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More on the iTunes Cell Phone 167

Posted by michael from the only-99-cents-cheap dept.
andyring writes "According to PC Magazine, a Motorola exec demoed the rumored iTunes cell phone. According to the article, the phone syncs with a computer and the iTunes Music Store like an iPod does, and incorporates the iPod interface for navigating and playing digital music." We've mentioned this before.
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More on the iTunes Cell Phone More

More on the iTunes Cell Phone

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  • Worst of both worlds (Score:4, Insightful)

    by DrKyle ( 818035 ) on Friday January 07, 2005 @07:27PM (#11292615)
    Take a cellphone I have to charge every day and add an mp3 player that gets charged every day and I'm willing to be that doesn't make 2 days worth of charge. When will convergence end and manufacturers just give me one thing that works well for a long time? Next they'll add video playback that will kill the battery in less time than to watch a movie.

    • Re:Worst of both worlds (Score:4, Funny)

      by computerme ( 655703 ) on Friday January 07, 2005 @07:34PM (#11292695)
      well if you have any ideas of how to break the laws of battery physics and do so in a cost effective manner then go right ahead and send them you plans...

    • Re:Worst of both worlds (Score:1, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      yes but think of all the ring tones!!

    • Re:Worst of both worlds (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward
      When will people stop posting this same thing on every single thread about cell phones? You just want a simple phone that does one thing well and has good battery life--WE GET IT. If there are enough like-minded people then perhaps a product like you want will be developed. If not, it won't. You are obviously not part of the target market for this phone.
      • If you think about it, the only satisfactor solution are custom made devices. People who don't spend much time at home really need a phone with a camera, HD mp3 player, big color screen, keyboard and WiFi. Beats having to go home to e-mail a picture you just took, spilling devices out of full pockets or always carrying a backpack.

        On the other hand, if you only want the phone, you would rather have a little thing that fits on top of one ear when in use. And if you only want some of the function, you expect
    • Not to mention that I generally regard cell phones as being disposable, but keep something like an ipod for several years.

      Two years from now, I'm not going to want to have to get rid of my ipod so that that I can get the newest model phone.

      Personally, I would preffer that device makers stick to making one thing work well instead of converging several items into one bulky and mediocre performing item.
      • Yes, it is too bad for you that it is now impossible to buy a cell phone that isn't also an iPod.

        Obviously if you prefer to have separate devices, you can purchase separate devices all you want. Right now, the market will decide whether separate devices or integrated ones (or both) will be made. So, your choices count!

    • Well, if you save space by removing duplicated components, don't you have more room for additional battery, even if it's external to the unit?

    • Re:Worst of both worlds (Score:4, Insightful)

      by wankledot ( 712148 ) on Friday January 07, 2005 @07:57PM (#11292899)
      Good thing you don't have to buy one!

      Seriously, if you are tired of new features taking up battery life, then don't use the feature or buy a phone with it.

      • if you are tired of new features taking up battery life, then don't use the feature or buy a phone with[out] it.

        I would have been happy to keep using my StarTac indefinitely except for the fact I couldn't get parts for it when they started wearing out. There wasn't anything like it on the market when I got a replacement. The LG I ended up with is slower, has taken wear and tear far worse, and doesn't offer any real improvements. The damn thing doesn't even have a ringer that sounds anything like a pho
      • sadly no one makes good DURABLE consumer cell phones any more that are just phones with no useless features, oh and it has to have GOOD reception.

        Alls i want is a phone that is JUST a phone, long battery life, and won't break or fail at the drop of a hat like the newer ones.

        If you know of one please point me at it. i'm sick of these new camera phones with color screens that dont' work anywhere nearly as good as cell phones used it.
        • I haven't noticed a change in the quality of the phones in the last 5-7 years, at least in my experience. I've had a couple nokias that I have beat the living crap out of, and never had one fail on me. The basic nokias seem to hold up great.
    • My phone lasts about a week with normal use. It doesn't have camera functions but it does have a color screen. I don't recharge my iPod every day, but then, I don't use it for twelve hours a day, more like a couple.

    • Re:Worst of both worlds (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward
      I slip my cell phone into its charging cradle every night, and I charge my iPod constantly. So now I have a cell phone that plays mp3s, this isn't any worse for me.
    • I'm willing to be that doesn't make 2 days worth of charge
      I have a T-Mobile iPAQ with PocketPC Phone Edition. I listen to music, podcasts, and surf the net every day for many hours. I'm amazed how long the battery lasts--usually 4 days.
    • When will convergence end and manufacturers just give me one thing that works well for a long time?

      Convergence will end when you have your Microsoft Windows phone/PC/media player 2050 with Windows Media Player 37 and full DRM installed directly into your brain.

    • just go and buy a phone without the features you actively don't want.

      maybe you actively seek for a laptop that can't play videos too...
    • With technology increasing and all the millions of dollars we spend on things you would think someone would invent a new type of batter that doesnt drain so quickly

  • Salling Clicker (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Raynach ( 713366 ) on Friday January 07, 2005 @07:29PM (#11292629) Homepage
    There's a nifty little utility called the Salling Clicker [mac.com] that lets you take control of your Bluetooth-enabled Mac with any Bluetooth enabled cell phone. Not exactly like playing music from your cell phone, but navigating your Apple with your cell phone, including iTunes.

    I used it just recently with the car stereo [purdue.edu] I installed. ;)

  • Will it sell well? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by anime_nerd ( 845903 )
    I think that people who already shelled out cash for an I-pod aren't going to rush out and buy this now. It's going to be a toy for the rich. Plus, quite frankly, most people want to be able to download free music to their MP3 player, and this sounds like it can only use I-Tunes store. I doubt that it will be popular.
    • I think that people who already shelled out cash for an I-pod aren't going to rush out and buy this now. It's going to be a toy for the rich. Plus, quite frankly, most people want to be able to download free music to their MP3 player, and this sounds like it can only use I-Tunes store. I doubt that it will be popular.

      I-Don't know about that.
      • No offense to the guy who wrote this "I-Don't know about that," it's kind of funny, but how is that a 3 and my post got modded down to a 1 because someone thought it was overrated? Cut me some slack, secret meta-moderator, I'm new, thanks for changing me back to netural karma.

    • Re:Will it sell well? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by savagedome ( 742194 ) on Friday January 07, 2005 @07:35PM (#11292698)
      I think that people who already shelled out cash for an I-pod aren't going to rush out and buy this now

      Cell phone is even more a 'style' thing for people than an mp3 player. Take a look at how many accessories are available for a cell phone that you and I and most of /.ers would think as asinine. The colorful antenna where the phone antenna goes bling bling when a call is received or even face plates for your phone. People love to decorate the cell phone so that they can whip it out and use it in public to be a little more flashy.

      I am convinced that Apple is going to design one heck of a cell phone as far as style is considered.

      And one more thing. Ringtones is already a multi-billion dollar industry. Now imagine iTunes providing tunes for ringtones. Yeah.

      Buy AAPL. There is more juice left in that stock.
      • The only people who think phones are a "style" thing are people who don't own them and resent the hell out of "those rich yuppie bastards parading around with their stylish, tiny phones with silly ring-tones, rubbing their wealth in our noses."

        The reason why small phones are "in style" is because carrying a big f-ing ear taco is a big hassle. A tiny phone which does the job is worth paying a lot more money. It's about function, not style.

        The reason colors and accesories are popular is the same reason wh

    • Re:Will it sell well? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by 2nd Post! ( 213333 ) <gundbear.pacbell@net> on Friday January 07, 2005 @07:39PM (#11292750) Homepage
      I think it will.

      If IBM, Alpine, and Pioneer think there is a market for car adapters for the iPod (to transform your car into an iPod sound system) why wouldn't the same market want a phone that can play all their AACs and MP3s after synching with iTunes?

      It's not like the phone market is stagnant! People get new phones every few years, some of them at least.
    • I think "Web TV for Dummies" is actually the slogan for the product, not the name of a book.
    • If you can load MP3 and AAC and any music you have onto an iPod, why wouldn't they do the same for this?
    • If they did it right (including playing mp3s as well as Apple store stuff), there might be a market in people like me who commute via short (~20 minute) walks or bus trips. I wouldn't mind having some music to listen to on said journeys but haven't bothered to get _yet_another_gadget_ to do so. If I could have a craddle at home and at work that would charge the battery and swap songs, I might pay a little extra for a phone that would do so.
    • my brother has the Moto V710 and that phone allows the use of MP3 files as ringtones, but he has to load them on a tiny memory card and keep the card in the phone. this sounds like a realtively minor hop from that.

      the available info says it syncs with your comnputer (cable or bluetooth). it mentions using a special cell phone playlist on your iTunes app to pick the songs to transfer over. in that case it sounds like MP3 or AAC, and i am guessing it will somehow allow the DRM'd iTMS songs you may have purch
    • I don't really care if it plays music or not, my current mobile plays music, I just use my iPod as well. What i'm looking forward to is a mobile designed by Apple (fingers crossed) in a powered-by-Motorola way. Much as I love my long line of Nokias, a mobile from Apple would make me sit up and take notice.
    • It's going to be a toy for the rich.

      So? The rich need toys too you know!!!

  • This is not the final form factor (Score:4, Informative)

    by computerme ( 655703 ) on Friday January 07, 2005 @07:30PM (#11292646)
    According to appleinsider sources, the form factor of the phone you may have seen in images is only a test mule based on a diff moto phone.

    http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=816

    snip:
    Update: According to sources, the phone shown above and elsewhere on the internet is not the rumored Apple-Motorola cell phone, but rather a development phone used for demonstrating the embedded version of iTunes that will be included with the Apple-Moto phon
    • According to appleinsider sources, the form factor of the phone you may have seen in images is only a test mule based on a diff moto phone.

      That's funny. I mean, its true and all, but its not exactly news considering that the FA points this out in the fourth sentence:

      But a Motorola representative clarified on Friday that the phone shown during the keynote was not the actual iTunes phone that is slated for release this year. Instead, it was a Motorola E398 equipped with the iTunes functionality for the d

  • Back to "dialing" the phone? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by PornMaster ( 749461 ) on Friday January 07, 2005 @07:32PM (#11292669) Homepage
    I can't help but to think that the idea of using a clickwheel to "dial" the phone like in the days before many Slashdotters were born is kind of funny. Even if it's not the preferred dialing method, someone's gotta do a dialing hack for it. :)
    • Touch rotary dialing, apple will dominate the phone market!
      • "Touch rotary dialing, apple will dominate the phone market!"

        I'm so pissed I can't buy a phone these days that does rotary dialing.

        Actually I'm not0 I'm just short of karma and I figure that if I bitch about something lost due to evolution of technology, I'll get modded up.

    • Re:Back to "dialing" the phone? (Score:3, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      In fact, Nokia was toying around with that idea (obviously inspired by the iPod), witness the now-cancelled Nokia Neo [mobile-gadgets.net]. Rotary dialing works, and obviously such an input method is also valid for a portable music player, but anything more than that (like writing a text message) is pure torture. Thank god Nokia still has some business sense.

      Myself, I'll just continue using my Nokia 6630, which has MP3, AAC and OGG (with a plugin) playback at full 44.1 kHz 16 bit stereo goodness. Transferring music to the phone

    • I still keep a dial phone around, even if only to check for a dial tone to test the land lines. It might have been nearly two decades since I've used it as a main phone though.

      It might be a nifty improvement, most cell phone buttons that I've are really stiff, I don't know if it is some sort of weatherproofing or not.

  • Oh yeah? (Score:5, Funny)

    by sploo22 ( 748838 ) <dwahler.gmail@com> on Friday January 07, 2005 @07:34PM (#11292689)
    Well, it may be wireless, but I bet it still has less space than a Nomad!
  • The rumor sites were filled with speculation of an iPhone. I don't see where it all came from, since the announcement from Moto and Apple only said that they were developing iTunes for phones. I think a lot of people used this Forbes story [forbes.com] as their source and went rampant with speculation.
    • The phone pictured running iTunes is the e398. It is a relatively cheap phone, released Q1 2004 and has MP3 playback already. A while back I read the Apple Motorola phone will be based on the e398, and again it springs up. I am pretty certain the specifications of the e398 will match those on the final Apple / Motorola phone. Whether it gets a new case or OS skin is a different story...

      e398 Review [mobile-review.com]

      e398 Specifications [gsmarena.com]

  • Woohoo! No more asstastic ringtones! (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Jailbrekr ( 73837 ) <jailbrekr@digitaladdiction.net> on Friday January 07, 2005 @07:36PM (#11292712) Homepage
    Why spend upwards of 2 bucks for a crap ringtone when we could (assuming it supports this feature) use actual song snippets

  • How long will it take.... (Score:3, Funny)

    by overbyj ( 696078 ) on Friday January 07, 2005 @07:37PM (#11292721)
    before this item gets added to that crazy iPod/iTMS lawsuit?

    Plaintiff: But your honor, Apple is now in collusion with Motorola to extend their monopoly. Not only am I forced to buy an iPod to use iTMS, but now....I have to buy a phone too! Will the insanity never end?

    • Conspiracy theory #640: Microsoft had some money left over from funding SCO to pay for a legal action against iTunes.

      Ironic comment #65536: A convicted monopoly accuses another company of being a monopoly for not signing up to its Plays For Sure(TM) program.

  • User Interface? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by grahamsz ( 150076 ) on Friday January 07, 2005 @07:37PM (#11292731) Homepage Journal
    It sounds like the ipod UI will be used for playing music, but does that mean a different UI will be used for placing phonecalls.

    I'd say that was very-motorola to have an inconsistent user interface... tho to be fair i haven't used one of their phones since the early 90s.

  • Ummm.. (Score:3, Funny)

    by TheKidWho ( 705796 ) on Friday January 07, 2005 @07:40PM (#11292756)
    Less space then an iPod. Lame.
  • Is this a phone that you can use ITMS to buy ring tones, or is this an iPod that has phone capability as well? I guess it's going to depend how much storage it's got.

    My current phone has more storage than my first three or four or five computers put together, but that isn't enough to want to use it as my music player.

  • Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Friday January 07, 2005 @07:48PM (#11292825)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • Amen...i'd like to see Motorola make some responsive/stable CDMA phones. I have the T720(verizon) and this thing is a monumental pile of dung. Talk about the slowest button response ever...even after 3 firware updates. And everytime i went to the Verizon store, the Customer Support Specialist kid behind the counter would say the same thing: "Motorola just sent us a new firmware update, your phone is gonna rock now, the one we gave you last time was just a Beta".

  • -1 Flamebait (Score:5, Funny)

    by fo0bar ( 261207 ) on Friday January 07, 2005 @07:52PM (#11292860)
    What an idea! You know, I bet this would work for other devices as well. I could probably take a GBA and put a cellphone on it.

    Excuse me while I bouce this off Nokia's marketing department. BRB.

  • When will we see the Apple logo on a phone? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Dr. Spork ( 142693 ) on Friday January 07, 2005 @07:53PM (#11292867)
    The cell phone market is very sensitive to "cool" - Nokia really rode that wave for a while and it took them far.

    The tech company most assossiated with style and hipness is Apple. If they made an iPod mini with a number pad, speaker and mic, which can be used to purchase whatever song you feel like hearing on your car trip or subway ride, there would be long lines of buyers - and a lot of spontaneous/impulse song purchases from iTunes (if the price was reasonable). There are lots of people with disposable income for whom this sort of instant gratification would quickly become irresistable.

    Now sure, they could contract Motorolla to make a phone with similar specs, but the Apple logo itself would sell lots of units. Could this be their devious plan? Should it be?

  • The phone is an iPod, but doesn't have a wireless network (eg. 3G)? Apparently Jobs hasn't noticed that the smartphone is the first truly personal computer. Guess we'll have to wait another year or so for Apple to make them as friendly as they are smart.
  • The return of the rotary dial ;-)

    As far as I know, Apple has updated the iTunes software a couple of times since its first release.
    Will cellphone producers realize at some point that, if they choose the "featuritis" path, it would be better to allow the consumer to perform a software update himself instead of having him mail the phone halfway across the country?

  • TFA is wrong (Score:4, Informative)

    by pauljlucas ( 529435 ) on Friday January 07, 2005 @08:24PM (#11293100) Homepage Journal
    The phone syncs with a computer and the iTunes Music Store like an iPod does ...
    An iPod does not sync with the iTunes Music Store. It syncs with the iTunes music player. The significance is that the iPod (and presumeably the new phone) can play any MP3 file regardless of how you obtained it and not just music purchased from the iTunes Music Store.
  • All this iTunes support, yet still not Moto Bluetooth Support. Nice going Apple and friends -_-
  • Dupe [slashdot.org]

    Wait, what??? Oh...

    We've mentioned this before [slashdot.org]
  • Why not at least look at what we think would make sense? Ok, it's probably not going to have a roll-up screen and a beanie-cap neural interface, but there are some reasonable things we could hope for.

    First, I hope this thing is wrong about needing to connect to a computer to "do it's business". There should be a way to support impulse buying - preferably tied into some kind of recognition feature where you could hear something playing on the radio, sample it through the phone, and get a suggestion (or two

  • the phone syncs with a computer and the iTunes Music Store

    If it's playing back music then shouldn't it be called the iPod Phone instead of the iTunes phone?

  • Don't lots of people already use ear pieces for talking on their cell phones? This actually seems like quite a natural progression.

  • cool, but (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Cow007 ( 735705 )
    Where are the pics?
  • A full review of the phone used in the demo is at http://www.mobileburn.com/review.jsp?Id=903 [mobileburn.com]. Stereo and much other good stuff. Imagine it white instead of black, and major Apple help with the UI, and you might have something very, very nice.
  • This is a phone that demonstrated Motorola's iTunes codebase. This codebase will be available on many Moto phones including some current hardware designs.

    The phone they *specifically* worked with Apple on will be shown by Apple. You really think Apple would be happy with Motorola showing it first? That's most definitely *not* the Apple way.

    -psy

  • I've heard... (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Performaman ( 735106 )
    From someone with a relaative who is working with Apple (and I'm not kidding) that there will be some kind of bluetooth watch to interface with the new iPod, as well as BT headphones.
  • According to the article, the phone syncs with a computer and the iTunes Music Store like an iPod does, and incorporates the iPod interface for navigating and playing digital music

    Pixo is the company that created the navigation interface that is used in the iPod. Before the iPod, and its eventual acquisition by Sun, their thing was making navigation systems for cellphones. Pixo created the system now known as the iPod OS specifically for navigating through thousands of music files on a cellphone. The orig

  • Article below says new mobile phone from Fujitsu (Panasonic) supports iTunes, and is in sale since last year.

    Did I say it also has built-in IC-card, 2D barcode reader, video camera, and J2ME support? It's a cool product.

    And if you're looking for MP3-enabled mobile phone, "Music Porter" mobile phone from Mitsubishi might come to your interest:

    It looks like a varient of Nintendo GameBoy Advanced, but it's a mobile phone with built-in FM tuner, MP3 player, and camera.

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