Expert’s Rating
Pros
Cons
Our Verdict
Mobile phone with iTunes built - in
If you ’ve pick up any applied science journal in the last three years that features the wordConvergencesplashed across the cover , you know that the hunt is on for the do - it - all gadget — a equipment that makes and charter calls , surfs the web , deal email , sends and receives text messages , plays medicine , captures and expose pictures and video , check your menage AV organisation , and supply three minutes of compressed air for those occasions when your main tank runs out at 15 fathoms . Somehow this responsibility has hang upon the lower-ranking mobile phone .
Recently the headphone has taken the next step toward becoming that end - all - and - be - all convergency twist as Apple and Motorola , in partnership with Cingular , finally liberate the first iTunes - compatible phone , the Motorola ROKR . The $ 249 phone ( with a two - year service commitment ) is single to the Cingular service of process and holds up to 100 audio track . While I ’m please that the telephone finally saw the brightness level of 24-hour interval , my joy just about ends there . As a phone , it ’s hardly cutting edge . And as a music player , it ’s a poor substitute for an iPod .
In and Out of the Box
The ROKR is a confect legal community - mode , tri - band global GSM , Class 10 GPRS phone . Bearing a 176 x 220 pixel color TFT display , a camera for capturing stills and video , built - in “ surround sound ” speakers , and Bluetooth , the ROKR offers most of the functionality you ’d expect from a modern peregrine phone — including address book , calendar , and alarm clock along with such phone and data point features as caller-out ID , call - forwarding , email messaging , MMS ( Multimedia Message Service ) , hand - detached surgical process , call timer , Airplane mode ( for accessing speech sound features with transmitter off ) , customizable ringtones , and Instant Messaging . In other words , your distinctive peregrine phone .
include in the boxwood are the phone , the 512 MB ostentation memory card ( which may be pre - installed by Cingular ) for put in music , a set of earbuds ( with a pair of froth screening ) that admit a mike module advert from the right cable , the phone ’s stamp battery , an arranger cable for using a standard set of headphones ( the phone ’s headphone supports a jack smaller than a stock miniplug ) , and a software disc for Windows users .
The one item suitable of comment here is the earbuds . They ’re the same sizing as Apple ’s earbuds and therefore may be too turgid for some ear canals . Also , the microphone module on the right earbud cable length is heavy enough that it could cause the good earbud to pop out of your ear if you swing your head around too rapidly .
Crooning for iTunes
Interesting as the sound characteristic may be , what primarily relate me is the feature not found on other Mobile — iTunes support . The ROKR ’s flash memory card has the potential to store as much euphony as the small iPod make , yet the ROKR can store only 100 tracks . This 100 caterpillar tread limit is part of a digital rights management ( DRM ) dodging between iTunes and the phone . Once you ’ve load those 100 tracks ( which can be music as well as podcasts ) , the phone wo n’t accept more tracks even if there ’s room to hive away them . And those tracks can be wager only by the earpiece ’s iTunes customer — wonderful as it might be to use your iTunes cartroad as ringtones , it ’s not part of the feature set .
The ROKR supports MP3 , WAV , and AAC audio recording file cabinet formats — like the iPod shuffle the phone ca n’t handle AIFF or Apple Lossless files . And like the shuffle , iTunes will convert , on the tent flap , gamy mo - rate AAC files to 128kbps to save space on the earpiece . Unlike the iPod shuffling , the ROKR lets you charge multiple playlists .
With the push of a single button on the face of the headphone , you ’re transported to an iTunes screen similar to what you find on a colour iPod . On this screenland you feel Playlists , Artists , Albums , Songs , Shuffle Songs , and Now Playing entries . To pilot through these commands you use a small , 4 - position joystick ( joyousness - clitoris is more like it ) in the middle of the phone . When a track is playing you align volume by press the joystick up or down — left and proper joystick push pretend like an iPod ’s Previous and Next button . agitate the stick in while a cart track is play to bicycle through the Playing , Album Artwork ( if it exists ) , Scrub , and military rank screens . you could also trigger Play , Pause , Exit , and Back command with the phone ’s soft keys .
A ROKY Beginning
Despite appearing to have most of the right pieces in topographic point , the sound does n’t perform well with its most conspicuous feature — music . The ROKR syncs with iTunes over only a USB connexion ( Bluetooth music syncing is not supported ) , and at USB 1.1 speed . On my 1.25GHz PowerBook G4 it took the ROKR 44 minutes and 37 seconds to debase 87 tracks from my iTunes depository library . In comparing , a 512 MB iPod shambling was updated with this same collection of track in just 4 minutes and 52 seconds .
The interface is slow as well . When you press a button to move to a unlike screen , there ’s a delay of a second or more ( the animation of the earpiece ’s user interface on Motorola ’s website is faster than the real matter ) . This is particularly irritating when adjust volume — by the time the phone seems to understand that you want to increase the volume , it ’s louder than you want . And on more than one social occasion I incur myself coquette a flaccid Florida key twice because it seemed like the first mash did n’t take .
While standardised to the iPod ’s port , the ROKR miss some of its refinements . There ’s no On - the - Go playlist feature like you regain on the iPod and while long ledger entry ( form of address , artists , and albums , for lesson ) will scroll in their respective screens , they do n’t scroll in the Now Playing screen . The ROKR does , however , call up podcast bookmarks . And any paygrade you ’ve entered on the phone will transfer to iTunes when you next sync the two .
Through a good brace of headphones , the ROKR go perfectly fine — almost exactly like you ’d require an iPod to sound . The departure is that , unlike any iPod framework , the ROKR reverse the stereo channels — leave is ripe and right is left . The built - in speakers are remarkable largely because , for their size of it , they do n’t vocalise awful . invest out strait equivalent to a clock tuner , you would n’t desire to listen to music through these loudspeaker system on a regular basis , but it ’s not a sorry way to becharm up on podcasts .
Oh, and it’s a Phone Too
When you ’re not listening to medicine on the ROKR , you could use it as a phone . Although my intention is to take care at the ROKR as an iTunes extension rather than to compare it to every phone on the market , it ’s worth a brief overview of how it function as a telecom gadget .
I hold up in a valley in the boonies and have terrible response — it ’s impossible to make a call with my Sony Ericsson T616 on the Cingular internet . The ROKR was able to clean up the Cingular Extend web with my T616 SIM card and make a reasonably spotted call . I called my answering machine and although I could n’t hear its transcription , I was able to pass on a discernible message . I understand this is hardly a testament to the ROKR , but it does point it has better kitchen range than my Sony Ericsson phone .
In comparing to that Sony Ericsson earpiece , I found the ROKR ’s interface ungainly . While I can get to the T616 ’s Datebook in a duet of clicks , the ROKR ’s Datebook is buried inside a Tools area within the preferences menu ( you could attribute keyboard crosscut to get to buried function more well , however ) . And I detect the ROKR ’s artwork either indistinct or untempting . For such a supposedly hip headphone , its graphics are pretty lumpy .
I also find the keypad keys too confining together . Those with large pollex may find themselves resort to slimmer finger’s breadth when dial the phone .
Though some have report having difficulties getting the ROKR to sync via Bluetooth , I had no problem . After switching Bluetooth on in the ROKR ’s Connection menu and come home the telephone set ’s bump Me command , Mac OS X 10.4 ’s Bluetooth Setup Assistant was capable to pair with the ROKR with no difficulty . iSync then automatically launched and propose to add together the headphone . Once added , iSync was able to sync my Address Book and iCal contacts and calendars . Unfortunately , after the phone was synced , single contact lens within Address Book that bore multiple phone numbers were duplicated , with each looping of the liaison have a different phone number .
The Lowdown
As should be patent , I ’m not wow by the ROKR . It ’s not a terrible headphone or music musician , but it ’s not the kind of telling first effort you expect from a merchandise connect with Apple . With its slow syncing and response , artificial 100 track boundary , audio bug ( overturn stereo channels ) , and occasionally ungainly interface , many who are accustomed to an iPod ’s elegance will be let down with this telephone set .
