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[JimH]

I got one of the new iTunes phones (Motorola Rokr) to check out.  Bottom line is that it's a nice phone, but the music ability is very limited. 

Good News
It mounts as a removable drive on a PC, so you can transfer files from Windows Explorer.
It plays MP3 files.
The sound of it is amazing for a small device.  The built-in speakers sound bigger than they are.
As a package, it's small enough to fit easily in a pants pocket, but not as thin as the Razr.
It comes with 512MB of space on a removable mini-SD chip, but you have to open the case.

Bad News
It's limited to 100 files, even if you have disc space.
Even if you put a file on it, the phone doesn't see it.  The only way that works right now is through iTunes, but even that isn't working right for me.  It stopped after 28 files and iTunes was hung.
The "iTunes" music player is extremely basic.  See photos below.
The camera is low rez. 

We may be able to get MC working with it. 

It's also been reported that MC11 works with the new iPod Nano.
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=29495.0

[JimH]

Some pictures:


A nice package


Thin enough


Reasonable keypad


The Player


Playing

[Alex B]

It seems to be a nice toy.

The pictures gave me an idea of a state of the art portable player with software parts made by JRiver.

Its internal software could be designed to work with MC right from the beginning and its GUI logic and appearance could resemble MC a bit.

JRiver has offered branded software, but could it work the other way around? A JRiver or MC branded portable gadget would be great. How about contacting some HW manufactures and retail chains?  

[JimH]

It's a good idea, Alex.  We've thought a little about it.  I'm not sure we could offer enough volume to interest a manufacturer, but it would be fun to try.

[hit_ny]

I find the ROKR phone to be less appealing than the rest of Apple's previous offerings. Given the usual hype & expectations people are accustomed to have from Apple. Take the nano or the original iPod, you are so dazzled by its look & feel that you don't think of the cons. Stevie J just pulled you into his reality distortion field

I was exepecting something as flashy as the Razor. Who knows maybe that might be the next one. It's their first attempt at combing the two after all.

I read that people are still wanting thier basic phones to be better without adding more, longer battery for example.

[meehawl]

It's limited to 100 files, even if you have disc space.

The most boneheaded thing for me about this phone is that this 100-song limit only applies to the "iTunes" app. If you use the alternative, Moto mp3 player then you can play as many songs as you can fit on the memory card. But those mp3s are,of course, invisible to iTunes, as the iTunes songs are invisible to the Moto player.