave, Tabbed Browsing, and thumb-guestures

8 MegaPixel camera with 6x optical zoom that takes SLR lenses

Calander and contacts that syncs with microsoft exchange

2.2" display with 65K colors and 480x640 resolution

802.11g and bluetooth (that works) with kismet

12 cell LiIon battery with 14 day standby and 6 hour talk time

media player capable of playing MOV, MPG2,4, AVI (divx and xvid), RM, DVD,

HDTV that syncs with your tivo, direct-tv, XP-MCE, or mythPC (sorry MyHTPC and freevo, not enough room in ROM)

Direct TV connection with 400 channels

Cheap custom ringtones that dont suck (no more paying 99 cents for a 50 cent ringtone)

Vibrate, Pulsate, Ultra-Vibrate, and Orgasmobrate (for her pleasure)

authentic TOS trek sound for when the clam shell flips open

Walkie-Talkie function that be used without speakphone

SDIO card for memory expansion

4G 1MB/s internet connection

RSS feeds on your "desktop"

9 button thats not pre-programmed to 911

full QWERTY thumbboard with touchpad

VNC, TightVNC, and Terminal Services

Vi, Emacs, Notepad, and that thing macs use

Powerpoint support with included VGA dongle for presentations

SMS, MMS, EMS, and PMS

synchronization support for pop3, imap4, and active-sync

drivers for linux (source included)

dual boot mode with windows CE and linux (2.7)

included sample cowboy neal ringtones

j2me, perl, and C# support

graphing calculator

Included USB cable makes phone act as USB flash drive on any PC (w2k+)

GPS with included geocaches

ability to turn reciever into promiscuious mode with ethercap

SSH (1,2) and Telnet clients that work!

1GHz Transmeta processor

Via Eden 600 MHz backup processor

dual blue cold cathodes with case window

Support for CD-R / RW, DVD-R-RW+R+RW-RAM, MMC, SD, CF, PCMCIA, and 5.25" (double density)

Did I miss anything...

Oh yeah, Phone. Maybe next revision, until then you can hook it up to your vonage [vonage.com] box.

Ok, so I was only joking on a few of those things, but seriously some of these features need to be considered. I want an open platform phone that allows me to put RSS feeds on my "desktop" and can SSH and VNC into boxen (sp?)

um...better PC?

[MacFury]

now let's see you reinvent a better PC on top of that!

You mean like...the macintosh? :-)

Re:Uh, woo?

[SmittyTheBold]

Interestingly enough, I remember quite well an Apple monitor (about a 19" or so made in the mid-90s) with the power switch placed in the back. Near the middle of the back, to be precise.

My, how technology has advanced in the area of human interaction...

and

[thatguywhoiam]

Did I miss anything... Oh yeah, Phone.

One more thing... you forgot Pony.

Re:if only motorola make a phone that meets my nee

[Paulrothrock]

One more thing: A higher gain antenna so you get reception in places like, um, buildings. Because most people spend their time there. Now that's intuitive design.

I favor a new labelling system for cell phones. It would have antenna gain, standby time, and talk time clearly visible on all phone displays, kinda like EPA fuel economy for cars. That way, people would be able to make their selection with more information about how the phone performs. Since cell phones are becoming essential pieces of our infrastructure, it's important that people make decisions that reflect what a cell phone is for: Making and receiving calls. In an emergency, I'd trade my camera, Java games, and web browser for a 5Db gain antenna that can get me a clear call to 911.