HiFi Blog: digital audio goodness

OK, time to wrap-up all the Motorola/Apple phone bits and pieces we’ve tracked.

Come September 7 on San Fransisco’s Moscone Center, Apple will unveil the fruit of their collaboration with Motorola. The New York Times cite Roger Entner, a telecommunications industry analyst who has been briefed on the announcement. We’ll see “a complete line of music-oriented phones that go by the name ROKR, rather than a single handset”, as noted by AppleInsider.

The reports about the device’s capacity are confuting, but this is to be expected since their sources are probably looking at devices of different capacities (this is a line of phones we’re talking about).

Engadget reports 100 songs (“a source involved with making the commercials for the new handset has confirmed for us that it will only hold 100 songs because Apple is worried about cannibalizing iPod shuffle sales”), while Forbes reports a measly 25:

A person who has seen a version of the phone says it was designed to accommodate just 25 songs, which would be “sideloaded” from a user’s computer using iTunes. [...] While it should be possible to swap out the memory card on the new iTunes phone for one with more capacity, the person who has seen the handset says the phone’s software appears to artificially cap song storage at 25 songs, regardless of how much memory the phone has.

But will the ROKR line be only about capacities? Maybe we’ll see different models too? Maybe we’ll see a great iTunes phone that won’t be part of the family?

iLounge has heard that the FCC-approved E790 won’t be the only iTunes phone. The big deal will be an iTunes phone based on the existing E680i model, which runs on Linux and comes with tons of bells and whistles. It’s not clear whether the phone to come out of this will have the same features, or even the same operating system; an Apple mobile OS may be in the works.

Whatever the case, the phones will be carried by Cingular, after the deal struck between the United States’ largest carrier and Apple, according to the Wall Street Journal [paid sub. req.]. It’ll be available in time for the holiday season.

And finally, regarding your burning question:

It was not clear whether the iTunes phone would allow users to download songs directly from the Internet onto the phone, though music industry analysts said they doubted that such a capability would be immediately available.

Did we miss something? Let us know.